382 ON THE SCOPE AND INFLUENCE OF THE 



they are " wise and salutary with reference to physics," must 

 go a step farther, and admit that they are also wise and salu- 

 tary with reference to inquiries regarding the mind. The ob- 

 ject of philosophy, and the principles of philosophizing are the 

 same, whether the investigation relates to the laws of matter 

 or the laws of mind ; and thus the logic of the Novum Organum 

 cannot be useful with reference to the one, without having the 

 same character with reference to the other. It is upon this 

 ground that Bacon himself represents his logic as equally ap- 

 plicable to the advancement of the moral and metaphysical as 

 of the physical sciences. " Atque quemadmodum vulgaris Lo- 

 " gica, quae regit res per Syllogismum, non tantum ad naturales, 

 " sed ad omnes scientias pertinet ; ita et nostra, quae procedit 

 " per Inductionem, omnia complectitur *." 



In adverting to the question as to the influence of Bacon's 

 philosophical writings upon the subsequent progress of phy- 

 sical science, this writer observes, that it presents a " point 

 " as to which it is very difficult to form an explicit opi- 

 "•* nion. But this," says he, " is sufficiently clear, that if Ba- 

 " con is to be allowed any considerable share in the honours 

 " which modern experimentalists have acquired, he may, in 

 " niany respects, be compared to the husbandman in iEsop's 

 " fable ; who, when he died, told his sons that he had left 

 " them gold buried under ground in his vineyard ; and they 

 " digged all over the ground, and yet they found none ; but by 

 " reason of their stirring and digging the mould about the 

 " roots of their vines, they had a great vintage the following 

 " year." It would, if I do not mistake the matter, be as diffi- 

 cult to explain, how this simile could assist any one to form a 

 correct opinion upon the point in question, as to explain how 



Bacon 



■* Novum Organum, Lib. i. Aph 127. 



