THE NOVUM ORGANUM. 87 



When he wrote the Cogitata et Visa, Bacon seems to have 

 perceived l how much of vanity and imposture had always been 

 mixed up with this affectation of concealment and reserve. " Re- 

 perit autem," he there says, " homines in rerum scientia quam 

 sibi videntur adepti, interdum proferenda interdum occultanda, 

 famas et ostentation! servire ; quin et eos potissimum qui minus 

 solida proponunt, solere ea quae aiferunt obscura et ambigua* 

 luce venditare, ut facilius vanitati suae velificare possint." The 

 matter which he has in hand, he goes on to say, is one which it 

 were nowise fitting to defile by affectation or vain glory ; but yet 

 it cannot be forgotten that inveterate errors, like the delusions 

 of madmen, are to be overcome by art and subtlety, and are 

 always exasperated by violence and opposition. The result of 

 this kind of dilemma is that the method is to be propounded in 

 an example, a decision in which it is probable that he was still 

 more or less influenced by the example of those whom he here 

 condemns. 



Thus much of the connexion between the plan of the 

 Novum Organum and that which Bacon laid down in the 

 Cogitata et Visa. That there is no didactic exposition of his 

 method in the whole of his writings has not been sufficiently 



thing to do with secresy. For the distinctive object of it is stated to be the " con- 

 tinuatio et ulterior progressus" of knowledge; and its distinctive characteristic, the 

 being " solito apertior." Its aim was to transfer knowledge into the mind of the dis- 

 ciple in the same form in which it grew in the teacher's mind, like a plant with its 

 roots on, that it might continue to grow. Its other name is " traditio lampadis," 

 alluding to the Greek torch-race ; which was run, as I understand it, not between in- 

 dividuals, but between what we call sides. Each side had a lighted torch ; they were 

 so arranged that each bearer, as he began to slacken, handed it to another who was 

 fresh ; and the side whose torch first reached the goal, still a-light, was the winner. 

 The term " filii," therefore, alludes, I think, to the successive generations, not who 

 should inherit the secret, but who should carry on the work. Compare the remarks 

 in the Sapientia Veterum (Fab. xxvi. near the end,) upon the torch*races in honour of 

 Prometheus. " Atque continet in se monitum, idque prudentissimum, ut perfectio 

 scientiarum a successione, non ab unius alicujus pernicitate aut facilitate, expectetur. 

 .... Atque optandum esset ut isti ludi in honorem Promethei, sive humanae naturae, 

 instaurarentur, atque res certamen, et (emulationem, et bonam fortunam reciperet ; neque 

 ex unius cujuspiam face tremula atque agitata penderet." To me, I must confess, the 

 explanation above given of Bacon's motives for desiring a select audience seems 

 irreconcilable both with the objects which he certainly had in view and with the spirit 

 in which he appears to have pursued them. " Fit audience, though few," he no doubt 

 desired ; and I can easily believe that he wished not only to find the fit, but also to 

 exclude the unfit. But the question is, whether his motive in so selecting and so 

 limiting his audience was unwillingness to part with his treasure, or solicitude for the 

 furtherance of his work. To decide this question I have brought together all the 

 passages in which he speaks of the "singling and adopting" of the "fit and legitimate 

 reader." But the collection, with the remarks which it suggests, being too long for a 

 foot-note, I have placed them at the end of this preface. See Note B. J. S. 



1 See Note B., extract 7th. But observe that in the 1st, 3rd, and 4th, he shows 

 himself quite as sensible of the vanity and imposture which such secresy had been made 

 to subserve. /. S. 



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