NOVUM ORGANUM 57 



literature flourished about the very time when controver 

 sies concerning religion first began to bud forth. 2. la the 

 preceding ages, during the second epoch (that of the Ko- 

 mans), philosophical meditation and labor was chiefly occu 

 pied and wasted in moral philosophy (the theology of the 

 heathens): besides, the greatest minds in these times applied 

 themselves to civil affairs, on account of the magnitude of 

 the Roman empire, which required the labor of many. 

 3. The age during which natural philosophy appeared 

 principally to flourish among the Greeks, was but a short 

 period, since in the more ancient times the seven sages 

 (with the exception of Thales), applied themselves to moral 

 philosophy and politics, and at a later period, after Socrates 

 had brought down philosophy from heaven to earth, moral 

 philosophy became more prevalent, and diverted men s 

 attention from natural. Nay, the very period during which 

 physical inquiries flourished, was corrupted and rendered 

 useless by contradictions, and the ambition of new opinions. 

 Since, therefore, during these three epochs, natural philoso 

 phy has been materially neglected or impeded, it is not at 

 all surprising that men should have made but little progress 

 in it, seeing they were attending to an entirely different 

 matter. 



LXXX. Add to this that natural philosophy, especially 

 of late, has seldom gained exclusive possession of an indi 

 vidual free from all other pursuits, even among those who 

 have applied themselves to it, unless there may be an ex 

 ample or two of some monk studying in his cell, or some 

 nobleman in his villa. 44 She has rather been made a pas 

 sage and bridge to other pursuits. 



44 The allusion is evidently to Roger Bacon and Rene Descartes. Ed. 



