LIFE OF BACON. 



Experience, (a) in which, after having explained that our 

 inventions, instead of resulting from reason and foresight, 

 had ever originated in accident : that &quot; we are more be- 



O 



holden to a wild goat for surgery : to a nightingale for 

 modulations of music : to the ibis for some part of physic : 

 to a pot-lid that flew open for artillery: in a word, to 

 chance rather than to logic : so that it is no marvel that 

 the Egyptians had their temples full of the idols of brutes ; 

 but almost empty of the idols of men:&quot; he divides this 

 art of Discovery into two parts : &quot; For either the indi 

 cation is made from experiments to experiments, or from 

 experiments to axioms, which may likewise design new 

 experiments ; whereof the former we will term Experientia 

 Literata ; the latter, Interpretatio Natura, or Novum 

 Organum : as a man may go on his way after a three-fold 

 manner, either when himself feels out his way in the dark ; 

 or, being weak-sighted, is led by the hand of another; or 

 else when he directs his footing by a light. So when a 

 man essays all kind of experiments without sequence or 

 method, that is a mere palpation; but when he proceeds 

 by direction and order in experiments, it is as if he were 

 led by the hand ; and this is it which we understand by 

 Literate Experience; for the light itself, which is the third 

 way, is to be derived from the interpretation of nature, or 

 the New Organ.&quot; (b) 



Literate He then proceeds to explain his doctrine of &quot; Literate 

 experience. ] X p er i ence or the science of making experiments. The 

 hunting of Pan. (c) 



In this interesting inquiry the miraculous vigilance of 

 this extraordinary man may, possibly, be more apparent 



(a) De Augmentis, L. v. vol. viii. p. 265. 



(6) De Aug. vol. viii. p. 265. 



(c) Fable of Pan. See Wisdom of Ancients, vol. iii. p. 11. 



