268 NOVUM ORGANUM. 



things to axioms and conclusions, are fallacious and insufficient. And 

 this process is fourfold, both in its action and its faults. In the first 

 place, the impressions of the sense itself are faulty, for the sense both 

 Jails and deceives us. Now its failures should be supplied, and its 

 deceptions rectified. In the second place, notions are abstracted in a 

 faulty manner from impressions of the senses, and they are undeter 

 mined and confused where they should be determined and well-defined . 

 In the third place, that induction is faulty which infers the first princi 

 ples of the Sciences by simple enumeration, without applying the clue 

 exclusions and solutions, or separations, of Nature. Lastly, that method 

 of discovery and proof, in which the most general principles are first 

 established, and then middle axioms are introduced and proved by 

 them, is the parent of errors, and the ruin of all Sciences. But of these 

 things, which we now touch upon but lightly, we shall speak more 

 fully, when, having finished these expiations and purgations of the 

 mind, we come to set forth the true way of interpreting Nature. 



Ixx. But by far the best demonstration is Experience, provided it 

 adheres to actual experiment. For if it be transferred to other cases 

 which are thought to be similar, unless that transfer be made duly and 

 in order, it is a fallacious thing. But the method of consulting Ex 

 perience which men now employ is blind and stupid. And so, while 

 they go wandering and roaming about without any certain path, taking 

 counsel only from chance circumstances, they are carried about in 

 many directions, but make little advance ; sometimes they are in good 

 spirits, sometimes they are distracted ; and they are always discovering 

 something beyond to be sought. Now it commonly happens that men 

 seek Experience carelessly, and, as it were, in sport, slightly varying 

 experiments already known ; and if the matter does not turn out well, 

 getting disgusted, and giving up the attempt. And if they apply 

 themselves more seriously, steadily, and laboriously to experiment, 

 still they bestow their labour in working out some one experiment, as 

 Gilbert has done with the magnet, the chemists with gold. And in 

 doing this they show their design to be as unskilful as it is slight. For 

 no one is fortunate in investigating the nature of anything in the thing 

 itself, but the inquiry must be widened so as to reach what is more 

 general. 



But even when they do labour to construct some Science and dogmas 

 out of experiments, they nevertheless almost always turn aside with 

 an over-hasty and unseasonable eagerness to practice ; not only for 

 the sake of the use and fruits of that practice, but that they may secure 

 in some new work a sort of pledge for themselves that they will not be 

 employing themselves unprofitably in what remains behind ; and also 

 to puff themselves off to others, that they may obtain a better reputa 

 tion for the business with which they are occupied. So it happens 

 that, like Atalanta, they swerve from the path to pick up the golden 

 apple, and in the meanwhile interrupt their race, and let the victory 

 slip out of their hands. But in the true course of Experience, and the 

 carrying it forward to fresh works, the Divine Wisdom and Order 

 should be taken in all respects as an example. For God, on the first 



