LIB. I. 65. 



45 



cescit, prsecipue in Pythagora 11 , sed cum superstitione 

 magis crassa et onerosa conjunctum ; at periculosius 

 et subtilius in Platone atque ejus schola. Invenitur 

 etiam hoc genus mali in parti bus philosophiarum reli- 

 quarum, introducendo formas abstractas, et causas fina 

 les, et causas primas; omittendo saepisaime medias, et 

 hujusmodi 12 . Huic autem rei summa adhibenda est 

 cautio. Pessima enim res est errorum apotheosis l(i&amp;gt; * et 

 pro peste intellectus habenda est, si vanis accedat ve- 

 neratio. Huic autem vanitati nonnulli ex modernis 

 summa levitate ita indulserunt, ut in primo capitulo 

 Geneseos, et in libro Job, et aliis Scripturis sacris, phi- 

 losophiam naturalem fundare conati sint 14 ; inter viva 

 qucerentes mortua. Tantoque magis lisec vanitas inhi- 

 benda venit, et coercenda, quia ex divinorum et huma- 

 nortim malesana admistione, non solum educitur philo- 

 sophia phantastica, sed etiam religio hseretica. Itaque 



11 Pythagoras flourished B. C. 

 550; born at Samos. Around him 

 alone of Ancient Philosophers is 

 thrown the miraculous halo of a 

 Saint. Both in his views and in 

 his life the religious element stands 

 out most prominently; and on a re 

 ligious basis were founded his sys 

 tems both of Morals and Politics. 

 Cf. Ritter s Hist. Phil. Bk. iv. ch. i. 

 and Grote s Hist, of Greece, vol. IV. 



12 As in the Essay on Superstition 

 Bacon has, in speaking of its causes, 

 mentioned the taking an aim at 

 Divine matters by Human ; so here 

 he objects to the converse fault of 

 trying to discover Human matters 

 by Divine. 



13 The Deification of Untruth is 

 the greatest possible injustice to 

 wards truth ; and so towards God : 

 as Bacon says elsewhere, to believe 

 otherwise is to make God a lover of 

 lies. 



14 Such men would be Rob.Fludd, 

 who wrote a &quot; Mosaic Philosophy,&quot; 

 in which he built a scheme of phy 

 sics on the first chapters of Genesis ; 

 or Hutchinson. See Account of 

 Nov. Org. in the L. U. K. p. 24. 

 The modern antagonists of Geology 

 are rightly here rebuked. The Bible 

 is not a work on Physical Geognosy ; 

 it is intended for man s Spiritual and 

 Moral wants, and is adapted to even 

 the frailty of his language. We 

 shall find in it no assertions con 

 trary to the truths of Physics ; 

 though we do meet with language 

 suitd to the state of knowledge at 

 the time of its delivery. But for 

 this and Bacon s views upon this 

 point see infr. I. 89. &quot; Inter 

 viva&quot; &c. a strange and doubtful 

 application of St. Luke xxiv. 5. Ba 

 con s love of distant resemblances 

 led him to it. 



