THE PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS. 59 



obtained for the relief of man's estate. If we ask how this is to 

 be done, we find, Bacon tells us (and here he still seems to recur 

 to the idea that the new philosophy is to be in some sort a re- 

 storation to man of his original condition), that as no one can 

 enter into the kingdom of heaven " nisi sub persona infantis," 

 so, too, in order to obtain a real and fruitful insight into Nature, 

 it is necessary to become as a little child, to abnegate received 

 dogmas and the idols by which the mind is most easily beset* 

 and then to follow with childlike singleness of purpose the 

 indications which Nature gives us as to how her operations are 

 performed. For we can command Nature only by obeying 

 her ; nor can Art avail anything except as Nature's handmaiden. 

 We can affect the conditions under which Nature works ; but 

 things artificial as well as things natural are in reality pro- 

 duced not by Art but Nature. Our power is merely based 

 upon our knowledge of the procedure which Nature follows. 

 She is never really thwarted or controlled by our operations, 

 though she may be induced to depart from her usual course, and 

 under new and artificial conditions to produce new phenomena 

 and new substances. 



Natural philosophy, considered from this point of view, is 

 therefore only an answer to the question, How does Nature 

 work in the production of phenomena ? When, to take a trivial 

 instance, she superinduces yellowness on the green leaf, or 

 silently and gradually transforms ice into crystal, we ask how 

 are these changes brought about ? what conditions are neces- 

 sary and sufficient in order that the phenomena we observe may 

 be engendered? If we knew what these conditions are, we 

 might ourselves be able to determine their existence, and then 

 the corresponding phenomena would necessarily follow, since the 

 course of Nature is absolutely uniform. 



At this point of the development of Bacon's system, the > 

 question of method would naturally present itself to him. 

 Having determined what the object of our inquiries is to be, we 

 must endeavour to find a way of attaining it. 



For this end Bacon, as we have seen, proposes to examine 

 all the cases in which the phenomenon to be reproduced has 

 been observed, and to note, all the conditions which in each case 

 accompany its production. Of all these those only can be ne- 

 cessary which are universally concomitant. Again he proposes 

 to observe all the cognate cases in which, though certain of the 



