ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



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knowledge, and held that the understanding went no further 

 than appearance and probability. It is true, some are of opin- 

 ion that Socrates, when he declared himself certain of nothing, 

 did it only in the way of irony, and put on the dissimulation of 

 knowledge, that by renouncing what he certainly knew, he 

 might be thought to know what he was ignorant of. Nor in 

 the latter academy, which Cicero followed, was this opinion 

 held with much reality; but those who excelled in eloquence, 

 commonly chose this sect as the fittest for their purpose, viz., 

 acquiring the reputation of disputing copiously on both sides 

 of the question, thus leaving the high road of truth for private 

 walks of pleasure. Yet it is certain there were some few, both 

 in the old and new academies, but more among the Sceptics, 

 who held this principle of doubting in simplicity and sincerity 

 of heart. But their chief error lay in accusing the perceptions 

 of the senses, and thus plucked up the sciences by their roots. 

 For though the senses often deceive or fail us, yet, when indus- 

 triously assisted, they may suffice for the sciences, and this not 

 so much by the help of instruments, which also have their use, 

 as of such experiments, as may furnish more subtile objects than 

 are perceivable by sense. But they should rather have charged 

 the defects of this kind upon the errors and obstinacy of the 

 mind, which refuses to obey the nature of things; and again, 

 upon corrupt demonstrations, and wrong ways of arguing and 

 concluding, erroneously inferred from the perceptions of sense. 

 And this we say, not to detract from the human mind, or as if 

 the work were to be deserted, but that proper assistances may 

 be procured and administered to the understanding, whereby 

 to conquer the difficulties of things and the obscurities of nat- 

 ture. What we endeavor is, that the mind, by the help of art, 

 may become equal to things, and to find a certain art of indica- 

 tion or direction, to disclose and bring other arts to light, to- 

 gether with their axioms and effects. And this art we, upon 

 just ground, report as deficient. 



This art of indication has two parts ; for indication proceeds, 

 i. from experiment to experiment ; or 2. from experiments to 

 axioms, which may again point out new experiments. The 

 former we call learned experience, and the latter the interpreta- 

 tion of nature, Novum Organum, or new machine for the mind. 

 The first, indeed, as was formerly intimated, is not properly an 

 art, or any part of philosophy, but a kind of sagacity ; whence 



