

22 GENERAL PREFACE TO 



mus itaquc priino loco, de praerogativis instantiarum ; secundo, 

 de adminiculis inductionis ; tertio, de rectificatione inductionis ; 

 quarto, de variatione inquisitionis pro natura subject! ; quinto, 

 de praerogativis naturarum quatenus ad inquisitionem, sive de 

 eo quod inquirendum est prius et posterius; sexto, de ter- 

 minis inquisitionis, sive de synopsi omnium naturarum in uni- 

 verso ; septimo, de deductione ad praxin, sive de eo quod est 

 in ordine ad hominem ; octavo, de parascevis ad inquisitionem ; 

 postremo autem, de scala ascensoria et descensoria axiomatum." 

 Of these nine subjects the first is the only one with which we 

 are at all accurately acquainted. 



(3.) Bacon's method was essentially inductive. He rejected 

 the use of syllogistic or deductive reasoning, except when prac- 

 tical applications were to be made of the conclusions, axiomata, 

 to which the inquirer had been led by a systematic process 

 of induction. " Logica quae nunc habetur inutilis est ad inven- 



tionem scientiarum Spes est una in inductione vera." 



It is to be observed that wherever Bacon speaks of an " ascend- 

 ing" process, he is to be understood to mean induction, of which 

 it is the character to proceed from that which is nobis notius to 

 that which is notius simpliciter. Contrariwise when he speaks 

 of a descent, he always refers to the correlative process of de- 

 duction. Thus when in the Partis sccundce Dvlineatio he says, 

 . . . "meminerint homines in inquisitione activa necesse esse 

 rem per scalam descensoriam (cujus usum in contemplativa sus- 

 tulimus) confici: omnis enim operatic in individuis versa,tur quad 

 infimo loco sunt," we are to understand that in Bacon's system 

 deduction is only admissible in the inquisitio activa ; that is, in 

 practical applications of the results of induction. Similarly in the 

 Distrilutio Open's he says, " Kejicimus syllogismum ; neque 

 id solum quoad principia (ad quae nee illi earn adhibent) sed 

 etiam quoad propositiones medias." Everything was to be esta- 

 blished by induction. " In constituendo autem axiomate forma 

 inductionis alia quam adhuc in usu fuit excogitanda est, eaque 

 non ad principia tantum (quae vocant) probanda et invenienda, 

 sed etiam ad axiomata minora, et media, denique omnia." 2 



(4.) It is necessary to determine the relation in which Bacon 

 conceived his method to stand to ordinary induction. Both 

 methods set out " a sensu et particularibus," and acquiesce " in 



1 Nov. Org. i. 11. and 14. 2 Nov. Org. i. 105. 



