NOVUM ORGANUM. 251 



banishment of controversies and heartburnings, that the honour and 

 reverence paid to the ancients remain untouched and undiminished, 

 while we are able to carry out our appointed task and still enjoy the 

 fruits of our moderation. For if we were to profess to bring forward 

 better results than the ancients, after having taken the same road as 

 they, no verbal skill could prevent the introduction of some compari 

 son or rivalry as to wit or excellence or powers ; not that there would 

 be anything unlawful or novel in that, (for why may we not, in our own 

 right, a right not ours alone, but universal why should we not 

 criticise and set our mark upon any false discovery or position of 

 theirs ?) but granted that such a proceeding were just and allowable, 

 still probably the contest would be an unequal one, on account of the 

 different measure of our strengths. Hut when we set about opening 

 out for the intellect a path entirely different from theirs, untried by 

 them and unknown to them, the case is at once changed ; party zeal 

 ceases ; and we sustain only the character of a guide, and this surely 

 demands but a moderate share of authority, and depends upon good 

 fortune rather than ability and excellence. And this warning refers 

 to persons ; the other, to the subject-matter itself. 



We, it must be understood, are very far from endeavouring to upset 

 that philosophy which is now in vogue, or any other more accurate 

 and enlarged than it, either present or to come. For we do not wish 

 to hinder the philosophy at present in vogue, and others of the same 

 class, from nourishing discussions, adorning discourses, or from being 

 applied, and weightily so, to the duties of the Professor and the interests 

 of social life. Moreover, we openly signify and declare that the 

 philosophy which we are introducing will not be found very useful for 

 these matters. It is not ready at hand : it is not grasped by the 

 cursory reader ; it does not flatter the intellect by preconceived 

 notions ; nor will it descend to the grasp of the vulgar, except by its 

 utility and effects. And so let there be (and may each party find its 

 share of happiness and fortune therein) two Sources and two Dis 

 pensations of Learning ; and, in like manner, two tribes, and, as it 

 were, kindred lines of contemplators or philosophers ; and let them be 

 in no way hostile or estranged, but bound in a close alliance by mutual 

 good services ; let there be, in short, one method for cultivating the 

 Sciences, and another for discovering them. And for those who find 

 the first method preferable and more acceptable, on account of their 

 impatience or the conventionalities of civil life, or because they cannot 

 grasp and embrace the second through infirmity of mind (whu h must 

 of necessity be the case with the great majority of men), they have our 

 wishes that they may succeed happily and according to their desire 

 in what they undertake, and attain what they pursue. Hut whosoever 

 lias the heart and the care not only to abide by what is discovered and 

 to make use of it, but to penetrate into regions beyond, and to over 

 come not merely his adversary in disputing, but nature in results : in 

 short, whosoever wishes not to spin fine and specious theories, but to 

 attain to a certain and demonstrative knowledge, let such, as a true son 

 of science, if he see good reason, join himself to us ; that on his 



