VI PREFACE. 



a laudative of learning, a hymn to the Muses, (/) 

 but with a survey of the obstacles to its advance 

 ment, opposed by ignorance, but ignorance seve 

 rally disguised, (g) So too the Novum Organum 

 opens with a survey of the obstacles opposed to 

 the understanding in the discovery of truth ; the 

 tendencies by which the whole human race are liable 

 to be warped, from the truth, * The Idols of the 

 Tribe, as he terms them ; (//) and the warps which 



stop all progression. For no perfect discovery can be made 

 upon a flat or a level : neither is it possible to discover the 

 more remote and deeper parts of any science, if you stand but 

 upon the level of the same science, and ascend not to a higher 

 science. 



(/) 1 have no purpose to enter into a laudative of learning, or 

 to make a hymn to the muses ; (though I am of opinion that it 

 is long since their rites were duly celebrated :) but my intent is, 

 without varnish or amplification, justly to weigh ihe dignity of 

 knowledge in the balance with other tilings, to take the true 

 value thereof by testimonies and arguments divine and human. 



(g) In the entrance to the former of these, to clear the way, 

 and, as it were, to make silence, to have the true testimonies 

 concerning the dignity of learning to be better heard, without 

 the interruption of tacit objections ; I think good to deliver it 

 from the discredits and disgraces which it hath received, all 

 from ignorance, but ignorance severally disguised ; appearing 

 sometimes in the zeal and jealousy of divines ; sometimes in the 

 severity and arrogancy of politicians; and sometimes in the 

 errois and imperfections of learned men themelves. 



(h) There are certain predispositions which beset the mind 

 of man: certain idols which are constantly operating upon 

 the mind and warping it from the truth ; for the mind of man, 

 drawn over and clouded with the sable pavilion of the body, 

 is so far from being like a smooth, equal and clear glass, 



