ESSAYES
I
OF TRUTH
WHAT is Truth? said jesting Pilate;[1] And would not stay for an Answer. Certainly there be, that delight in Giddinesse,[2] And count it a Bondage to fix a Beleefe; Affecting[3] Freewill in Thinking, as well as in Acting. And though the Sects of Philosophers of that Kinde be gone, yet there remaine certaine discoursing Wits,[4] which are of the same veines, though there be not so much Bloud in them, as was in those of the Ancients.[5] But it is not onely the Difficultie and Labour, which men take in finding out of Truth; Nor againe, that when it is found, it imposeth[6] upon men's Thoughts, that doth bring Lies in[7] favour; But a naturall though corrupt Love of the Lie it selfe. One of the later Schoole of the Grecians, examineth the matter, and is at a stand[8] to think what should be in it,[9] that men should love Lies; Where neither they make for Pleasure, as with Poets; Nor for Advantage, as with the Merchant; but for the Lie's sake. But I cannot tell:[10] this same
