NOVUM ORGANUM 365 



fessing our regard and friendly disposition towards the received 

 sciences, we can refer to the evidence of our published writings 

 (especially our books on the Advancement of Learning). We 

 will not, therefore, endeavor to evince it any further by words ; 

 but content ourselves with steadily and professedly premising, 

 that no great progress can be made by the present methods in 

 the theory or contemplation of science, and that they cannot 

 be made to produce any very abundant effects. 



129. It remains for use to say a few words on the excellence 

 of our proposed end. If we had done so before, we might have 

 appeared merely to express our wishes, but now that we have 

 excited hope and removed prejudices, it will perhaps have 

 greater weight. Had we performed and completely accom- 

 plished the whole, without frequently calling in others to assist 

 in our labors, we should then have refrained from saying any 

 more, lest we should be thought to extol our own deserts. Since, 

 however, the industry of others must be quickened, and their 

 courage roused and inflamed, it is right to recall some points to 

 their memory. 



First, then, the introduction of great inventions appears one 

 of the most distinguished of human actions, and the ancients so 

 considered it ; for they assigned divine honors to the authors 

 of inventions, but only heroic honors to those who displayed 

 civil merit (such as the founders of cities and empires, legis- 

 lators, the deliverers of their country from lasting misfortunes, 

 the quellers of tyrants, and the like). And if anyone rightly com- 

 pare them, he will find the judgment of antiquity to be correct ; 

 for the benefits derived from inventions may extend to mankind 

 in general, but civil benefits to particular spots alone ; the lat- 

 ter, moreover, last but for a time, the former forever. Civil 

 reformation seldom is carried on without violence and confu- 

 sion, whilst inventions are a blessing and a benefit without in- 

 juring or afflicting any. 



Inventions are also, as it were, new creations and imitations 

 of divine works, as was expressed by the poet : 



44 Primurn frugiferos foetus mortalibus acgris 

 Dididerant quondam pnestanti nomine Athenae 

 Et recreaverunt vitam legcsquc rogarunt." Lucretius.* 



And it is worthy of remark in Solomon, that whilst he flourished 

 in the possession of his empire, in wealth, in the magnificence 

 of his works, in his court, his household, his fleet, the splendor 

 of his name, and the most unbounded admiration of mankind, 

 he still placed his glory in none of these, but declared ' that it 

 is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the glory of a king to 

 search it out. 

 Again, let anyone but consider the immense difference be- 



