413 NOVUM OPGANUM. [BOOK L 



signed mankind to eternal darkness; hence tlie notion th-at 

 forms, or the true differences of things (which are in fact the 

 laws of simple action), are beyond man s reach, and cannot pos 

 sibly be discovered ; hence those notions in the active and ope 

 rative branches, that the heat of the sun and of fire are totally 

 different, so as to prevent men from supposing that they can 

 elicit or form, by means of fire, anything similar to the opera 

 tions of nature ; and again, that composition only is the work of 

 man and mixture of nature, so as to prevent men from expecting 

 the generation or transformation of natural bodies by art. Men 

 will, therefore, easily allow themselves to be persuaded by this 

 sign not to engage their fortunes and labour in speculations, 

 which are not only desperate, but actually devoted to despe 

 ration. 



LXXVI. Nor should we omit the sign afforded by the great 

 dissension formerly prevalent among philosophers, and the 

 variety of schools, which sufficiently show that the way was not 

 well prepared that leads from the senses to the understanding, 

 since the same ground-work of philosophy (namely, the nature 

 of things), was torn and divided into such widely differing and 

 multifarious errors. And although in these days the dissensions 

 and differences of opinions with regard to first principles and 

 entire systems are nearly extinct, p yet there remain innumerable 

 questions and controversies with regard to particular branches of 

 philosophy. So that it is manifest that there is nothing sure or 

 sound either in the systems themselves or in the methods of 

 demonstration* 



LXXVII. With regard to the supposition that there is a 

 general unanimity as to the philosophy of Aristotle, because the 

 other systems of the ancients ceased and became obsolete on its 

 promulgation, and nothing better has been since discovered ; 

 whence it appears that it is so well determined and founded, as 

 to have united the suffrages of both ages ; we will observe 

 1st. That the notion of other ancient systems having ceased after 

 the publication of the works of Aristotle is false, for the works 



essences of things. Even modern physicists are not wanting, to assert 

 with this school that the utmost knowledge we can obtain is relative, 

 and necessarily short of absolute certainty. It is not without an ap 

 pearance of truth that these philosophers maintain that our ideas and 

 perceptions do not express the nature of the things which they repre 

 sent, but only the effects of the peculiar organs by which they are con 

 veyed to the understanding, so that were these organs changed, we 

 should have different conceptions of their nature. That cone tituticn 

 of air which is dark to man is luminous to bats and owls. 



P Owing to the universal prevalence of Aristotelism. 



i It must be remembered, that when Bacon wrote, algebra was in Ltj 

 to&ruvv, ad the doctrine of units *nd infinitesimals undiscovered. 



