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3dly. By explaining the mode in which the facts presented to the senses ought by certain rules to be examined.

As the commander of an army, before he commences an attack, considers the strength and number of his troops, both regular and allies; the spirit by which they are animated, whether they are the lion, or the sheep in the lion's skin; the power of the enemy to which he is opposed: their walled towns, their stored arsenals and armories, their horses and chariots of war, elephants, ordnance and artillery, and their races of men; and then in what mode he shall commence his attack and proceed in the battle: so, before man directs his strength against nature, and endeavours to take her high towers and dismantle her fortified holds, and thus enlarge the borders of his dominion, he ought duly to estimate,

1st. His powers, natural and artificial, for the discovery of truth.

2d. His different motives for the exercise of his powers.

3d. The obstacles to which he is opposed; and,

4th. The mode in which he can exert his powers with most efficacy, or the Art of Invention.

Of these four requisites, therefore, a perfect work upon the conduct of the understanding ought, as it seems, to consist: but the Novum Organum is not thus treated. To system Bacon was not attached : for "As young men, when they knit and shape perfectly, do seldom grow to a farther stature, so knowledge, while it is in aphorisms and observations, it is in growth; but when it once is comprehended in exact methods, it may perchance be farther polished and illustrated, and accommodated for use and practice; but it increaseth no more in bulk and substance. Instead of explaining our different powers, our Senses, our Imagination, our Reason, there are in the Novum Organum only some scattered observations upon the defects of the senses;-upon the different causes or idols by which the judgment is always liable to be warped, and some suggestions as to the artificial helps to our natural powers in exploring the truths which are exhibited to the senses.

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2d. By the interception of interposing bodies; which is remedied by attention to outward or visible signs, as the internal state of the body by the pulse, &c.

3d. By the unfitness of the body: or, 4th. Its insufficiency in quantity to impress the sense, as the air and the vital spirit, which is imperceptible by sight or touch.

5th. From the insufficiency of time to actuate the sense, either when the motion is too slow, as in the hand of a clock or the growth of grass, or too rapid, as a bullet passing through the air.

6th. From the percussion of the body being too powerful for the sense, as in looking at the midday sun; which is remedied by removing the object from the sense; or by diminishing its force by the interposition of a medium, as smoking tobacco through water; or by reflection, as the sun's rays in a mirror or basin of water: and

7th. Because the sense is pre-occupied by another object, as by the use of perfumes.

The defects of the judgment he investigates in a more laborious inquiry. "There are," he says, " certain predispositions which beset the mind of man; certain idols which are constantly operating upon the mind and warping it from the truth; for the mind of man, drawn over and clouded with the sable pavilion of the body, is so far from being like smooth, equal, and clear glass, which might sincerely take and reflect the beams of things according to their true incidence, that it is rather like an enchanted glass, full of superstitions, apparitions, and impostures; which idols are of such a pernicious nature, that, if they once take root in the mind, they will so possess it that truth can hardly find entrance; and, even should it enter, they will again rise up, choke, and destroy it."

These idols are of two sorts: 1st. Common to

all men, therefore called Idols of the Tribe, including the defects of words, called Idols of the Market; 2d. Peculiar to peculiar individuals, either from their original conformation, or from their education and pursuits in life, called Idols of the Den, including the errors from particular opinions, called Idols of the Theatre. So that his doctrine of idols may be thus exhibited :

1. Of the Tribe. - Of the Market
2. Of the Den. Of the Theatre.

The Idols of the Tribe, or warps to the judgment,

by which all mankind swerve from the truth, are | ticians, &c., to their respective sciences, are glar

of two classes: 1st. When man is under the influence of a passion more powerful than the love of truth, as worldly interest, crying "Great is Diana of the Ephesians:" or, 2dly, When, under the influence of the love of truth, he, like every lover, is hurried without due and cautious inquiry by the hope of possessing the object of his affections: which manifests itself either in hasty assent, or hasty generalization, the parents of credulity:-in tenacity in retaining opinions, the parent of prejudice: in abandoning universality, the parent of feeble inquiry :---or in indulging in subtleties and refinements and endless inquiry, the parent of vain speculations, spinning out of itself cobwebs of learning, admirable for their fineness of texture, but of no substance or profit.

As men associate by discourse, and words are imposed according to the capacity of the vulgar, a false and improper imposition of words unavoidably possesses the understanding, leading men away to idle controversies and subtleties, irremediable by definitions, which, consisting of words, shoot back, like the Tartar's bow, upon the Judgment from whence they came.

