42 INTERPRETATION OF NATURE. 



must be altogether checked ; but the nearest comprehen 

 sions must be first drawn out and discovered, and then the 

 middle ones, and we must climb the true ladder by repeated 

 steps. For the paths of thought and understanding almost 

 agree with that twofold way in morals, sung by the ancients ; 

 for one road, smooth at the entrance, leads to pathless wilds, 

 the other, steep and difficult at first, ends in level road. 



He thought that such a form of induction should be 

 introduced as should conclude generally from certain in 

 stances, so that it can be proved that there cannot be 

 found a contradictory instance, lest by chance we pro 

 nounce from fewer than are adequate, and from those which 

 are at our feet ; and (as one of the ancients said) seek know 

 ledge in our private worlds, and not in the public one. He 

 saw that that comprehension only should be approved of 

 and received, which was not made and fitted to the measure 

 of the particulars from which it was derived, but which 

 was rather more ample and lax, and supported its ampli 

 tude and laxity by the designation of new particulars as a 

 sort of suretyship, lest we should stop at what is already 

 known, or perchance in too wide an embrace catch shadows 

 and abstract forms. He saw that many things beside these 

 should be invented to work notably, not so much to the 

 perfecting of the matter, as to the shortening of the labour, 

 and to the speeding of men s harvest from it. And whe 

 ther all this be rightly thought or otherwise, we must, if 

 need be, appeal from the opinions, and stand by the effects. 



He thought also that what he is treating of is rather 

 performance than opinion, and that it lays the foundations 

 not of any sect or school, but of immense utility and en 

 largement. Wherefore thought must be taken not only 

 about accomplishing the matter, but about communicating 

 and transmitting it, which is of equal consequence. But 

 he found that men minister to their love of fame and pomp 

 by sometimes publishing, sometimes concealing the know 

 ledge of things which they think they have got; and that 

 they who propose what is least solid are, more than others, 

 used to barter what they offer in an obscure and doubtful 

 light, that they may more easily swell the sails of their 

 vanity. But he thought that he was handling a subject 

 which it were unbecoming to defile with any ambition or 

 affectation; but yet that he must needs descend to the 

 recollection (unless indeed he were very inexperienced in 

 affairs and minds, and would begin his journey without 

 aoy search) that inveterate errors like the ravings of the 



