16 NOVUM OROANUM 



after dwelling a little on a subject is fatigued by experiment. 

 But those evils are augmented by logic, for the sake of the 

 ostentation of dispute. 



XXI. The understanding, when left to itself in a man of 

 a steady, patient, and reflecting disposition (especially when 

 unimpeded by received doctrines), makes some attempt in 

 the right way, but with little effect, since the understanding, 

 undirected and unassisted, is unequal to and unfit for the 

 task of vanquishing the obscurity of things. 



XXII. Each of these two ways begins from the senses 

 and particulars, and ends in the greatest generalities. But 

 they are immeasurably different; for the one merely touches 

 cursorily the limits of experiment and particulars, while the 

 other runs duly and regularly through them the one from 

 the very outset lays down some abstract and useless general 

 ities, the other gradually rises to those principles which are 

 really the most common in nature. 5 



XXIII. There is no small difference between the idols 

 of the human mind and the ideas of the Divine mind that 

 is to say, between certain idle dogmas and the real stamp 

 and impression of created objects, as they are found in 

 nature. 



XXIV. Axioms determined upon in argument can never 

 assist in the discovery of new effects; for the subtilty of 

 nature is vastly superior to that of argument. But axioms 

 properly and regularly abstracted from particulars easily 



5 The Lalin is, ad ea qua revera sunt nature notiora. This expression, 

 natune notiora, nature nolior, is so frequently employed by Bacon, that, \vo 

 may conclude it to point to some distinguishing feature in the Baconian physics. 

 It properly refers to the most evident principles and laws of nature, and springs 

 from that system which regards the material universe as endowed with intelli 

 gence, and acting according to rules either fashioned or clearly understood by 

 itself. Ed. 