These defects of words, or Idols of the Market, are either names of non-existences, as the primum mobile, the element of fire, &c.; or confused names of existences, as beauty, virtue, &c.; which, from the subtlety of nature being infinite, and of words finite, must always exist. Words tell the minutes, but not the seconds. When we attempt to reach heaven, we are stopped by the confusion of languages.

The Idols of the Den, or attachment by particular individuals to particular opinions, he thus explains: "We every one of us have our particular den or cavern, which refracts and corrupts the light of nature; either because every man has his respective temper, education, acquaintance, course of reading, and authorities; or from the difference | of impressions, as they happen in a mind prejudiced or prepossessed, or in one that is calm and equal. Of which defects Plato's cave is an excellent emblem: for, certainly, if a man were continued from his childhood to mature age in a grotto or dark and subterraneous cave, and then should come suddenly abroad, and should behold the stately canopy of heaven and the furniture of the world, without doubt he would have many strange and absurd imaginations come into his mind and people his brain. So in like manner we live in the view of heaven, yet our spirits are enclosed in the caves of our bodies, complexions, and customs, which must needs minister unto us infinite images of error and vain opinions, if they do seldom and for so short a time appear above ground out of their holes, and do not continually live under the contemplation of nature, as in the open air." Of these Idols of the Den, the attachment of professional men, divines, lawyers, poli

ing instances.

Idols of the Theatre, or depraved theories, are, of course, infinite and inveterate; appearing in that numerous litter of strange, senseless, absurd opinions, which crawl about the world to the disgrace of reason, and the wretchedness of mankind.

Upon the destruction of these idols, Bacon is unceasing in his exhortations. "They must," he says, " by the lover of truth be solemnly and forever renounced, that the understanding may be purged and cleansed; for the kingdom of man, which is founded in the sciences, can scarce be entered otherwise than the Kingdom of God, that is, in the condition of little children:" and, with an earnestness not often found in his works, he adds, "If we have any humility towards the Creator; if we have any reverence and esteem of his works; if we have any charity towards men, or any desire of relieving their miseries and necessities; if we have any love for natural truths; any aversion to darkness, any desire of purifying the understanding, we must destroy these idols, which have led experience captive, and childishly triumphed over the works of God; and now at length condescend, with due submission and veneration, to approach and peruse the volume of the creation; dwell some time upon it, and bringing to the work a mind well purged of opinions, idols, and false notions, converse familiarly therein. This volume is the language which has gone out to all the ends of the earth, unaffected by the confusion of Babel; this is the language that men should thoroughly learn, and not disdain to have its alphabet perpetually in their hands; and in the interpretation of this language they should spare no pains, but strenuously proceed, persevere, and dwell upon it to the last."

Such is a faint outline of Bacon's celebrated doctrine of idols, which has sometimes been supposed to be the most important of all his works, and to expose the cause of all the errors by which man is misled.

“We

Upon the motives by which the lover of truth, seeking nature with all her fruits about her, can alone be actuated, and which he has explained in other parts of his works, he, in the Novum Organum, contents himself with saying, would in general admonish all to consider the true ends of knowledge, and not to seek it for the gratification of their minds, or for disputation, or that they may despise others, or for emolument, or fame, or power, or such low objects, but for its intrinsic merit and the purposes of life."

The obstacles to the acquisition of knowledge

are:

{

1. Want of time,

and

2. Want of means.

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Upon the obstacles from want of time, more | his astonishment that no mortal should have taken imaginary than real, if time is not wasted in frivo-care to open and prepare a way for the human lous pursuits, in sensuality or in sleep, in misappli- understanding, from sense and a well-conducted but, as natural and experimental history is so co- | Another use, therefore, of this table is to discover pious and diffusive as to confound and distract the nature sought by observing its qualities which the understanding, unless digested in proper are absent in the analogous nature, "like the order, tables are formed and so digested, that the understanding may commodiously work upon them.

cation of times of recreation, or in idle curiosity, the Novum Organum contains but one casual, consolatory observation: "We judge also that mankind may conceive some hopes from our example, which we offer, not by way of ostentation, but because it may be useful."

The obstacles to the acquisition of knowledge from want of means he through life deeply felt, and he never omitted an opportunity earnestly to express his hope that it would be diminished or destroyed by such a collection of natural history as would show the world, not as man has made it, not as it exists only in imagination, but as it really exists, as God has made it.

