W6 NOVUM OHGANUM. [cOOK /. 



affords us a signal instance, who made his natural philosophy 

 completely subservient to his logic, and thus rendered it little 

 more than useless and disputatious. The chemists, again, have 

 formed a fanciful philosophy with the most confined views, from 

 a few experiments of the furnace. Gilbert,* too, having em 

 ployed himself most assiduously in the consideration of the 

 magnet, immediately established a system of philosophy to coin 

 cide with his favourite pursuit. 



LV. The greatest and, perhaps, radical distinction between 

 different men s dispositions for philosophy and the sciences is 

 this, that some are more vigorous and active in observing the 

 differences of things, others in observing their resemblances ; 

 for a steady and acute disposition can fix its thoughts, and dwell 

 upon and adhere to a point, through all the refinements of diffe 

 rences, but those that are sublime and discursive recognise and 

 compare even the most delicate and general resemblances ; each 

 of them readily falls into excess, by catching either at nice dis 

 tinctions or shadows of resemblance. 



LVI. Some dispositions evince an unbounded admiration of 

 antiquity, others eagerly embrace novelty, and but few can pre 

 serve the just medium, so as neither to tear up what the ancients 

 have correctly laid down, nor to despise the just innovations of 

 the moderns. But this is very prejudicial to the sciences and 

 philosophy, and instead of a correct judgment we have but the 

 factions of the ancients and moderns. Truth is not to be sought 

 in the good fortune of any particular conjuncture of time, which 

 is uncertain, but in the light of nature and experience, which is 

 eternal. Such factions, therefore, are to be abjured, and the 

 understanding must not allow them to hurry it on to assent. 



inasmuch as the methods pursued were adapted to the end of the 

 inquiry. The remark in the text can only apply to those philosophers 

 who attempt to build up a moral or theological system by the instru 

 ments of induction alone, or who rush, with the geometrical axiom, and 

 the d priori syllogism, to the investigation of nature. The means in 

 such cases are totally inadequate to the object in view. Ed. 



x Gilbert lived towards the close of the sixteenth century, and was 

 court physi-cian to both Elizabeth and James. In his work alluded to 

 in the text he continually asserts the advantages of the experimental 

 over the d priori method in physical inquiry, and succeeded when his 

 censor failed in giving a practical example of the utility of his pre 

 cepts. His &quot; De Ma^nete &quot; contains all the fundamental parts of the 

 science, and these so perfectly treated, that we have nothing to add to 

 them at the present day. 



Gilbert adopted the Copermcan system, and even spoke of the con 

 trary theory as utterly absurd, grounding his argument on the vast 

 velocities which such * supposition requires us to ascribe to the 

 heavenly bodies Ed. 



