256 NOVUM ORGANUM. 



xxxiv. Nor is it an easy matter to deliver or explain what we bring 

 forward ; for that which is new in itself will nevertheless be under 

 stood by reference to the old. 



xxxv. Borgia said of the expedition of the French into Italy, that 

 they came with chalk in their hands to mark their quarters, and not 

 with arms to force their way. And so it is our plan that our teaching 

 should quietly make its entrance into minds fit for and capable of 

 receiving it : for there is no use in confuting those with whom we 

 differ about first principles and conceptions themselves, and even 

 about the forms of demonstration, 



xxxvi. Still one means of delivering our sentiments, and that a 

 simple one, remains to us ; viz., to bring men to actual particulars, 

 their series and orders ; and that they again should impose on them 

 selves, for a time, a renunciation of notions, and begin to acquaint 

 themselves with actual things. 



xxxvii. The method of those who hold the doctrine of Acatalepsy, 

 and our way, agree in a certain measure at starting ; but in their 

 results they are widely separated and opposed : for they simply assert 

 the impossibility of all knowledge ; we assert the impossibility of 

 much knowledge of Nature by the method which is now in use : they 

 forthwith destroy the authority of sense and intellect; we think out, 

 and supply aids for the same. 



xxxviii. Idola and false conceptions which have hitherto occupied 

 the intellect of man, and are deeply planted therein, not only so beset 

 the minds of men that it is difficult for truth to obtain an entrance, 

 but even when entrance has been granted and allowed, they will again 

 meet us in the very instauration of the Sciences, and be troublesome, 

 unless men are forewarned, and fortify themselves against them, as 

 far as it can be done. 



xxxix. There are four kinds of idola which beset the minds of men ; 

 and, with a view to distinctness, we have given them names, and have 

 called the first kind &quot;idola of the tribe ;&quot; the second, &quot; idola of the 

 cavern ;&quot; the third, &quot;idola of the market-place;&quot; the fourth, &quot; idola 

 of the theatre.&quot; 



xl. To draw out conceptions and axioms by a true induction is cer 

 tainly the proper remedy for repelling and removing idola; but still 

 it is of great advantage to indicate the idola. For the doctrine of 

 idola holds the same position in the interpretation of Nature, as that 

 of the confutation of sophisms does in common Logic. 



xli. The idola of the tribe have their foundation in human nature 

 itself, and in the very tribe or race of man. For it is a false assertion 

 that human sense is the measure of things ; on the contrary, all per 

 ceptions, both of sense and also of mind, are referred to man as their 

 measure, and not to the universe. And the human intellect is like an 

 uneven mirror on which the rays of objects fall, and which mixes up 

 its own nature with that of the object, and distorts and destroys it. 



xlii. The idola of the cavern are the idola peculiar to the individual, 

 tor each man has (besides the generic aberrations belonging to his 

 human nature) some individual cavern or den which breaks and cor- 



