196 CHILDHOOD OF SCIENCE. 



success, said he, is the reverse of this. It requires that we gen- 

 eralize slowly, going from particular things to those that are but 

 one step more general, from those to others of still greater 

 extent, and so on to such as are universal. He then points out 

 the various methods of inductive reasoning, their comparative 

 importance, and the manner in which they are to be used. Not 

 only does he thus new-create his philosophy, but he is compelled 

 to originate the examples which illustrate and make it intelligible, 

 to start in their onward paths the very sciences, then unknown, 

 whose manual of discovery he was writing. He is as it were the 

 inventor of some intricate and wonderful machine, but totally 

 useless until he shall also have discovered materials and commod- 

 ities on which to set it at work. 



The Novum Organon was the work of a life-time. Through- 

 out a busy and illustrious career of high professional, literary, 

 and political successes, it was the ever recurring subject of the 

 author's thought and labor. Revised and rewritten twelve times, 

 it received year by year the increments of his maturing and 

 creative mind. It was the work of a seer, of one who forecasted 

 the future. The founder of the new philosophy wrote for ages 

 that were to come. He did not expect to be appreciated or 

 understood -in his own time; neither was he. The king said it 

 was a book past understanding. Another said it was such a work 

 as a fool could not write and a wise man would not. Sir Edward 

 Coke wrote this distich on the title page of his copy : 



"It deserveth not to be read in schools, 

 But only to ballast a ship of fools." 



Such a reception of his most labored effort called out that touch- 

 ing expression in Lord Bacon's will : " I bequeathe my name to 

 posterity after some time be passed over." 



A hundred years before science had its great expounder, away 

 on the banks of the then lonely Vistula, a young Polish student 

 was poring over the astronomical system of Ptolemy. The 

 problem which Copernicus* had set before himself was one of 

 peculiar difficulty. It was none other than to rearrange the 

 wheel-work of the stars, to bring order and symmetry into the 



* Born in 1473 Died, 1543. 



