380 OK THE SCOPE AND INFLUENCE OF THE 



tion is, that it has proceeded from a very imperfect acquain- 

 tance with the work in question. For my own pa r t, I confess 

 myself wholly unable to conceive, how any man of ordinary 

 judgment could read the Novum Organum with ordinary atten- 

 tion, without carrying away an impression directly the reverse 

 of that of Bacon's ignorance and disregard of the laws and li- 

 mits of the human understanding. The first sentence of the 

 work contains an emphatic declaration of homage to these ve- 

 ry laws : Homo Natures minister et interpres, tantum facit et in- 

 telligit, quantum, de Natures ordine, re vel mente observaverit ; 

 nee amplius scit, aut potest. The grand lesson which it every 

 where inculcates is, that all false philosophy had sprung from 

 the too high notions hitherto entertained, of the powers of the 

 mind ; these notions having led to the disregard or contempt 

 of the only means by which true knowledge can be obtained- 

 Causa vero, et radix, fere omnium malorum in scientia ea una 

 est, quod dum mentis liumanai vires falso miramur et extolli- 

 mus, vera ejus auxilia non quceramus. Bacon saw more clearly 

 than any preceding inquirer, the folly of supposing the mind ca- 

 pable of explaining the constitution of Nature by means of prin- 

 ciples of its own invention, and reasonings a priori ; and his 

 main aim in the Novum Organum was, to withdraw philoso- 

 phy from such airy speculations, and to employ it in a way more 

 suitable to its purposes, and the limited nature of our faculties. 

 Employed in this way, that, namely, of inductive inquiry, he 

 showed that philosophy would greatly extend the compass of 

 our knowledge, and multiply the instruments of our power- 

 It is not, therefore, without good reason, that Mr Stewart pa- 

 negyrizes the author of the Novum Organum, for his know- 

 ledge of " the laws, limits and resources of the human un- 

 derstanding," and for the general soundness of his views as. to 

 the ends and rules of philosophical investigation. 



The 



