THE NOVUM ORGANUM. 113 



gathered in another generation. Is it conceivable that at any time 

 of his life he would have willingly foregone the aid of any single 

 fellow labourer, or that anything could have been more welcome 

 than the prospect of a rapid and indefinite increase of those " legitima 

 et optata ingenia" in whose hands it might be expected to thrive and 

 spread ? But setting general probabilities aside, let us look at the 

 reasons which he himself assigns for the precaution which he medi- 

 tates. Ask why in Valerius Terminus he proposes to reserve part 

 of his discovery to "a private succession?" His answer is, first "for 

 the prevention of abuse in the excluded ;" that is, because if it should 

 fall into incapable and unfit hands it will be misused and mis- 

 managed: secondly, "for the strengthening of affection in the ad- 

 mitted;" that is, because the fit and capable will take more interest in 

 the work when they feel that it is committed to their charge. Ask 

 again why in the Procemium he proposes to keep the Formula of in- 

 terpretation private, " intra legitima et optata ingenia clausa ? " The 

 answer is to the same effect it will be "vegetior et munitior ;" it will 

 flourish better and be kept safer. And certainly if we refer to any 

 of the many passages in which he has either enumerated the obstruc- 

 tions which had hitherto hindered the progress of knowledge, or 

 described the qualifications, moral and intellectual, and the order of 

 proceeding, which he considered necessary for the successful prose- 

 cution of the new philosophy, we may easily understand why he 

 anticipated more hindrance than help from a popular audience. 



Upon a review of the evidence therefore I see no reason to suspect 

 that he had any other motive for his proposed reserve than that 

 which he himself assigns ; and I think we may conclude that he 

 meant to withhold the publication of his Formula, not " as a secret of 

 too much value to be lightly revealed," but as a subject too 

 to be handled successfully except by the fit and few. 



NOTE C. 

 On some changes in Bacon's treatment of his doctrine of Idols, 



" WHEN the doctrine of Idols " (says Mr. Ellis) " was thrown into 

 its present form" [i. e. the form in which it appears in the Novum 

 Organum, as contrasted with that in which it appears in the Partis 

 secundce Delineatio\ " it ceased to afford a convenient basis for the 

 pars destruens, and accordingly the substance of the three Redar- 

 yutione* is in the Novum Organum less systematically set forth than 

 VOL. l. I 



