4 6 BACON 



ence are one and the same thing; so are philosophy and the 



sciences. 



Nor does divine learning require any other division; for 

 though revelation and sense may differ both in matter and 

 manner, yet the spirit of man and its cells are the same ; and in 

 this case receive, as it were, different liquors through different 

 conduits. Theology, therefore, consists I. of sacred history ; 

 2. parable, or divine poesy ; and 3. of holy doctrine or precept, 

 as its fixed philosophy. As for prophecy, which seems a part 

 redundant, it is no more than a species of history ; divine his- 

 tory having this prerogative over human, that the narration may 

 precede, as well as succeed the fact. 



CHAPTER II 



History divided into Natural and Civil ; Civil subdivided into Ecclesi- 

 astical and Literary. The Division of Natural History according to 

 the subject matter, into the History of Generations, of Praeter- 

 generations, and the Arts. 



History is either natural or civil: the natural records the 

 works and acts of nature ; the civil, the works and acts of men. 

 Divine interposition is unquestionably seen 'in both, particu- 

 larly in the affairs of men, so far as to constitute a different 

 species of history, which we call sacred or ecclesiastical. But 

 such is the dignity of letters and arts, that they deserve a sepa- 

 rate history, which, as well as the ecclesiastical, we comprehend 

 under civil history. 



We form our division of natural history upon the threefold 

 state and condition of nature ; which is, I. either free, proceed- 

 ing in her ordinary course, without molestation ; or 2. obstructed 

 by some stubborn and less common matters, and thence put out 

 of her course, as in the production of monsters ; or 3. bound and 

 wrought upon by human means, for the production of things 

 artificial. Let all natural history, therefore, be divided into the 

 history of generations, prsetergenerations, and arts ; the first to 

 consider nature at liberty ; the second, nature in her errors ; and 

 the third, nature in constraint. 



The history of arts should the rather make a species of natural 

 history, because of the prevalent opinion, as if art were a differ- 

 ent thing from nature, and things natural different from things 



