G8 XOVUM ORCANUM. 



even of popular praise : for it is above the reach of the 

 generality, and easily overwhelmed and extinguished by 

 the winds of common opinions. It is not wonderful there 

 fore that little success has attended that which has been 

 little honoured. 



92. But by far the greatest obstacle to the advancement 

 of the sciences and the undertaking of any new attempt or 

 department is to be found in men s despair and the idea of 

 impossibility. For men of a prudent and exact turn of 

 thought are altogether diffident in matters of this nature, 

 considering the obscurity of nature, the shortness of life, 

 the deception of the senses, and weakness of the judgment. 

 They think therefore that in the revolutions of ages and of 

 the world there are certain floods and ebbs of the sciences, 

 and that they grow and flourish at one time, and wither and 

 fall off at another, that when they have attained a certain 

 degree and condition they can proceed no further. 



If therefore any one believe or promise greater things, 

 they impute it to an uncurbed and immature mind, and 

 imagine that such efforts begin pleasantly, then become 

 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 capti 

 vated 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 

 banishing her lighter dreams we may discuss and weigh what 

 ever appears of more sound importance. We must consult 

 the prudence of ordinary life too, which is diffident upon 

 principle, and in all human matters augurs the worst. Let 

 us then speak of hope, especially as we are not vain pro- 

 misers, nor are willing to force or ensnare men s judgment, 

 but would rather lead them willingly forward. And al 

 though 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 In 

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

 the fourth part of the Installation) 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 



