54 NOVUM ORGANUM. 



would never have happened : namely that the sciences still 

 continue in their beaten track, and nearly stationary, with 

 out having received any important increase; nay, having 

 on the contrary rather bloomed under the hands of their 

 first author and then faded away. But we see that the 

 case is reversed in the mechanical arts, which are founded 

 on nature and the light of experience, for they (as long as 

 they are popular) seem full of life, and uninterruptedly 

 thrive and grow, being at first rude, then convenient, 

 lastly polished, and perpetually improved. 



75. There is yet another sign (if such it may be termed, 

 being rather an evidence, and one of the strongest nature), 

 namely, the actual confession of those very authorities 

 whom men now follow. For even they who decide on 

 things so daringly, yet at times, when they reflect, betake 

 themselves to complaints about the subtilty of nature, the 

 obscurity of things, and the weakness of man s wit. If 

 they would merely do this, they might perhaps deter those 

 who are of a timid disposition from further inquiry, but 

 would excite and stimulate those of a more active and con 

 fident turn to further advances. They are not, however, 

 satisfied with confessing so much of themselves, but con 

 sider every thing which has been either unknown or imat- 

 tempted by themselves or their teachers, as beyond the 

 limits of possibility; and thus, with most consummate 

 pride and envy, convert the defects of their own discoveries 

 into a calumny on nature, and a source of despair to every 

 one else. Hence arose the new academy, which openly 

 professed scepticism and consigned mankind to eternal 

 darkness. Hence the notion that forms, or the true dif 

 ferences of things (which are in fact the laws of simple 

 action) are beyond man s reach, and cannot possibly be dis 

 covered. Hence those notions in the active and operative 

 branches ; that the heat of the sun and of fire are totally 

 different, so as to prevent men from supposing that they 

 can elicit or form, by means of fire, any thing similar to the 

 operations of nature; and again, that composition only is 

 the work of man and mixture of nature, so as to prevent 

 men from expecting the generation or transformation of 

 natural bodies by art. Men will, therefore, easily allow 

 themselves to be persuaded by this sign, not to engage 

 their fortunes and labour in speculations, which are not 

 only desperate, but actually devoted to desperation. 



76. Nor should we omit the sign afforded by the great 

 dissension formerly prevalent among philosophers, and the 





