CAUSES OF ERROft. 



of the errors in philosophy ; () and the grounds of hope 

 that knowledge must be progressive : (/;) -hopes which he 



nature, they grow, or against nature are mules, and 

 stationary. 4. The confession of authors. 5. The disa 

 greement amongst the professors, shewing that the way 

 from sense to the understanding is not well guarded. 

 6. Consent, the most fatal and lethargic of all signs. 



(a) The causes of the numerous and prevalent errors 

 and their continuance through so many ages are, he says,* 



1. A scantiness of times, suited to knowledge. 2. The 

 neglecting natural philosophy, the mother of the sciences. 

 3. The considering natural philosophy only as a passage to 

 other things, thus degrading the mother of the sciences 



o o o 



,to the office of a handmaid. 4. Mistaking the end of 

 knowledge. 5. Mistaking the road. 6. Improper reve 

 rence for antiquity and authors. 7. Admiration of existing 

 works. 8. Imagination of plenty. 9. The absurdities of 

 projectors. 10. The pusillanimity of inventors. 11. Super 

 stition and the blind furious zeal of religion. 12. The 

 customs and institutions of universities. 13. Despair and 

 supposition of impossibilities. 



(b) The hopes that knowledge will be progressive are 

 stated, he says, in imitation of Columbus, who, before he 

 undertook his expedition through the Atlantic ocean, 

 assigned his reasons why he expected to find new lands and 

 continents.f These reasons are: 1. General intercourse. 



2. Knowledge of the errors of past times. 3. The union 

 of the experimental and rational faculties : not like the 

 empirics, who, as ants, lay up stores and use them; or 

 the rationalists who, like spiders, spin webs out of them 

 selves: but like the bee, gathering her matter from the 

 flowers of the field and garden, and digesting and preparing 

 it by her native powers. 4. Pure and unmixed natural 



* Aph. 78, 9, 80-1 to 92, vol. ix. p. 228; vol. xiv. p. 56. 

 t Aph. 93 to 115, vol. ix. p. 249; vol. xiv. p. 69. 



