XIV PREFACE. 



convert of the pope,&quot; wisely answered, &quot; Madam, I 

 had nothing better to offer to his Holiness.&quot; 



Such are the general antipathies to improve 

 ment, The Idols of the Tribe. The Idols of the 

 Den, of which professional antipathies constitute 

 one species, are modifications of the general antipa 

 thies operating, in any peculiar case, with peculiar 

 force. The objections of divines and of politicians, 

 are minutely examined in the Advancement of 

 Learning and in the Novum Organum ; (//) and the 

 tracts upon universal justice, and upon the improve 

 ment of the law, contain some desultory observations 

 upon the objection of lawyers, (c) It is, perhaps, to 

 be lamented, not only that the advancement of learn 

 ing does not commence with an exposition of general 

 and particular objections to the progress of know 

 ledge, but that the treatise upon universal justice 

 does not open with a consideration of the antipathy by 

 lawyers, to alteration of the law, which has, in all 

 times,(d) and in all places,(e) pervaded, and will, per 

 haps, for ever pervade, certain classes (/) of this no 

 ble profession, 



From the operation of these general and parti- 



(6) See vol. ii. p. 8, and in the Novum Organum, Aph. 79, 



&c. 



(c) See p. 338, of this vol. and note A p. [i.] See also vol.ii. 



p. 295. 



(d) See note N at the end, p. [xx.] 



(e) See note N N at the end, p. [xxi.] 

 (/) See note O at the end, p. [xxvi.] 



