DE PRINCIPIIS ATQUE ORIGINIBUS. 277 



form, failino- which the earth could have no actual 



7 O 



existence, but simply mean that as yet the earth was 

 unadorned and in disorder ; a solution in which we 

 see how far they were from supposing that according 

 to Aristotle the first created thing ought to he unin 

 formed matter. They insist on the contrary that the 

 Scripture cannot mean that any created thing can be 

 mere matter : &quot; non enim datur ens actu sine actu.&quot; 

 Aristotle, as I have said, condemns the theogonists 

 in whose system Night is a producing principle, a 

 remark in which he may refer either to Hesiod or to 

 the Orphic writers, but which probably relates to the 

 former only* In the reason of this condemnation 

 Bacon agrees with him, and yet takes into the myth 

 which he proposes to explain, Aristophanes s fancy 

 that the ego; from which Eros came forth was laid 



O& 



by Night. His reason for doing so is that this part 

 of the fable appears to him to relate not to essence 

 but to cognition, that is to the method whereby we 

 may arrive at a knowledge of Eros, or of the funda 

 mental properties of matter. For conclusions obtained 

 by means of affirmatives are, so to speak, brought forth 

 by Light: whereas those which are obtained by neg 

 atives and exclusions are the offspring of Night and 

 Darkness. Therefore the egg is laid by Night, see 

 ing that the knowledge of Eros, though it is assuredly 

 attainable, can yet only be attained by exclusions and 

 negatives ; that is, to express the same opinion in the 

 lancmao-e of the Novum Orqanum, the knowledge of 



o & t- 



Forms necessarily depends on the Exclusiva. That 

 this method of exclusions must of necessity be ulti 

 mately successful is intimated by the myth itself; for 

 the incubation of the primeval egg is not eternal. In 



