The Infinite Aphorisms of Erasmus and Bacon

Abstract

Aphorisms occupy a central place in the works of Erasmus and Bacon. Erasmus wanted to construct the total library of antiquity through adages; Bacon’s project was to construct the laboratory of modernity, its progress presented in the propagation of aphorisms. Like Erasmus, Bacon believed that the aphorism would stir readers to contemplate and inquire further. But unlike Erasmus, Bacon maintains that this process of discovery is accomplished not through endlessly combing through the archives of the ancients but rather by interrogating the book of the world.