380 ON THE SCOPE AND INFLUENCE OF THE 
tion is, that it has proceeded from a very imperfect acquain- 
- tance with the work in question. For my own part, I confess 
myself wholly unable to conceive, how any man of ordinary: 
judgment could read the Novum Organum with ordinary atten- 
tion, without carrying away an impression directly the reverse 
of that of Bacon’s ignorance and disregard of the laws and li- 
mits of the human understanding. ‘The first sentence of the 
work contains an emphatic declaration of homage to these ve- 
ry laws: Homo Nature minister et interpres, tantum facit et in- 
telligit, quantum, de Nature ordine, re vel mente observaverit ; 
nec amplius scit, aut potest. The grand lesson which it every 
where inculcates is, that all false philosophy had sprung from 
the too high notions hitherto entertained, of the powers of the 
mind ; these notions having led to the disregard or contempt 
of the only means by which true knowledge can be obtained. 
Causa vero, et radix, fere omnium malorum in scientia ea una 
est, quod dum mentis humane vires falso miramur et extolli- 
mus, vera ejus aucilia non queramus. Bacon saw more clearly 
than any preceding inquirer, the folly of supposing the mind ca- 
pable of explaining the constitution of Nature by means of prin- 
ciples of its own invention, and reasonings a priori ; and his 
main aim in the Novum Organum was, to withdraw philoso- 
phy from such airy speculations, and to employ it in a way more - 
suitable to its purposes, and the limited nature of our faculties. 
Employed in this way, that, namely, of inductive inquiry, he 
showed that philosophy would greatly extend the compass of 
our knowledge, and multiply the instruments of our power. 
It is not, therefore, without good reason, that Mr Srewarr pa- 
negyrizes the author of the Novum Organum, for his know- 
ledge of “ the laws, limits and resources of the human un- 
derstanding,” and for the general soundness of his views as to 
the ends and rules of philosophical investigation. 
The 
