_Antiquitas Saeculi Juventus Mundi_ (Vol. ii., p. 218.; Vol. iii., p.
125.).--Permit me again to express my opinion, with due deference to the
eminent authorities cited in your pages, that the comprehensive words of
Lord Bacon, "Antiquitas saeculi juventus mundi," were not borrowed from any
author, ancient or modern. But it would be a compliment which that great
genius would have been the first to ridicule, were we to affirm that no
anterior writer had adopted analogous language in expressing the benefits
of "the philosophy of time." On the contrary, he would have called our
attention to the expressions of the Egyptian priest addressed to Solon,
(see a few pages beyond the one referred to in his _Advancement of
Learning_):
"Ye Grecians are ever children, ye have no knowledge of antiquity nor
antiquity of knowledge."
The words of Bacon to me appear to be a condensation of the well-known
dialogue in Plato's _Timaeus_, above quoted, as will, I hope, appear in the
following paraphrase:
"Apud vos propter inundationes ineunte modo saeculo nihil scientiarum
est augmentationis. Quoad nos _juventus mundi_ ac terrae Aegyptiacae, qua
nulla hominum exitia fuerunt, progrediente tempore, _antiquitas_ fit
_saeculi_, et antiquissimarum rerum apud nos momumenta servantur."