xvi PREFACE 



is to be learnt about the passions from poets than 

 from philosophers, who, however, should make these 

 springs of our nature the objects of special inquiry 1 ; 

 the political acumen and command of the principles 

 of law and its codification 2 ; the insight finally into 

 the problem of reconciling science and religion : all 

 these are among many points in which Bacon has 

 anticipated our problems, and may stimulate our 

 thoughts at the present day. 



Thirdly, even in the Advancement, although its 

 subject is only a defence and survey of learning, Bacon 

 also foresaw the new method, the Novum Organum, 

 which was destined to enlarge the inductive basis of 

 all the sciences. He perceived that, to understand 

 Nature, we must, on the one hand, universalize it by 

 taking for our objects the main attributes of motion, 

 gravity, sound, heat, &c., and by looking for the 

 universal natures of each of them, not, however, as 

 abstracted from, but as determined by, matter 3 ; while, 

 on the other hand, we must particularize ourselves 

 by using a more systematic method of induction, out 

 of particulars natural and artificial or experimental, 

 and through instances contradictory as well as affirma 

 tive 4 . Further, he already perceived at least three of 

 the Idola, false appearances, or fallacies, imposed on 

 us by the general nature of the mind, by the indi 

 viduality of each mind, and by words 5 . But he left 

 this theory of three Idola to be developed into the 

 Idola Tribus, Specus, and Fori, with the addition of 

 Idola Theatri as a fourth kind ; and he left his general 

 theory of Interpretatio Naturae, to be elaborated in 

 the Novum Organum, which remains to this day our 

 logic of science, so far as science is inductive in 

 method. 



Fourthly, though to a less degree, the Advancement 

 contains adumbrations of what Bacon was to do 



1 Post, pp. 92, 182-3. 2 Postt pp&amp;lt; 217-19. 



8 Post, pp. 102-3. 4 Post, p. 134. 



6 Post, pp. 141-4. 



