• r )6 DISSERTATION SECOND. [part i. 



Before laying down the rules to be observed in this in- 

 ductive process, Bacon proceeds to enumerate the causes 

 of errour, — (he Idols, as he terms them, in his figurative 

 language, or false divinities to which the mind had so long 

 been accustomed to bow. He considered this enumeration 

 as the more necessary, that the same idols were likely to 

 return, even after the reformation of science, and to avail 

 themselves of the real discoveries that might have been 

 made, for giving a colour to their deceptions. 



These idols he divides into four classes, to which he 

 gives names, fantastical, no doubt, but, at the same time, 

 abundantly significant. 



Idola Tribus, Idols of the Tribe, 



Specus, of the Den, 



— Fori, of the Forum, 



Theatri, of the Theatre. 



1. The idols of the tribe, or of the race, are the causes 

 of errour founded on hu nan nature in general, or on princi- 

 ples common to all mankind. " The mind," he observes, 

 " is not like a plain mirror, which reflects the images of 

 things exactly as they are ; it is like a mirror of an uneven 

 surface, which combines its own figure with the figures of 

 the objects it represents." l 



Among the idols of this class, we may reckon the propen- 

 sity which there is in all men to find in nature a greater de- 

 gree of order, simplicity, and regularity, than is actually in- 

 dicated by observation. Thus, as soon as men perceived 

 the orbits of the planets to return into themselves, they im- 

 mediately supposed them to be perfect circles, and the mo- 

 tion in those circles to be uniform ; and to these hypothe- 

 ses, so rashly and gratuitously assumed, the astronomer? 



'Novum Organum, Lib. i. Apn. 41 



