14 



But if be did not believe in Copernicus, in Galileo, in tlie 

 planetary system, in the telescope — that is in the revolutionary 

 discoveries of the age — what did he believe in ? He believed ia 

 magic, spirits, witchcraft, talismans, astrology, and alchemy. 

 This contrast is of capital importance — because it shows most 

 forcibly that Bacon, instead of heading the scientific movements, 

 instead of being at least in the forefront of progress, was behind 

 his age altogether. Then, if he did not follow the track of 

 Copernicus and other great scientists, his predecessors, whom did 

 he follow ? He followed the Schoolmen he denounced ! And, 

 following the Schoolmen as he did, he necessarily endorsed a 

 thousand errors ; but when he was left without their limited 

 guidance, he was irretrievably wrong — his own method notwith- 

 standing ! Witness what his disciples take t) be his most mar- 

 vellous proof of scientific genius and most succesful inquiry, viz., 

 his investigation into the nature of heat. Here, in his greatest 

 feat, we find, as Lewes — one of his staunch admirers — is com- 

 pelled to own, a total misconception of the scientific process! 



In the Novum Organum we have Bacon's system — a system 

 recognised absolutely unworkable and unscientific — in his 

 Natural History we have Bacon's knowledge of phenomena. To 

 this Natural History Bacon attached the utmost importance. He 

 meant this work to stand as a sort of storehouse rich in scientific 

 lore, a collection oi facts from which inquirers would draw their 

 raw material for all manners of researches. It is the one sub- 

 stantial support, and the substantial illustration of the Novum 

 Organum in its theoi-y aud practice ; a kind of revelation to men of 

 science how to handle phenomena and draw conclusions from the 

 handling ; it contains some five thousand phenomena at least. 

 And Bacon assures the reader that he has in this great work 

 freed himself from all prejudices and prepossessions ; that nature 

 is his only book ; that he despises all authorities ancient and 

 medieval ; that he never takes facts but after due examination ; 

 that he has gone straight into nature and its mysteries ; that he 

 has proved by laborious experiments the hollownesa of theories 

 and the validity of his facta. After such professions we are 

 prepared to take his facts as obtained from direct observation, 

 direct manipulation, and direct evidence. What do we find in 

 the Natural History ? How many of the facts therein recorded 

 were obtained at first hand ? Not five hundred, not one hundred, 

 neither fifty, nor twenty — not one ! 



He gleaned his so-called facts from sources especially pointed 

 at by himself as utterly unreliable and contemptible, namely, 



