388 KOVUM ORGANUM. [bOOR V 



nnanimity, for if men were all to become even uniformly mad, 

 they mio[lit agree tolerably well with each other. 



XXVIII. Anticipations, again, will be assented to much more 

 readily than interpretations, because being deduced from a few 

 instances, and these principally of familiar occurrence, they im- 

 mediately hit the understanding and satisfy the imagination ; 

 whilst on the contrary interpretations, being deduced from 

 various subjects, and these widely dispersed, cannot suddenly 

 strike the understanding, so that in common estimation they 

 must appear difficult and discordant, and almost like the mys- 

 teries of faith. 



XXIX. In sciences founded on opinions and dogmas, it is 

 right to make use of anticipations and logic if you wish to force 

 assent rather than things. 



XXX. If all the capacities of all ages should unite and com- 

 bine and transmit their labours, no great progress will be made 

 in learning by anticipations, because the radical errors, and those 

 which occur in the first process of the mind, are not cured by 

 the excellence of subsequent means and remedies. 



XXXI. It is in vain to expect any great progress in the 

 sciences by the superinducing or engrafting new matters upon 



y old. An instauration must be made from the very foundations, 

 if we do not wish to revolve for ever in a circle, making only 

 some slight and contemptible progress. 



XXXII. The ancient authors and all others are left in undis- 

 puted possession of their honours ; for we enter into no compa- 

 rison of capacity or talent, but of method, and assume the part 

 of a guide rather than of a critic. 



XXXIII. To speak plainly, no correct judgment can be 

 formed either of our method or its discoveries by those anticipa- 

 tions which are now in common use ; for it is not to be required 

 of us to submit ourselves to the judgment of the very method 

 we ourselves arraign. 



XXXIV. Nor is it an easy matter to deliver and explain our 

 sentiments ; for those things which are in themselves new can 

 yet be only understood from some analogy to what is old. 



XXXV. Alexander Borgia* said of the expedition of the 

 French into Italy that they came with chalk in their hands to 

 mark up their lodgings, and not with weapons to force their 

 passage. Even so do we wish our philosophy to make its way 

 quietly into those minds that are fit for it, and of good capacity; 

 for we have no need of contention where we difier in first prin- 



* This Borgia was Alexander VI., and the expedition alluded to that 

 in which Charles VIII. overran the Italian peninsula in five months. 

 Bacon uses the same illustration in concluding his survey of natural 

 tmilosjophy, in the second book of the "De Au^mentis" Ed. 



