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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.07.00*END* + + + + + +This etext was prepared by Mike Pullen +globaltraveler5565@YAHOO.com + + + + + +Valerius Terminus: of the Interpretation of Nature + +by Francis Bacon + + + + +Preface by Robert Leslie Ellis + +The following fragments of a great work on the Interpretation of +Nature were first published in Stephens's Letters and Remains [1734]. +They consist partly of detached passages, and partly of an epitome +of twelve chapters of the first book of the proposed work. The +detached passages contain the first, sixth, and eighth chapters, and +portions of the fourth, fifth, seventh, ninth, tenth, eleventh, and +sixteenth. The epitome contains an account of the contents of all +the chapters from the twelfth to the twenty-sixth inclusive, omitting +the twentieth, twentythird, and twenty-fourth. Thus the sixteenth +chapter is mentioned both in the epitome and among the detached +passages, and we are thus enabled to see that the two portions of the +following tract belong to the same work, as it appears from both that +the sixteenth chapter was to treat of the doctrine of idola. + +It is impossible to ascertain the motive which determined Bacon to +give to the supposed author the name of Valerius Terminus, or to his +commentator, of whose annotations we have no remains, that of Hermes +Stella. It may be conjectured that by the name Terminus he intended +to intimate that the new philosophy would put an end to the wandering +of mankind in search of truth, that it would be the TERMINUS AD QUEM +in which when it was once attained the mind would finally acquiesce. + +Again, the obscurity of the text was to be in some measure removed by +the annotations of Stella; not however wholly, for Bacon in the +epitome of the eighteenth chapter commends the manner of publishing +knowledge "whereby it shall not be to the capacity nor taste of all, +but shall as it were single and adopt his reader." Stella was +therefore to throw a kind of starlight on the subject, enough to +prevent the student's losing his way, but not much more. + +However this may be, the tract is undoubtedly obscure, partly from +the style in which it is written, and partly from its being only a +fragment. It is at the same time full of interest, inasmuch as it is +the earliest type of the INSTAURATIO... + +Note to Preface by James Spedding: + +The manuscript from which Robert Stephens printed these fragments was +found among some loose papers placed in his hands by the Earl of +Oxford, and is now in the British Museum; Harl. manuscripts 6462. It +is a thin paper volume of the quarto size, written in the hand of one +of Bacon's servants, with corrections, erasures, and interlineations +in his own. + +The chapters of which it consists are both imperfect in themselves +(all but three),--some breaking off abruptly, others being little +more than tables of contents,--and imperfect in their connexion with +each other; so much so as to suggest the idea of a number of separate +papers loosely put together. But it was not so (and the fact is +important) that the volume itself was actually made up. However they +came together, they are here fairly and consecutively copied out. +Though it be a collection of fragments therefore, it is such a +collection as Bacon thought worthy not only of being preserved, but +of being transcribed into a volume; and a particular account of it +will not be out of place. + +The contents of the manuscript before Bacon touched it may be thus +described. + +1. A titlepage, on which is written "VALERIUS TERMINUS of the +Interpretation of Nature, with the annotations of HERMES STELLA." + +2. "Chapter I. Of the limits and end of knowledge;" with a running +title, "Of the Interpretation of Nature." + +3. "The chapter immediately following the Inventory; being the 11th +in order." + +4. "A part of the 9th chapter, immediately precedent to the Inventory, +and inducing the same." + +5. "The Inventory, or an enumeration and view of inventions already +discovered and in use, together with a note of the wants and the +nature of the supplies; being the 10th chapter, and this a fragment +only of the same." + +6. Part of a chapter, not numbered, "Of the internal and profound +errors and superstitions in the nature of the mind, and of the four +sorts of Idols or fictions which offer themselves to the +understanding in the inquisition of knowledge." + +7. "Of the impediments of knowledge; being the third chapter, the +preface only of it." + +8. "Of the impediments which have been in the times and in diversion +of wits; being the fourth chapter." + +9. "Of the impediments of knowledge for want of a true succession of +wits, and that hitherto the length of one man's life hath been the +greatest measure of knowledge; being the fifth chapter." + +10. "That the pretended succession of wits hath been evil placed, +forasmuch as after variety of sects and opinions the most popular and +not the truest prevaileth and weareth out the rest; being the sixth +chapter." + +11. "Of the impediments of knowledge in handling it by parts, and in +slipping off particular sciences from the root and stock of universal +knowledge; being the seventh chapter." + +12. "That the end and scope of knowledge hath been generally mistaken, +and that men were never well advised what it was they sought" (part +of a chapter not numbered). + +13. "An abridgment of divers chapters of the first book;" namely, the +l2th, 13th, and 14th, (over which is a running title "Of active +knowledge;") and (without any running title) the 15th, 16th, 17th, +18th], 19th, 21st, 22nd, 25th, and 26th. These abridgments have no +headings; and at the end is written, "The end of the Abridgment of +the first book of the Interpretation of Nature." + + +Such was the arrangement of the manuscript as the transcriber left it; +which I have thought worth preserving, because I seem to see traces +in it of two separate stages in the developement of the work; the +order of the chapters as they are transcribed being probably the same +in which Bacon wrote them; and the numbers inserted at the end of the +headings indicating the order in which, when he placed them in the +transcriber's hands, it was his intention to arrange them; and +because it proves at any rate that at that time the design of the +whole book was clearly laid out in his mind. + +There is nothing, unfortunately, to fix the DATE of the transcript, +unless it be implied in certain astronomical or astrological symbols +written on the blank outside of the volume; in which the figures 1603 +occur. This may possibly be the transcriber's note of the time when +he finished his work; for which (but for one circumstance which I +shall mention presently) I should think the year 1603 is likely a +date as any; for we know from a letter of Bacon's, dated 3rd July +1603, that he had at that time resolved "to meddle as little as +possible in the King's causes," and to "put his ambition wholly upon +his pen;" and we know from the ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING that in 1605 +he was engaged upon a work entitled "The Interpretation of Nature:" +to which I may add that there is in the Lambeth Library a copy of a +letter from Bacon to Lord Kinlosse, dated 25th March, 1603, and +written in the same hand as this manuscript. + +Bacon's corrections, if I may judge from the character of the +handwriting, were inserted a little later; for it is a fact that +about the beginning of James's reign his writing underwent a +remarkable change, from the hurried Saxon hand full of large sweeping +curves and with letters imperfectly formed and connected, which he +wrote in Elizabeth's time, to a small, neat, light, and compact one, +formed more upon the Italian model which was then coming into fashion; +and when these corrections were made it is evident that this new +character had become natural to him and easy. It is of course +impossible to fix the precise date of such a change,--the more so +because his autographs of this period are very scarce,--but whenever +it was that he corrected this manuscript, it is evident that he then +considered it worthy of careful revision. He has not merely inserted +a sentence here and there, altered the numbers of the chapters, and +added words to the headings in order to make the description more +exact; but he has taken the trouble to add the running title wherever +it was wanting, thus writing the words "of the Interpretation of +Nature" at full lengths not less than eighteen times over; and upon +the blank space of the titlepage he has written out a complete table +of contents. In short, if he had been preparing the manuscript for +the press or for a fresh transcript, he could not have done it more +completely or carefully,--only that he has given no directions for +altering the order of the chapters so as to make it correspond with +the numbers. And hence I infer that up to the time when he made +these corrections, this was the form of the great work on which he +was engaged: it was a work concerning the Interpretation of Nature; +which was to begin where the NOVUM ORGANUM begins; and of which the +first book was to include all the preliminary considerations +preparatory to the exposition of the formula. + +I place this fragment here in deference to Mr. Ellis's decided +opinion that it was written before the ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. The +positive ground indeed which he alleges in support of that conclusion +I am obliged to set aside, as founded, I think, upon a +misapprehension; and the supposition that no part of it was written +later involves a difficulty which I cannot yet get over to my own +satisfaction. But that the body of it was written earlier I see no +reason to doubt; and if so, this is its proper place. + +The particular point on which I venture to disagree with Mr. Ellis I +have stated in a note upon his preface to the NOVUM ORGANUM, +promising at the same time a fuller explanation of the grounds of my +own conclusion, which I will now give. + +The question is, whether the "Inventory" in the 10th chapter of +VALERIUS TERMINUS was to have exhibited a general survey of the state +of knowledge corresponding with that which fills the second book of +the ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. I think not. + +It is true indeed that the title of that 10th chapter,--namely, "The +Inventory, or an enumeration and view of inventions already +discovered and in use, with a note of the wants and the nature of the +supplies",--has at first sight a considerable resemblance to the +description of the contents of the second book of the ADVANCEMENT OF +LEARNING,--namely, "A general and faithful perambulation of learning, +with an inquiry what parts thereof lie fresh and waste, and not +improved and converted by the industry of Man;... wherein +nevertheless my purpose is at this time to note only omissions and +deficiencies, and not to make any redargutions of errors," and so on. +But an "enumeration of INVENTIONS" is not the same thing as "a +perambulation of LEARNING;" and it will be found upon closer +examination that the "Inventory" spoken of in VALERIUS TERMINUS does +really correspond to one, and one only, of the fiftyone Desiderata +set down at the end of the DE AUGMENTIS; viz. that INVENTARIUM OPUM +HUMANARUM, which was to be an appendix to the MAGIA NATURALIS. See DE +AUG. iii. 5. This will appear clearly by comparing the descriptions +of the two. + +In the ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING Bacon tells us that there are two +points of much purpose pertaining to the department of Natural Magic: +the first of which is, "That there be made a calendar resembling an +Inventory of the ESTATE OF MAN, containing ALL THE INVENTIONS, BEING +THE WORKS OR FRUITS OF NATURE OR ART, which are now extant AND OF +WHICH MAN IS ALREADY POSSESSED; out of which doth naturally result a +note what things are yet held impossible or not invented; which +calendar will be the more artificial and serviceable if to every +reputed impossibility you add what thing is extant which cometh the +nearest in degree to that impossibility: to the end that by these +optatives and essentials man's inquiry may be the more awake in +deducing direction of works from the speculation of causes." + +The Inventory which was to have been inserted in the 10th chapter of +VALERIUS TERMINUS is thus introduced:--"The plainest method and most +directly pertinent to this intention will be to make distribution of +SCIENCES, ARTS, INVENTIONS, WORKS, and their portions, ACCORDING TO +THE USE AND TRIBUTE WHICH THEY YIELD AND RENDER TO THE CONDITION OF +MAN'S LIFE; and under those several uses, being as several offices of +provisions, to charge and tax what may be reasonably exacted or +demanded,... and then upon those charges and taxations to distinguish +and present as it were in several columns what is extant and already +found, and what is DEFECTIVE AND FURTHER TO BE PROVIDED. Of which +provisions because in many of them, after the manner of slothful and +faulty accomptants, it will be returned by way of excuse that no such +are to be had, it will be fit to give some light OF THE NATURE OF THE +SUPPLIES; whereby it will evidently appear that they are to be +compassed and procured." And that the calendar was to deal, not with +knowledge in general, but only with arts and sciences of invention in +its more restricted sense--the PARS OPERATIVA DE NATURA (DE AUG. iii. +5.)