DISTRIBUTION OP THE WORK. 15 



To remedy tliis; we have from all quarters brought to- 

 jicther, and fitted helps for the senses ; and that rather by- 

 experiments than by instiniments ; apt experiments being 

 much more subtile than the senses themselves, though 

 a^^iisted with the most finished instruments. We, therefore, 

 lay no great stress upon the immediate and natural percej)- 

 tions of the senses, but dedre the senses to judge only 

 of experiments, and experiments to judge of things : on 

 which foundation, we hope to be pa Irons of the senses, and 

 interpreters of their oracles. And thus we mean to procure 

 the things relating to the light of nature, and the setting 

 it up in the mind ; which might well suffice, if the mind 

 were as white paper. But since the minds of men are so 

 strangely disposed, as not to receive the true images of 

 things, it is necessary also that a remedy be found for this 

 evil. 



The idols, or false notions, which possess the mind, are 

 either acquired or innate. The acquired arise either from 

 the opinions or sects of philosophers, or from preposterous 

 laws of demonstration ; but the innate cleave to the nature '\ 

 of the understanding, which is found much more prone to ;, 

 error than the senses. For however men may amuse them- | 

 selves, and admire, or almost adore the mind, it is certain, 

 that like an irregular glass, it alters the rays of things, by its 

 figure, and different intersections. 



The two former kinds of idols may be extirpated, though 

 with difficulty; but this third is insuperable. All that can 

 be done, is to point them out, and mark, and convict that 

 treacherous faculty of the mind; lest when the ancient errors 

 are destroyed, new ones should sprout out from the rankness 

 of the soil : and, on the other hand, to establish this foi* 

 ever, that the understanding can make no judgment but by 



Iho senses, as well as of reason ; but the dispute pej-haps turns rather 

 upon words than things. Father Malbranche is express, that the 

 Bense.s never deceive us, yet as express that they should never be 

 trusted, without being verified ; charging the errors arising in this case 

 upon human liberty, which makes a wrong choice. See " Recherchea 

 de la Vdrit^," liv. i. chaps. 5, 6, 7, 8. The difierence may arise only 

 from considering the senses in two different lights, viz. physically, or 

 according to common use ; and metaphysically, or abstractedly. The 

 Novum Oryanum clears the whole. See also Marin Merseoua, " De la 

 V^rit^ des Sciences." Ed, 



