APPENDIX A. 



Augmentis Scientiarum &quot;- &quot;Axioms or profitable observations 

 as fall not within the compass of any of the special parts of 

 Philosophy or Sciences, but arc more common and of a higher 

 stage.&quot; These Axioms he there collects together, and regards 

 as a basis for a &quot; Prima Philosophia.&quot; But for all the concerns 

 of human life, the intermediate Axioms are looked on by him 

 as the valuable ones. We might illustrate from Optics, taking- 

 such propositions as &quot; the diffusion of light from a luminous 

 body takes place equally in every direction&quot; or &quot; rays of light 

 are capable of both Reflection and Refraction.&quot; These would 

 be the lowest class of Axioms. When, by consideration of cases, 

 we had concluded that these Laws are true, then such &quot;Axioms&quot; 

 as the following might be started as a lower class of &quot; Media&quot;- 

 that &quot; the diffusion of light follows a fixed law.&quot; Then that 

 that law is, that &quot; the Intensity of light varies inversely as the 

 surface illuminated &quot; or that the surface illuminated varies as 

 the distance from the luminous body. Or, to take the other 

 low Axiom, we might pass on to shew, by Induction, that &quot;the 

 angle of Incidence = the angle of Reflection&quot; or, that &quot; Refrac 

 tion takes place at a fixed angle differing according to the sub 

 stance through which the ray passes ;&quot; and so on. 



In all these it is quite clear that Bacon means by Axiom no 

 thing more than any general principle of the lowest degree of 

 generality. And in this he is followed by Sir Isaac Newton, 

 who gives the title of Axiom to all &quot; general experimental 

 Truths&quot; to the &quot; Laws of Motion,&quot; which are purely induc 

 tive, and not at all &quot; self-evident&quot; truths to the principles of 

 Optics, &c. 



Whereas, let it be remembered, modern writers strictly 

 limit the Term to all &quot; Laws of Resemblance&quot; true of all phe 

 nomena alike ; independent of Causation ; and so differing 

 from such a principle as that given above, &quot; that the angle of 

 lncidence = thc angle of Reflection,&quot; inasmuch as this latter is 

 only true of certain special phenomena. 



How the Induction, which ascends by platforms of &quot;Axioms,&quot; 

 stories one over another in regular order, can be the same 

 with that specimen of &quot; the discovery of Form&quot; given in Bk. 11. 

 I0 20. ending in the &quot; Vindemiatio Prima,&quot; or how far poste- 



