66 NOVUM ORGANUM. 



si multitudo consent iat et complaudat. Hoc signum igi- 

 tur ex avcrsissimis est. Ttaquc quod signa veritatis ct 

 sanitatis philosophianini ot scicntiaruni, qnae in nsu 

 stint, male so habcant ; sive capiantnr ex originibus 

 ipsaruin, sive ex t riictibus, sive ex progressibus, sive 

 ex confessionibus auctorum, sive ex conscnsu ; jam dic 

 tum est. 



LXXVIII. 



Jam vero veiiienduin ad causas errorum, et tarn 

 dinturnir in illis per tot secula mow, qua* plurimo; 

 sunt et potentissinux 1 : ut tollatur omnis admiratio, hcec, 

 qua 1 adducimus, homines hucusque latnisse et fugisse ; 

 et maneat taiitnm admiratio, ilia mine tandem alicui 

 mortalinm in mcntem venire potnissc, ant cogitatio- 

 nein cujuspiam subiisso: (|iiod etiam (ut nos existima- 

 nms) felicitatis magis est cujusdam, quam excellentis 

 alien. jus facultatis ; ut potius pro temporis partu haberi 

 debeat, quam pro partu ingcnii 1 . 



Primo autem tot scculorum mimerns, vere rem repu- 

 tanti, ad magnas angustias recidit. Xam ex viginti 

 quinque annornm centnriis, in qnibus memoria et 

 doctrina lioniimun fere versatur, vix sex centurioc 

 seponi et excerpi possunt, qnnc scientiarum feraces, 

 earumve proventui utiles fueruut -. Sunt enim non 



r&amp;gt;1 See Playfair s Dissert. Kncycl. more successful in their study of 



Brit. vol. I. p. 453- Speaking of Nature.&quot; 



the causes of failure among the How far was it Humility (as some 

 ancients, he says, &quot; Men had not have said) which led Bacon to call 

 acquired the power over that light the Nov. Org. &quot; partus temporis ?&quot; 

 (of experience) which now enables one recollects that in his younger 

 them to concentrate its beams, and days he spoke of it as the &quot; par- 

 to fix them steadily on whatever tus temporis maximus&quot; with what 

 objects they wished to examine, seems a different sense from that 

 This power is what distinguishes given here. Cf. infr. I. 122. See 

 modern Physics ; and is the cause also the commencement of the De- 

 why later Philosophers, without dication to King James, 

 being more ingenious than their 62 Does not Bacon narrow the 

 predecessors, have been infinitely periods overmuch ? He neglects 



