FRANCIS BACON. 



science would not bear examination on inductive principles. At the 

 best they were but attempts at generalization, founded on vague and 

 insufficient observations ; and often they were nothing better than pre- 

 conceived ideas and assumptions, so fantastical that nothing but the 

 prescription of authority and the sanction of antiquity could ever have 

 secured their acceptance by successive generations of thinking men. 



In showing the importance of the inductive method, Bacon lays 

 down this fundamental principle regarding the interpretation of nature: 

 " Man, as the minister and interpreter of nature, can act and understand 

 only in proportion as he observes the order of nature; more he can neither 

 know or do" Now, before this principle could find acceptance a mass 

 of prejudice had to be cleared away, for men could not at once aban- 

 don their vast and elaborate, but empty and baseless systems, to seek 

 a solid foundation in ample accumulations of the particular facts which 

 the older philosophy altogether disdained. Bacon accordingly devotes 

 / the first part of the " Novnm Organum" to an attempt to remove ancient 

 prejudices, in order to prepare for the reception of the second part, in 

 which the new method is unfolded. Of these two divisions of the 

 work we shall now present a short account. 



In some prefatory observations Bacon points out that the mode of 

 searching for truth which had been in vogue was at the best by hasty 

 observation of a few particulars, from which a general conclusion was 

 immediately jumped at, and from the propositions thus rashly adopted 

 everything was deduced. The process was thus rapid and compen- 

 dious, and was excellently suited for disputations, as the supposed 

 general principles formed so many pivots round which the arguments 

 could turn continually. But by this method it was impossible that 

 knowledge and science could advance ; nay, the true method was the 

 very reverse of this, namely, to advance gradually from the percep- 

 tions which the senses give us of the particular instances, to some 

 principles of a generality one degree higher; from these to proceed to 

 other principles of still higher generality ; and so until at length we 

 reach some universal principle as a grand and final conclusion.. Thus 

 only can we arrive at clear and well-defined principles, which Nature 

 herself will not refuse to acknowledge. 



In his examination of the sources of the prejudices and errors that 

 oppose the progress of truth, and which Bacon with characteristic 

 / quaintness calls " the idols, or false notions of the mind," we find a 

 keenness of insight which has never been surpassed. He divides the 

 idols into four classes, termed respectively by him idols of the tribe, 

 idols of the den, idols of the market-place, and idols of the theatre. 

 What is the nature of the classification which Bacon intended by these 

 fanciful titles will appear when we briefly mention some of the sources 

 of error he discusses under each head, adding such further illustrations 

 as may serve to show the application of his views. The enumeration 

 will be the more valuable to the general reader, as the idols at which 



92 



