136 FROM THE GREEKS TO DARWIN 



from the origin and birthplace of our philosophy are 

 not favorable. 



He was especially severe upon Aristotle, in 

 whom he undoubtedly found his famous princi- 

 ples of induction. He failed to appreciate Greek 

 suggestiveness, and little foresaw the influence 

 it was destined to exert in framing modern Evo- 

 lution. He points out the art of indication, an 

 *art' which substantially implies the use of the 

 working hypothesis : 



For indication proceeds (1) from experiment to 

 experiment, or (2) from experiment to axioms, 

 which may again point out new experiments. The 

 former we call learned experience, and the latter the 

 interpretation of Nature, Novum Organum, or new 

 machine of mind. 



That Bacon, as early as 1620, fully grasped 

 the wealth of knowledge which could be gained 

 from observation, experiment, and induction is 

 shown repeatedly in the course of his works. 



Bacon was one of the first, if not the first, 

 to raise the problem of the mutability of species 

 as possibly a result of the accumulation of varia- 

 tions; this is shown in the following passages, 

 which bear especially upon the question of spe- 

 cies. He speaks,^ in the first place, of variations 

 of an extreme kind: 



1 Novum Organum^ Book II, Section 29. 



