searching it backwards; because, indeed, the first times were the youngest." NOTE D. Referring to page ix of Analysis. Bacon, in various parts of his works, expresses his disapprobation of method and arrangement, but acknowledges the necessity of attention to style, for the purpose of rendering philosophy acceptable to heedless or unwilling ears.-See page 202 of this volume, where he explains the preference of writing in aphorisms to methodical writing: for as to writing in aphorisms, he says; 1st. It trieth the writer whether he be superficial or solid. 2d. Methods are more fit to win consent or belief, but less fit to point to action. 3d. Aphorisms generate enquiry. And again, see page 307, when speaking of interpretation of Scripture, he says, "It is true that knowledges reduced into exact methods have a "shew of strength, in that each part seemeth to support and sustain "the other; but this is more satisfactory than substantial: like unto buildings which stand by architecture and compaction, which are more subject to ruin than those which are built more strong in "their several parts though less compacted. 66 And again he says, "The worst and most absurd sort of triflers are those who have pent the whole art into strict methods and narrow systems, which men commonly cry up for the sake of their regularity and style.'' Knowledge is uttered to men in a form, as if every thing were "finished: for it is reduced into arts and methods which in their "divisions do seem to include all that may be. And how weakly soever the parts are filled, yet they carry the shew and reason of a 66 total; and thereby the writings of some received authors go for "the very act: whereas antiquity used to deliver the knowledge "which the mind of man had gathered in observations, aphorisms, or short or disposed sentences, or small tractates of some parts "that they had diligently meditated and laboured; which did incite men both to ponder that which was invented and to add and "supply farther. "I have 66 66 Rawley, in his preface to the Sylva Sylvarum, says, "heard his lordship often say, that, if hee should have served the glory of his owne name, hee had beene better not to have pub"lished this naturall history for it may seeme an indigested heape "of particulars, and cannot have that lustre, which bookes cast "into methods have: but that he resolved to preferre the goode of men, and that which might best secure it, before any thing that might have relation to himselfe. I have heard his lordship say "also, that one great reason, why hee would not put these particu"lars into any exact method (though hee that looketh attentively "into them shall finde that they have a secret order) was, because "he conceived that other men would not thinke, that they could "doe the like; and so goe on with a further collection; which if "the method had beene exact, many would have despaired to attaine by imitation."" 66 His opinion of the necessity of attention to style is stated in page 34 and 37 of this work, in his dissertation upon Delicate Learning. To these opinions of Bacon's, we are most probably indebted for the symmetry and beauty in the Advancement of Learning. They have been, as Bacon foresaw they would be, causes, and only temporary causes, of the preference which has been given to the Advancement of Learning. He was too well acquainted with what he terms the idols of the mind to be diverted from truth either by the love of order or by the love of beauty. He knew the charms of theories and systems, and the necessity of adopting them to insure a favourable reception for abstruse works, but he was not misled by them. It did not require his sagacity to predict such observations as, two centuries after his death, have been made upon his classification by the philosophers of our times. The noble temple which he raised may now, perhaps, be destroyed and rejected of the builders altogether, but though it should be levelled to the ground, the genius of true philosophy will stand discovered among the ruins. 66 66 66 Professor Stewart, after various observations upon the arrangements of Bacon and D'Alembert, says, "If the foregoing strictures "be well founded, it seems to follow, that not only the endeavours "of Bacon and D'Alembert to classify the sciences and arts according to a logical division of our faculties, is altogether unsatisfactory, but that every future attempt of the same kind may be expected to be liable to similar objections."-Bentham in his Chrestomathia, speaking of Bacon's arrangement, says, "Of the "sketch given by D'Alembert the leading principles are, as he "himself has been careful to declare, taken from that given by "Lord Bacon. Had it been entirely his own, it would have been, beyond comparison, a better one. For the age of Bacon, Bacon's was a precocious and precious fruit of the union of learning with "science for the age of D'Alembert, it will, it is believed, be "found but a poor production, below the author as well as the age."