PHILOSOPHICAL WRITINGS OF LORD BACON. 385 



<l tion and experiment the predominant character of philoso- 

 u phy *." It is with considerable diffidence that I dissent from 

 any statement made on the subject of Bacon's philosophy by the 

 author of the splendid and instructive essay here referred to. 

 But I must be permitted to express some surprise, that h e should 

 represent Bacon's aims and labours as having been professedly 

 limited to the revival of a method of discovery which had 

 been well known to, and successfully practised by Aristotle. 

 Nothing can be more certain, than that Bacon rests the whole 

 hopes of his philosophy, upon the novelty of his logical pre- 

 cepts f ; and that he uniformly represents the ancient philo- 

 sophers, particularly Aristotle, as having been wholly re- 

 gardless of the inductive method in their physical inquiries. 

 Bacon does not, indeed, say, that the ancient philosophers ne- 

 ver employed themselves in observing Nature; but. he main- 

 tains, that there is a wide difference between observation as 

 it was employed by them, and the art of observing for the 

 purposes of philosophical discovery. " Alia enim est ratio 

 " naturalis historian, quse propter se confecta est ; alia ejus, quae 

 " collecta est, ad informandum intellectum in ordine ad con- 

 " dendam philosophiam £." Bacon does not accuse Aristo- 

 tle of having always reasoned without any reference to facts ; 

 but he contends, that Aristotle has nowhere stated the rules 

 for aiding and regulating the understanding in the process of 

 discovery by means of facts ; and that the use which he has 

 made of them in his philosophy, is very different from the use 

 which is made of them in the philosophy of induction. " Ule 

 " enim prius decreverut, neque experientiam ad constituenda 

 Vol. VIII. P. II. 3 C « decreta 



* Edinburgh Review, No. liii. p. 186. 



f Novum Organ. Lib. i. Aph. 82. 95. 97. 125. 



X Ibid. Lib. i. Aph. 98. 



