NOVUM ORGANUM 53 



reach, and cannot possibly be discovered; hence those no 

 tions in the active and operative branches, that the heat of 

 the sun and of fire are totally different, so as to prevent men 

 from supposing that they can elicit or form, by means of 

 fire, anything similar to the operations of nature; and again, 

 that composition only is the work of man and mixture of 

 nature, so as to prevent men from expecting the generation 

 or transformation of natural bodies by art. Men will, there 

 fore, easily allow themselves to be persuaded by this sign 

 not to engage their fortunes and labor in speculations, 

 which are not only desperate, but actually devoted to des 

 peration. 



LXXVI. Nor should we omit the sign afforded by the 

 great dissension formerly prevalent among philosophers, and 

 the variety of schools, which sufficiently show that the way 

 was not well prepared that leads from the senses to the 

 understanding, since the same groundwork of philosophy 

 (namely, the nature of things), was torn and divided into 

 such widely differing and multifarious errors. And al 

 though in these days the dissensions and differences of 

 opinions with regard to first principles and entire systems 

 are nearly extinct, 89 yet there remain innumerable questions 

 and controversies with regard to particular branches of phi 

 losophy. So that it is manifest that there is nothing sure or 

 sound either in the systems themselves or in the methods of 

 demonstration. 40 



LXXYII. With regard to the supposition that there is a 

 general unanimity as to the philosophy of Aristotle, because 



39 Owing to the universal prevalence of Aris totelism. 



40 It must be remembered, that when Bacon wrote, algebra was in its 

 infancy, and the doctrine of units and infinitesimals undiscovered. 



