100 PREFACE TO 



gives access to all the secrets on which works depend, though 

 in itself it is of no great use. 



Again it may be thought a hard saying that all sciences and 

 authors are at once to be set aside together. But in reality 

 this is both a more modest censure and one that carries with it 

 a greater show of reason than any partial condemnation. It 

 implies only that the errors hitherto committed are fundamental, 

 and that they have not been corrected because as yet they 

 have not been sufficiently examined. It is no presumption 

 if any man asserts that he can draw a circle more truly with 

 a pair of compasses than another can without ; and the new 

 method puts men's understandings nearly on the same level, 

 because everything is to be done by definite rules and demon- 

 strations. Bacon anticipates also another objection, that he 

 has not assigned to the sciences their true and highest aim; 

 which is the contemplation of truth, not works, however / 

 great or useful. He affirms that he values works more inas- 

 much as they are signs and evidences of truth than for their \ 

 practical utility. It may also, he continues, be alleged that ' 

 the method of the ancients was in reality the same as ours, 

 only that after they had constructed the edifice of the sciences 

 they took away the scaffolding. But this is refuted both by 

 what they themselves say of their method 1 , and by what 

 is seen of it in their writings. Again he affirms that he does 

 not inculcate, as some might suppose, a 2 [final suspension of 

 judgment, as if the mind were incapable of knowing anything ; 

 that if he enjoins caution and suspense it is not as doubting the 

 competency of the senses and understanding, but for their better 

 information and guidance ; that the method of induction which 

 he proposes is applicable not only to what is called natural 

 philosophy, as distinguished from logic, ethics, and politics, but 

 to every department of knowledge ; the aim being to obtain 

 an insight into the nature of things by processes varied accord- 

 ing to the conditions of the subject ; and that in declaring that 

 no great progress can be expected either in knowledge of truth 

 or in power of operation by the methods of inquiry hitherto 

 employed, he means no disrespect to the received arts and 



1 I have adopted here the correction introduced into the text of the present 

 edition. 



2 Mr. Ellis had written thus far when the fever seized him. The remaining pages 

 which complete the analysis of the first book, are mine. J. S. 



