124 



NOVUM ORGANUM. 



dam pronuntiandi, et principia certa ponendi, donee 

 per medios gradus ad generalissima rite perventum sit ; 

 suspensionem quandam judicii tueri, atque ad acatalcp- 

 fiiam rem deducere &quot; 2 . Nos vero non acatalepsiam, sed 

 eucatalepsiam meditamur et proponimus : sensui enim 

 non derogamus, sed ministramus ; et intellectum non 

 contemnimus, sed rcgiinus. Atque niclius est scire 

 quantum opus sit, et tamen nos non penitus scire 

 putare, quam penitus scire nos putare, et tamen nil 

 eorum, qua) opus est, scire ;;5 . 



CXXVII. 



Etiam dubitabit quispiam potius quam objiciet ; 



utruin nos dc naturali tantum philosophia, an ctiam 

 de scientiis reliquis, logicis, ethicis, politicis, secundum 

 viam nostrum perficiendis, loquamur &quot; 4 . At nos certe 



&quot;- Cf. suj)r. I. 89. To this ob 

 jection an answer is to be found in 

 such sayings of Bacon s as &quot; If a 

 man will begin with certainties, he 

 shall end in doubts ; but if he will 

 be content to begin with doubts, he 

 shall end in certainties.&quot; Adv. of 

 Learning, p. 51 . 



~ ;t In this Bacon must have had the 

 flpvvtia of Socrates before his eyes. 

 See Apol. Socr.p.2i &c. The Know 

 ledge of our Ignorance is one of the 

 chief and best forms of Knowledge : 

 and one which grows upon wise 

 men: as we see in the case of Sir 

 Isaac Newton, and his saying that 

 &quot; he felt like a child gathering peb 

 bles on the shore of an infinite 

 ocean,&quot; &c. 



&quot; 4 &quot;What are the limits of this Me 

 thod ? As it is intended to be purely 

 Instrumental, why should it not be 

 applicable to all subjects of Human 

 Knowledge? Not that Bacon would 

 have dreamed of superseding Reve 

 lation, as the Positivists would do, 



and declare that he wished to do : 

 but that for all things which God 

 has given Man to learn for himself, 

 this Method is the best and surest. 

 And though the Method now in use 

 is not exactly such as Bacon ex 

 pected, still his observations here 

 are perfectly just, and apply to it. 

 &quot;\Ve may discuss inductively Logic, 

 as the Analysis of certain Intellec 

 tual Phenomena : Ethics, as the 

 study of our Moral Nature (due 

 regard being had to (Jod s revealed 

 will on certain Moral questions) : 

 Politics, as the study of the combi 

 nations of the Civil and the Social 

 Life. The first of these is now ra 

 ther Psychology, and (to a certain 

 extent) Pathology, than Logic and 

 we need not fear any attempt to 

 confuse Intellect with Brain, and so 

 to introduce a materialist view of 

 our Mental Powers; and perhaps 

 no more legitimate sphere for Mo 

 dern Induction can be found than 

 this. The Constitution of Man s 



