18 NOVUM ORGANUM 



made in -learning by anticipations, because the radical errors, 

 and those which occur in the first process of the mind, are 

 not cured by the excellence of subsequent means and reme 

 dies. 



XXXI. It is in vain to expect any great progress in the 

 sciences by the superinducing or ingrafting new matters 

 upon old. An(instauration must be made from the very 

 foundations, if we do not wish to revolve forever in a cir 

 cle, making only some slight and contemptible progress. 



XXXII. The ancient authors and all others are left in 

 undisputed possession of their honors; for we enter into no 

 comparison of capacity or talent, but of method, and assume 

 the part of a guide rather than of a critic. 



XXXIII. To speak plainly, no correct judgment can be 

 formed either of our method or its discoveries by those an 

 ticipations which are now in common use; for it is not to be 

 required of us to submit ourselves to the judgment of the 

 very method we ourselves arraign. 



XXXIY. Nor is it an easy matter to deliver and explain 

 our sentiments; for those things which are in themselves 

 new can yet be only understood from some analogy to what 

 is old. 



XXXV. Alexander Borgia 6 said of the expedition of the 

 French into Italy that they came with chalk in their hands 

 to mark up their lodgings, and not with weapons to force 

 their passage. Even so do we wish our philosophy to make 

 its way quietly into those minds that are fit for it, and of 

 good capacity; for we have no need of contention where we 



6 This Borgia was Alexander VI., and the expedition alluded to that in 

 which Charles VIII. overran the Italian peninsula in five months. Bacon uses 

 the same illustration in concluding his survey of natural philosophy, in the sec 

 ond book of the &quot;De Augmentis.&quot; Ed. 



