NOVUM ORGANUM 81 



experiments have been committed to paper. We cannot, 

 however, approve of any mode of discovery without writing, 

 and when that comes into more general use, we may have 

 further hopes. 



Oil. Besides this, there is such a multitude and host, 

 as it were, of particular objects, and lying so widely dis 

 persed, as to distract and confuse the understanding; and 

 we can, therefore, hope for no advantage from its skirmish 

 ing, and quick movements and incursions, unless we put 

 its forces in due order and array, by means of proper and 

 well arranged, and, as it were, living tables of discovery of 

 these matters, which are the subject of investigation, and the 

 mind then apply itself to the ready prepared and digested 

 aid which such tables afford. 



GUI. When we have thus properly and regularly placed 

 before the eyes a collection of particulars, we must not im 

 mediately proceed to the investigation and discovery of new 

 particulars or effects, or, at least, if we do so, must not rest 

 satisfied therewith. For, though we do not deny that by 

 transferring the experiments from one art to another (when 

 all the experiments of each have been collected and ar 

 ranged, and have been acquired by the knowledge, and 

 subjected to the judgment of a single individual), many 

 new experiments may be discovered tending to benefit 

 society and mankind, by what we term literate experience; 

 yet comparatively insignificant results are to be expected 

 thence, while the more important are to be derived from 

 the new light of axioms, deduced by certain method and 

 rule from the above particulars, and pointing out and de 

 fining new particulars in their turn. Our road is not a long 

 plain, but rises and falls, ascending to axioms, and descend 

 ing to effects. 



