3 6 4 BACON 



of their own rules, or got rfd of them clumsily as excep- 

 tions, laboring most pertinaciously in the mean time to accom- 

 modate the causes of such as were not contradictory to their 

 own principles. Their natural history and their experience 

 were both far from being what they ought to have been, and 

 their flying off to generalities ruined everything. 



126. Another objection will be made against us, that we 

 prohibit decisions, and the laying down of certain principles, 

 till we arrive regularly at generalities by the intermediate steps, 

 and thus keep the judgment in suspense and lead to uncertain- 

 ty. But our object is not uncertainty but fitting certainty, for 

 we derogate not from the senses but assist them, and despise 

 not the understanding but direct it. It is better to know what 

 is necessary, and not to imagine we are fully in possession of it, 

 than to imagine that we are fully in possession of it, and yet in 

 reality to know nothing which we ought. 



127. Again, some may raise this question rather than objec- 

 tion, whether we talk of perfecting natural philosophy alone ac- 

 cording to our method, or the other sciences also, such as logic, 

 ethics, politics. We certainly intend to comprehend them all. 

 And as common logic, which regulates matters by syllogisms, 

 is applied not only to natural, but also to every other science, 

 so our inductive method likewise comprehends them all. For 

 we form a history and tables of invention for anger, fear, shame, 

 and the like, and also for examples in civil life, and the mental 

 operations of memory, composition, division, judgment, and 

 the rest, as well as for heat and cold, light, vegetation, and the 

 like. But since our method of interpretation, after preparing 

 and arranging a history, does not content itself with examining 

 the operations and disquisitions of the mind like common logic, 

 but also inspects the nature of things, we so regulate the mind 

 that it may be enabled to apply itself in every respect correctly 

 to that nature. On that account we deliver numerous and vari- 

 ous precepts in our doctrine of interpretation, so that they may 

 apply in some measure to the method of discovering the quality 

 and condition of the subject matter of investigation. 



128. Let none even doubt whether we are anxious to destroy 

 and demolish the philosophy, arts, and sciences, which are now 

 in use. On the contrary, we readily cherish their practice, cul- 

 tivation, and honor ; for we by no means interfere to prevent 

 the prevalent system from encouraging discussion, adorning 

 discourses, or being employed serviceably in the chair of the 

 professor or the practice of common life, and being taken, in 

 short, by general consent as current coin. Nay, we plainly de- 

 clare, that the system we offer will not be very suitable for such 

 purposes, not being easily adapted to vulgar apprehensions, 

 except by effects and works. To show our sincerity in pro- 



