not hitherto been amenable, and is never likely to be amenable, to rules. But, at the same time, as we have seen in a note on a previous aphorism (Aph. 122), by the cultivation of logical habits of mind, and the habitual observation of certain rules, even the imagination may be diverted from improper, and directed into proper channels. Moreover, when imagination has played its part, its products must be submitted to and tested by reason, and here it becomes necessary to employ the rules of logic, whether such rules be stated formally, or, as is more frequently the case, applied unconsciously. At this point, then, arises the question (suggested by this and the latter part of the 127th Aphorism, q. v.), whether there is any advance in the analyses and rules of logic in any way corresponding to the advance which is constantly taking place in the individual sciences? On the whole, I think, it may be answered that there is. For what is Logic but the analysis of the most correct modes of reasoning in each department of human thought, and the construction of rules based on such analysis? Now reasoning is constantly being applied to new subjects or to new branches of old subjects; complicated cases of reasoning, too, are constantly being unravelled and referred to simple principles. Hence, though we are never likely to discover any new laws of thought or to add to the simple formulae to which all reasoning may be reduced in the last resort, yet we may be constantly gaining a wider knowledge of the applications, and possibly of the necessary modifications, of our rules, increased practical skill in weighing arguments and detecting fallacies, and a juster view of the special characteristics which distinguish the reasoning and method of each particular science. And that logic (in the largest sense of the term) has, as a matter of fact, advanced, as the particular arts and sciences have advanced, though not, perhaps, always in the same proportion, hardly admits, I conceive, of any doubt. The dependence of Logic on the condition of the several sciences is put in a striking, though undoubtedly an exaggerated, form by Condillac (Histoire Moderne, livre xx. ch. 12): 'Je n'ai pas le courage de vous parler de ceux qui, avant le renouvellement des sciences, ont tenté d'enseigner l'art de raisonner. Si des Tartares voulaient faire une poétique, vous pensez bien qu'elle serait mauvaise, parce qu'ils n'ont pas de bons poëtes. Il en est de même des logiques qui ont été faites avant le dix-septième siècle.' SUMMARY OF BOOK II. FROM the prefatory remarks of Book I, Bacon passes in Book II to a more formal and positive exposition of his method. The first ten Aphorisms consist mainly of general reflections, for the most part very obscurely worded, on the ends of science, on the necessity of enquiring into Forms, and on the connection between the speculative and practical branches of knowledge. He then proceeds to give a specimen of the investigation of a Form, taking as his example the Form of Heat. The first step in the investigation is to draw up certain Tables, the ultimate purpose of which is to enable him to eliminate those qualities which might be supposed to be, but which are not really, of the required Form. When the Tables are completed, and the false explanations have, so far as possible, been rejected, he proceeds, according to his own metaphor, to reap the 'Vindemiatio Prima de forma Calidi,' and, in order to reap this vintage, he gives free play to the Imagination, that is, in spite of his warnings to the contrary in Book I, he frames Hypotheses. This process is called 'permissio intellectus.' 'Atque haec sit prima vindemiatio, sive interpretatio inchoata de forma Calidi, facta per permissionem intellectus' (see Aph. 20). In Aph. 21 he announces that, having completed the 'Tabulae' and 'Vindemiatio Prima,' he will proceed 'ad reliqua auxilia intellectus circa Interpretationem Naturae et Inductionem veram ac perfectam.' Of these 'auxilia' he enumerates nine (Aph. 21), but of the nine one only, the 'Praerogativae Instantiarum' (of which there are twenty-seven varieties), are discussed in the Fragment of the Novum Organum which Bacon published. He is on the point of passing on to the 'adminicula inductionis,' when the work abruptly ends. LIBER SECUNDUS APHORISMORUM DE INTERPRETATIONE NATURAE, SIVE DE REGNO HOMINIS. APHORISMUS. SUPER datum corpus novam naturam1 sive novas naturas generare et superinducere, opus et intentio est humanae potentiae2. Datae autem naturae Formam, sive differentiam veram3, sive naturam naturantem 4, sive fontem emanationis 1 Mr. Ellis remarks that, throughout this Aphorism, Bacon maintains the antithesis between 'corpus,' the concrete body, and ‘natura,' the abstract quality. Of each corpus' various 'naturae' are predicable. 6 2 Bacon seems to have thought that, if we could once discover the 'form,' we could superinduce it on any given body, but this by no means follows. Suppose we knew the exact 'form' of the 'natures' which are predicable of and constitute gold, could we superinduce these on silver, or could we eliminate the 'natures' which characterise silver and substitute those which characterise gold? 3 Its distinguishing characteristics, or, more precisely, its essence, or inmost constitution, or fundamental attributes. In the most general meaning of the words, Natura Naturans and Natura Naturata may be described as related to each other in the following manner. Natura Naturata is the actual condition of a given object or Ꮓ |