Cclxxiv LIFE OF BACON. 



Idols of the As men associate by discourse, and words are imposed 

 Market. accor ding to the capacity of the vulgar, a false and im 

 proper imposition of words unavoidably possesses the 

 understanding, leading men away to idle controversies and 

 subtleties, irremediable by definitions, which, consisting of 

 words, shoot back, like the Tartar s bow, upon the judg 

 ment from whence they came. 



These defects of words, or Idols of the Market, are 

 either names of non-existences, as the primum mobile, the 

 element of fire, &c. ; or confused names of existences, as 

 beauty, virtue, &c. ; which, from the subtlety of nature 

 being infinite and of words finite, must always exist. 

 Words tell the minutes, but not the seconds. When we 

 attempt to reach heaven, we are stopped by the confusion 

 of languages. 



Idols of The Idols of the Den, or attachment by particular 

 the Den. i n di v iduals to particular opinions, he thus explains: 

 &quot; We every one of us have our particular den or cavern 

 which refracts and corrupts the light of nature; either 

 because every man has his respective temper, education, 

 acquaintance, course of reading and authorities ; or from 

 the difference of impressions, as they happen in a mind 

 prejudiced or prepossessed, or in one that is calm and 

 equal. Of which defects Plato s cave is an excellent 

 emblem : for certainly if a man were continued from his 

 childhood to mature age in a grottoe or dark and subter 

 raneous cave, and then should come suddenly abroad, and 

 should behold the stately canopy of heaven and the furni 

 ture of the world, without doubt he would have many 

 strange and absurd imaginations come into his mind and 

 people his brain. So in like manner we live in the view of 

 heaven, yet our spirits are inclosed in the caves of our 

 bodies, complexions, and customs, which must needs 

 minister unto us infinite images of error and vain opinions, 



