42 DISSERTATION SECOND. [part i. 



SECTION II. 



EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION. 



In (his section I shall begin with a short view of the stale 

 of Physical Knowledge before the introduction of the In- 

 ductive Method ; I shall next endeavour to explain that me- 

 thod by an analysis of the Novum Organum ; and shall 

 then inquire how far the principles established in that work 

 have actually contributed to the advancement of Natural 

 Philosophy. 



1. Ancient Physicks. 



Though the phenomena of the material world could not 

 but early excite the curiosity of a being who, like man, re- 

 ceives his strongest impressions from without, yet an accu- 

 rate knowledge of those phenomena, and their laws, was 

 not to be speedily acquired. The mere extent and variety 

 of the objects were, indeed, such obstacles to thai acquisi- 

 tion, as could not be surmounted but in the course of many 

 ages. Man could not at first perceive from whal point he 

 must begin his inquiries, in what direction he must carry 

 them on, or by what rules he must be guided. He was 

 like a traveller going forth to explore a vast and unknown 

 wilderness, in which a multitude of great and interesting 

 objects presented themselves on every side, while there 

 was no path for him to follow, no rule to direct his .survey, 

 and where the art of observing, and the instruments of ob- 

 servation, must equally be the work of his own invention. 

 In these circumstances, the selection of the objects to be 

 studied was the effect of instinct rather than of reason, or 

 of the passions and emotions, more than of the understand- 

 ing. When things new and unlike those which occurred in 



