NOVUM ORGANUM 77 



therefore, to derive hope from a closer and purer alliance 

 of these faculties (the experimental and rational) than has 

 yet been attempted. 



XCVI. Natural philosophy is not yet to be found un 

 adulterated, but is impure and corrupted by logic in the 

 school of Aristotle, by natural theology in that of Plato,&quot; 

 by mathematics in the second school of Plato (that of Proc- 

 lus and others) 68 which ought rather to terminate natural 

 philosophy than to generate or create it. We may, there- -\ 

 fore, hope for better results from pure and unmixed natural 

 philosophy. 



XCVII. No one has yet been found possessed of suffi 

 cient firmness and severity to resolve upon and undertake 

 the task of entirely abolishing common theories and notions, 

 and applying the mind afresh, when thus cleared and lev 

 elled, to particular researches; hence our human reasoning 

 is a mere farrago and crude mass made up of a great deal of 

 credulity and accident, and the puerile notions it originally 

 contracted. 



67 The reader may consult the note of the 23d Aphorism for the fault which 

 Bacon censures, and, if he wish to pursue the subject further, may read Plato s 

 Timaeus, where that philosopher explains his system in detail. Bacon, how 

 ever, is hardly consistent in one part of his censure, for he also talks about the 

 spirit and appetites of inanimate substances, and that so frequently, as to pre 

 clude the supposition that he is employing metaphor. Ed. 



68 Proclus flourished about the beginning of the fifth century, and was the 

 successor of Plotinus, Porphyry and lamblicus, who, in the two preceding cen 

 turies, had revived the doctrines of Plato, and assailed the Christian religion. 

 The allusion in the text must be assigned to lamblicus, who, in the fourth cen 

 tury, had republished the Pythagorean theology of numbers, and endeavored to 

 construct the world out of arithmetic, thinking everything could be solved by 

 the aid of proportions and geometry. Bacon must not be understood in the text 

 to censure the use but the abuse of mathematics and physical investigations, as 

 in the &quot;De Augmentis&quot; (lib. iv. c. 6), he enumerates the multiplicity of demon 

 stration scientific facts admit of, from this source. Ed. 



