CARDINAL PRINCIPLES OF SCIENCE 9 



tliinkableness between his conscious self and the mysteries of his 

 subconsciousness ; yet these men made no observations, framed 

 no generalizations, formed no inferences, without confident real- 

 ization that experience is a reflex of nature — and it seems evi- 

 dent that without this realization the signal advances in knowl- 

 edge summed in the cardinal principles could not have been made. 



On seeking explanation of the constantly implied but never 

 declared confidence reposed by the knowledge-makers alike in 

 their own experiences and in their own mental operations, it is 

 soon seen that the two bases of scientific procedure are closely 

 akin ; for the evident source of confidence in experience is 

 found in experience itself, while the source of confidence in 

 mentality just as evidently arises in experience of mental work- 

 ing. Now in every stage of culture the several faculties are 

 manifestly coordinated, at least to the extent that bodily activi- 

 ties affect thought and thinking measurably controls action ; 

 hence the suggestion naturally arises that the largely intuitive 

 development of confidence in external realities and in the power 

 of the mind to grasp and interpret them was a normal sequence 

 of the Renaissance following the Dark Ages, in which men 

 turned to the most inspiring duties of their kind — the twin tasks 

 of nature-conquest and nation-building ; and, if the suggestion 

 be valid, it would seem to follow that the confidence in Nature 

 and Mind expressed by successful effort was rather a forerunner 

 than a mere attendant of those advances in knowledge marked 

 by the framing of the cardinal principles. Fortunately the sug- 

 gestion is supported by contemporary testimony. Nearly two 

 centuries before Lavoisier, Francis Bacon laid a foundation for 

 definite knowledge in the Novum Organum, the cornerstone of 

 which appears in the initial aphorism of the first of the two 

 books comprised in this memorable essay. Rendered into the 

 more trenchant and vigorous language of the present, this 

 aphorism reads : 



Man, as the minister and interpreter of nature, does and understands 

 as much as his observations on the order of nature, either with regard 

 to things or the mind, permit him, and neither knows nor is capable 

 of more.^ 



'Translation edited by Joseph Devej and published in Bohn's Philosophical 

 Library under the title 'The Physical and Metaphysical Works of Lord Bacon.' 

 London, 1889 (p. 3S3). 



