ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 153 



topical inquiry. We must, for a conclusion, admonish man- 

 kind to alter their particular topics in such manner, as after 

 some considerable progress made in the inquiry, to raise topic 

 after topic, if they desire to ascend to the pinnacle of the sci- 

 ences. For my own part, I attribute so much to these particu- 

 lar topics, that I design a particular work upon their use, in the 

 more eminent and obscure subjects of nature ; for we are mas- 

 ters of questions, though not of things. And here we close the 

 subject of invention. 



CHAPTER IV 



The Art of Judgment divided into Induction and the Syllogism. In- 

 duction developed in the Novum Organum. The Syllogism divided 

 into Direct and Inverse Reduction. Inverse Reduction divided into 

 the Doctrine of Analytics and Confutations. The Division of the 

 latter into Confutations of Sophisms, the Unmasking of Vulgarisms 

 (Equivocal Terms), and the Destruction of Delusive Images or 

 Idols. Delusive Appearances divided into Idola Trib&s, Idola 

 Specus, and Idola Fort. Appendix to the Art of Judgment. The 

 Adapting the Demonstration to the Nature of the Subject 



We come now to the art of judgment, which treats of the na- 

 ture of proof or demonstration. This art, as it is commonly 

 received, concludes either by induction or syllogism; for en- 

 thymemes and examples are only abridgments of these two. 

 As to judgment by induction, we need not be large upon 

 it, because what is sought we both find and judge of, by the 

 same operation of the mind. Nor is the matter here transacted 

 by a medium, but directly almost in the same manner as by the 

 sense ; for sense, in its primary objects, at once seizes the image 

 of the object, and assents to the truth of it. It is otherwise in 

 syllogism, whose proof is not direct, but mediate ; and, there- 

 fore, the invention of the medium is one thing, and judgment 

 as to the consequence of an argument, another; for the 

 mind first casts about, and afterwards acquiesces. But for the 

 corrupt form of induction", we entirely ignore it, and refer the 

 genuine one to our method of interpreting nature. And thus 

 much of judgment by induction. 



The other by syllogism is worn by the file of many a subtile 

 genius, and reduced to numerous fragments, as having a great 

 sympathy with the human understanding ; for the mind is won- 

 derfully bent against fluctuating, and endeavors to find some- 



