28 FROM THE GREEKS TO DARWIN 



liever talking such nonsense that the unbeliever, per- 

 ceiving him to be as wide from the mark as east from 

 west, can hardly restrain himself from laughing. 



Bacon^ in his aphorisms deplores the corrup- 

 tion of philosophy by the mixing up with it of 

 superstition and theology, saying that it is most 

 injurious both as a whole and in parts, and con- 

 tinues : 



Against it we must use the greatest caution. . . . 

 Yet some of the moderns have indulged this folly 

 with such consummate inconsiderateness, that they 

 have endeavored to build a system of natural phi- 

 losophy on the first chapter of Genesis, the book of 

 Job, and other parts of Scripture ; seeking thus the 

 dead among the Hving [the interests of the soul]. 

 And this folly is the more to be prevented and re- 

 strained, because not only fantastical philosophy, 

 but heretical religion spring from the absurd mix- 

 ture of matters divine and human. It is therefore 

 most wise soberly to render unto faith the things that 

 are faith's. 



In the Introduction to The Great Instaura- 

 tion, he says : 



Man, as the minister and interpreter of nature, 

 does and understands as much as his observations on 

 the order of nature, either with regard to things or 

 the mind, permits him, and neither knows nor is ca- 

 pable of more. 



^Novum Organum, Book I. Sec. 65. 



