390 NOVUM ORGANUM. [BOOK I. 



XLT. The idols of the tribe arc inherent in human nature and 

 the very tribe or race of man ; for man s sense is falsely asserted 

 to be the standard of things ; on the contrary, all the perceptions 

 both of the senses and the mind bear reference to man and not 

 to the universe, and the human mind resembles those uneven 

 mirrors which impari their own properties t tliil nvnf objects, 

 from which rays are emitted and distort and disfigure them. 1 



XLII. The idols of the den are those of each individual ; for 

 everybody (in addition to the errors common to the race of man) 

 has his own individual den or cavern, which intercepts and 

 corrupts the light of nature, either from his own peculiar and 

 singular disposition, or from his education and intercourse with 

 others, or from his reading, and the authority acquired by those 

 whom he reverences and admires, or from the different impres 

 sions produced on the mind, as it happens to be preoccupied 

 and predisposed, or equable and tranquil, and the like ; so that 

 the spirit of man (according to its several dispositions), is va 

 riable, confused, and as it were actuated by chance ; and Hcra- 

 clitus said well that men search for knowledge in lesser worlds, 

 and not in the greater or common world. 



XLIII. There are also idols formed by the reciprocal inter 

 course and society of man with man, which we call idols of the 

 market, from the commerce and association of men with each 

 other ; for men converse by means of language, but words are 

 formed at the will of the generality, and there arises from a bad 

 and unapt formation of words a wonderful obstruction to the 

 mind. Nor can the definitions and explanations with which 

 learned men are wont to guard and protect themselves in some 

 instances afford a complete remedy, words still manifestly force 



paralogisms than with natural philosophy. The process of scientific 

 induction involves only the first elements of reasoning, and presents 

 such a clear and tangible suria.ce, as to allow no lurking-place for pre 

 judice ; while questions of politics and morals, to which the deductive 

 method, or common logic, as Bacon calls it, is peculiarly applicable, are 

 ever liable to be swayed or perverted by the prejudices he enumerates. 

 After mathematics, physical science is the least amenable to the illusions 

 of feeling ; each portion having been already tested by experiment and 

 observation, is fitted into its place in the system, with all the rigour of 

 the geometrical method ; affection or prejudice cannot, as in matters of 

 taste, history, or religion, select fragmentary pieces, and form a system 

 of their own. The whole must be admitted, or the structure of au 

 thoritative reason raied to the ground. It is needless to say that the 

 idols enumerated present only another interpretation of the substance 

 of logical fallacies. Ed. 



1 The propensity to this illusion may be viewed in the spirit of system, 

 or hasty generalization, which is still one of the chief cbstacLes in the 

 path of modern science. Ed. 