--appears no less clearly from the opening of the 11th chapter, +which was designed immediately to follow the "Inventory." "It +appeareth then what is now in proposition, not by general +circumlocution but by particular note. No former philosophy," etc. +etc. "but the revealing and discovering of NEW INVENTIONS AND +OPERATIONS,... the nature and kinds of which inventions HAVE BEEN +DESCRIBED as they could be discovered," etc. If further evidence were +required of the exact resemblance between the Inventory of VALERIUS +TERMINUS and the Inventarium of the ADVANCEMENT and the DE AUGMENTIS, +I might quote the end of the 9th chapter, where the particular +expressions correspond, if possible, more closely still. But I +presume that the passages which I have given are enough; and that the +opinion which I have elsewhere expressed as to the origin of the +ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING,--namely, that the writing of it was a +by-thought and no part of the work on the Interpretation of Nature as +originally designed,--will not be considered inconsistent with the +evidence afforded by these fragments. + +That the VALERIUS TERMINUS was composed before the ADVANCEMENT, +though a conclusion not deducible from the Inventory, is nevertheless +probable: but to suppose that it was so composed EXACTLY IN ITS +PRESENT FORM, involves, as I said, a difficulty; which I will now +state. The point is interesting, as bearing directly upon the +developement in Bacon's mind of the doctrine of Idols; concerning +which see preface to NOVUM ORGANUM, note C. But I have to deal with +it here merely as bearing upon the probable date of this fragment. + +In treating of the department of Logic in the ADVANCEMENT, Bacon +notices as altogether wanting "the particular elenches or cautions +against three false appearances" or fallacies by which the mind of +man is beset: the "caution" of which, he says, "doth extremely import +the true conduct of human judgment." These false appearances he +describes, though he does not give their names; and they correspond +respectively to what he afterwards called the Idols of the Tribe, the +Cave, and the Forum. But he makes no mention of the fourth; namely, +the Idols of the Theatre. Now in VALERIUS TERMINUS we find two +separate passages in which the Idols are mentioned; and in both all +four are enumerated, and all by name; though what he afterwards +called Idols of the Forum, he there calls Idols of the Palace; and it +seems to me very unlikely that, if when he wrote the ADVANCEMENT he +had already formed that classification he should have omitted all +mention of the Idols of the Theatre; for though it is true that that +was not the place to discuss them, and therefore in the corresponding +passage of the DE AUGMENTIS they are noticed as to be passed by "for +the present," yet they are noticed by name, and in all Bacon's later +writings the confutation of them holds a very prominent place. + +To me the most probable explanation of the fact is this. I have +already shown that between the composition and the transcription of +these fragments the design of the work appears to have undergone a +considerable change; the order of the chapters being entirely altered. +We have only to suppose therefore that they were composed before +the ADVANCEMENT and transcribed after, and that in preparing them for +the transcriber Bacon made the same kind of alterations in the +originals which he afterwards made upon the transcript, and the +difficulty disappears. Nothing would be easier than to correct +"three" into "four," and insert "the Idols of the Theatre" at the end +of the sentence. + +And this reminds me (since I shall have so much to do with these +questions of date) to suggest a general caution with regard to them +all; namely, that in the case of fragments like these, the comparison +of isolated passages can hardly ever be relied upon for evidence of +the date or order of composition, or of the progressive developement +of the writer's views; and for this simple reason,--we can never be +sure that the passages as they now stand formed part of the original +writing. The copy of the fragment which we have may be (as there is +reason to believe this was) a transcript from several loose papers, +written at different periods and containing alterations or additions +made from time to time. We may know perhaps that when Bacon +published the ADVANCEMCNT OF LEARNING he was ignorant of some fact +with which he afterwards became acquainted; we may find in one of +these fragments,--say the TEMPORIS PARTUS MASCULUS,--a passage +implying acquaintance with that fact. Does it follow that the +TEMPORIS PARTUS MASCULUS was written after the ADVANCEMENT OF +LEARNING? No; for in looking over the manuscript long after it was +written, he may have observed and corrected the error. And we cannot +conclude that he at the same time altered the whole composition so as +to bring it into accordance with the views he then held; for that +might be too long a work. He may have inserted a particular +correction, but meant to rewrite the whole; and if so, in spite of +the later date indicated by that particular passage, the body of the +work would still represent a stage in his opinions anterior to the +ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. + +I have felt some doubt whether in printing this fragment, I should +follow the example of Stephens, who gave it exactly as he found it; +or that of later editors, who have altered the order of the chapters +so as to make it agree with the numbers. The latter plan will +perhaps, upon the whole, be the more convenient. There can he little +doubt that the numbers of the chapters indicate the order in which +Bacon meant them to be read; and if any one wishes to compare it with +the order in which they seem to have been written, he has only to +look at Bacon's table of contents, which was made with reference to +the transcript, and which I give unaltered, except as to the spelling. + +of the Interpretation of Nature with the Annotations of a few +fragments of the first book, viz. + +1. The first chapter entire. {Of the ends and limits of knowledge.} + +2. A portion of the 11th chapter. {Of the scale.} + +3. A small portion of the 9th chapter {being an Inducement to the +Inventory.} + +4. A small portion of the 10th chapter {being the preface to the +Inventory.} + +5. A small portion of the 16th chapter {being a preface to the inward +elenches of the mind.} + +6. A small portion of the 4th chapter. {Of the impediments of +knowledge in general.} + +7. A small portion of the 5th chapter. {Of the diversion of wits.} + +8. The 6th chapter entire. {Of} + +9. A portion of the 7th chapter. + +10. The 8th chapter entire. + +11. Another portion of the 9th chapter. + +12. The Abridgment of the 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 21. 22. 25. +26th chapters of the first book. + +13. The first chapter of {the} a book of the same argument written in +Latin and destined {for} to be {traditionary} separate and not public. + +None of the Annotations of Stella are set down in these fragments. + + +[The title] is written in the transcriber's hand: all that follows in +Bacon's. The words between brackets have a line drawn through them. +For an exact facsimile of the whole [see Contents pages 1 and 2]. + +[13.] refers to the first chapter of the TEMPORIS PARTUS MASCULUS; +which follows in the manuscript volume, but not here. It is +important as bearing upon the date of that fragment. + + + + + + + +VALERIUS TERMINUS: OF THE INTERPRETATION OF NATURE + +(by Sir Francis Bacon) + + + + + +The first chapter of VALERIUS TERMINUS by Francis Bacon + +An annotated version compiled and edited by Dr. Gisela Engel (Johann Wolfgang +Goethe-Universitaet Frankfurt am Main with the assistance of Dr. Harvey Wheeler +(Ret. USC, Martha Boas Distinguished Research Professor at USC) and aided by +Melek Hasgün, Simone Wirthmann, Antje Peters, Martina Glebocki, Carsten Jägler, +Katja Morawek, Cora Hartmann (students at Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universitaet +Frankfurt am Main). + + +Orignal Text | Annotations + | +Valerius Terminus: | +Of the Interpretation{1} of Nature | 1A. + | The word "interpretation" occurs + | also e.g. in the title of the essay + | DE INTERPRETATIONE NATURAE PROEMIUM + | (1603; in Spedding vol. III) and in + | his definition of man as "the servant + | and interpreter of Nature" (IV,47). + | This definition of man is the same + | definition that we find in the + | magico-alchemical tradition which is + | in general refuted by Bacon. Paolo + | Rossi ("Bacon's idea of science", in: + | THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO BACON, ed. + | by Markku Peltonen [1996], 25-46) + | gives the following comment: + | + | "Bacon condemned magic and alchemy on + | ethical grounds. He accused them of + | imposture and of megalomania. He + | refuted their non-participatory + | method and their intentional + | unintelligibility, their attempt to + | replace human sweat by a few drops of + | elixir. But he borrows from the + | magico-alchemical tradition the idea + | that man can attempt to make himself + | the master of nature. Bacon + | understands knowledge not as + | contemplation or recognition, but as + | VENATIO, a hunt, an exploration of + | unknown lands, a discovery of the + | unknown. Nature can be transformed + | from its foundations. Bacon's + | definition of man as "the servant and + | interpreter of Nature" is the same + | definition we find in the magico- + | alchemical tradition, for instance in + | the texts of Cornelius Agrippa von + | Nettesheim. + | + | But for all the exponents of magic + | and alchemistic culture, the texts of + | ancient wisdom take the form of + | sacred texts which indude secrets + | that only a few men can decipher The + | truth is hidden in the past and in + | the profound. Like when dealing with + | sacred texts, it is necessary + | continuously to go BEYOND THE LETTER, + | in search of a message which is more + | and more hidden.The secret message + | expresses a Truth which is at the + | Origins