THE NOVUM ORGANUM. 97 



by the method now to be proposed. Again, of discoveries 

 already made, there are many which before they were made 

 would never have been conceived of as possible, which is a 

 reason for thinking that many other things still remain to be 

 found out of a nature wholly unlike any hitherto known. In 

 the course of ages these too would doubtless some time or 

 other come to light; but by a regular method of discovery 

 they will be made known far more certainly and in far less time, 

 propere et subito et simul. Bacon mentions particularly, as 

 discoveries not likely to have been thought of beforehand, gun- 

 powder, silk, and the mariner's compass ; remarking that if the 

 conditions to be fulfilled had been stated, men would have sought 

 for something far more akin than the reality to things previously 

 known : in the case of gunpowder, if its effects only had been 

 described, they would have thought of some modification of the 

 battering-ram or the catapult, and not of an expansive vapour ; 

 and so in the other cases. He also mentions the art of print- 

 ing as an invention perfectly simple when once made, and which 

 nevertheless was only made after a long course of ages. Again, 

 we may gain hope from seeing what an infinity of pains and 

 labour men have bestowed on far less matters than that now 

 in hand, of which if only a portion were given to the ad- 

 vancement of sound and real knowledge, all difficulties might 

 be overcome. This remark Bacon makes with reference to his 

 natural and experimental history, which he admits will be a 

 great and royal work, and of much labour and cost. But the 

 number of particulars to be observed ought not to deter us ; 

 on the contrary, if we consider how much smaller it is than 

 that of the figments of the understanding, we shall find even in 

 this grounds for hope. To these figments, commenta ingenii, 

 the phenomena of Nature and the arts are but a mere handful. 

 Some hope too, Bacon thinks, may be derived from his own 

 example ; for if, though of weak health, and greatly hindered 

 by other occupations, and moreover in this matter altogether 

 " protopirus " and following no man's track nor even com- 

 municating these things with any, he has been able somewhat 

 to advance therein, how much may not be hoped for from the 

 conjoined and successive labours of men at leisure from all other 

 business ? Lastly, though the breeze of hope from that new 

 world were fainter than it is, still it were worth while to follow 

 the adventure, seeing how great a reward success would bring. 



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