BOOK I.] APHORISM*, 441 



any rate, chief opportunity is, when experiment is to be weighed 

 and axioms to be derived from it. They otherwise catch and 

 grasp at nature, but never seize or detain her : and we may well 

 apply to nature that which has been said of opportunity or 

 fortune, that she wears a lock in front, but is bald behind. 



In short, we may reply decisively to those who despise any 

 part of natural history as being vulgar, mean, or subtile, and 

 useless in its origin, in the words of a poor woman to a hanghty 

 prince,* who had rejected her petition as unworthy, and beneath 

 the dignity of his majesty: &quot;Then cease to reign,&quot; for it is 

 quite certain that the empire of nature can neither be obtained 

 nor administered by one who refuses to pay attention to such 

 matters as being poor and too minute. 



CXXII. Again, it may be objected to us as being singular 

 and harsh, that we should with one stroke and assault, as it 

 were, banish all authorities and sciences, and that too by our 

 own efforts, without requiring the assistance and support of any 

 of the ancients. 



Now we are aware, that had we been ready to act otherwise 

 than sincerely, it was not diflicult to refer our present method to 

 remote ages, prior to those of the Greeks (since the sciences in 

 all probability flourished more in their natural state, though 

 silently, than when they were paraded with the fifes and trumpets 

 of the Greeks); or even (in parts, at least), to some of the Greeks 

 themselves, and to derive authority and honour from thence ; as 

 men of no family labour to raise and form nobility for themselves 

 in some ancient line, by the help of genealogies. Trusting, 

 however, to the evidence of facts, we reject every kind of fiction 

 and imposture ; and think it of no more consequence to our 

 subject, whether future discoveries were known to the ancients, 

 and set or rose according to the vicissitudes of events and lapse 

 of ages, than it would be of importance to mankind to know 

 whether the new world be the island of Atlantis,* and known to 

 the ancients, or be now discovered for the first time. 



With regard to the universal censure we have bestowed, it is 

 quite clear to any one who properly considers the matter, that it 

 is both more probable and more modest than any partial one 

 could have been. For if the errors had not been rooted in the 

 primary notions, some well conducted discoveries must have 

 corrected others that were deficient. But since the errors were 

 fundamental, and of such a nature, that men may be said rather 

 to have neglected or passed over things, than to have formed a 

 wrong or false judgment of them, it is little to be wondered at, 

 that they did not obtain what they never aimed at, nor arrive at 



Philip of Macedoa, See Plato s Timaeua. 



