410 GREAT 1NSTAURATION. 



stronger and closer, and begin our inquiries deeper than men have 

 hitherto done, bringing those things to the test which the common 

 logic has taken upon trust. The logicians borrow the principles of 

 the sciences from the sciences themselves, venerate the first notions 

 of the mind, and acquiesce in the immediate informations of the 

 senses, when rightly disposed ; but we judge, that a real logic should 

 enter every province of the sciences with a greater authority than 

 their own principles can give ; and that such supposed principles 

 should be examined, till they become absolutely clear and certain. 

 As for first notions of the mind, we suspect all those that the under 

 standing, left to itself, procures ; nor ever allow them till approved 

 and authorized by a second judgment. And with respect to the infor 

 mations of the senses, we have many ways of examining them ; for 

 the senses are fallacious, though they discover their own errors ; but 

 these lie near, whilst the means of discovery are remote. 



The senses are faulty in two respects, as they either fail or deceive 

 us. For there are many things that escape the senses, though ever so 

 rightly disposed ; as by the subtilty of the whole body, or the minute 

 ness of its parts ; the distance of place ; the slowness or velocity of 

 motion ; the commonness of the object, &c. Neither do the senses, 

 when they lay hold of a thing, retain it strongly ; for evidence, and 

 the informations of sense, are in proportion to a man, and not in pro 

 portion to the universe. And it is a grand error to assert that sense 

 is the measure of things. 



To remedy this, we have from all quarters brought together, and 

 fitted helps for the senses ; and that rather by experiments than by 

 instruments ; apt experiments being much more subtile than the senses 

 themselves, though assisted with the most finished instruments. We, 

 therefore, lay no great stress upon the immediate and natural percep 

 tions of the senses, but desire the senses to judge only of experiments, 

 and experiments to judge of things : on which foundation, we hope to 

 be patrons of the senses, and interpreters of their oracles. And thus 

 we mean to procure the things relating to the light of nature, and the 

 setting it up in the mind ; which might well suffice, if the mind were 

 as white paper. But since the minds of men are so strangely disposed, 

 as not to receive the true images of things, it is necessary also that a 

 remedy be found for this evil. 



The idols, or false notions, which possess the mind, are either 

 acquired or innate. The acquired arise either from the opinions or 

 sects of philosophers, or from preposterous laws of demonstration ; 

 but the innate cleave to the nature of the understanding, which is 

 found much more prone to error than the senses. For however men 

 may amuse themselves, and admire, or almost adore the mind, it is 

 certain, that like an irregular glass, it alters the rays of things, by its 

 figure, and different intersections. 



The two former kinds of idols may be extirpated, though with 

 difficulty ; but this third is insuperable. All that can be done, is to 

 point them out, and mark, and convict that treacherous faculty of the 

 mind ; lest when the ancient errors are destroyed, new ones should 



