BACON. QI 



iant application of the inductive method in science 

 he is said to have ignored. 



In the Advajicejnent of Learning (Book V.) lie 

 points out the art of indication. " For indication 

 proceeds (i) from experiment to experiment, or 

 (2) from experiment to axioms, which may again 

 point out new experiments. The former we call 

 learned experience, and the latter the interpretation 

 of Nature, Novum Organum, or new machine of 

 mind." This ' art ' substantially implies the use of 

 the working hypothesis. That Bacon, as early as 

 1620, fully grasped the wealth of knowledge, which 

 could be gained from observation, experiment, and 

 induction, is shown repeatedly in the course of his 

 works. The following passages are cited because 

 they bear especially upon the question of species, 

 and show that Bacon was one of the first, if not the 

 first, to raise the problem of the mutability of spe- 

 cies as possibly a result of the accumulation of 

 variations. He speaks, in the first place, of varia- 

 tions of an extreme kind [Novum Organum, Book 

 11., Section 29). 



"In the eighth rank of prerogative instances, we will place 

 deviating instances, such as the errors of Nature or strange and 

 monstrous objects, in which Nature deviates and turns from her 

 ordinary course. For the errors of Nature differ from singular 

 instances, inasmuch as the latter are the miracles of species, the 

 former of the individuals. Their use is much the same, for they 

 rectify the understanding in opposition to habit, and reveal com- 

 mon forms. For with regard to these, also, we must not desist 

 from inquiry till we discern the cause of the deviation; the 



