slow to believe that the cause of truth is to be served by irony. But we must not forget the difference between the circumstances in which the two men were placed.

Next to his determination of the true end of natural philosophy and of the relation in which it stands to natural and to revealed theology, we may place among Bacon's merits his clear view of the essential unity of science. He often insists on the importance of this idea, and has especially commended Plato and Parmenides for affirming "that all things do by scale ascend to unity." The Creator is holy in the multitude of his works, holy in their disposition, holy in their unity: it is the prerogative of the doctrine of Forms to approach as nearly as possible towards the unity of Nature, and the subordinate science of Physics ought to contain two divisions relating to the same subject. One of these ought to treat of the first principles which govern all phenomena, and the other of the fabric of the universe. All classifications of the sciences ought to be as veins or markings, and not as sections or divisions; nor can any object of scientific inquiry be satisfactorily studied apart from the analogies which connect it with other similar objects.

But the greatest of all the services which Bacon rendered to natural philosophy was, that he perpetually enforced the necessity of laying aside all preconceived opinions and learning to be a follower of Nature. These counsels could not to their full extent be followed, nor has he himself attempted to do so. But they contain a great share of truth, and of truth never more needful than in Bacon's age. Before his time doubtless the authority of Aristotle, or rather that of the scholastic interpretation of his philosophy, was shaken, if not overthrown. Nevertheless the systematising spirit of the schoolmen still survived, and of the reformers of philosophy not a few attempted to substitute a dogmatic system of their own for that from which they dissented.

Nor were these attempts unsuccessful. For men still leaned upon authority, and accepted as a test of truth the appearance of completeness and scientific consistency. This state of things was one of transition; and probably no one did more towards putting an end to it than Bacon. To the dealers in systems and to their adherents he opposed the solemn declaration, that

VOL. I.

1 The latter is in effect what is now called Kosmos,

F

they only who come in their own name will be received of men. He constantly exhorted the secker after truth to seek it in intercourse with Nature, and has repeatedly professed that he was no founder of a sect or school. He condemned the arrogance of those who thought it beneath the dignity of the philosopher to dwell on matters of observation and experiment, and reminded them that the sun " æque palatia et cloacas ingreditur; nec tamen polluitur." We do not, he continues, erect or dedicate to human pride a capitol or a pyramid; we lay the foundations in the mind of man of a holy temple, whereof the exemplar is the universe. Throughout his writings the rejection of systems and authority is coupled with the assertion, that it is beyond all things necessary that the philosopher should be an humble follower of Nature. One of the most remarkable parts of the Novum Organum is the doctrine of Idola. It is an attempt to classify according to their origin the false and illdefined notions by which the mind is commonly beset. They come, he tells us, from the nature of the human mind in general, from the peculiarities of each man's individual mind, from his intercourse with other men, from the formal teaching of the received philosophies. All these must be renounced and put away, else no man can enter into the kingdom which is to be founded on the knowledge of Nature.1 Of the four kinds of idols Mersenne has spoken in his Vérité des Sciences, published in 1625, as of the four buttresses of the Organum of Verulam. This expression, though certainly inaccurate, serves to show the attention which in Bacon's time was paid to his doctrine of idola.2

His rejection of syllogistic reasoning in the proposed process for the establishment of axioms, was not without utility. In the middle ages and at the reform of philosophy the value of the syllogistic method was unduly exalted. Bacon was right in denying that it was possible to establish by a summary process and à priori the first principles of any science, and thence to deduce by syllogism all the propositions which that science could contain; and though he erred in rejecting deductive reasoning altogether, this error could never have exerted any practical influence on the progress of science, while the truth

Nov. Org. i. 68. The word idolon is used by Bacon in antithesis to idea. He does not mean by it an idol or false object of worship.

2 Compare Gassendi, Inst. Log.

with which it was associated was a truth of which his contemporaries required at least to be reminded. The reason of his error seems to have been that he formed an incorrect idea of the nature of syllogism, regarding it rather as an entirely artificial process than as merely a formal statement of the steps necessarily involved in every act of reasoning. However this may be, it is certain that whenever men attempted to set aside every process for the discovery of truth except induction, they must always have been led to recognise the impossibility of doing so.

Lastly, the tone in which Bacon spoke of the future destiny of mankind fitted him to be a leader of the age in which he lived. It was an age of change and of hope. Men went forth to seek in new-found worlds for the land of gold and for the fountain of youth; they were told that yet greater wonders lay within their reach. They had burst the bands of old authority; they were told to go forth from the cave where they had dwelt so long, and look on the light of heaven. It was also for the most part an age of faith; and thenew philosophy upset no creed, and pulled down no altar. It did not put the notion of human perfectibility in the place of religion, nor deprive mankind of hopes beyond the grave. On the contrary, it told its followers that the instauration of the sciences was the free gift of the God in whom their fathers had trusted that it.was only another proof of the mercy of Him whose mercy is over all his works.

PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS.

PART I.

WORKS PUBLISHED, OR DESIGNED FOR PUBLICATION, AS PARTS

OF THE INSTAURATIO MAGNA;

ARRANGED

ACCORDING TO THE ORDER IN WHICH THEY WERE WRITTEN.

Consilium est universum opus Instaurationis potius promovere in multis quam perficere in paucis; hoc perpetuo maximo cum ardore (qualem Deus mentibus ut plane confidímus addere solet) appetentes; ut quod adhuc nunquam tentatum sit id ne jam frustra tentetur.—Auctoris Monitum, 1622.