THE STRUGGLE FOR MORE LIGHT 



of being sought in the open book of nature, had 

 been looked for with up-turned eyes beyond the 

 clouds, in fairy-land. 



At last, in 1620, Francis Bacon published his 

 " Novum Organon" His plea for new methods 

 of research in the study of nature was a fatal 

 blow to the metaphysical philosophy of Aristotle. 

 By demanding a " new mind " and declaring the 

 human senses the infallible sources of all under- 

 standing, Bacon infused new life into the natural 

 philosophy of ancient Greece and pointed human 

 evolution once more into the redeeming course of 

 evolutionary materialism. 



However, it cannot be emphasized too strongly, 

 that the idea of evolution, though sporadically 

 scattered through Bacon's philosophy and that of 

 other materialists of the I7th and i8th centuries, 

 had but a spasmodic existence among them, and 

 was frequently not even as clearly expressed as 

 we find it in the works of the Grecian natural 

 philosophers. The historical conditions for an 

 empirical proof of evolution had not yet matured, 

 and the theological influence of those times ap- 

 plied the brake too heavily for a rapid improve- 

 ment of the ideas of the natural philosophers. 



Furthermore, the ancient natural philosophy 

 had been the rallying center of Grecian " democ- 



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