S8Q NOVUM ORGANUM. [bOOK I. 



unequal to the subtilty of nature. It forces assent, therefore^ 

 and not things. 



XIY. The syllogism consists of propositions, propositions of 

 ^rords, words are the signs of notions. If, therefore, the notions 

 (which form the basis of the whole) be confused and carelessly 

 abstracted from things, there is no solidity in the superstructure. 

 Our only hope, then, is in genuine induction. 



XV. We have no sound notions either in logic or physics ; 

 substance, quality, action, passion, and existence are not clear 

 notions ; much less weight, levity, density, tenuity, moisture, 

 dryness, generation, corruption, attraction, repulsion, element, 

 matter, form, and the like. They are all fantastical and ill- 

 defined. 



XVI. The notions of less abstract natures, as man, dog, dove, 

 and the immediate perceptions of sense, as heat, cold, white, 

 black, do not deceive us materially, yet even these are some- 

 times confused by the mutability of matter and the intermixture 

 of things. All the rest which men have hitherto employed arc 

 eriwrs, and improperly abstracted and deduced from things. 



XVII. There is the same degree of licentiousness and error 

 in forming axioms as in abstracting notions, and that in the first 

 principles, which depend on common induction; still more is 

 this the case in axioms and inferior propositions derived from 

 syllogisms. 



XVIII. The present discoveries in science are such as lie 

 immediately beneath the surface of common notions. It is 

 necessary, however, to penetrate the more secret and remote 

 parts of nature, in order to abstract both notions and axioms 

 ifitom things by a more certain and guarded method. 



XIX. There are and can exist but two ways of investigating 

 and discovering truth. The one hurries on rapidly from the 

 senses and particulars to the most general axioms, and from 

 them, as principles and their supposed indisputable truth, derives 

 and discovers the intermediate axioms. This is the way now in 

 use. The other constructs its axioms from the senses and parti- 

 culars, by ascending continually and gradually, till it finally 

 arrives at the most general axioms, which is the true but unat- 

 tempted way. 



XX. The understanding when left to itself proceeds by the 

 from universal propositions to the individual cases which they virtually 

 include. Logic, therefore, must equally vindicate the formal purity oi* 

 the synthetic illation by which it ascends to the whole, as the analytic 

 process by which it descends to the oarts. The deductive and inductive 

 syllogism are of equal significance in building up any body of truth, 

 and whoever restricts logic to eithe process, mistakes one half of ita 

 province for the whole ; and if he a^ts upon his error, will paralyse hia 

 t;:cthods; ar.d stiike the noblest parr of ffciencc with sterility. Ed. 