Anxious to lay the true foundation of philosophy, he, in the Novum Organum, availed himself of the power with which he was intrusted, to induce the king to form such a collection of natural history as he had measured out in his mind, and such as really ought to be procured; "a great and royal work, requiring the purse of a prince and the assistance of a people." He, therefore, in the dedication, and in his presentation letter, urged the king to imitate Solomon, by procuring the compilation and completion of such a natural and experimental history as should be serviceable for raising the superstructure of philosophy: that, at length, after so many ages, philosophy and the sciences may no longer be unsettled and speculative, but fixed on the solid foundation of a varied and well-considered experience: and in his reply to the king's acknowledgment of the receipt of the Novum Organum, he repeats his hope that the king will aid him in employing the community in collecting a natural and experimental history, as "basis totius negotii; for who can tell, now this mine of truth is opened, how the veins go, and what lieth higher, and what lieth lower?" Such were the hopes in which he indulged. So difficult is it to love and be wise. The king complimented him upon his work, saying, that, "like the peace of God, it passeth all understanding;" but of a collection of natural history, "ne verbum quidem.”

Annexed to this doctrine of idols, there are some inquiries into the signs of false philosophy; the causes of the errors in philosophy; and the grounds of hope that knowledge must be progressive; hopes which he had beautifully stated in the conclusion of his Advancement of Learning. After having thus cleared the way by considering the modes by which we are warped from the truth; by which, formed to adore the true God, we fall down and worship an idol: after having admonished us, that, in the conduct of the understanding, a false step may be fatal, that a cripple in the right will beat a racer in the wrong way, erring in proportion to his fleetness, he expresses

experience, but that all things should be left either to the darkness of tradition, the giddy agitation and whirlwind of argument, or else to the uncertain waves of accident, or a vague and uninformed experience. To open this way, to discover how our reason shall be guided, that it may be right, that it be not a blind guide, but direct us to the place where the star appears, and point us to the very place where the babe lieth, is the great object of this inquiry.

As our opinions are formed by impressions made upon our senses, by confidence in the communications of others, and by our own meditations, man, in the infancy of his reason, is unavoidably in error: for, although our senses never deceive us, the communications made by others, and our own speculations must, according to the ignorance of our teachers, and the liveliness of our own imaginations, teem with error.

Bacon saw the evil, and he saw the remedy: he saw and taught his contemporaries and future ages, that reasoning is nothing worth, except as it is founded on facts.

In his Sylva Sylvarum, he thus speaks: "The philosophy of Pythagoras, which was full of superstition, did first plant a monstrous imagination, which afterwards was, by the school of Plato and others, watered and nourished. It was, that the world was one entire, perfect, living creature; that the ebbing and flowing of the sea was the respiration of the world, drawing in water as breath, and putting it forth again. They went on and inferred, that if the world were a living creature, it had a soul and spirit. This foundation being laid, they might build upon it what they would; for in a living creature, though never so great, as, for example, in a great whale, the sense, and the effects of any one part of the body, instantly make a transcursion throughout the whole body: so that by this they did insinuate that no distance of place, nor want or indisposition of matter, could hinder magical operation; but that, for example, we might here in Europe have sense and feeling of that which was done in China. With these vast and bottomless follies, men have been in part entertained. But we that hold firm to the works of God, and to the sense, which is God's lamp, Lucerna Dei Spiraculum Hominis, will inquire, with all sobriety and severity, whether there is to be found, in the footsteps of nature, any such transmission and influx of immateriate virtues."

In this state of darkness was society involved, when Bacon formed his Art of Invention, which consists in collecting all bodies that have any affinity with the nature sought; and in a systema tic examination of the bodies collected.

To discover facts is, therefore, his first object;

TABLE I.

images of Cassius and Brutus, in the funeral of Junia;" of which, not being represented as many others were, Tacitus saith, " Eo ipso præfulgebant quod non visebantur."

TABLE III.

The first, or Affirmative Table, consists of a general collection of all the known analogous in

The third, or Table of Comparisons, consists of

stances which agree in the nature sought, from comparison of quantity of the nature sought in the

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By observing this table, it appears that the blood of all animals is not hot. This table, therefore, prevents hasty generalization: "As if Samuel should have rested in those sons of Jesse which were brought before him in the house, and should not have sought David, who was absent in the field."

By observing the table, it also appears, that boiling water is hot; ice is cold :-living bodies are hot; dead bodies are cold; - but in boiling water and in living bodies there is motion of parts: in ice and dead bodies they are fixed. VOL. I.-(11)

same bodies and in different bodies. Thus,

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Flame.

1. The lambent flame, related by historians to have appeared on the heads of children, gently playing about the hair.

2. The coruscations seen in a clear night on a sweating horse.

3. Of the glow-worm.

4. Of the ignis fatuus.

5. Of spirits of wine.

6. Of vegetables, straw, dry

leaves.

7. Of boiling metals.
8. Of blast furnaces.

By observing in this table the cause of the different quantities of the nature sought, some approximation may be made to the nature itself. Thus, vegetables, or common water, do not exhibit heat to the touch, but masticated pepper or boiling water are hot. Flame is hotter than the human body: boiling water than warm. Is there any difference except in the motion of the parts?

