LIB. II. 3, 4. 137 



IV. 



Licet vise ad potentiam, atque ad scientiam huma- 

 nam, conjunctissimae sint, et fere esedem ; tamen prop- 

 ter perniciosam et inveteratam consuetudinem versandi 

 in abstractis, tutius omnino est ordiri et excitare scien- 

 tias ab iis fimdamentis, quae in ordine sunt ad partem 

 activam, atque ut ilia ipsa partem contemplativam sig 

 net et determinet 13 . Videndum itaque est ad aliquam 

 naturam super corpus datum generandam et superindu- 

 cendam, quale quis prseceptum, aut qualem quis direc- 

 tionem, aut deductionem maxime optaret ; idque ser- 

 mone simplici, et minime abstruso. 



Exempli gratia; si quis argento cupiat snperinducere 

 flavmn colorem auri, aut augmentum ponderis, (servatis 

 legibus materige) aut lapidi alicui non diaphano diaplia- 

 neitatem, aut vitro tenacitatem, aut corpori alicui non 

 vegetabili vegetationem ; videndum (inquam) est, quale 

 quis praeceptum, aut deductionem potissimum sibi dari 

 exoptet. Atque primo, exoptabit aliquis proculdubio, 



Bacon s mind, as his great end. for Knowledge under this combina- 



Cf. I. 3. 81. II. i. &quot; One of the lion, see infr. II. 31. Cf. also infr. 



considerations,&quot; (says Playfair, En- II. 17. ad fin. 



cycl. Brit. Dissert, iii. p. 454,) 13 This is in pity for man s feeble 

 &quot; which appear to have struck grasp of all but matters of action, 

 Bacon s mind most forcibly, was and also in despair at man s love 

 the vagueness and uncertainty of for baseless speculation. As meet- 

 all the Physical speculations then ing both difficulties he begins with 

 existing, and the entire want of precepts for Human Power, rather 

 connection between the Sciences than with those for Knowledge ; 

 and the Arts. Though these two although the two are most nearly 

 things are in their nature so closely connected, and though it would be 

 allied, that the same Truth which is more in accordance with his plan to 

 a principle in Science becomes a begin with the discovery of Form, 

 rule in Art; yet there was at that He cannot, however, resist the 

 time hardly any practical improve- temptation of sketching out part of 

 ment which had arisen from a theo- his conception of Form. Cf. also 

 retic discovery. The natural alliance infr. II. 13. 17. and Appendix E. 

 between the Knowledge and the Bacon s language throughout this 

 Power of man seemed entirely in- Aphorism is thoroughly Scholastic, 

 terrupted.&quot; For Bacon s own hopes 



