ed or aggravated accusation; but as the real state of the case, representing the very bottom of their writings, which mankind are so fond of, and take for the pillars and fabric of all arts and sciences.*

SECT. II.

THE JUDGMENT TO BE PASSED UPON THE ANCIENT AND MODERN PHILOSOPHERS: WITH THE INTIMATION

OF A JUSTER WAY OF BUILDING UP

THE SCIENCES.

IT may be alledged, that we have above represented the worst side of antiquity and the philosophers; especially as the sciences generally appear in a state of Democracy ;t that time, like a

*As the author has been so free in his censures of the former philosophers, it may very justly provoke a thorough sifting and examination of himself. This we could wish to

see done by a hand equal to the work; and such an one as could not be suspected of prejudice, or partiality, for or against him. And were it not also proper, that such a free sifting and manly censuring should be continued down to later authors; in order the better to examine how far the sciences are improved.

+ And are therefore not to be judged of by the laws of Aristocracy, as the author may seem to have done by censuring the heads, or most capital philosophers of antiquity; instead of the sciences themselves, dispersed among the body of mankind.

river, has brought down to us only such wrecks of former ages as were light, and superficial; but sunk all that were solid and ponderous: that great things have been done by those ancient enquirers after truth, Heraclitus, Democritus, Pythagoras, Anaxagoras, Empedocles, and others, whose writings are lost; and that the silence and knowledge of antiquity are not to be lightly esteemed. To all which we will here answer, in our natural manner, candidly, and with a view to the good of mankind.

And first, I acknowledge a fragment or two of early antiquity; by which I do not mean books, but inventions; that are, however, rather a specimen of the author's diligence and ingenuity, than deep knowledge, in respect of philosophy and the sciences; and handed down to us by other writers. But for those things which have never come down to us, nor any traces of them, it were an endless labour to make conjectures about them. Nor can I think it at all proper for me, who am engaged in doing the utmost service I am able for posterity, to go back to the philology or polite literature of the ancients. But in order to give mankind a view of the pro

* For a thorough expurgation, it may be proper to peruse the whole de Augmentis Scientiarum, and Novum Organum.

phetical Janus-face of the present state of things, and how it looks both back upon times past, and forward upon times to come; I have determined within myself to form tables of both these times; which may not only exhibit the course, and the ebbs and flows of knowledge; but likewise other apprehensions and foresights of things. Nor, perhaps, can the world have a notion, what kind of performance this will be, till they see it; or, were it not to be put into their hands, know how to ask for, or expect it; as they are now bound and enthralled.* For this we lay down as a certainty, that knowledge is not to be fetched from the darkness and obscurity of antiquity; but to be derived from the light of nature. Nor does it so much concern us to know what has been done, as to see what may be done. Would a private man, put in possession of a kingdom, subdued by arms, and right of conquest, raise questions and disputes, whether his ancestors possessed it before him; and perplex himself with rumours of genealogies and descents; or

The work here mentioned, though, perhaps, never executed, in the form of tables; at least, never published by the author; may very well have been conceived in his mind: and whoever desires to have some perception of the thing, may, with due attention, derive it from the author's pieces de Augmentis, the Sapientia Veterum, the Novum Orga num, and the Phenomena of the Universe.

would he not rather secure his possession, and establish his dominion?

And whoever considers the matter closely, will not find it strange, that the above-censured heads of sects, and numberless others, of the same kind, should fall into errors, which are various and endless; whereas truth is but one simple single thing. And had not the policy or foresight of times been opposite to such wild wanderings of the human genius, no doubt but many other coasts of errors would have been rambled over: for it is an immense ocean that surrounds the island of truth; and there still remain many pernicious idols, of late invention, to be thrown down.* Thus Telesius lately trod the stage, and acted a new philosophical romance; without any great elegance or applause. And to this day the motions of the heavens are, by fabulous astronomers, perplexed with eccentrics and epicycles; and the stability and mobility of the earth are strenuously pleaded for on both sides, from the uncertain attestation of phenomena. And this is the general case of theories, in which men usually proceed, as he would do, who understanding no language but his own, should undertake to interpret a book in another; where observing that a few words up and down

* See the Novum Organum, Part I. Sect. II.

corresponded, in sound and letters, to the words of his own language, he immediately asserts, with confidence and assurance, these words to be of the like signification, (though they might frequently differ very widely) and thence, by farther comparison, with great labour and trial of wit, and, at the same time, with great licentiousness, divines the sense and meaning of the whole. And just such interpreters, philosophers generally are, of the sense and meaning of nature, in the grand volume of the universe; for every one brings his own particular idol, as it were his mother-tongue, to the history of nature; and as soon as he finds any thing sound like it, this he eagerly catches at, and interprets every thing else analogous thereto.*

It is now time we should expatiate ourselves, after handling such prophane and polluted matters; though it has been only with a desire of improving. And we here declare, that all the charges we have brought against the philosophers, fall far short of their guilt: though we do not expect the generality should understand in what manner we have convicted them. But they may be assured, that the censures passed upon them

*This is properly a species of philosophical madness. See above, Sect. I. II. and the Introduction to the Novum Organum.