NOVUM OROANUM 19 



differ in first principles, and in our very notions, and even 

 in our forms of demonstration. 



XXXVI. We have but one simple method of delivering 

 our sentiments, namely, we must bring men to particulars 

 and their regular series and order, and they must for a while 

 renounce their notions, and begin to form an acquaintance 

 with things. 



XXXVII. Our method and that of the sceptics 7 agree 

 in some respects at first setting out, but differ most widely, 

 and are completely opposed to each other in their conclu 

 sion; for they roundly assert that nothing can be known; 

 we, that but a small part of nature can be known, by the 

 present method; their next step, however, is to destroy the 

 authority of the senses and understanding, while we invent 

 and supply them with assistance. 



XXXV1IL The idols and false notions which have al 

 ready preoccupied the human understanding, and are deeply . 

 rooted in it, not only so beset men s minds that they become^ 



. * *&quot; ( 



difficult of access, but even when access is obtained will again 

 meet and trouble us in the instauration of the sciences, 



/ 



less mankind when forewarned guard themselves with all 

 possible care against them. 



XXXIX. Four species of idols beset the human mind, 8 * 



* , 



-- . o^; 



7 Ratio eorum qui acatalepsiam tenuerunt. Bacon alludes to the members 

 of the later academy, who held the a/cara^^ic^ or the impossibility of compre 

 hending anything. His translator, however, makes him refer to the sceptics, 

 who neither dogmatized about the known or the unknown, but simply held, 

 that as all knowledge was relative, ^ps iravra n, man could never arrive at 

 absolute truth, and therefore could not with certainty affirm or deny any 

 thing. Ed. 



8 It is argued by Hallam, with some appearance of truth, that idols is not 

 the correct translation of ctfiwAa, from which the original idola is manifestly de 

 rived ; but that Bacon used it in the literal sense attached to it by the Greeks, 

 as a species of illusion, or false appearance, and not as a species of divinity be- 