-The Chrestomathia then contains various objections to these systems of arrangement, and suggests another system which, perhaps, after the lapse of two more centuries, will share the same fate. No man was, for his own sake, less attached to system or ornament than Lord Bacon. A plain, unadorned style in aphorisms, in which the Novum Organum is written, is, he invariably states, the proper style for philosophy. 66 66 66 NOTE E. Referring to page x of Analysis. Amongst the many "idols of the undertsanding," as they are termed by Bacon; amongst the many tendencies of the mind to warp us from truth, the most subtle seem to be those which emanate from the love of truth itself, undermining the understanding, as ruin ever works, on the side of our virtues. The love of truth, the desire to know the causes of things, is, perhaps, one of our strongest passions; and, like all strong passion, it has a tendency, unless restrained, to hurry us into excess. From an impatience to possess this treasure we are induced to assent hastily, and accept counterfeits as sterling coin::-we are induced to generalize hastily, and to abandon universality, to suppose that we have attained the truth in all the extent in which it exists. The idols of the understanding from the love of truth which generate haste, seem therefore to be 1. Hasty Assent. 2. Hasty Generalization. 3. Abandoning Universality. CC This note is upon (" Abandoning universality," the nature of which is mentioned in page 48 of this work, and in pages 124-127 and 153. And in the treatise " De Augmentis," there is an observation founded upon this doctrine which is not contained in the Advancement of Learning. Speaking of astronomy, he says, Astronomy, "such as now it is made, may well be counted in the number of "Mathematical Arts, not without great diminution of the dignity "thereof; seeing it ought rather (if it would maintain its own right) "be constituted a branch, and that most principal of Natural Phi"losophy. For whoever shall reject the feigned divorces of superlunary and sublunary bodies; and shall intentively observe "the appetencies of matter, and the most universal passions, (which "in either globe are exceeding potent, and transverberate the uni-· "versal nature of things) he shall receive clear information concern"ing celestial matters from the things seen here with us: and "contrarywise from those motions which are practised in heaven; "he shall learn many observations which now are latent, touching "the motions of bodies here below: not only so far as these inferior "motions are moderated by superiour, but in regard they have a "mutual intercourse by passions common to them both." (See the mode by which Newton is said first to have thought of the influence of the laws of gravity.) 66 66 66 So, in another work, " Descriptio Globi Intellectualis," he says, "We must, however, openly profess, that our hope of discovering "the truth, with regard to the celestial bodies, depends not solely upon such a history, raised after our own manner; but much more upon the observation of the common properties, or the passions "and appetites of the matter of both globes. For as to the separa"tion that is supposed betwixt the ætherial and sublunary bodies, "it seems to us no more than a fiction, and a degree of superstition, "mixed with rashness: for it is certain, that numerous effects, as expansion, contraction, impression, yielding, collection, attraction, "repulsion, assimilation, union, and the like, have place, not only "here upon the surface, but also in the bowels of the earth, and "regions of the heavens. And no more faithful guide can be used ἐσ or consulted, than these properties of matter, to conduct the understanding to the depths of the earth, which are absolutely not seen at all, and to the sublime regions of the heavens, which are generally seen, but falsely; on account of their great distance, the "refraction of the air, the imperfection of glasses, &c. The ancients, "therefore, excellently represented Proteus as capable of various shapes, and a most extraordinary prophet, who knew all things, "both the past, the future, and the secrets of the present. For he "who knows the universal properties of matter, and by that means "understands what may be, cannot but know what has been, is, and "shall be the general state and issue of things. Our chiefest hope "and dependance in the consideration of the celestial bodies, is "therefore placed in physical reasons; though not such as are commonly so called; but those laws, with regard to the appetites of matter, which no diversity of place or region can abolish, break through, disturb, or alter." 