132 Bacon 



or ambiguity of words and phrase, (especially of such words 

 as are most general, and intervene in every inquiry,) it 

 seemeth to me that the true and fruitful use, leaving vain 

 subtilties and speculations, of the inquiry of majority, 

 minority, priority, posteriority, identity, diversity, possibility, 

 act, totality, parts, existence, privation, and the like, are but 

 wise cautions against the ambiguities of speech. So again 

 the distribution of things into certain tribes, which we call 

 categories or predicaments, are but cautions against the con 

 fusion of definitions and divisions. 1 



Secondly, there is a seducement that worketh by the 

 strength of the impression, and not by the subtilty of the 

 illaqueation ; not so much perplexing the reason, as over 

 ruling it by power of the imagination. But this part I 

 think more proper to handle when I shall speak of rhetoric. 



But lastly, there is yet a much more important and pro 

 found kind of fallacies in the mind of man, which I find not 

 observed or inquired at all, 2 and think good to place here, 

 as that which of all others appertaineth most to rectify 

 judgment: the force whereof is such, as it doth not dazzle 

 or snare the understanding in some particulars, but doth 

 more generally and inwardly infect and corrupt the state 

 thereof. For the mind of man is far from the nature of a 

 clear and equal glass, wherein the beams of things should 

 reflect according to their true incidence; nay, it is rather 

 like an enchanted glass, full of superstition and imposture, 

 if it be not delivered and reduced. For this purpose, let 

 us consider the false appearances that are imposed upon 

 us by the general nature of the mind, 3 beholding them in 

 an example or two; as first, in that instance which is the 

 root of a superstition, namely, That to the nature of the 

 mind of all men it is consonant for the affirmative or active 

 to affect more than the negative or privative : so that a few 

 times hitting or presence, countervails oft-times failing or 

 absence; as was well answered by Diagoras to him that 

 showed him in Neptune s temple the great number of 

 pictures of such as had escaped shipwreck, and had paid 

 their vows to Neptune, saying, Advise now, you that think 



1 Arist. Categ. 



a This is the doctrine of &quot; Idols,&quot; expanded in the Latin, and still 

 more in the Nov. Org. i. 39-68. 



8 Idols &quot; of the Tribe, Nov. Org. i. 24-31. 



