23 MAR 2012 by ideonexus

 The Earth Buries Older Forms with More Beautiful Ones

As buds give rise by growth to fresh buds, and these, if vigorous, branch out and overtop on all sides many a feebler branch, so by generation I believe it has been with the great Tree of Life, which fills with its dead and broken branches the crust of the earth, and covers the surface with its ever branching and beautiful ramifications.
  1  notes

Like vines growing over a decaying tree.

13 DEC 2011 by ideonexus

 The Search Brings It's Own Treasure

And yet surely to alchemy this right is due, that it may be compared to the husbandman whereof Æsop makes the fable, that when he died he told his sons that he had left unto them gold buried under the ground in his vineyard: and they digged over the ground, gold they found none, but by reason of their stirring and digging the mould about the roots of their vines, they had a great vintage the year following: so assuredly the search and stir to make gold hath brought to light a great number of...
Folksonomies: knowledge learning
Folksonomies: knowledge learning
  1  notes

Using an Aesop's fable, Bacon illustrates how alchemy is a productive venture even if it produces no gold.