56 NOVUM ORGANUM 



ing of man are conversant, scarcely six can be set apart and 

 selected as fertile in science and favorable to its progress. 

 For there are deserts and wastes in times as in countries, 

 and we can only reckon up three revolutions and epochs of 

 philosophy. 1. The Greek. 2. The Eoman. 3. Our own, 

 that is the philosophy of the western nations of Europe: 

 and scarcely two centuries can with justice be assigned to 

 each. The intermediate ages of the world were unfortunate 

 both in the quantity and richness of the sciences produced. 

 Nor need we mention the Arabs, or the scholastic philoso 

 phy, which, in those ages, ground down the sciences by 

 their numerous treatises, more than they increased their 

 weight. The first cause, then, of such insignificant prog 

 ress in the sciences, is rightly referred to the small propor 

 tion of time which has been favorable thereto. 



LXXIX. A second cause offers itself, which is certainly 

 of the greatest importance; namely, that in those very ages 

 in which men s wit and literature flourished considerably, 

 or even moderately, but a small part of their industry was 

 bestowed on natural philosophy, the great mother of the 

 sciences. For every art and science torn from this root 

 may, perhaps, be polished, and put into a serviceable shape, 

 but can admit of little growth. It is well known, that after 

 the Christian religion had been acknowledged, and arrived 

 at maturity, by far the best wits were busied upon theology, 

 where the highest rewards offered themselves, and every 

 species of assistance was abundantly supplied, and the study 

 of which was the principal occupation of the western Euro 

 pean nations during the third epoch; the rather because 



dered a second destruction of learning impossible, it is difficult to foresee an/ 

 other end than the extinction of the race of man. Ed. 



