THE PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS. 55 



The contrast between the expressions I have quoted and 

 those of which he made use in other parts of his writings, is 

 remarkable. In stating the doctrine of simple motions, he 

 speaks as if all phenomena were to be explained by means of 

 the desires and instincts of matter, every portion of which is 

 more or less consciously sentient. But in other passages we 

 find what at first appears to be a wholly different view, namely 

 that phenomena are to be explained by the site, form, and con- 

 figuration of atoms or ultimate particles, capable neither of 

 desire nor fear, and in all their motions simply fulfilling the 

 primary law impressed on them by Providence. 



Nevertheless there is here no real inconsistency. For Bacon, ?/ 

 following Telesius, ascribed all the phenomena of animal life to 

 the spiritus, which, though it is the subtlest portion of the body 

 which it animates, is notwithstanding as truly material as any 

 other part. In every body, whether animated or not, dwells a 

 portion of spirit, and it was natural therefore to ascribe to it 

 some share of the powers which the more finely constituted 

 spirits of animals were supposed to possess. How far however 

 this analogy between animate and inanimate bodies ought to be 

 carried, was a doubtful question ; and we need not be surprised 

 to find that Bacon sometimes denies and sometimes appears to 

 admit that the latter as well as the former are, to a certain 

 extent at least, consciously sentient. But in all cases he pro- 

 posed to explain the phenomena of animal life by means of the 

 ultimate constitution of matter. Thus such phenomena as the 

 rising of cream, the subsidence of the lees of wine, the clinging 

 of gold leaf round the finger, &c., were to be explained in the 

 first instance by the instincts and appetites of portions of matter, 

 and afterwards to receive a deeper and more fundamental expla- 

 nation when these instincts and appetites were themselves shown 

 to result from the site, form, and configuration of the ultimate 

 particles of which all bodies are composed. 



To the doctrine of universally diffused sensation, so far as 

 he adopted it. Bacon was led by the writings of many of his 

 contemporaries, and in particular by those of Telesius. Brucker 

 has remarked, and with perfect truth, that this doctrine is 

 stated as distinctly, though not so conspicuously, by Telesius 

 as by Campanella. Added to which this doctrine serves to 

 explain phenomena of which, without it, no explanation could 

 readily be given. Thus Bacon is much disposed to ridicule 



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