BOOK I.j AfHORlSMS. 389 



ciplos, and in our very notions, and even in our forms of demon- 

 Btration. 



XXXVI. We have but one simple method of deliverin*]^ our 

 sentiments, namely, we must brinj^ men to particulars and their 

 regular aeries and order, and they must for a while renounce 

 their notions, and begin to form an acquaintance with things. 



XXXVII. Our method and that of the sceptics^ agree in some 

 respects at first setting out, but differ most widely, and are 

 completely opposed to each other in their conclusion ; for they 

 roundly assert that nothing can be known ; we, that but a small 

 part of nature can be known, by the present method ; their next 

 step, however, is to destroy the authority of the senses and un- 

 derstanding, whilst we invent and supply them with assistance. 



XXXVIII. The idols and false notions which have already 

 preoccupied the human understanding, and are deeply rooted in 

 it, not only so beset men's minds that they become difficult of 

 access, but even when access is obtained will again meet and 

 trouble us in the instauration of the sciences, unless mankind 

 when forewarned guard themselves with all possible care against 

 them. 



XXXIX. Four species of idols beset the human mind,« to 

 which (for distinction's sake) we have assigned names, calling 

 the first Idols of the Tribe, the second Idols of the Den, the third 

 Idols of the Market, the fourth Idols of the Theatre. 



XL. The formation of notions and axioms on the foundation 

 of true induction is the only fitting remedy by which we can 

 ward off and expel these idols. It is, however, of great service 

 to point them out ; for the doctrine of idols bears the same rela- 

 tion to the interpretation of nature as that of the confutation of 

 sophisms does to common logic* 



' Bath eorum qui acatalepsiam temiet'unt. Bacon alludes to the 

 members of the later academy, who held the dKa-a.\t]-\pia, or the impos* 

 sibility of comprehending anything. His translator, however, makes 

 him refer to the Sceptics, who neither dogmatised about the known or 

 the unknown, but simply held, that as all knowledge was relative, 

 Trpug Tvavra ti, man could never arrive at absolute truth, and therefore 

 could not with certainty affirm or deny anything. Ed. 



« It is argued by Hallam, with some appearance of truth, that idols 

 is not the correct translation of elccoXa, from which the original idola is 

 manifestly derived ; but that Bacon used it in the literal sense attached 

 to it by the Greeks, as a species of illusion, or false appearance, and not 

 as a species of divinity before which the mind bows down. If Hallam * »e 

 right, Bacon is saved fi-om the odium of an analogy which his foreign 

 commentators are not far wrong in denouncing as barbarous ; but th is 

 service is rendered at the expense of the men who have attached an 

 opposite meaning to the word, among whom are Brown, Playfair, and 

 Dugald Stewart. £d. 



^ We cannot see how these idols have less to do with sophistica 



