BOOK L] APHORISMS, 411 



theory, the theory they have imagined rather tending to disturb 

 than to assist experiment. Those, too, who have occupied them 

 selves with natural magic (as they term it) have made but few 

 discoveries, and those of small import, and bordering on impos 

 ture ; for which reason, in the same manner as we are cautioned 

 by religion to show our faith by our works, we may very pro 

 perly apply the principle to philosophy, and judge of it by its 

 works, accounting that to be futile which is unproductive, and 

 still more so if, instead of grapes and olives, it yield but the 

 thistle and thorns of dispute and contention. 



LXXIV. Other signs may be selected from the increase and 

 progress of particular systems of philosophy and the sciences ; 

 for those which are founded on nature grow and increase, whilst 

 those which are founded on opinion change and increase not. If, 

 therefore, the theories we have mentioned were not like plants, 

 torn up by the roots, but grew in the womb of nature, and were 

 nourished by her, that which for the last two thousand years 

 has taken place would never have happened, namely, that the 

 sciences still continue in their beaten track, and nearly sta 

 tionary, without having received any important increase, nay, 

 having on the contrary rather bloomed under the hands of their 

 first author, and then faded away. But we see that the case is 

 reversed in the mechanical arts, which are founded on nature 

 and the light of experience, for they (as long as they are popular) 

 seem full of life, and uninterruptedly thrive and grow, being at 

 first rude, then convenient, lastly polished, and perpetually im 

 proved. 



LXXV. There is yet another sign (if such it may be termed, 

 being rather an evidence, and one of the strongest nature), 

 namely, the actual confession of those very authorities whom 

 men now follow; for even they who decide on things so daringly, 

 yet at times, when they reflect, betake themselves to complaints 

 about the subtilty of nature, the obscurity of things, and the 

 weakness of man s wit. If they would merely do this, they 

 might perhaps deter those who are of a timid disposition from 

 further inquiry, but would excite and stimulate those of a more 

 active and confident turn to further advances. They are not, 

 however, satisfied with confessing so much of themselves, but 

 consider everything which has been either unknown or unat- 

 tempted by themselves or their teachers, as beyond the limits of 

 possibility, and thus, with most consummate pride and envy, 

 convert the defects of their own discoveries into a calumny on 

 nature and a source of despair to every one else. Hence arose 

 the New Academy, which openly professed scepticism, and con- 



We have before observed, that the New Academy did not profesa 

 scepticism, but the d(cara\^^/(a ; or iDCompreber.sibiJity oi the absoIuU 



