Francis Bacon's storehouse
Bacon's rich storehouse, and why he held the entry of commonplaces to be of essence.
Bacon named the end of knowledge a storehouse. Not a couch, not a terrace, not a tower, not a fort, and not a shop. A place to put what you collect, and to draw on it for use.
I opened Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, in the Project Gutenberg text transcribed from the 1893 Cassell & Company edition (eBook #5500). First printed in 1605 as The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the proficience and aduancement of Learning, diuine and humane.
Item. Knowledge sought for the wrong ends. He lists the false uses, then names the true one:
as if there were sought in knowledge a couch whereupon to rest a searching and restless spirit; or a terrace for a wandering and variable mind to walk up and down with a fair prospect; or a tower of state, for a proud mind to raise itself upon; or a fort or commanding ground, for strife and contention; or a shop, for profit or sale; and not a rich storehouse for the glory of the Creator and the relief of man's estate.
Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, Book I (Cassell, 1893 / Gutenberg #5500).
Item. Against the charge that a commonplace book slows reading and softens memory. He keeps the practice:
for the disposition and collocation of that knowledge which we preserve in writing, it consisteth in a good digest of common-places, wherein I am not ignorant of the prejudice imputed to the use of common-place books, as causing a retardation of reading, and some sloth or relaxation of memory. But because it is but a counterfeit thing in knowledges to be forward and pregnant, except a man be deep and full, I hold the entry of common-places to be a matter of great use and essence in studying, as that which assureth copy of invention, and contracteth judgment to a strength.
Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, Book II (Cassell, 1893 / Gutenberg #5500).
Item. The methods he had seen were not enough. School headings, not a living world:
But this is true, that of the methods of common-places that I have seen, there is none of any sufficient worth, all of them carrying merely the face of a school and not of a world; and referring to vulgar matters and pedantical divisions, without all life or respect to action.
Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, Book II (Cassell, 1893 / Gutenberg #5500).
That is the keeper's problem in 1605 and now: collect the item so judgment has weight, and refuse a digest that only looks like study. The return is the point. A recollection later is the use of the storehouse.
How to keep a commonplace book · The letter · 1
Sources: Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, Project Gutenberg eBook #5500, transcribed from the 1893 Cassell & Company edition: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5500/5500-h/5500-h.htm. Original London, 1605.
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