64 DISSERTATION SECOND. [fART i. 



instituted for the sake of discovery, or for any of the pur- 

 poses of the useful arts. It ought to be composed with 

 great care ; the facts accurately related, and distinctly ar- 

 ranged ; their authenticity diligently examined ; those that 

 rest on doubtful evidence, though not rejected, being noted 

 as uncertain, with the grounds of the judgment so formed. 

 This last is very necessary ; for facts often appear incredi- 

 ble, only because we are ill informed, and cease to appear 

 marvellous, when our knowledge is farther extended. 



All such facts, however, as appear contrary to the ordi- 

 nary course of our experience, though thus noted down and 

 preserved, must have no weight allowed them in the first 

 steps of investigation, and are to be used only when the 

 general principle, as it emerges from the inductive pro- 

 cess, serves to increase their probability. 



This record of facts is what Eicon calls natural history, 

 and it is material to take notice of the comprehensive sense 

 in which that term is understood through all his writings. 

 According to the arrangement of the sciences, which he has 

 explained in his treatise on the advancement of knowledge, 

 all learning is classed relatively to the three intellectual fa- 

 culties of Memory, Reason, and Imagination. Under the 

 first of these divisions is contained all that is merely Narra- 

 tion or History, of whatever kind it may be. Under the 

 second are contained the different sciences, whelher they 

 respect the Intellectual or the Material world. Under the 

 third are comprehended Poetry and the Fine Arts. It is 

 with the first of these classes only that we are at present 

 concerned. The two first divisions of it are Sacred and 

 Civil History, the meaning of which is sufficiently under- 

 stood. The third division is Natural History, which com- 

 prehends the description of the facts relative to inanimate 

 matter, and to all animals, except man. Natural history is 

 again subdivided into three parts: 1. The history of the 



