Page:Essays of Francis Bacon 1908 Scott.djvu/381

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OF VICISSITUDE OF THINGS
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when it is solid and reduced:[1] and lastly, his old age, when it waxeth dry and exhaust.[2] But it is not good to look too long upon these turning wheels of vicissitude, lest we become giddy. As for the philology[3] of them, that is but a circle of tales, and therefore not fit for this writing.[4]

  1. Reduce. To subject; to make subject to one; to bring under one, into or under one's power, within bounds.
  2. Exhaust. Exhausted.
  3. Philology. The love or study of learning and literature. Bacon uses the word philology in its old sense, the study of literature generally, the relation of literature and literary records to history, etc. The modern sense limits philology to the study of language or linguistics.
  4. In connection with this essay, read in the Wisdom of the Ancients, Nemesis; or the Vicissitude of Things.