330 BACON 



lent motion, which is also a popular notion, since every violent 

 motion is also in fact natural, that is to say, the external efficient 

 puts nature in action in a different manner to that which she 

 had previously employed. 



But if, neglecting these, any one were for instance to observe 

 that there is in bodies a tendency of adhesion, so as not to suffer 

 the unity of nature to be completely separated or broken, and a 

 vacuum to be formed, or that they have a tendency to return 

 to their natural dimensions or tension, so that, if compressed or 

 extended within or beyond it, they immediately strive to recover 

 themselves, and resume their former volume and extent ; or 

 that they have a tendency to congregate into masses with sim- 

 ilar bodies the dense, for instance, towards the circumference 

 of the earth, the thin and rare towards that of the heavens. 

 These and the like are true physical genera of motions, but the 

 others are clearly logical and scholastic, as appears plainly from 

 a comparison of the two. 



Another considerable evil is, that men in their systems and 

 contemplations bestow their labor upon the investigation and 

 discussion of the principles of things and the extreme limits of 

 nature, although all utility and means of action consist in the 

 intermediate objects. Hence men cease not to abstract nature 

 till they arrive at potential and shapeless matter, and still per- 

 sist in their dissection, till they arrive at atoms ; and yet were 

 all this true, it would be of little use to advance man's estate. 



67. The understanding must also be cautioned against the 

 intemperance of systems, so far as regards its giving or with- 

 holding its assent ; for such intemperance appears to fix and 

 perpetuate idols, so as to leave no means of removing them. 



These excesses are of two kinds. The first is seen in those 

 who decide hastily, and render the sciences positive and dicta- 

 torial. The other in those who have introduced scepticism, 

 and vague unbounded inquiry. The former subdues, the latter 

 enervates the understanding. The Aristotelian philosophy, 

 after destroying other systems (as the Ottomans do their breth- 

 ren) by its disputatious confutations, decided upon everything, 

 and Aristotle himself then raises up questions at will, in order 

 to settle them ; so that everything should be certain and de- 

 cided, a method now in use among his successors. 



The school of Plato introduced scepticism, first, as it were in 

 joke and irony, from their dislike to Protagoras, Hippias, and 

 others, who were ashamed of appearing not to doubt upon any 

 subject. But the new academy dogmatized in their scepticism, 

 and held it as their tenet. Although this method be more hon- 

 est than arbitrary decision (for its followers allege that they 

 by no means confound all inquiry, like Pyrrho and his disciples, 

 but hold doctrines which they can follow as probable, though 



