312 BACON 



that they sought some support for the mind, and suspected its 

 natural and spontaneous mode of action. But this is now em- 

 ployed too late as a remedy, when all is clearly lost, and after 

 the mind, by the daily habit and intercourse of life, has come 

 prepossessed with corrupted doctrines, and filled with the vain- 

 est idols. The art of logic, therefore, being (as we have men- 

 tioned), too late a precaution, and in no way remedying the 

 matter, has tended more to confirm errors, than to disclose 

 truth. Our only remaining hope and salvation is to begin the 

 whole labor of the mind again ; not leaving it to itself, but di- 

 recting it perpetually from the very first, and attaining our end 

 as it were by mechanical aid. If men, for instance, had at- 

 tempted mechanical labors with their hands alone, and without 

 the power and aid of instruments, as they have not hesitated to 

 carry on the labors of their understanding with the unaided 

 efforts of their mind, they would have been able to move and 

 overcome but little, though they had exerted their utmost and 

 united powers. And just to pause awhile on this comparison, 

 and look into it as a mirror ; let us ask, if any obelisk of a re- 

 markable size were perchance required to be moved, for the 

 purpose of gracing a triumph or any similar pageant, and men 

 were to attempt it with their bare hands, would not any sober 

 spectator avow it to be an act of the greatest madness? And 

 if they should increase the number of workmen, and imagine 

 that they could thus succeed, would he not think so still more ? 

 But if they chose to make a selection, and to remove the weak, 

 and only employ the strong and vigorous, thinking by this 

 means, at any rate, to achieve their object, would he not say 

 that they were more fondly deranged? Nay, if not content 

 with this, they were to determine on consulting the athletic art, 

 and were to give orders for all to appear with their hands, arms, 

 and muscles regularly oiled and prepared, would he not exclaim 

 that they were taking pains to rave by method and design ? Yet 

 men are hurried on with the same senseless energy and useless 

 combination in intellectual matters, as long as they expect 

 great results either from the number and agreement, or the ex- 

 cellence and acuteness of their wits ; or even strengthen their 

 minds with logic, which may be considered as an athletic prep- 

 aration, but yet do not desist (if we rightly consider the mat- 

 ter) from applying their own understandings merely with all 

 this zeal and effort. Whilst nothing is more clear, than that in 

 every great work executed by the hand of man without ma- 

 chines or implements, it is impossible for the strength of indi- 

 viduals to be increased, or that of the multitude to combine. 



Having premised so much, we lay down two points on which 

 we would admonish mankind, lest they should fail to see or to 

 observe them. The first of these is, that it is our good fortune 