and which is always the same. + | + | In the Hermetic tradition, as in the + | tradition of Platonism, the natural + | world is conceived as the image or + | living manifestation of God. + | Understanding nature can reveal the + | presence in the world of divine ideas + | and archetypes. Bacon's rejection of + | any natural philosophy founded on + | allegorical interpretations of + | Scriptures meant a withdrawal from + | exemplarism and symbolism, both + | common features of mediaeval + | philosophy and still flourishing in + | the seventeenth century. As all works + | --says Bacon--show the power and + | ability of their maker, but not his + | image, so God's works "do shew the + | omnipotency and wisdom of the maker + | but not his image" (III, 350). The + | distinction between the will and + | power of God, so fully and subtly + | present in Baconian texts, is very + | important. "The heavens declare the + | glory of God, and the firmament + | showeth his handworks": this verse + | from the Psalms (18,2) is quoted by + | Bacon several times. The image of the + | world, immediately after the Word, is + | a sign of the divine wisdom and + | power, and yet the Scriptures do not + | call the world ,"the image of God," + | but regard it only as "the work of + | his hands," neither do they speak of + | any image of God other than man. + | Theology is concerned with knowing + | the book of the word of God, natural + | philosophy studies the book of God's + | works. The book of Scripture reveals + | the will of God, the book of nature, + | his power. The study of nature has + | nothing to say about God's essence or + | his will (IV; 340-3). + | + | Bacon proposed to the European + | culture an alternative view of + | science. For him science had a + | public, democratic, and collaborative + | character, individual efforts + | contributing to its general success. + | In science, as Bacon conceives it, + | truly effective results (not the + | illusory achievements of magicians + | and alchemists) can be attained only + | through collaboration among + | researchers, circulation of results, + | and clarity of language. Scientific + | understanding is not an individual + | undertaking. The extension of man's + | power over nature is never the work + | of a single investigator who keeps + | his results secret, but is the fruit + | of an organized community financed by + | the state or by public bodies. Every + | reform of learning is always a reform + | also of cultural institutions and + | universities. + | + | Not only a new image of science, but + | also a new portrait of the "natural + | philosopher" took shape in Bacon's + | writings. This portrait differed both + | from that of the ancient philosopher + | or sage and from the image of the + | saint, the monk, the university + | professor, the courtier, the perfect + | prince, the magus. The values and the + | ends theorized for the composite + | groups of intellectuals and artisans + | who contributed in the early + | seventeenth century to the + | development of science were different + | from the goals of individual sanctity + | or literary immortality and from the + | aims of an exceptional and "demonic" + | personality. + | + | A chaste patience, a natural modesty, + | grave and composed manners, a smiling + | pity are the characteristics of the + | man of science in Bacon's portrait of + | him. In the REDARGUTIO PHILOSOPHIARUM + | Bacon wrote: + | + | Then he told me that in Paris a + | friend had taken him along and + | introduced him to a gathering, 'the + | sight of which', he said, 'would + | rejoice your eyes. lt was the + | happiest experience of my life'. + | There were some fifty men there, all + | of mature years, not a young man + | among them, all bearing the stamp of + | dignity and probity... At his entry + | they were chatting easily among + | themselves but sitting in rows as if + | expecting somebody. Not long after + | there entered to them a man of + | peaceful and serene air, save that + | his face had become habituated to the + | expression of pity... he took his + | seat, not on a platform or pulpit, + | but on level with the rest and + | delivered the following address... + | (III, 559; Farrington's translation). + | + | Bacon's portrait doubtless resembles + | Galileo or Einstein more than it does + | the turbulent Paracelsus or the + | unquiet and skittish Cornelius + | Agrippa. The titanic bearing of the + | Renaissance magus is now supplanted + | by a classical composure similar to + | that of the "conversations" of the + | earliest Humanists. Also in Galileo's + | DIALOGO and in Descartes's RECHERCHE + | DE LA VERITÉ we find the same + | familiar tone and style of + | conversation in which [Descartes + | wrote] "several friends, frankly and + | without ceremony, disclose the best + | of their thoughts to each other." But + | there is besides, in Bacon, the quiet + | confidence that comes from knowing + | the new powers made available to man + | by technology and collaboration.The + | new kind of learning, for which Bacon + | is searching, must get away from + | touches of genius, arbitrary + | conclusions, chance, hasty summaries. + | The emphasis Iaid by Bacon on the + | social factor in scientific research + | and in determining its ends, places + | his philosophy on a radically + | different plane from that of the + | followers of Hermetic tradition." + | + | In DE SAPIENTIA VETERUM Bacon + | describes Orpheus as the mythical + | prototype of the philosopher ("Orpheus + | sive Philosophia", VI, 646-649). + | + | 1B. + | Bacon gives the following + | definition of "interpretation: "that + | reason which is elicited from facts + | by a just and methodological process, + | I call INTERPRETATION OF NATURE" (IV, + | 51). Now, this definition means a + | harsh critique of Aristotelianism, + | Scholasticism and Ramism. Michel + | Malherbe comments on this: + | + | "The main and most characteristic + | feature of Bacon's epistemology is + | that it rests upon a single method, + | which is INDUCTION... It must help + | the understanding on its way toward + | truth... Thus, true knowledge will go + | from a lower certainty to a higher + | liberty and from a lower liberty to a + | higher certainty, and so on. This + | rule is the basic principle of + | Bacon's theory of science; prepared + | in the natural and experimental + | history, determining the relationship + | between the tables of presence, it + | governs the induction of axioms and + | the abstraction of notions and + | ordains the divisions of sciences + | within the general system of + | knowledge. lt is well known that this + | rule of invention originates in + | Ramus's methodology and, more + | formerly, in Aristotle's POSTERIOR + | ANALYTICS. To characterize the nature + | of the premises required for the + | foundation of true demonstrations, + | Aristotle had set down three + | criteria: the predicate must be true + | in every instance of its subject; it + | must be part of the essential nature + | of the subject; and it must be + | universal, that is, related to the + | subject by itself and QUA itself. + | Aristotle was defining first + | propositions as being essential + | propositions; and he referred + | universality to necessity and + | extension to comprehension These + | three criteria were much commented + | upon during the whole scholastic + | period, and were transformed, or + | rather extended, by Ramus and others + | in the sixteenth century. Whereas in + | Aristotle they had expressed the + | initial conditions of any conclusive + | syllogism, in Ramus they became the + | conditions of every systematic art: + | within a system, methodically + | organized for the exhibiting of + | knowledge, any statement must be + | taken in its full extension, it must + | join things which are necessarily + | related and it must be equivalent to + | a definition. But these rules for + | syllogistic or dialectic art in + | Aristotle or Ramus become rules for + | inductive invention in Bacon: and + | their meaning is quite different. + | With the rule of certainty and + | liberty, Bacon aims at directiy + | opposing the old logic, infected by + | syllogistic or rhetoric formalism. + | + | By its title, the NOVUM ORGANUM makes + | Bacon's ambition clear: to replace + | the Aristotelian organon, which has + | governed all knowledge until the end + | of the sixteenth century with an + | entirely new logical instrument, a + | new method for the progress and + | profit of human science. And the + | Chancellor proclaims that he has + | achieved his aim, if posterity + | acknowledges that, even if he has + | failed to discover new truths or + | produce new works, he will have built + | the means to discover such truths or + | to produce such works (III, 520). He + | insists that his method has nothing + | to do with the old one nor does it + | try to improve it. And he puts out + | the choice in these terms: + | + | There are and can be only two ways of + | searching into and discovering truth. + | The one flies from the senses and + | particulars to the most general + | axioms, and from these principles, + | the truth of which it takes tor + | settled and immoveable, proceeds to + | judgment and to the discovery of + | middle axioms. And this way is now in + | fashion. The other derives axioms + | from the senses and particulars, + | rising by a gradual and unbroken + | ascent, so that it arrives at the + | most general axioms last of all. This + | is the true way, but as yet untried. + | (IV, 50) + | + | When it is left to itself, the + | understanding follows the first way, + | hastily applies itself to reality and + | generates ANTICIPATIONS OF NATURE. + | But "that reason which is elicited + | from facts by a just and + | methodological process, I call + | INTERPRETATION OF NATURE" (IV, 51). + | + | Taken as a whole, Bacon's critique + | comes to this: from a formal point of + | view, Aristotle's syllogism is + | essentially a logic for deductive + | reasoning, which goes from the + | principles to the consequences, from + | the premises to the conclusions. And, + | of course, in this kind of reasoning, + | the truth of the conclusions is + | necessarily derived from the truth of + | the premises, so that knowledge will + | start with primary truths that are + | supposed to be necessary and + | universal, that is, essential. Now, + | Bacon asks, how does the mind acquire + | the knowledge of these primary + | truths, since, as it is allowed by + | Aristotle himself, all knowledge + | starts with experience, which + | experience is always contingent and + | particular? How does the mind go from + | the empirical knowledge of facts or + | sensible effects (phenomena) to the + | knowledge of the very nature of + | things? The formal necessity of the + | syllogism (or deductive reasoning) + | makes the old logic forget the pre- + | judicial question of how we set up + | first principles. Therefore, any + | attempt to define the valid form of + | theories must go through the inquiry + | upon how we establish truth. + | + | From this general critique, it is + | easy to understand Bacon's various + | comments on the old organon. First, + | since such a logic induces a kind of + | double start, the empirical one and + | the rational one, and since it + | confuses the origin of knowledge with + | its foundation, the mind is condemned + | to jump immediately from empirical + | particulars to first principles (or + | axioms, in Bacon's terms) and to + | render superfluous the required + | induction which would gradually lead + | from one point to the other. This + | instantaneous slip from empirical + | data to rational and essential dogmas + | is made possible by the very nature + | of the human mind. Left to itself, + | the mind hurries toward certainty; it + | is prone to gain assent and consent; + | it fills the imagination with idols, + | untested generalities. And it is this + | natural haste and prejudice which + | gives mental activity its + | anticipative form. By themselves, + | anticipations draw the most general + | principles from immediate experience, + | in order to proceed, as quickly as + | possible, to the formal deduction of + | consequences. Therefore, however + | paradoxical it may appear, the old + | logic is unduly empirical and unduly + | logical. And the critique of + | formalism [formalism draws the + | conclusions from the premises without + | inquiring upon the truth of the + | premises] must be attended by the + | critique of the nature of the human + | mind. + | + | The human mind is so disposed that it + | relies on the senses, which provide + | it with the rudiments of all + | knowledge. Of course, Bacon argues, + | we cannot get any information about + | things except with the senses, and + | skeptics are wrong when, questioning + | them, they plunge the mind into + | despair. "But by far the greatest + | hindrance and aberration of the human + | understanding proceeds from the + | dulness, incompetency, and deceptions + | of the senses" (IV, 58). On the one + | hand, they are too dull and too + | gross, and let the more subtle parts + | of nature escape our observation: + | their range is limited to the most + | conspicuous information. On the other + | hand, they are misleading, by a + | fundamental illusion: they offer + | things to the mind according to the + | measure of human nature. "For it is a + | false assertion that the sense of man + | is the measure of things. On the + | contrary, all perceptions as well of + | the sense as of the mind are + | according to the measure of the + | individual and not according to the + | measure of the universe" (IV, 54). In + | order to have access to reality, we + | have to rectify their information and + | reduce a double delusion: the + | illusion that the sensible qualities + | offered by them are the real + | determinations of things and the + | illusion that things are divided + | according to our human sensibility + | (IV, 194 et sq.). + | + | Thus we can understand a third + | critique against the old method: the + | Aristotelian logic rests upon a + | metaphysics which believes that + | sensible experience gives the human + | mind the things as they are, with + | their essential qualities, and that + | philosophy can be satisfied with + | taking empirical phenomena for the + | true reality of nature, thanks to a + | mere generalization that erases the + | particular circumstances of + | existence. Nevertheless, empirically + | qualified existences are not to be + | mistaken for the things themselves. + | So far, Bacon is undoubtedly a + | modern, since he claims that the + | object of knowledge is reality and + | that reality, if it can be + | inductively known from empirical + | data, cannot be reduced to the matter + | of experience. + | + | Bacon's fourth censure of the old + | logic follows from this. He agrees + | with the sixteenth-century + | dialecticians that Aristotle was + | wrong when he thought that + | understanding could skip, without the + | hard work of induction, from what is + | immediately given to the senses to + | what is posed in the first principles + | of science. Aristotle wanted to know + | the truth, but did not explain the + | method of invention. On the other + | hand, the dialecticians, giving up + | the attempt to set up the first + | principles (and thereby the + | traditional Aristotelian + | demonstrative science), gave up any + | attempt to reach the truth. They only + | retained the deductive and systematic + | form of discourse to introduce order + | into men's opinions, and maintained + | that invention could be reduced to + | the mere search for arguments, that + | is, for probable reasons invented to + | persuade or convince. + | + | Bacon, however, wants to promote the + | idea of an inductive science and + | argues that Aristotle's mistake + | affects the syllogistic form. In the + | fourth chapter of the fifth book of + | the DE AUGMENTIS, Bacon develops a + | remarkable critique of the syllogism + | and is partly responsible for the + | widespread disregard of formal logic + | in the seventeenth and eighteenth + | centuries. + | + | According to Bacon, "in all + | inductions, whether in good or + | vicious form the same action of the + | mind which inventeth, judgeth" (III, + | 392). One cannot find without + | proving, nor prove without finding. + | But this is not the case in the + | syllogism: "for the proof being not + | immediate but by mean, the invention + | of the mean is one thing, and the + | judgement of the consequence is + | another, the one exciting only, the + | other examining" (III, 392). The + | syllogism needs the means (the middle + | term) so that the derived conclusion + | amounts to a proof. But since the + | syllogism is incapable of inventing + | the middle term, it must have been + | known before. In other words, + | syllogistic form leaves the invention + | of the middle term to the natural + | shrewdness of the mind or to good + | fortune. Thus, it is because of its + | own demonstrative form that the + | syllogism is unable to provide a + | method of truth and is useless for + | science. + | + | By now it is clear why the old logic + | and the knowledge which is built on it + | are unable to produce works or why the + | extant works "are due to chance and + | experience rather than to sciences" + | (IV, 48). To deduce practical effects, + | the mind must know real causes or laws + | of nature. Since the old method does + | not supply the mind with the means of + | inventing causes and does not set up + | the scale of the intermediate + | propositions that are needed to reduce + | sensible experience and reach the real + | science, or to derive rightly and by + | degrees the consequences from the + | principles, it is not surprising that + | invented works are too few and not + | very useful for men's lives. Thus, + | from the start in sensible experience + | to the end in practical deduction, + | this old method is of no use. And an + | entirely new one must be proposed, + | which will be able to carry the human + | mind from empirical data to the real + | causes, to supply it with the means of + | invention, to justify the position of + | first truths and to manage a secure + | deduction of practical consequences. + | And, as the critique of the old logic + | has to be understood as a whole, so + | the interpretation of nature has to be + | conceived as a continuous attempt, + | proceeding by degrees, by successive + | stages, to invent truth and to derive + | works. ("Bacon's method of science", + | in: THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO BACON. + | ed. by Markku Peltonen [1996], 76-82). + | + | 1C. + | Harvey Wheeler comments: + | + | Most historians of the philosophy of science + | are unfamiliar with Bacon's transformation + | of his innovative theory of juridical + | lawfinding into scientific empiricist + | lawfinding. Baconian law-finding is not to + | be confused with cause-finding in modern + | "classical" physics. + | + | Bacon's quest changed as he matured. In + | VALERIUS TERMINUS he is writing in + | English, trying to lay the groundwork for + | the validity of the co-existence of Religion + | and Science. + | + | Bacon’s early experimental treatises--like + | Dense and Rare--are experimental and of + | limited value. Historians of the philosophy + | of science have little trouble in disposing + | these early experimentalist efforts of Bacon. + | + | His work on sound was somewhat better-- + | experimental-theoretical. It is a + | post-pythagorean theory of harmonics and + | still not appropriately analyzed. + | Contemproary musicologists like to quote + | the passages on sound in NEW ATLANTIS + | for being compatible with today’s approach + | to music. + | + | By the time of the Novum Organum Bacon + | was seeking a more "general theory of + | science." Its 'logic machine' (Hooke) was + | designed to be relevant to all + | non-theological domains. + | + | However, most Bacon interpreters evaluate + | his science in contrast to the prior + | Aristotelian approaches and in comparison + | to the Ramist approaches of Bacon’s day. + | He rejected them both. + | + | Scholars then look beyond Bacon and + | evaluate his logic machine in contrast to the + | "classical mechanics" of Newtonian Optics + | (physics): linear time-sequence prediction. + | + | Bacon was not seeking that type of + | "cause/prediction"science. He was seeking + | hidden, "unwritten" "laws" of nature, + | more on the model of Pasteur than of + | Newton. + | + | Any treatment that tries to interpret + | Bacon's Logic Machine in the light of what + | classical physics called "science" will + | distort Bacon's meaning and achievement. + | + | Note: if a scholar's interpretation of + | Bacon's Science does not square with the + | detailed description of the application of + | Bacon's science in "Salomon's House" in + | NEW ATLANTIS, it should be viewed with + | scepticism. + | + | Bacon's science is more applicable to what + | we call post-modern neo-hermeutics than to + | Newtonian mechanics. (Patrick Heelan is + | good on post-modern neo-hermeneutics.) + | + | Consider: why did Bacon conclude that his + | New Logic Machine would produce + | scientific knowledge in the form of + | aphorisms and apothegms--not linear + | time-sequence predictions? + | + | To summarize the above:: Most + | contemporary interpreters of Bacon + | evaluate his science by comparison with + | Newtonian mechanics. If one interprets + | Bacon on the basis of classical mechanics, + | the result will not truly reflect Bacon's + | science. + | + | A more fruitful modern model is the + | Watson-Crick type of "science" illustrated + | by their discovery of the double helix. Their + | process, as described carefully in Watson's + | book, could have been lifted from Bacon. It + | was not. But the point is that it tells of a + | highly successful, highly empiricist (in + | Bacon's and Kant's meaning of + | phenomenological empiricism) approach to + | the "understanding" of the "unwritten + | laws" of cell theory and genetics. + | + | NOTE: It is very instructive to study why + | Linus Pauling failed to dsiscover the genetic + | code. He was an expert in the physics of + | biochemistry and applied quantum theory + | to molecular biology. His theory of the + | molecular bond won a Nobel Laureate. + | + | Read Watson's explanation of why Pauling + | failed to crack the genetic code. + | + | Guenther Stent, the molecular biologist of + | U.C. Berkeley is an avowed Kantian + | who narrowly missed cracking the genetic + | code, His philosophy of science is + | highly relevant to the application of + | neo-hermeneutics to contemporary biology. + | + | Today's philosophy of physics, as developed + | by John Wheeler and David Bohm + | describes a "Baconian" idea of the + | "participant-observer universe" to account + | "scientifically" and empirically for the + | evidence produced in post-modern physics. + | + | I hold to two points that may not persuade + | others. The first is the relevance of + | "law-finding" to the phenemonological + | empiricism at the heart of Bacon's Nov Org + | logic machine--as contrasted with his early + | experimentalism. The second is the + | standard for us to use in evaluating Bacon's + | science. Those who apply the model of + | science widespread in the social sciences + | and humanities during the 19th and mid + | 20th centuries--essentially a model based + | upon pre-Einsteinian physics--argue that + | Bacon's science is not "science." + | + | In the last half of the 20th century + | "science" in