«bct. ii.] DISSERTATION SECOND. 6'3 



of a stone to the ground has been found to involve princi- 

 ples which are the basis of all we know in mechanical phi- 

 losophy. Without accurate experiments on the descent 

 of bodies at the surface of the earth, the objections against 

 the earth's motion could not have been answered, the iner- 

 tia of body would have remained unknown, and the nature 

 of the force which retains the planets in their orbits could 

 never have been investigated. Nothing, therefore, can be 

 more out of its place than the fastidiousness of those philo- 

 sophers, who suppose things to be unworthy of study, be- 

 cause, with respect to ordinary life, they are trivial and un- 

 important. It is an errour of the same sort which leads 

 men to consider experiment, and the actual application of 

 the hands, as unworthy of them, and unbecoming of the dig- 

 nity of science. " There are some," says Bacon, " who, 

 delighting in mere contemplation, are offended with our fre- 

 quent reference to experiments and operations to be per- 

 formed by the hand, things which appear to them mean and 

 mechanical; but these men do in fact oppose the attainment 

 of the object they profess to pursue, since the exercise of 

 contemplation, and the construction and invention of experi- 

 ments, are supported on the same principles, and perfected 

 by the same means." l 



After these preliminary discussions, the great restorer 

 of philosophy proceeds, in the second book of the Novum. 

 Organum, to describe and exemplify the nature of the in- 

 duction, which he deems essential to the right interpretation 

 of nature. 



The first object must be to prepare a history of the phe- 

 nomena to be explained, in all their modifications and varie- 

 ties. This history is to comprehend not only all such facts 

 as spontaneously offer themselves, but all the experiments 



1 Impetus Phil. p. 681. Note C. 



