22 NOVUM ORGANUM 



men s minds from the various dogmas of peculiar systems 

 of philosophy, and also from the perverted rules of demon 

 stration, and these we denominate idols of the theatre: for 

 we regard all the systems of philosophy hitherto received 

 or imagined, as so many plays brought out and performed, 

 creating fictitious and theatrical worlds. Nor do we speak 

 only of the present systems, or of the philosophy and sects 

 of the ancients, since numerous other plays of a similar 

 nature can be still composed and made to agree with each 

 other, the causes of the most opposite errors being generally 

 the same. Nor, again, do we allude merely to general sys 

 tems, but also to many elements and axioms of sciences 

 which have become inveterate by tradition, implicit cre 

 dence, and neglect. We must, however, discuss each spe 

 cies of idols more fully and distinctly in order to guard the 

 human understanding against them. 



XLV. The human understanding, from its peculiar na 

 ture, easily supposes a greater degree of order and equality 

 in things than it really finds; and although many things in 

 nature be sui generis and most irregular, will yet invent 

 parallels and conjugates and relatives, where no such thing 

 is. Hence the fiction, that all celestial bodies move in per 

 fect circles, thus rejecting entirely spiral and serpentine 

 lines (except as explanatory terms). 11 Hence also the ele- 



11 Though Kepler had, when Bacon wrote this, already demonstrated his 

 three great laws concerning the elliptical path of the planets, neither Bacon 

 nor Descartes seems to have known or assented to his discoveries. Our author 

 deemed the startling astronomical announcements of his time to be mere theo 

 retic solutions of the phenomena of the heavens, not so perfect as those ad 

 vanced by antiquity, but still deserving a praise for the ingenuity displayed in 

 their contrivance. Bacon believed a hundred such systems might exist, and 

 though true in their explanation of phenomena, yet might all more or less 

 differ, according to the preconceived notions which their framers brought to 

 the survey of the heavens. He even thought he might put in his claim to the 



