THE NOVUM ORGANUM. 85 



cannot, it is manifest, be for any particular case demonstrated 

 ji priori. Bacon's method in effect assumes that substances 

 can always be resolved into an aggregation of a certain number 

 of abstract qualities, and that their essence is adequately re- 

 presented by the result of this analysis. Now this assumption 

 or postulate cannot be made the subject of a direct demonstra- 

 tion, and probably Bacon came gradually to perceive mere or 

 less the difficulties which it involves. But these difficulties are 

 less obvious in special cases than when the question is con- 

 sidered generally, and on this account Bacon may have decided 

 to give instead of a demonstration of his method an example of 

 its use. He admits at the close of the example that the opera- 

 tion of the method is imperfect, saying that at first it could not 

 but be so, and implying that its defects would be removed when 

 the process of induction had been applied to rectify our notions 

 of simple natures. He thus seems to be aware of the inherent 

 defect of his method, namely that it gives no assistance in the 

 formation of conceptions, and at the same time to hope that this 

 would be corrected by some modification of the inductive pro- 

 cess. But of what nature this modification is to be he has 

 nowhere stated ; and it is to be remarked that in his earliest 

 writings the difficulty here recognised is not even mentioned. 

 In Valerius Terminus nothing is said of the necessity of forming 

 correct notions of simple natures, the method of exclusions 

 then doubtless appearing to contain all that is necessary for 

 the investigation of Nature. 



Bacon may also have been influenced by other considerations. 

 We have seen that he was at first unwilling that his peculiar 

 method should become generally known. In the De Interpre- 

 tatione Natures Procemium he speaks of its being a thing not 

 to be published, but to be communicated orally to certain per- 

 sons. 1 In Valerius Terminus his doctrine was to be veiled in 

 an abrupt and obscure style 2 , such as, to use his own expression, 

 would choose its reader, that is, would remain unread except 

 by worthy recipients of its hidden meaning. This affected ob- 

 scurity appears also in the Temporis Partus Masculus. In this 



. * See Note B. at the end, extract 4th, and the concluding remarks in which I have 

 explained my own view of the kind of reserve which Bacon at this time meditated. 

 /. S. 



2 See the same note, extract Isf. I cannot think it was by " abruptness and 

 obscurity " that he proposed to effect the desired separation of readers either iu 

 Valerius Terminus or in the Ttmporis Partus Masculus. J. S. 



<3 3 



