6 FRANCIS BACON 



and philosophical treatises it is generally conceded that 

 l The Advancement of Learning&quot; and the &quot;Novum Or- 

 gamim&quot; are the most valuable, and we have, accordingly, 

 selected them for reproduction. There is no doubt that 

 Bacon, the first great teacher of the inductive method in 

 modern times, shares with Descartes the honor of inau 

 gurating modern philosophy. This position Bacon owes 

 not only to the general spirit of his philosophy but to 

 the manner in which he worked into a connected system 

 the new mode of thinking, and to the incomparable power 

 and eloquence with which he expounded and enforced it. 

 Like all epoch-making works, the &quot;Novum Organum&quot; gave 

 expression to ideas which were already beginning to be in 

 the air. The time was ripe for a great change. Scholasti 

 cism, long decaying, had begun to fall; while here and 

 there a few devoted experimenters were turning with fresh 

 zeal to the un withered face of nature. The fruitful thoughts 

 which lay under and gave rise to these scattered efforts of 

 the human mind, were gathered up into unity and reduced 

 to system in the new philosophy of Bacon. A long line of 

 thinkers have drawn inspiration from him, and it is not 

 without justice that he has been looked upon as the origi 

 nator and guiding spirit of that empirical school which 

 numbers among its adherents such names as Hobbes, Locke, 

 Hume, Hartley, Mill, Condillac and the Encyclopedists. 



