274 NOVUM ORGANUM. 



generally received and come to maturity, by far the greatest propor 

 tion of the most able minds betook themselves to Theology ; that to 

 this pursuit were the greatest rewards proposed, and aids of every kind 

 most plentifully afforded ; and that this zeal for Theology chiefly 

 occupied that third portion or period of time among us inhabitants of 

 Western Europe ; the more so, because about the same time both 

 literature began to flourish and controversies about Religion to spring 

 up. But in the preceding age, during the continuance of that second 

 period among the Romans, the meditations and industry of the most 

 influential philosophers were occupied and consumed on Moral 

 Philosophy (which stood to the Heathens in the place of Theology), 

 and at the same time the greatest wits of those days applied them 

 selves very closely to civil affairs, on account of the magnitude of the 

 Roman Empire, which needed the services of a great number of men. 

 But that age, in which Natural Philosophy seemed most to flourish 

 among the Greeks, was but a very short-enduring particle of time ; 

 since in the earlier ages those seven, who were called &quot; the Wise,&quot; all 

 (except Thales) applied themselves to Moral Philosophy and Civil 

 Matters ; and in later times, when Socrates had brought down 

 Philosophy from heaven to earth, Morals obtained a still stronger 

 hold, and turned men s minds away from Natural Philosophy. 



Nay, that very period itself, in which inquiries concerning Nature 

 flourished, was corrupted by contradictions and the ambitious display 

 of new theories, and rendered useless. And so, inasmuch as during 

 these three periods Natural Philosophy was in a great measure either 

 neglected or hindered, it is no wonder that men made but little pro 

 gress in a matter to which they paid no attention. 



Ixxx. And to this it may be added that Natural Philosophy, among 

 those very men who have devoted themselves to it, has scarcely ever 

 found, especially in these later times, any one at leisure and able to 

 give it his whole attention, unless, perhaps, we bring forward the 

 example of some monk studying. in his cell, or some noble in his 

 country house. But it has been made to serve as a sort of passage 

 and bridge to other subjects. And that great mother of Sciences has, 

 with strange indignity, been degraded to the services of a menial, 

 having to minister to the business of Medicine and Mathematics, and 

 again to wash and imbue the unripe wits of young men with a sort of 

 first dye, that they may afterwards receive another more successfully 

 and conveniently. In the mean time, let no one expect any great 

 advance in the Sciences (especially in the practical part of them) until 

 Natural Philosophy shall have been extended to particular Sciences, 

 and the particular Sciences brought back again to Natural Philoso 

 phy. For hence it arises that Astronomy, Optics, Music, most of the 

 Mechanical Arts, Medicine itself, and (what one might more wonder 

 at) Moral and Civil Philosophy, and the Logical Sciences, have 

 scarcely any depth, but only glide over the surface and variety of 

 things ; because, after these particular Sciences have been distributed 

 and established, they are no longer fed by Natural Philosophy ; which 

 might have imparted to them new strength and growth from the 



