THE PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS. 47 



him, the first philosophy is divided into two parts. Of these 

 the first is to be a receptacle of the axioms which do not belong 

 exclusively to particular sciences, but are common to more than 

 one ; while the second is to inquire into the external or adventi- 



( ( \^~r~^**-~. 11 i f ft - . 



tious conditions of existences such as the much and the little, 

 the like and the unlike, the possible and impossible, &c. 



In illustration of the contents of the first part, Bacon quotes 

 several axioms which are applicable in more than one science. 

 Of these the first is, " If to unequals are added equals, the sums 

 are unequal," which is a mathematical principle, but which, 

 Bacon says, referring to the distinction laid down by Aristotle 

 between commutative and distributive justice, obtains also in 

 moral science ; inasmuch as it is the rule by which distributive 

 justice must be guided. The next is, " Things which agree 

 with a third, agree with one another," which is also a mathe- 

 matical principle, but yet, differently stated, forms the founda- 

 tion of the theory of syllogism. Thus far Bacon's doctrine does 

 not materially dissent from Aristotle's, who has taught the 

 necessity of recognising in all sciences two kinds of principles, 

 those which are proper to the subject of each science, and those 

 which, connecting themselves with the doctrine of the catego- 

 ries, are common to all. The last are in his nomenclature 

 axioms, though Bacon, following probably Ramus, who in his 

 turn followed Cicero and the Stoics, gives a much more general 

 sense to this word ; and it is to be remarked that Aristotle has 

 given as an instance of an axiom the first of the two which I 

 have quoted from Bacon, or at any rate another which is in 

 effect equivalent to it. But ^nost of the instances which Bacon 

 goes on to give are of a different nature. They are not derived 

 from the laws of thought, but on the contrary involve an em- 

 pirical element, and therefore are neither self evident, nor 

 capable of an a priori proof. Thus the axiom that " a discord 

 resolved into a concord improves the harmony," is, Bacon says, 

 not only true in music, but also in ethics and the doctrine of 

 the affections. But this axiom is in its literal sense merely a 

 result of observation, and its application to moral subjects is 

 clearly only analogical or tropical. Again, that " the organs of 

 the senses are analogous to instruments which produce reflec- 

 tion/' is, Bacon says, true in perspective, and also in acoustics ; / 

 being true both of the eye and ear. Here we have a result of 

 observation which is made to enter into two different sciences 