both the "hard" and "soft" + | sciences underwent the so-called "second + | scientific revolution." The results, in + | physics and biology, produced a + | phenomenology and an empiricism + | that were both quite compatible with the + | pre-Newtonian science of Bacon. + | + | About 80% of the actual research in + | laboratories done today by scientists of + | all fields, (unaware) follows remarkably + | closely to the process explained by + | Bacon in Novum Organum and described in + | New Atlantis--except that taskforce + | research is not today quite as well + | organized as was described by Bacon in + | New Atlantis. + | + | In thinking of Bacon's philosophy of science + | remember the three features in the Latin of + | Novum Organum: Schematismus, + | Processus, Form. These operations, which + | have counterparts in the "case method" of + | searching for the implicit unwritten law + | behind a series of judge rulings, cannot be + | understood from a reading of the Ellis + | translation. Nobody who works from that + | version can understand, nor do justice to, + | Bacon's science. +with the Annotations of | +Hermes Stella{2} | 2. Franz Trägfer sums up the +Harley MSS.6463 | discussion on "Hermes Stella" + | and "Valerius Terminus" "Der Titel des + | Fragments wurde zweimal entscheidend + | interpretiert. Ellis (Vorwort, + | 201/2): + | + | "It is impossible to ascertain + | the motive which determined + | Bacon to give the supposed + | author the name of Valerius + | Terminus, or to his + | commentator, of whose + | annotations we have no remains, + | that of Hermes Stella. It may + | be conjectured that by the name + | Terminus he intended to + | intimate that the new + | philosophy would put an end to + | the wandering of mankind in + | search of truth, that it would + | be the TERMINUS AD QAEM in + | which when it was once attained + | the mind would finally + | acquiesce. + | + | Again the obscurity of the text + | was to be in some measure + | removed by the annotations of + | Stella; not however wholly, for + | Bacon in the epitome of the + | eighteenth chapter commends the + | manner of publishing knowledge + | 'whereby it shall not be to the + | capacity nor taste of all, but + | shall as it were single and + | adopt his reader.' Stella was + | therefore to throw a kind of + | starlight on the subject, + | enough to prevent the student's + | losing his way, but not much + | more." + | + | Die andere klassische + | Interpretation gibt Anderson + | (op.cit.16/17): + | + | "The word 'terminus' probably + | indicates the 'limits and end' + | to which investigation may + | proceed. The ANNOTATIONS, of + | which 'none are set down in + | this fragments'--to quote a + | statement written on the + | manuscript by Bacon's hand, are + | to throw a light as by a star + | (STELLA). Now 'star' is the + | symbol used by Bacon in the + | GESTA GRAYORUM, the ADVANCEMENT + | OF LEARNING, and the DE + | AUGMENTIS to represent the + | sovereign. And the significance + | which he attaches to the word + | 'Hermes' is evident from his + | address to King James in the + | Introduction to the ADVANCEMENT + | OF LEARNING. 'There is met in + | your Majesty, says Bacon, 'a + | rare conjunction as well of + | divine and sacred literature as + | of profane and human; so as + | your Majesty standeth invested + | of that triplicity which in + | great veneration was ascribed + | to the ancient Hermes; the + | power and fortune of a King, + | the knowledge and illumination + | of a Priest, and the learning + | and the universality of a + | Philosopher.' Bacon is, or + | pretended to be, greatly + | impressed by James's learning: + | 'To drink indeed', he says, 'of + | the true fountains of learning, + | nay to have such a fountain of + | learning in himself, in a king, + | and in a king born, is always a + | miracle.' And it would appear + | that he hopes at the beginning + | of James's reign--long before + | he suffers disillusionment + | respecting his sovereign's + | interest in the advance of + | 'solid' knowledge--that, + | whether or not he can obtain a + | greater position of state + | beyond that alloted to him by + | Elizabeth, he may be enabled to + | have the modern Hermes, king of + | the realm and head of the + | church, and a literary man of + | no mean fame and importance, + | annote a subject's work on the + | new science. James, when he has + | done this, may well be + | prevailed upon to make + | provision for the operation of + | the new method of knowledge + | either by subsidizing helpers + | or by placing at the author's + | disposal old or new foundations + | of learning (Works, II, 175, + | 180; VI, 90, 172; VIII, 396, + | 401)." + | + | Brandt (op.cit., 54) Iehnt + | diese Interpretation ab: + | "1. findet sich keine klare + | Bezeichnung des Königs als + | eines Sterns, es läßt sich den + | von Anderson angegebenen Texten + | nicht entnehmen, daß Stella als + | Symbol für Jakob I. zu gelten + | hat. 2. kann nur ein König als + | Hermes-Trismegistos + | angesprochen werden (so VIII, + | 335 und I, 432, nicht in der + | englischen Fassung III, 263), + | weil im Namen die Einheit von + | Priester, Philosoph und König + | liegt, aber im Titel unserer + | Schrift steht nur Hermes, und + | die Figur des Hermes hat eme + | vielfältige Bedeutung; Hermes + | ist der Grenzgott, auf ihn wird + | schon in dem Wort 'Terminus' + | des Titels angespielt; weiter + | ist Hermes der Götterbote, der + | 'hermeneus' oder Interpret-- + | die Hermesmythologie ist + | hineingesponnen in die + | interpretatio naturae, die sich + | Bacon zur Aufgabe stellt und in + | seine Rolle als 'keryx´ und + | `buccinator', als Bote des + | Friedens (I, 580-581). Man wird + | also lieber Hermes Stella eine + | der vielen Masken Bacons sein + | lassen und sich damit zugleich + | von der peinlichen Vorstellung + | befreien, Bacon künde im Titel + | seines Werkes an, daß der König + | die Fußnoten dazu verfaßt (eben + | das folgt aus der Annahme von + | Anderson)." + | + | Dieser Auseinandersetzung urn + | die Bedeutung des Titels eine + | neue Erklärung anzufügen, halte + | ich, solange keine neuen + | Dokumente gefunden werden, für + | wenig sinnvoll. Allein, es sei + | angemerkt, wollten wir uns mit + | Brandt von dieser peinlichen + | Vorstellung bezüglich Bacons + | Denken und Trachten befreien, + | so blieben noch genug + | Peinlichkeiten der Hybris + | Bacons." + | + | Franz Träger (Hg.), Valerius + | Terminus. Von der + | Interpretation der Natur + | Würzburg: Königshausen und + | Neumann, 1984,25-26. + | +in: The Works of Francis Bacon. Faksimile- | +Neudruck der Ausgabe von Spedding, Ellis | +und Heath, London 1857-1874, in vierzehn | +Bänden (Stuttgart/Bad Cannstadt: Friedrich | +Fromann, Verlag Günther Holzboog, 1963), | +vol. 3.{3} | 3. Franz Träger discovered that the + | Spedding & Ellis as MS6462 is not + | correct, in fact it is MS6463. In + | his opinion Valerius Terminus was + | written before The Advancement of + | Learning. Anderson, Farrington + | and Rossi also have the opinion + | that it was written in 1603. + | Stephens in his edition of 1734 + | uses the same order as the + | handwritten copy of Bacon's text. + | Later editors, including Spedding + | and Ellis, choose an order which + | corresponds to Bacon's new order + | of chapters given in his index. + | Franz Träger compared the + | translation of the 11th chapter + | with the translation of Guiseppe + | Furlani, DIE ENTSTEHUNG UND DAS + | WESEN DER BACONISCHEN METHODE in: + | Archiv für Geschichte der + | Philosophie, ed. L. Stein, 33. + | Bd., Berlin, 1921, S.23-47. (1. + | Teil, 32. Bd., S. 189 ff). + | Träger has also checked the + | following Bacon translations: + | + | ESSAYS, übers. von Elisabeth + | Schücking, Stuttgart, 1970; + | + | NEUES ORGANON DER WISSENSCHAFTEN, + | übers. von Anton Theobald Brück, + | Darmstadt, 1981 (Nachdruck der + | Ausgabe, Leipzig, 1830); + | + | NOVUM ORGANON, übers. von Rudolf + | Hoffmann, bearb. von Gertraud Korf, + | hrsg. von Manfred Buhr, Berlin (DDR), + | 1982. + | + | + | + | + | + | +OF THE INTERPRETATION OF NATURE. | + | + | +CAP. 1. | +Of the limits and end of knowledge. | + | +In the divine nature both religion and | +philosophy hath acknowledged goodness in | +perfection, science or providence | +comprehending all things, and absolute | +sovereignty or kingdom. In aspiring to the | +throne of power the angels transgressed | +and fell{4}, in presuming to come within | 4. Antje Peters checked the Old +the oracle of knowledge man transgressed | Testament and the New Testament on the +and | fall of the angels: + | + | Jesaja 14, 14 + | Das Judentum ist geprägt von der + | antithetisch parallelen Vorstellung + | von Dämonen und Engeln als Schädiger + | bzw. Helfer des Menschen. Sie wird in + | der Erzählung vom Engelfall entfaltet. + | + | Das Buch Jesaja (Jes 14,12ff)14:12 + | Ach, du bist vom Himmel gefallen, du + | strahlender Sohn der Morgenröte. Zu + | Boden bist du geschmettert, du + | Bezwinger der Völker. + | + | 14:13 Du aber hattest in deinem + | Herzen gedacht: Ich ersteige den + | Himmel; dort oben stelle ich meinen + | Thron auf, über den Sternen Gottes; + | auf den Berg der (Götter)versammlung + | setze ich mich, im äußersten Norden. + | + | 14:14 Ich steige weit über die Wolken + | hinauf, um dem Höchsten zu gleichen. + | + | 14:15 Doch in die Unterwelt wirst du + | hinabgeworfen, in die äußerste Tiefe. + | + | Im AT gehörte Satan zu den "Söhnen + | Gottes" im himmlischen Hofstaat, wie + | die wohl alte Vorstellung Ijob 1,6 + | zeigt. + | + | Das Buch Ijob (Ijob 1,6)1:6 Nun + | geschah es eines Tages, da kamen die + | Gottessöhne, um vor den Herrn + | hinzutreten; unter ihnen kam auch der + | Satan. + | + | Er gilt als Diener Gottes und + | verkörpert eine ursprünglich Gott + | zugeschriebene Funktion. + | Der von dann von Gott abgefallene und + | mit seinem Diener aus dem Himmel + | gestürzte Engelsfürst wird zum Gegner + | Gottes und Verführer der Menschen. + | + | Auch im NT findet der Teufel als ein + | oder der Fürst der gefallenen bösen + | Engel Erwähnung. + | + | Das Evangelium nach Lukas (Lk + | 10,18)10:18 Da sagte er zu ihnen: Ich + | sah den Satan wie einen Blitz vom + | Himmel fallen. + | + | Der zweite Brief an die Korinther (2 + | Kor 11,14)11:14 Kein Wunder, denn auch + | der Satan tarnt sich als Engel des + | Lichts. + | + | + | Neben den Bibeltexten wird Bacon auch + | "De Civitate Dei" (Der Gottesstaat) + | von Aurelius Augustinus, dem größten + | lateinischen Kirchenlehrer des + | christlichen Altertums, vorgelegen + | haben, in der das Thema Engelfall + | mehrfach unter verschiedenen + | Gesichtspunkten erwähnt wird. + | So wird im elften Buch die Situation + | der Engel besonders beleuchtet. + | + | Buch XI, 11 + | ... Von dieser Erleuchtung haben sich + | gewisse Engel abgewendet und sich die + | Auszeichnung eines weisen und seligen + | Lebens nicht bewahrt, das zweifellos + | nur das ewige, seiner Ewigkeit sichere + | und vergewisserte Leben sein kann. Sie + | besitzen nur noch ein Vernunftleben, + | wenn auch ein einsichtsloses und + | derart, daß sie es, selbst wenn sie + | wollen, nicht verlieren können. ... + | + | Buch XI, 13 + | ... Die sündigen Engel, die durch ihre + | Schlechtigkeit jenes Lichtes verlustig + | gingen, haben sie (die + | Glückseligkeit), wie wir schlüssig + | folgern müssen, auch bevor sie fielen, + | nicht gehabt. ... + | + | Buch XI, 19 + | ... Denn diese Scheidung (zwischen + | Licht und Finsteris) konnte nur er + | allein treffen, der auch, bevor sie + | fielen, ihren künftigen Fall + | vorauswissen kont, und daß sie, des + | Lichtes der Wahrheit verlustig, im + | finsteren Hochmut verharren würden. + | + | Buch XI, 33 + | Daß es aber Engel gibt, die gesündigt + | haben und in die tiefste Tiefe dieser + | Welt verstoßen sind, die