Zealous as Lord Bacon was for improvement it was not his nature to fix upon temporary evils, "nubecula est cito transibit," nor to suggest temporary remedies which are confined within the circle of an age or a nation, and like fruitful showers, profitable and good as they are, serve but for a season and for the latitude of ground where they fall:' but he fixed upon constant defects and suggested remedies, like the benefits of heaven, permanent and universal. He, therefore, invariably endeavours to discover general truths as the root or stem from which particular truths proceed. (c) It was the custom of Lord Bacon, before he attempted to advance any science, to remove the obstacles by which its advance was impeded. His treatise De Augmentis Scientiarum,' opens not with motibus mentalibus memoriæ, compositionis et divisionis, judicii, et reliquorum; quam de calido et frigido, aut luce, aut vegetatione, aut similibus.' Aph. 127. (e) The partitions of knowledge are not like several lines. that meet in one angle, and so touch but in a point; but are like branches of a tree, that meet in a stem, which hath a dimension and quantity of entireness and continuance, before it come to discontinue and break itself into arms and boughs: Is not the precept of a musician, to fall from a discord or harsh accord upon a concord or sweet accord, alike true in affection? Is not the trope of music, to avoid or slide from the close or cadence, common with the trope of rhetoric of deceiving expectation? Is not the delight of the quavering upon a stop in music the same with the playing of light upon the water? And amongst the distempers of learning, he says, after the distribution of particular arts and sciences, men have abandoned universality, or philosophia prima;' which cannot but cease and a laudative of learning, a hymn to the Muses, (ƒ) but with a survey of the obstacles to its advancement, opposed by ignorance, but ignorance severally disguised. (g) So too the Novum Organum opens with a survey of the obstacles opposed to the understanding in the discovery of truth; the tendencies by which the whole human race are liable to be warped, from the truth, The Idols of the Tribe, as he terms them; (h) and the warps which stop all progression. For no perfect discovery can be made upon a flat or a level: neither is it possible to discover the more remote and deeper parts of any science, if you stand but upon the level of the same science, and ascend not to a higher science. (f) I have no purpose to enter into a laudative of learning, or to make a hymn to the muses ; (though I am of opinion that it is long since their rites were duly celebrated :) but my intent is, without varnish or amplification, justly to weigh the dignity of knowledge in the balance with other things, to take the true value thereof by testimonies and arguments divine and human. (g)‘In the entrance to the former of these, to clear the way, and, as it were, to make silence, to have the true testimonies concerning the dignity of learning to be better heard, without the interruption of tacit objections; I think good to deliver it from the discredits and disgraces which it hath received, all from ignorance, but ignorance severally disguised; appearing sometimes in the zeal and jealousy of divines; sometimes in the severity and arrogancy of politicians; and sometimes in the errois and imperfections of learned men themelves.' (h) There are certain predispositions which beset the mind of man certain idols which are constantly operating upon 'the mind and warping it from the truth; for the mind of man, drawn over and clouded with the sable pavilion of the body, is so far from being like a smooth, equal and clear glass, operate upon particular individuals, The Idols of the Den.' (i) When Bacon's zeal for improvement, and his search for general truths, and his habit of removing obstacles are considered, it may appear extraordinary that, instead of confining his observations to mere professional antipathies, to the objections of Divines, (k) of Politicians, () and of Lawyers, (m) the Idols of the Den, he did not investigate the general obstacles to reform The Idols of the Tribe. That there is and ever has been an antipathy to change of custom, is a truth beyond the reach of doubt. May it not be said to every city, as was said 2000 years ago to Jerusalem, O thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children which might sincerely take and reflect the beams of things ac'cording to their true incidence, that it is rather like an en'chanted glass full of superstitions, apparitions and impos'tures.' (i) Besides the general aberrations of human nature, we every one of us have our particular den or cavern which refracts and corrupts the light of nature; either because every man has his respective temper, education, acquaintance, course of reading and authorities, or from the difference of impressions, as they happen in a mind prejudiced or prepossessed or in one that is calm and equal. (k) In the Advancement of Learning, vol. ii. p 8. and in the Novum Organum, Aph. 79. (1) In the Advancement of Learning, vol. ii. p. 14 (m) In the tract upon the improvement of the law, and in this vol. page 338. together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. (n)? The causes of this antipathy; the principle upon which the pleasure of associating ourselves with past times depends; whether it excite some of our best feelings, or is an imaginary extension of our existence, Lord Bacon did not stop to enquire: He seems cautiously to have avoided such speculations, which to him was 'spinning out of ourselves cobwebs of learning, admirable for the fineness of their texture, but of no substance or profit.' (o) He contented himself with the fact that attachment to antiquity is an idol of the understanding:(p) a vain imagination for the present times are the ancient times, when the world is ancient, and not those which we account ancient (n) See note B. at the end, p. [iv.] '(o) The wit and mind of man, if it work upon matter, which is the contemplation of the creatures of God, worketh according 'to the stuff, and is limited thereby; but if it work upon itself, as the spider worketh his web, then it is endless, and brings 'forth indeed cobwebs of learning, admirable for the fineness of 'thread and work, but of no substance or profit.'-Q. Does the knowledge of a country ever rise higher than its metaphysics? -L'homme n'est que trop souvent inconnu à celui qui le 'gouverne. Cependant pour diriger les mouvemens de la 'poupée humaine, il faudroit connoître les fils qui la meuvent. Privé de cette connoissance, qu'on ne s'étonne point si les 'mouvemens sont souvent si contraires à ceux que le législateur ' en attend.' (p) Novum Organum, Aph. 66, &c "ordine retrogrado," by a computation backward from ourselves. (q) The objections to change seem to be 1. BY INTELLIGENCE. 2. BY IGNORANCE. 3. BY INTEREST. THE ANTIPATHY OF INTELLIGENCE. The desire to diminish evil, which varies with our knowledge and sensibility (r) is one of our chief sources of delight. (s) A delight so exquisite, a passion so powerful that, like all strong passions, it has a tendency to act without sufficient knowledge, (1) and, with some knowledge, to run into excess. (u) Intelligence, conscious of the blessings which it enjoys, and knowing the frailty of man's foresight: conscious that perplexities accompany the most beneficial alterations, (a) and that delay cannot be attended with permanent evil: Knowing that the love of change is nearly allied to a contempt of authority (9) Antiquity deserveth that reverence, that men should make a stand there upon, and discover what is the best way; but when the discovery is well taken, then to make progression. And to speak truly, " Antiquitas sæculi juventus mundi." These times are the ancient times, when the world is ancient, and not those which we account ancient "ordine retrogrado," by a computation backward from ourselves. See note Cat the end, p. [vi.] (r) See note D at the end, p. [vii.] |