104 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES 



then to be wondered at if the Schoolmen only succeeded in 

 weaving a web of contentious metaphysics. When the mind has 

 exhausted the data presented to it, if no fresh experience is 

 forthcoming, it must either be idle, or return upon the same data 

 from which everything of value has already been extracted, or 

 else it must invent questions for the mere purpose of discussing 

 them. The only data presented to t.hp. School men wp.rp t.hp. 

 .Christian dogmas and the doctrines of Aristotle. These were 

 accepted on authority, and conclusions were drawn from them 

 by syllogism. The want of fresh data inevitably drove men to 

 .controversies about trifles^. A philosophy of any value presup- 

 poses scientific knowledge. Bacon, who was impatient of alii 

 metaphysical and theological discussions, naturally despised* 

 Scholasticism. He gives the true reason of the failure of the 

 Schoolmen " Their wits were shut up in the cells of a few 

 authors," and they had "no great quantity of matter." They 

 did not even know Aristotle at first hand, but only through 

 Arabian commentators. Science wants data : and a fruitful 

 philosophy must rest on a wide and well-considered experience. 

 Scholasticism failed because it had no experience, and because it 

 had a bad method. This is the truth which Bacon wished to 

 impress upon the world. He says in the Nov. Org., Bk. 1, Aph. 

 121 "Subtlety of discussion and reasoning is too late and is 

 useless when the principles of science have once been established : 

 the only, or, at any rate, the principal time when subtlety is 

 required is when we are weighing evidence and establishing 

 principles Nature like Fortune has long hair in front, but she 

 is behind bald." Roger Bacon gives the same preference to 

 inductive over formal reasoning and the general resemblance 

 between Roger and Francis Bacon is very strong see Hallam, 

 ibid. The student will find an excellent sketch of the Scholastic 

 philosophy in Milman's Latin Christianity, bk. 14, ch. 3. He 

 may also consult with advantage Whewell's History of the In 

 ductive Sciences, vol. 1, bk. 4. For the Scholastic character of 

 Indian philosophy, see Duncker's History of India, bk. 5, ch. viii. 

 1. 27. respective, having reference to. 



1. 28. extensive, capable of being extended to. St. Paul is 

 warning the person to whom he writes to keep the Christian 

 faith in its primitive purity and simplicity. 1 Tim. vi. 20. 

 Bacon condemns the Schoolmen for importing new ideas and 

 drawing unmeaning distinctions, which become the subject of 

 violent but unfruitful controversy. In the third Essay Bacon 

 remarks upon this same text from St. Paul, "Men create oppo 

 sitions which are not, and put them into terms so fixed, as 

 whereas the meaning ought to govern the term, the term in 

 effect governeth the meaning." 



1. 33. strictness of positions, dogmatic assertions. 