ihnen zu + | einer Art von Kerker wurde, darin sie + | bis zur bevorstehenden letzten + | Verurteilung am Tage des Gerichtes zu + | bleiben haben: das offenbart ganz + | deutlich der Apostel Petrus. Er sagt, + | daß Gott die sündigen Engel nicht + | geschont, sondern sie in die finsteren + | Abgründe der Hölle hinabgestoßen hat, + | wo die bis zur Bestrafung im Gerichte + | gefangengehalten werden. ... + | ... Und da ja Gott, wie geschrieben + | steht, "den Stolzen widersteht, den + | Demütigen aber Gnade gibt" (Jak 4,6; 1 + | Petr 5,5), wohnt die eine + | (Engelsgenossenschaft) im Himmel der + | Himmel und ist die andre von dort + | hinabgestürzt in diesen untersten + | Lufthimmel, um hier ruhelos in und her + | zu schwirren. + | + | Buch XXII,1 + | Gott ist es, der mit dem freiwilligen + | Sturz der Engel die völlig gerechte + | Strafe ewiger Unseligkeit verknüpft + | hat und den übrigen Engeln, die im + | höchsten Gut verblieben sind, als Lohn + | für ihr Verbleiben die Sicherheit + | gewährt hat, daß dieses Verbleiben + | kein Ende haben wird. + | + | Aufgrund dieser Erkenntnisse zieht + | Augustin Parallelen zum Leben der + | Menschen, besonders im 12. Buch: + | + | Buch XII,1 + | ... Während die einen standhaft in dem + | allen gemeinsamen Gut, das für sie + | Gott selbst ist, und in seiner + | Ewigkeit, Wahrheit und Liebe + | verharren, sind die anderen, von ihrer + | eigenen Macht berauscht, als wären sie + | sich selbst ihr Gut , vom höheren, + | allen gemeinsamen, beseligenden Gut + | zum eigenen Selbst abgefallen. ... +fell{5}: but in pursuit towards the | 5. Spedding's footnote:This clause is +similitude of God's goodness or love | repeated in the margin, in the +(which is one thing, for love is nothing | transcriber's hand. +else but goodness put in motion or | +applied) neither man or spirit ever | +hath transgressed, or shall transgress.{6} | 6. similarly in: : I.M. Praefatio Sp. + | I,132, 19-22; AL Sp. III, 12 seq. +The angel of light that was, when he | (D.A. Sp. I, 742, 1 9 seq. (footnote +presumed before his fall, said within | taken from the French translation of +himself, I WILL ASCEND AND BE LIKE UNTO | Valerius Terminus by Francois Vert, + | Meridiens Klincksieck, 1986) +THE HIGHEST{7}; not God, but the highest. | 7. Isaiah 14, 14: +To be like to God in goodness, was no part | Authorized Version: I will ascend +of his emulation; knowledge, being in | above the heights of the clouds; I +creation an angel of light, was not the | will be like the most high. +want which did most solicit him; only | +because he was a minister he aimed at a | +supremacy; therefore his climbing or | +ascension was turned into a throwing down | +or precipitation. | + | +Man on the other side, when he was tempted | +before he fell, had offered unto him this | +suggestion, THAT HE SHOULD BE LIKE | +UNTO GOD{8}. But how? Not simply, but in | 8. Genesis 3, 5: +this part, KNOWING GOOD AND EVIL. For | Authorized Version: For God does know +being in his creation invested with | that in the day ye eat thereof, then +sovereignty of all inferior | your eyes shall be opened, and ye + | shall be as gods, knowing good and + | evil. + | + | For Bacon's alleged use of the Geneva + | Bible see Henri Durel-Leon in + | Transactions of the Cambridge + | Bibliographical Society, XI:2 (1997), + | p. 160 and n. 74, modified in the + | direction of AV by, probably, Lancelot + | Andrewes in AL. (Thanks to Dr. + | Leedham-Green) + | + | Geneva Bible: The First Boke of Moses, + | called Genesis, Chap 3,4+5: Then the + | serpent said to the woman, Ye shal not + | dye at all, But God doeth knowe, that + | when ye shall eat thereof, your eyes + | shalbe opened, & ye shalbe as gods + | knowing good and evil. [footnote c: As + | thogh he shulde say, God doeth not + | forbid you to eat of the frute, save + | that he knoweth that if you shulde eat + | thereof, you shulde be like to him] + | + | Authorized Version: And the serpent + | said unto the woman, Ye shall not + | surely die: For God doth know that in + | the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes + | shall be opened, and ye shall be as + | gods, knowing good and evil. + | + | Vulgata: dixit autem serpens ad + | mulierem nequaquam morte moriemini / + | scit enim Deus quod in quocumque die + | comederitis ex eo aperientur oculi + | vestri et eritis sicut dii scientes + | bonum et malum +creatures{9}, he was not needy of power or | 9. Genesis I, 1,26 +dominion; but again, being a spirit newly | Geneva Bible: Furthermore God said, +inclosed in a body of earth, he was | Let us make man in our image according +fittest to be allured with appetite of | to our lickeness, and let them rule +light and liberty of knowledge; therefore | over the fish of the sea, and over the +this approaching and intruding into God's | foule of the heaven, and over the +secrets and mysteries was rewarded with a | beastes, & over all the earth, and +further removing and estranging from God's | over everiething that crepeth & moveth +presence. But as to the goodness of God, | on earth. +there is no danger in contending or | +advancing towards a similitude thereof, as | Authorized Version: And God said, Let +that which is open and propounded to our | us make man in our image, after our +imagination. For that voice (whereof the | likeness: and let them have dominion +heathen and all other errors of religion | over the fish of the sea, and over the +have ever confessed that it sounds not | fowl of the air, and over the cattle, +like man), LOVE YOUR ENEMIES; BE YOU LIKE | and over all the earth, and over every +UNTO YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER, THAT SUFFERETH | creeping thing that creepeth upon the +HIS RAIN TO FALL BOTH UPON | earth. + | + | Vulgata: Et ait faciamus hominem ad + | imaginem et similitudinem nostram et + | praesit piscibus maris et volatilibus + | caeli et bestiis universaeque terrae + | omnique reptili quod movetur in terra +THE JUST AND THE UNJUST{10}, doth well | 10. Matthew 5, 44-45 +declare, that we can in that point commit | Geneva Bible: Love your enemies... +no excess; so again we find it often | That you may be the children of your +repeated in the old law, BE YOU HOLY AS I | Father that is in heaven: for he +AM | maketh his sunne to arise on the + | evil, and the good, and he sendeth + | raine on the iuste, & unjuste. + | + | Authorized Version: Love your + | enemies:... That you may be the + | children of your father which is in + | heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise + | on the evil and on the good, and + | sendeth rain on the just and on the + | unjust. + | Vulgata: Ego autem dico vobis diligite + | inimicos vestros ... ut sitis filii + | Patris vestri qui in caelis est qui + | solem suum oriri facit super bonos et + | malos et pluit super iustos et + | iniustos. +HOLY{11}; and what is holiness else but | 11. Leviticus 11,44: +goodness, as we consider it separate and | Authorized Version: For I am the Lord +guarded from all mixture and all access of | your God: ye shall therefore sanctify +evil? | yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for + | I am holy: neither shall ye defile +Wherefore seeing that knowledge is of the | yourself with any manner of creeping +number of those things which are to be | thing that creepeth upon the earth. +accepted of with caution and | 1 Peter 1, 16: + | + | Authorized Version: For it is written, + | Be ye holy; for I am holy. + | see also Leviticus 20,7 and 20,26 +distinction{12}; being now to open a | 12. cf. A.L. Sp.III, 264, 1.18 (D.A. +fountain, such as it is not easy to | Sp. I, 433, I. 29,30) +discern where the issues and streams | +thereof will take and fall; I thought it | +good and necessary in the first place to | +make a strong and sound head or bank to | +rule and guide the course of the waters; | +by setting down this position or | +firmament{13}, namely, THAT ALL KNOWLEDGE | 13. Melek Hasgün comments: +IS TO BE LIMITED BY RELIGION, AND TO BE | ‘Firmament’ means, apart from the arch +REFERRED | or vault of heaven overhead, in which + | the clouds and the stars appear, in + | the literal etymological sense a firm + | support or foundation. At the + | beginning of his text Bacon sets + | the basis for his further theories. + | According to Bacon it is important not + | to try to find out the secrets and + | mysteries of God or to desire to be + | like God, as was the case in the Fall + | of Man and the Fall of Angels. Thus it + | is forbidden to exceed these limits, + | but to inquire into nature and its + | creatures is legitimate, because God + | has "...let man have dominion over + | (...) all the earth..."(Gen.I, 1,26). + | He maintains that all knowledge is + | limited by religion and by this + | statement he also avoids any suspicion + | on heresy, which could arise because + | of his desire for progress and + | knowledge. +TO USE AND ACTION{14}. | 14. "Ad meritum et usus vitae", Works, + | vol. I, p. 132 ; Italics in order to +For if any man shall think by view and | stress the importance; probably not a +inquiry into these sensible and material | quotation. +things, to attain to any light for the | +revealing of the nature or will of God, he | +shall dangerously abuse himself. It is | +true that the contemplation of the | +creatures of God hath for end (as to the | +natures of the creatures themselves) | +knowledge, but as to the nature of God, no | +knowledge, but wonder; which is nothing | +else but contemplation broken off, or | +losing itself. Nay further, as it was | +aptly said by one of Plato's school THE | +SENSE OF MAN RESEMBLES THE SUN, WHICH | +OPENETH AND REVEALETH THE TERRESTRIAL | +GLOBE, BUT OBSCURETH AND CONCEALETH THE | +CELESTIAL{15}; so doth the sense discover | 15. Philo d'Alexandrie, Des Songes, +natural things, but darken and shut up | Livre I, 83-4 (footnote taken from the +divine. And this appeareth sufficiently in | Vert translation) +that there is no proceeding in invention | +of knowledge but by similitude; and God is | +only self-like, having nothing in common | +with any creature, otherwise than as in | +shadow and trope. Therefore attend his | +will as himself openeth it, and give unto | +faith that which unto faith belongeth{16}; | 16. St. Matthew 22, 21: +for more worthy it is to believe than to | Authorized Version: ... Then saith he +think or know, considering that in | unto them, Render therefore unto +knowledge (as we now are capable of it) | Caesar the things which are Caesar's; +the mind suffereth from inferior natures; | and unto God the things that are +but in all belief it suffereth from a | God's. +spirit which it holdeth superior and | +more authorised than itself.