84 NOVUM ORGANUM. 



nature can neither be obtained nor administered by one who 

 refuses to pay attention to such matters as being poor and 

 too minute. 



122. Again it may be objected to us as being singular 

 and harsh, that we should with one stroke and assault, as 

 it were, banish all authorities and sciences, and that too 

 by our own efforts, without requiring the assistance and 

 support of any of the ancients. 



Now we are aware, that had we been ready to act other 

 wise than sincerely, it was not difficult to refer our pre 

 sent method to remote ages prior to those of the Greeks 

 (since the sciences in all probability flourished more in 

 their natural state, though silently, than when they were 

 paraded with the fifes and trumpets of the Greeks); or 

 even (in parts at least) to some of the Greeks themselves, 

 and to derive authority and honour from thence ; as men 

 of no family labour to raise and form nobility for them 

 selves in some ancient line, by the help of genealogies. 

 Trusting however to the evidence of facts, we reject every 

 kind of fiction and imposture : and think it of no more 

 consequence to our subject, whether future discoveries 

 were known to the ancients, and set or rose according to 

 the vicissitudes of events and lapse of ages, than it would 

 be of importance to mankind to know whether the new 

 world be the island of Atlantis,* and known to the ancients, 

 or be now discovered for the first time. 



With regard to the universal censure we have bestowed, 

 it is quite clear to any one who properly considers the 

 matter, that it is both more probable and more modest 

 than any partial one could have been. For if the errors 

 had not been rooted in the primary notions, some well con 

 ducted discoveries must have corrected others that were 

 deficient. But since the errors were fundamental, and of 

 such a nature that men may be said rather to have neglected 

 or passed over things than to have formed a wrong or false 

 judgment of them, it is little to be wondered at, that they 

 did not obtain what they never aimed at, nor arrive at a 

 goal which they had not determined, nor perform a course 

 which they had neither entered upon nor adhered to. 



With regard to our presumption, we allow that if we 

 were to assume a power of drawing a more perfect straight 

 line or circle than any one else by superior steadiness of 

 hand or acuteness of eye, it would lead to a comparison of 

 talent ; but if one merely assert that he can draw a more 



* See Plato s Timaeus. 



