NOVUM ORGANUM 321 



than sacrifice the authority of its first conclusions. It was well 

 answered by himo who has shown in a temple the votive tablets 

 suspended by such as had escaped the peril of shipwreck, and 

 was pressed as to whether he would then recognize the power of 

 the gods, by an inquiry, But where are the portraits of those 

 who have perished in spite of their vows? All superstition is 

 much the same, whether it be that of astrology, dreams, omens, 

 retributive judgment, or the like, in all of which the deluded 

 believers observe events which are fulfilled, but neglect and 

 pass over their failure, though it be much more common. But 

 this evil insinuates itself still more craftily in philosophy and 

 the sciences, in which a settled maxim vitiates and governs 

 every other circumstance, though the latter be much more 

 worthy of confidence. Besides, even in the absence of that 

 eagerness and want of thought (which we have mentioned), it 

 is the peculiar and perpetual error of the human understanding 

 to be more moved and excited by affirmatives than negatives, 

 whereas it ought duly and regularly to be impartial; nay, in 

 establishing any true axiom the negative instance is the most 

 powerful. 



47. The human understanding is most excited by that which 

 strikes and enters the mind at once and suddenly, and by which 

 the imagination is immediately filled and inflated. It then be- 

 gins almost imperceptibly to conceive and suppose that every- 

 thing is similar to the few objects which have taken possession 

 of the mind, whilst it is very slow and unfit for the transition to 

 the remote and heterogeneous instances by which axioms are 

 tried as by fire, unless the office be imposed upon it by severe 

 regulations and a powerful authority. 



48. The human understanding is active and cannot halt or 

 rest, but even, though without effect, still presses forward. 

 Thus we cannot conceive of any end or external boundary of 

 the world, and it seems necessarily to occur to us that there must 

 be something beyond. Nor can we imagine how eternity has 

 flowed on down to the present day, since the usually received 

 distinction of an infinity, a parte ante and a parte post cannot 

 hold good ; for it would thence follow that one infinity is greater 

 than another, and also that infinity is wasting away and tending 

 to an end. There is the same difficulty in considering the in- 

 finite divisibility of lines arising from the weakness of our 

 minds, which weakness interferes to still greater disadvantage 

 with the discovery of causes; for although the greatest gen- 

 eralities in nature must be positive, just as they are found, and 

 in fact not causable, yet the human understanding, incapable 

 of resting, seeks for something more intelligible. Thus, how- 

 ever, whilst aiming at further progress, it falls back to what is 

 actually less advanced, namely, final causes; for they are clearly 



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