56 NOVUM ORGANUM. 



immediately examine what error or fault they have com 

 mitted, when the multitude concurs with and applauds 

 them.&quot; This then is one of the most unfavourable signs. 

 All the signs, therefore, of the truth and soundness of the 

 received systems of philosophy and the sciences are unpropi- 

 tious, whether taken from their origin, their fruits, their pro 

 gress, the confessions of their authors, or from unanimity. 



78. We now come to the causes of errors,* and of such 

 perseverance in them for ages. These are sufficiently 

 numerous and powerful to remove all wonder that what 

 we now offer should have so long been concealed from 

 and have escaped the notice of mankind, and to render 

 it more worthy of astonishment, that it should even now 

 have entered any one s mind or become the subject of his 

 thoughts; and that it should have done so ? we consider 

 rather the gift of fortune than of any extraordinary talent, 

 and as the offspring of time rather than wit. But, in the 

 first place, the number of ages is reduced to very narrow 

 limits on a proper consideration of the matter. For out of 

 twenty-five centuries, with which the memory and learning 

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

 selected as fertile in science and favourable 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 Roman. 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 philo 

 sophy 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 progress 

 in the sciences is rightly referred to the small proportion of 

 time which has been favourable thereto. 



79. 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 



* See end of Axiom 61. This subject extends to Axiom 93. 



