74 NOVUM ORGANUM 



laborious, and end in confusion. And since such thoughts 

 easily enter the minds of men of dignity and excellent judg 

 ment, we must really take heed lest we should be captivated 

 by our affection for an excellent and most beautiful object, 

 and relax or diminish the severity of our judgment; and we 

 must diligently examine what gleam of hope shines upon 

 us, and in what direction it manifests itself, so that, banish 

 ing her lighter dreams, we may discuss and weigh whatever 

 appears of more sound importance. We must consult the 

 prudence of ordinary life, too, which is diffident upon prin 

 ciple, and in all human matters augurs the worst. Let us, 

 then, speak of hope, especially as we are not vain promisers, 

 nor are willing to enforce or insnare men s judgment, but 

 would rather lead them willingly forward. And although 

 we shall employ the most cogent means of enforcing hope 

 when we bring them to particulars, and especially those 

 which are digested and arranged in our Tables of Invention 

 (the subject partly of the second, but principally of the 

 fourth part of the Instauration), which are, indeed, rather 

 the very object of our hopes than hope itself; yet to proceed 

 more leniently we must treat of the preparation of men s 

 minds, of which the manifestation of hope forms no slight 

 part; for without it all that we have said tends rather to 

 produce a gloom than to encourage activity or quicken the 

 industry of experiment, by causing them to have a worse 

 and more contemptuous opinion of things as they are than 

 they now entertain, and to perceive and feel more thoroughly 

 their unfortunate condition. We must, therefore, disclose 

 and prefix our reasons for not thinking the hope of success 

 improbable, as Columbus, before his wonderful voyage over 

 the Atlantic, gave the reasons of his conviction that new 

 lands and continents might be discovered besides those 



