LIBER PRIMUS. 453 



tempora deduci potest; neque theologiam tantum, sed etiam 

 omnes scientias respicere videtur : Devita prof anas vocum novi- 

 tates, et oppositiones falsi nominis sciential. 1 His enim verbis, duo 

 signa indiciaque scientias suspectse atque ementitae proponit. 

 Primum est, vocum no vitas et insolentia; alterum, rigor dogma- 

 turn; qui necessario oppositionem, et dein altercationes quse- 

 stionesque inducit. Certe quemadmodum complura corpora 

 naturalia, dum valent Integra, corrumpuntur saepius et abeunt 

 in vermes; eodem modo sana et solida rerum cognitio saepe- 

 numero putrescit, et solvitur in subtiles, vanas, insalubres, et 

 (si ita loqui licet) vermiculatas quaestiones ; quas motu quodam 

 et vivacitate nonnulla praeditae videntur, sed putidas sunt et 

 nullius usus. Hoc genus doctrinae minus sanae, et seipsam cor- 

 rumpentis, invaluit praecipue apud multos ex scholasticis, qui 

 summo otio abundantes, atque ingenio acres, lectione autem 

 impares (quippe quorum mentes conclusaB essent in paucorum 

 authorum, praecipue Aristotelis dictatoris sui, scriptis, non 

 minus quam corpora ipsorum in coenobiorum cellis), historiam 

 vero et naturae et temporis maxima ex parte ignorantes, ex 

 non magno materiae stamine, sed maxima spiritus, quasi radii, 

 agitatione, operosissimas illas telas quae in libris eorum exstant 

 confecerunt. Etenim mens humana, si agat in materiam (na- 

 turam rerum et opera Dei contemplando), pro modo materiae 

 operatur atque ab eadem determinatur ; sin ipsa in se vertatur 

 (tanquam aranea texens telam) 2 , turn demum interminata est, 

 et parit certe telas quasdam doctrinae tenuitate fili operisque 

 admirabiles, sed quoad usum frivolas et inanes. 



Hasc inutilis subtilitas, sive curiositas, duplex est; et specta- 

 tur aut in materia ipsa, qualis est inanis speculatio sive con- 



1 1 Tim. vi. 20. 



2 In Bacon's Promus, a manuscript collection of sentences, formulae, &c. [for a par- 

 ticular account of which see the Literary Works], we find the following: " Ex se fingit 

 velut araneus." Bacon had doubtless taken this from Erasmus, by whom it is given 

 as a proverb. V. Erasm. Adag. iv. 4. 43. Erasmus again derived it from Plutarch, 

 De Osiride. Plutarch applies the comparison to poets and orators. Neither in his 

 use of it, nor in Erasmus's remarks, nor yet in our text, is there anything to counte- 

 nance the interpretation which M. Cousin has given of Bacon's meaning, namely that 

 he intended to throw discredit on the study of psychology. He seems to have been 

 led to this interpretation by the word materiam, taking it as if in antithesis to soul or 

 spirit ; whereas it means nothing more than the object, ri irpoKfifievov, on which the 

 mind works. Surely Bacon might have defended himself by saying that he had ex- 

 plained " materia" in the figurative sense in which he used it, as equivalent to 

 '* natura rerum et opera Dei," and by inquiring whether the object of psychological 

 researches were not included among the works of God. In the Novum Oryanut* 

 we find more than one example of what M. Cousin would doubtless recognise as a,u 

 attempt at experimental psychology. 



o c 3 