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TABLE IV.

Or of Exclusions, is of a more complicated nature. Bacon assumes that the quality of any nature can be ascertained by its being always present when the sought nature is present: is always absent when the sought nature is absent: increases always with its increase, and decreases with its decrease.

Upon this principle his table of exclusion is formed, by excluding, 1st, Such particular natures as are not found in any instances where the given nature is present; or, 2d, Such as are found in any instances where that nature is absent; and, 3d, Such as are found to increase in any instance when the given nature decreases; or, 4th, To decrease when that nature increases. Thus,

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Nature varying according to
some inverse law of the
sought nature.

Which may in- Which mayde-
crease as the crease as the
sought nature sought nature
decreases.

1. EXCLUSION OF IRRELEVANTS.

Solitary Instances. If the inquiry be into the nature of colour: a rainbow and a piece of glass in a stable window, differ in every thing except in the prismatic colours; they are therefcre solitary in resemblance. The different parts of the same piece of marble, the different parts of a leaf of a variegated tulip, agree in every thing, save the colour; they are, therefore, solitary in difference.

By thus contracting the limits of the inquiry, greater heat may it not possibly be inferred, that colour dethan the flame pends upon refraction of the rays of light ? of spirit of wine. Quiescence of parts, &c.

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The object of this exclusion is to make a perfect resolution and separation of nature, not by fire, but by the mind, which is, as it were, the divine fire: that, after this rejection and exclusion is duly made, the affirmative, solid, true, and welldefined form will remain as the result of the operation, whilst the volatile opinions go off in fume.

TABLE V.

The fifth table of Results, termed the first vintage or dawn of doctrine, consists of a collection of such natures as always accompany the sought nature, increase with its increase, and de

crease with its decrease.

It appears, that, in all instances, the nature of heat is motion of parts;-flame is perpetually in motion;-hot or boiling liquors are in continual agitation; the sharpness and intensity of heat is increased by motion, as in bellows and blasts; -existing fire and heat are extinguished by strong compression, which checks and puts a stop to all motion;-all bodies are destroyed, or at least remarkably altered, by heat; and, when heat wholly escapes from the body, it rests from its labours; and hence it appears, that heat is motion, and nothing else.

Having collected and winnowed, by the various tables, the different facts presented to the senses, he proposed to examine them by nine different processes: of which he has investigated only the first, or PREROGATIVE INSTANCES, those instances by which the nature sought is most easily discovered. They may be thus exhibited :

-1 Contracting the inquiries with

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(1. Solitary.

2. Travelling.
3. Journeying.
4. Nature in motion.
5. Constituent

1. Patent and Latent.
2. Maxima. Minima.

in narrow li-
mits.

3. Frontier.

4. Singular.

2. Nature con-
spicuous.

16. Deviating.

2. Reality and Appearances.

3 Resemblances and Differences.

5. Divorce.

Nature in motion. Observe nature in her processes. If any man desired to consider and examine the contrivances and industry of a certain artificer, he would not be content to view only the rude materials of the workman, and then immediately the finished work, but covet to be present whilst the artist prosecutes his labour, and exercises his skill. And the like course should be taken in the works of nature.

Travelling Instances. In inquiring into any nature, observe its progress in approaching to or receding from existence. Let the inquiry be into the nature of whiteness. Take a piece of clear glass and a vessel of clear water, pound the glass into fine dust and agitate the water, the pulverised glass and the surface of the water will appear white; and this whiteness will have travelled from non-existence into existence. Again, take a vessel full of any liquor with froth at the top, or take snow, let the froth subside and the snow melt; the whiteness will disappear, and will have travelled from existence to non-existence.

Journeying Instances. In inquiring into any nature, observe its motions gradually continued or contracted. An inquirer into the vegetation of plants should have an eye from the first sowing of the seed, and examine it almost every day, by taking or plucking up a seed after it had remained for one, two, or three days in the ground; to observe with diligence when, and in what manner the seed begins to swell, grow plump, and be filled or become turgid, as it were, with spirit; next, how it bursts the skin, and strikes its fibres with some tendency upwards, unless the earth be very stubborn; how it shoots its fibres in part, to constitute roots downwards; in part, to form stems upwards, and sometimes creeping sideways, if it there find the earth more open, pervious, and yielding, with many particulars of the same kind. And the like should be done as to eggs during their hatching, where the whole process of vivification and organization might be easily viewed; and what becomes of the yolk, what of the white, &c. The same is also to be attempted in inanimate bodies; and this we have endeavoured after, by observing the ways

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