66 See also the fable of Proteus, in his wisdom of the ancients. See also the beginning of the tenth century of the Sylva Sylvarum; and in his Aphorisms concerning the composure of History, he says, "In "the history which we require, and purpose in our mind, above "all things it must be looked after, that its extent be large, and that it be made after the measure of the universe, for the world ought not to be tyed into the straightness of the understanding (which hitherto hath been done) but our intellect should be "stretched and widened, so as to be capable of the image of the "world, such as we find it; for the custom of respecting but a few things, and passing sentence according to that paucity and scant"ness hath spoiled all." 66 66 Upon the same principle, he says, I think in his history of Life and Death, "All tangible bodies contain a spirit covered over, enveloped with the grosser body. There is no known body, in the upper 66 parts of the earth, without its spirit; whether it be generated by the attenuating and concocting power of the celestial warmth, or other"wise: for the pores of tangible bodies are not a vacuum; but either "contain air, or the peculiar spirit of the substance, and this not a "vis, an energy, a soul, or a fiction; but a real, subtile, and invisible body, circumscribed by place and dimension." "Such was the language of Bacon two centuries ago; the same sentiments have lately appeared in another form, in the works of one of our "modern poets. 66 66 "To every form of being is assigned "A simple blessing or with evil mixed: 66 Spirit that knows no insulated spot, "No chasm, no solitude, from link to link NOTE F. Excursion, page 387. Referring to page x of Analysis. To this tendency to hasty assent, which is one of the idols of the understanding, originating in a love of truth, (see ante note E) it may seem that Bacon, ought to have traced the evils of credulity, which he has classed under Fantastical Learning, (page 41). Bacon, also says, 66 66 66 "The mind of man doth wonderfully endeavour and extremely "covet that it may not be pensile: but that it may light upon something fixed and immoveable, on which, as on a firmament, it may support itself in its swift motions and disquisitions. Aristotle en"deavours to prove that in all motions of bodies, there is some point quiescent and very elegantly expounds the fable of Atlas, who "stood fixed and bare up the heavens from falling, to be meant of "the poles of the world, whereupon the conversion is accomplished. “In like manner, men do earnestly seek to have some atlas or axis of "their cogitations within themselves, which may, in some measure, "moderate the fluctuations and wheelings of the understanding, fearing it may be the falling of their heaven." 66 He says also, "We are not so eager as to reap moss for corn: or the tender "blade for ears: but wait with patience the ripeness of the harvest." And again, 66 "Beware of too forward maturation of knowledge, which makes man bold and confident, and rather wants great proceeding than "causeth it." "Such a rash impotency and intemperance doth possess and infa"tuate the whole race of man: that they do not only presume upon "and promise to themselves what is repugnant in nature to be per"formed: but also are confident that they are able to conquer, even "at their pleasure, and that by way of recreation, the most difficult "passages of nature without trouble or travail." 66 Stay a little, that you may make an end the sooner," was a favourite maxim of Sir Nicholas Bacon. In Locke's Conduct of the Understanding, there are some observations upon the evils of haste in the acquisition of knowledge, in departing from the old maxim that "the sinews of wisdom are slow"ness of belief." So true it is, 66 "We must take root downwards, if we would bear fruit upwards: "if we would bear fruit and continue to bear fruit, when the foodful plants that stand straight, only because they grew in company; or "whose slender service-roots owe their whole stedfastness to their " entanglement, have been beaten down by the continued rains, or "whirled aloft by the sudden hurricane."-Coleridge. So true is it, that "The advances of nature are gradual. They are scarce discern"ible in their motions but only visible in their issue. Nobody perceives the grass grow or the shadow move upon the dial till after some time and leisure we reflect upon their progress."-South. 66 NOTE G. Referring to page x of Analysis. This peccant humour of learning "the delivering knowledge too peremptorily, ought, it seems, to have been referred to delivery of knowledge, where it is more copiously treated."-(See pages 199 and 200. 66 NOTE H. Referring to page x of Analysis. This most important part of the conduct of the understanding, a consideration of the motives by which we are actuated in the acquisition of knowledge may, as in this beautiful passage, and in other parts of Bacon's works, be separated into 1. A love of excelling. 2. A love of excellence. Although the love of excelling is the motive by which in our public schools, and our universities, youth is stimulated, and is in the common world a very common motive of action, yet this intellectual gladiatorship does not and never did influence the noblest minds: it is only a temporary motive, and fosters bad passion. The love of excellence on the other hand, is powerful and permanent, and constantly generates good feeling. That the love of excelling does not influence philosophy, is an opinion so prevalent that, assuming it to be the motive by which men are generally induced to engage in public life, it has been urged by politicians as an objection to learning, "that it doth |