THE INDUCTIVE SYSTEM. 9 



work entitled " Novum Organum," or a new sys- 

 tematic organization of physical science, based on 

 facts and reasoning from analogy. 



The patient and careful labor requisite for car- 

 rying out this inductive system, from one verified 

 fact to another, dispels all romance in the pur- 

 suit of physical science, and reduces it to a mathe- 

 matical precision very distasteful to the ardent 

 and speculative spirit of the age. 



With no inducement of pecuniary profit to 

 tempt students to a laborious course of original 

 scientific investigations, few can afford the sacri- 

 fice ; and most prefer to imagine, rather than to 

 work. Thousands indulge in physical specula- 

 tions, where one is found plodding slowly by prac- 

 tical verifications. The imaginative Goethe wrote 

 on Materialism, commencing with the apology, 

 that " any theory of the cause of movements of 

 matter is better than none." 



peare represents popular delusions and beliefs in the existence of mys- 

 terious powers in the various substances added to the bubbling caldron. 

 Romances continue to fascinate the lively imagination of childhood, 

 leaving their impress in after life, and preparing the popular mind for 

 believing in spiritual communications, clairvoyance, and supernatural 

 powers. So strong was the hold of this popular belief in former days, 

 that grave ecclesiastics, legislators, and judges established and executed 

 laws for inflicting the punishment of imprisonment and death on persons 

 accused of "sorcery and witchcraft." Thousands have been impris- 

 oned and put to death in Europe for alleged communications with evil 

 spirits ; and even the stern Puritans of Massachusetts hung numerous 

 women and men for witchcraft. 



All these pernicious results and superstitious fears of evil spirits and 

 supernatural powers are dispelled by the study of the exact facts of 

 Natural Philosophy, which demonstrates the passiveness of all matter, 

 and its subjection to material and mechanical laws. 