{17} | 17. cf. A.L. Sp. III,478,1.8 sq. (D.A. + | Sp. I, 830, I. 24 seq. +To conclude, the prejudice hath been | +infinite that both divine and human | +knowledge hath received by the | +intermingling and tempering of the one | +with the other; as that which hath filled | +the one full of heresies, and the other | +full of speculative fictions and | 18. similarly: A.L. Sp.III, 350,I.24 +Vanities{18}. | seq. (D.A. Sp. I, 545, I.35 swq.) + | John Channing Briggs (""Bacon's +But now there are again which in a | science and religion", in: THE +contrary extremity to those which give to | CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO BACON, ed. by +contemplation an over-large scope, do | Markku Peltonen, Cambridge 1996) +offer too great a restraint to natural and | comments on Bacon's separation of +lawful knowledge, being unjustly jealous | divinity and natural philosophy +that every reach and depth of knowledge | (quotations in Briggs' text are from +wherewith their conceits have not been | THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING): +acquainted, should be too high an | +elevation of man's wit, and a searching | A longstanding commonplace in Bacon +and ravelling too far into God's secrets; | scholarship has been the notion that +an opinion that ariseth either of envy | the Baconian advancement of learning +(which is proud weakness and to be | depends upon a strict separation of +censured and not confuted), or else of a | divinity and natural philosophy. In +deceitful simplicity. For if they mean | a number of memorable passages Bacon +that the ignorance of a second cause doth | indeed warns his readers of the dire +make men more devoutly to depend upon the | consequences of confusing divinity +providence of God, as supposing the | with natural science: to combine +effects to come immediately from his hand, | them, he says, is to confound them. +I demand of them, as Job demanded of his | This is supposedly what Plato and the +friends, WILL YOU LIE FOR GOD AS MAN WILL | scholastics did, and what Bacon +FOR MAN TO | explicitly designs the new learning + | to overcome. Even the acceptable + | hybrid "divine philosophy," when it + | is "commixed together" with natural + | philosophy, leads to "an heretical + | religion, and an imaginary and + | fabulous philosophy" (III, 350). + | According to this emphatic strand of + | Baconian doctrine, religion that + | joins with the study of nature is in + | danger of becoming atheistic, or an + | enthusiastic rival of the true + | church. Natural philosophy that + | traffics unwisely with divinity + | collapses into idolatry or fakery. + | + | Bacon's exemplum of these abuses in a + | modern proto-science is the divine + | philosophy of the Paracelsian school, + | which seeks "the truth of all natural + | philosophy in the Scriptures." The + | Paracelsians mirror and reverse the + | heresies of pagan pantheism by + | seeking what is "dead" (mortal or + | natural) from among the "living" + | (eternal) truths of divinity, when + | "the scope or purpose of the Spirit + | of God is not to express matters of + | nature in the Scriptures, otherwise + | than in passage, and for application + | to man's capacity and to matters + | moral or divine" (ut 485-6). If we + | take Thomas Sprat at his word, the + | Royal Society was founded on + | generally similar principles. The + | first corruption of knowledge, he + | argues, resulted from the Egyptians' + | concealment of wisdom "as sacred + | Mysteries." The current age of + | inquiry benefitted from "the + | dissolution of the ABBYES, whereby + | their Libraries came forth into the + | light, and fell into industrious Mens + | hands." Surrounded by the warring + | forces of contrary religions (the + | society's rooms at Gresham College, + | London, were occupied by soldiers in + | 1658), the founders of the Royal + | Society--according to Sprat's + | account--were "invincibly arm'd" not + | only against scholastic Catholicism, + | but against the "inchantments of + | ENTHUSIASM" and "spiritual Frensies" + | that sometimes characterized the + | Protestant revolutionaries. + | + | In Bacon's project, there is an + | explicit, delineated role for the + | study of divinity, which he carefully + | separates from his own work. Reason + | is at work "in the conception and + | apprehension of the mysteries of God + | to us revealed" and in "the inferring + | and deriving of doctrine and + | direction thereupon" (III, 479). In + | the first instance reason stirs + | itself only to grasp and illustrate + | revelation; it does not inquire. This + | is the foundation of Bacon's + | distinction between true natural + | philosophy, which inquires into the + | world as God's manifestation of his + | GLORY or power, and true theology, + | which piously interprets the + | scripturally revealed meaning of + | God's inscrutable will. The natural + | world declares God's glory but not + | his will (III, 478). Reason's power + | in theology therefore "consisteth of + | probation and argument." lt + | formulates doctrine only insofar as + | God's revelation, largely or wholly + | through Scripture, makes it possible. + | The Lord "doth grift [graft) his + | revelations and holy doctrine upon + | the notions of our reason, and + | applieth his inspirations to open our + | understanding" (III, 480). (pp. 172- + | 173) +GRATIFY HIM?{19} But if any man without | 19. Job 13, 7-9: +any sinister humour doth indeed make doubt | Authorized Version: Will ye speak +that this digging further and further into | wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully + | for him? Will ye accept his person? + | will ye contend for God? Is it good + | that he should search you out? as one + | man mocketh another, do ye so mock + | him? +the mine of natural knowledge{20} is a | 20. This image is also used in A.L. Sp. +thing without example and uncommended in | III, 351, I, 16 where Bacon refers to +the Scriptures, or fruitless; let him | Democritus (Vert's footnote) +remember and be instructed; for behold it | +was not that pure light of natural | +knowledge, whereby man in paradise was | +able to give unto every living creature a | +name according to his propriety{21}, which | 21. Genesis 2,19-20 +gave occasion to the fall; but it was an | Geneva Bible: So the Lord God formed +aspiring desire to attain to that part of | of the earth everie beast of the +moral knowledge which defineth of good and | field, and everie foule of the heaven, +evil, whereby to dispute God's | & broght them unto the man to se how +commandments and not to depend upon the | he wolde call them: for howsoever the +revelation of his will, which was the | man named the living creature, so was +original temptation. And the first holy | the name thereof.The man therefore +records, which within those brief | gave names unto all cattle, and to the +memorials of things which passed before | foule of the heaven, and to everie +the flood entered few things as worthy to | beast of the field: but for Adam found +be registered but only | he not an help mete for him. + | + | Authorized Version: And out of the + | ground the Lord God formed every beast + | of the field, and every fowl of the + | air; and brought THEM unto Adam to see + | what he would call them: and + | whatsoever Adam called every living + | creature, that WAS the name thereof. + | And Adam gave names to all cattle, and + | to the fowl of the air, and to every + | beast of the field; but for Adam there + | was not found an help meet for him. + | + | Vulgata:Igitur Dominus Deus de humo + | cunctis animantibus terrae et + | universis volatilibus caeli adduxit ea + | ad Adam ut videret quid vocaret ea / + | omne enim quod vovavit Adam animae + | viventis ipsum est nomen eius / + | appelavitque Adam nominibus suis + | cuncat animantia / et universa + | volatilia et omnes bestias terrae / + | Adam vero non inveniebatur adiutor + | similis eius +lineages{22} and propagations, yet | 22. Spedding's footnote: LINAGES in +nevertheless honour the remembrance | original. See note 3, p. 148 +of the inventor both of music{23} and | 23. Genesis 4,21: + | Authorized Version: And his brother's + | name was Jubal: he was the father of + | all such as handle the harp and organ. + | + | Vulgata: et nomen fratris eius Iuabal + | ipse fuit pater canentium cithara et + | organo +works in metal{24}. Moses again (who was | 24. Genesis, 4,22: +the reporter) is said to have been seen in | Authorized Version: And Zillah, she +all | also bare Tubalcain, an instructor of + | every artificer in brass and iron... + | + | Vulgata: Sella quoque genuit + | Thubalcain qui fuitmalleator et faber + | in cuncta opera aeris et ferri... +the Egyptian learning{25}, which nation | 25. The Acts 7,22: +was early and leading in matter of | Authorized Version: And Moses was + | learned in all the wisdom of the + | Egyptians, and was mighty in words and + | deeds. +knowledge. And Salomon the king,{26} as | 26. cf. A.L. Sp.III, 298,I.38; N.A. Sp. +out of a branch of his wisdom | III, 145, I seq. +extraordinarily petitioned and granted | +from God, is said to have written a | +natural history of all that is green from | +the cedar to the moss{27}, (which is but a | 27. 1 Kings 4, 29-34 +rudiment between putrefaction and | Geneva Bible: And God gave Salomon + | wisdome, und understanding exceeding + | muche, and a large heart, even as the + | sand that is on the sea shore. And + | Salomons wisdome excelled the wisdome + | of all the children of the East and + | all the wisdome of Egypt. For he was + | wiser than anie man.... and he was + | famous throughout all nacions rounde + | about. And Salomon spake thre thousand + | proverbes: and his songs were a + | thousand and five. And he spake of + | trees, from the cedar tre that is in + | Lebanon, even unto the hyssope that + | springeth out of the wall: he spake + | also of beastes, and of foules, and of + | creping things, and of fishes. And + | there came all the people to heare the + | wisdome of Salomon, from all Kings of + | the earth, which had heard of his + | wisdome. + | + | Authorized Version:And God gave + | Salomon wisdom and understanding + | exceeding much, and largeness of + | heart, even as the sand that is on the + | sea shore. And Salomon's wisdom + | excelled the wisdom of all the + | children of the east country, and all + | the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser + | than all men...and his fame was in all + | nations round about. And he spake + | three thousands proverbs; and his + | songs were a thousand and five. And he + | spake of trees, from the cedar tree + | that is in Lebanon even unto the + | hyssop that springeth out of the wall: + | he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, + | and of creeping things, and of fishes. + | And there came all people to hear the + | wisdom of Salomon. From all kings of + | the earth, which had heard of his + | wisdom. + | + | Vulgata: Liber Malachim 4, 29-34: + | Dedit quoque Deus sapientiam Salomoni + | et prudentiam multam nimis et + | latitudinem cordis quasi harenam quae + | est in litore maris / et praecedebat + | sapientia Salomonis sapientiam omnium + | orientalium et Aegyoptorum / et erat + | sapientia cunctis hominibus.. Et erat + | nominatus inuniversis gentibus per + | cicuitum / locutus est quoque Salomon + | tria milia parabolas et fuerunt + | carmina eius quinque et mille / et + | disputavit super lignis a cedro quae + | est in Libano usque ad hysopum quae + | egreditur de pariete et disseuit de + | iumentis et volucribus et reptilibus + | et piscibus / et veniebant de cunctis + | populis ad audiendam sapientiam + | Salomonis et ab universis regibus + | terrae qui audiebant sapientiam eius + | + | Luther Bible: 1. Könige 5, 9-14 + | + | Melek Hasgün comments: The hyssop is + | mentioned in Shakespeare’s OTHELLO + | I,3: "Sow lettuce, set hyssop and + | weed up thyme". Hyssop and thyme were + | believed to aid the growth of each + | other, one being moist and the other + | dry. The reason why Bacon used moss + | instead of hyssop could be that moss + | is also a moist plant and he chose an + | expression which is more general or + | known. +an herb{28},) and also of all that liveth | 28. The plant mentioned in the Bible is +and moveth. And if the book of Job be | not "moss", but HYSOPPUS OFFICINALIS +turned over; it will be found to have much | [in German: JOSEFSKRAUT, KIRCHENSEPPL, +aspersion of natural | EISOP, YSOP)]. "The Greek plant name + | HÝSSOOPOS is probably derived from + | Hebrew ESOB (mentioned in the + | Bible...), although it is not clear + | whether ESOB referred to the plant + | called hyssop today. Another + | explanation gives Arabic AZZOF "holy + | herb" as the source of the name (cf. + | French HERBE SACRÉ) (Gernot Katzer + | Website on Spices). Gernot Katzer in + | his entry on the pomegranate + | (http://www- + | ang.kfunigraz.ac.at/~katzer/germ/index + | .html) considers the problem of the + | names of plants in the Bible: + | + | "The pomegranate tree is an ancient + | cultigen in Western Asia; it is + | mentioned in the oldest part of the + | Old Testament (the Pentateuch). + | Although the Old Testament is not a + | collection of cooking recipes, it + | names many plants of everyday or + | cultic usage in ancient Israel; the + | New Testament, though, has less + | descriptive character, and plants are, + | consequently, named much less + | frequently. + | + | If one wants to set up a "collection + | of biblical spices", one must not + | forget that there are three millennia + | between the language of the Old + | Testament and ours; therefore, exact + | translations are sometimes impossible. + | The following quote (Isaiah 28,27) may + | illustrate the difficulties of + | translation: + | + | 'QETSACH is not threshed with a + | sledge, nor is a cartwheel rolled over + | KAMMON; QETSACH is beaten out with a + | rod, and KAMMON with a stick.' + | + | Because of the dialectic structure, we + | may infer that the two plants are + | similar, but differ in details of + | their harvest. The term KAMMON + | obviously is related to Greek KÝMINON + | (cumin), but also lies behind English + | CARAWAY; QETSACH is more difficult to + | analyze. Probably it means NIGELLA, + | sometimes also called BLACK CUMIN, + | whose seeds ripen in a closed capsule, + | which must first be opened. + | + | Yet in translating the Bible, botanic + | accuracy is less an aim than general + | matters of style. "Black cumin" is + | less elegant than "cumin", and + | "nigella" is not an English word at + | all. Therefore, English Bible + | translations render QETSACH as DILL, + | CARAWAY or "fitches", a word that is + | missing from every modern dictionary. + | German translators, on the other hand, + | who don't have a traditional, elegant + | word for CUMIN, commonly translate + | KAMMON as CARAWAY (which is almost + | certainly wrong), and have to resort + | to DILL for QETSACH. + | + | Comparing different translations of + | the Old Testament, one find some or + | all of the following (Hebrew terms are + | given in parenthesis): garlic (shuwm), + | onion (b@tsel), nigella (qetsach, also + | rendered as caraway oder dill, quite + | obscure), cumin (kammon, also + | caraway), coriander (gad), caper + | (abiyownah, also translated "desire"), + | cinnamon (qinnamown), cassia (qiddah, + | also interpreted as a synonym of + | cinnamon or cassia buds), hyssop + | (ezowb, frequent but very obscure), + | myrtle (hadac), olive (shemen and + | zayith, very frequent), juniper + | (b@rowsh, also given as "fir" or + | "pine"), almond (shaqed), pomegranate + | (rimmown or rimmon), rose + | (chabatstseleth, very obscure) and + | saffron (karkom). + | + | Similarly, the New Testament has not + | been translated by biologists--the + | latter had not suspected birds to live + | in mustard plants (sínapi). Other + | plant names from the New Testament + | include the following (Greek given in + | parenthesis): mint (heedýosmon, this + | is not the common name of mint in + | Greek), cumin (kýminon, also + | translated caraway), anis (áneethon, + | also rendered dill), rue (peéganon, + | not the common term), cinnamon + | (kinnámoomon), hyssop (hýssoopos, + | referring to the obscure word in the + | Old Testament) and olive (agriélaios + | "olive tree" and elaíon "olive oil"). + | + | The DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE (ed. by + | James Hastings and John A. Selbie, + | Edinburgh, 3rd ed.1914) says about the + | HYSSOP: "It was used for sprinkling + | blood (Ex. 12,22) and in the ritual of + | the cleansing of lepers (Lv 14,4, Nu + | 19,6); it was an insignificant plant + | growing out of the wall (1 K 4,33); it + | could afford a branch strong enough to + | support a wet sponge (Jn 19,29). It is + | possible that all these references are + | not to a single species. Among many + | suggested plants the most probable is + | either a species of majoran, e.g., + | ORIGANUM MARU, or the common caper- + | plant (CAPPARIS SPINOSA), which may be + | seen growing out of crevices in walls + | all over Palestine" (E.W.G.Masterman). + | + | For the German traditions about the + | hyssop Jacob and Wilhem Grimm in + | DEUTSCHES WÖRTERBUCH (1854 seq.) give + | the following information: + | YSOP, isop, ispe(n), eisop; hysop, m. + | (F.),HYSSOPUS OFFICINALIS L., KLEINER + | BUSCH MIT STARK DUFTENDEN BLÄTTERN und + | VIOLETTEN BLÜTEN. GELEGENTLICH WIRD + | DER NAME AUF VERWANDTE PFLANZEN + | ÜBERTRAGEN, VOR ALLEM AUF SATUREJA + | HORTENSIS L., VGL. MARZELL WB. D. DT. + | PFLANZENN. 2, 966 ff.; PRITZEL-JESSEN + | PFLANZEN (1882) 363 f.; FISCHER + | SCHWÄB. 4, 53. + | + | HERKUNFT UND form. + | + | ASS. zûpu; SYR.-ARAB. züfä; HEBR. .; + | GRIECH. ; ; LAT. hyss_pus F., hyss_pum + | N.; GOT. hwssopon (DAT. SG.); AGS. + | ysope f.; AHD. hysop ST. M. NEBEN + | SPÄTEREM ISOPO, isipo 5W. M.; MHD. + | ysope M. (NOCH BEI LUTHER MEIST + | SCHWACH FLEKTIERT: EXOD. 12, 22; + | LEVIT. 14, 52; PS. 51, 9; HEBR. 9, + | 19); SPÄTAHD.-FRÜHNHD. AUCH ALS FEM. + | (YSOPUS îspa [12. JH.] AH. GL. 3, 264, + | 53 ST.-S.; DE ISOPO von der ispen + | [12.JH.] EBDA 4, 365, 46; von der + | ispen [UM 1350] KONRAD V. MEGENBEEG + | BUCH D. NATUR 405 PF.; VGL. 420; + | yspen, die nit felt LIEDERBUCH D. + | HÄTZLERIN 234 HALTAUS). NHD. (h)ysop, + | isop, WEITERES S.U. + | + | AUF DER BIBELSPRACHLICHEN TRADITION + | (1) UND AUF DER FRÜHEN EINFÜHRUNG DES + | ORIENTALISCH-SÜDEUROPÄISCHEN YSOPS ALS + | HEIL- UND GEWÜRZPFLANZE (2) BERUHT + | SEINE REICHE BEZEUGUNG IN NAHEZU + | ALLEN EUROPÄISCHEN SPRACHEN. NEUER- + | DINGS WIRD DIE IDENTITÄT DES + | BIBLISCHEN ysop MIT HYSSOPUS + | OF/ICINALIS WIEDER BEZWEIFELT MARZELL + | A. A. 0. (ZUR DISKUSSION UM JOAN. 19, + | 29 VGL. BAUER GRIECH.-DT. WB. ZUM + | NEUEN TESTAM. [4 1952] 1541). DER NAME + | ERSCHEINT BIBEL-SPRACHLICH DURCHWEG + | ALS MASK., GELEGENTLICH BIS INS 14. + | JH. IN LAT. FLEXIONSFORM (S. U. + | DAT. SG. isupo NOTKER, ysopo TRIERER + | PS., ysopo PASSIONAL; AKK. SG.. ysopum + | WERNHER MARIENLEBEN) UND AUCH SPÄTER + | NOCH MIT SPIRANTISCHEM ANLAUT: hyssop + | ABR. A S. CLARA etw. f. alle (1699) 1, + | 98; hysop BRENNER ERZ. U. SCHR. (1864) + | 1, 20; hyssop TILLMANN NEUES TEST. + | (LPZ. 6 1958) 625. WEITER + | EINGEDEUTSCHT IST DAS WORT IN SEINER + | VOLKSSPRACHLICHEN VERWENDUNG (2): + | SYNKOPE DES MITTELSILBENVOKALS S.. OB. + | SOWIE isp (12. JH.) AHD. GL. 4, 235, + | 38 ST.-S.; yspe (14. JH.) EBDA 3, 542, + | 25; ispe (U. Ä.) 14./16. JH. + | DIEFENBACH GL. 310b ; isp(e) FISCHER + | SCHWÄB. 4, 53 (STÄRKER ABWEICHENDE + | MISCHFORMEN zispe EBDA, zwispe 6, + | 1472), SCHMELLER-FR. BAYER. 1, 168. + | NICHT SELTEN DIPHTHONGIERT + | garteneisop, zwibeleisop ALBERTUS + | dict. (1540) FF la ; eisop FÄBRICUS + | RER. MISNIAC. (1569) 246; eysopwein + | ZEHNER NOMENCL. (1643) 365; eisop M. + | BÖHME VIEHARTZNEY (1682) 31. DIE + | ZAHLREICHEN MUNDARTLICHEN NEBENFORMEN + | S. IM ÜBRIGEN BEI MARZELL A. A. O.; + | VGL. NOCH eisop TEIL 3, SP. 380, + | eisewig 3, 377, hispe F., 4, 2, 1579 + | SOWIE isop 4, 2, 2182. + | + | GEBRAUCH. + | 1)BIBELSPRACHLICH. EXOD. 12, 22; + | LEVIT. 14, 4 U. 6; 14, 49fl.; num. 19, + | 6 u. 18; PS. 50 9 U. HEBR. 9, 19 + | ERWÄHNEN DEN YSOP IM ZUSAMMENHANG + | KULTISCHER REINIGUNGSZEREMONIEN. 3. + | REG. 4, 33 DIENT ER EINEM VERGLEICH + | ZUR VERANSCHAUIICHUNG DER WEISHEIT + | SALOMOS (S.U.). JOAN. 19, 29 WIRD DEM + | GEKREUZIGTEN DER ESSIGSCHWAMM UM EINEN + | YSOP GEWICKELT GEREICHT (HIERZU VGL. + | BAUER GRIECH.-DT. WB. ZUM NEUEN + | TESTAM. [4 1952] 1541). AN DIESEN + | STELLEN IST DAS WORT IN ALLEN + | DEUTSCHEN BIBELÜBERSETZUNGEN BIS IN + | DIE GEGENWART IN FESTEM GEBRAUCH: + | afaruh þan ÞO in wato wairpandans + | hrain jah hwssopon jah wullai raudai + | ufartrusnjandans (SKEIREINS 3, 16) + | GOT. BIBEL 21 , 461 STREITBERG; + | FASCICULUM HYSOPI uuadal hysopes + | (EXODUS 12, 22) (8./9. JH.) AHD. GL. + | 1, 335, 38 ST.-S.; so er chumet, so + | besprenget er mih mit isopo (ASPERGES + | ME YSOPO, PS. 50, 9) also die + | miselsuhtigen, unde danne uuirdo ih + | gereinet; uuunda so ist gepoten in + | demo puoche, daz die miselsuhtigen + | siben stunt besprenget uurten mit + | gedunchetemo isopo in demo opferpluote + | (VGL. LEV. 14, 4ff.; 49ff.) NOTKER 3, + | 172 PIPER (VGL. 2, 195f.); du + | besprenges mih, herro, mit dem isipen + | unde ih wirde gereinet (12. JH., + | WINDBERGER INTERLINEARVERSION), du + | solt besprengen mich mit demo ysopo + | unde ih wirde gereinet (13. JH., + | TRIERER INTERLINEARVERSION) (PS. 50, + | 9) DT. INTERLINEARVERSIONEN D. PSALMEN + | (1839) 232 GRAFF; wann sy fulten ein + | schwamp mit essig sy vmbgaben in mit + | ysopp: sy brachten in seinen mund + | (JOAN. 19, 29) ERSTE DT. BIBEL 1, 415 + | KURR.; vnd er (SALOMO) redet + | dreytausent spruch, vnd seyner liede + | waren tausent vnd funffe. vnd er redet + | von bewmen, vom ceder an zu Libanon + | bis an den isop, der aus der wand + | wechst (3. REG. 4, 33) LUTHER DT. + | BIBEL 1, 150 W., VGL. 9, 1, 408f. AUS + | BIBELSPRACHLICHER TRADITION ERWACHSEN + | FOLGENDE BELEGE, ZU PS. 50, 8: + | + | Maria sunderinne, + | du bist in gutem sinne + | vf einen burnen alda kumen + | ... + | betouche dich zv male + | des du macht Immer wesen vro + | der besprenget dich mit ysopo + | des bistu wiz ob alleme sne + | (UM 1300) PASSIONAL 371, 22 HAHN; + | + | nun spreng mich herr mit ysop gut, + | so wird all sünd verderbet + | SPEE GÜLD. TUGENDBUCH (1649) 35; + | + | und so, meint der meister ferner, + | werde ich auch bald gewaschen werden, + | und mit hysop besprengt, der ich über + | so viele das miserere gesungen BRENNER + | ERZ. U. SCHR. (1864) 1, 20. ZU JOAN. + | 19, 29: + | + | 'mich durstet', sprach er och dar na. + | do stûnd ain vas mit essich da, + | dar in lait ainer ysopum + | und fuitent sin ainen schwum: + | den bot er zû der selben stunt + | mit ainem sper an sinen munt + | (HS. 1182) WERNHER MARIENIEBEN + | 10 607 PÄPKE-HÜBNER. + | + | IN NEGATIVIERENDER UMDEUTUNG DER + | HILFREICHEN TRÄNKUNG AUS JOAN. 19, 29 + | (VGL. MATTH. 27, 34): wie . . dem + | volk...der ysop der furcht vor den + | ewigen strafen dargereicht würde + | SCHLEIERMACHER S. W. (1834) 1 5, 98; + | + | nur gift und galle war, o pabst, + | was du vom pol bis zu den tropen + | der welt mit deinem scepter gabst, + | mit deinem scepter von ysopen + | HERWEGH GED. E. LEBENDIGEN (21841) 116. + | + | ZU 3. REG. 4, 31 von der zeder bis zum + | ysop (S 0. LUTHERS ÜBERSETZUNG), + | ZUNÄCHST NUR VON DER GRÖSZE DER + | WEISHEIT SALOMOS: Salomon ... von dem + | ceder baum, so auf dem berg Libano + | ist, bisz auf den hyssop, so aus der + | wand wächst, disputieret ABR. A S. + | CLARA ETWAS F. ALLE (1699) 1, 48; + | (ÜBERSCHRIFT:) Salomons königs van + | Israel und Juda güldne worte von der + | ceder biss zum issop GÖTHE 1 37, 295 + | W.; AUF ANDERE PERSONEN ÜBERTRAGEN: + | weil du (RÜBEZAHL) aber der kräuter + | und pflanzen kundig bist, vom ysop an, + | der auf der mauer wächst, bis auf die + | ceder zu Libanon MUSÄUS VOLKSMÄRCHEN + | 1, 34 HEMPEL, VGL. DERS., PHYSIOGN. + | REISEN (1778) 1, 171; ich habe die + | ehre, ihnen einen gelehrten zu + | präsentieren, dar alles weiss und + | kennt, van der ceder bis zum ysop + | KOTZEBUE SÄMMTL. DRAM. W. (1827) 1, + | 314. SCHLIESZLICH DIE WEITE DER + | SCHÖPFUNG ÜBERHAUPT BEZEICHNEND: jedes + | gewäche von der ceder bis zum ysop + | hängt an erde und sonnenschein HERDER + | 20, 73 S.; VGL. 22, 237; der nahme + | meines helden ist kurz und gut: ABC + | bis XYZ, ... ritter vieler orden + | trauriger und fröhlicher gestalt, von + | der ceder auf Libanon bis zum ysop + | HIPPEL KREUZ- U. QUERZUGC (1793) 1, 3; + | die menschengattung ist die erste von + | alless diesen einheiten; die andern, + | vom elephanten bis zur milbe, von der + | ceder bis an den ysop, sind in dar + | zweiten und dritten linie J. G. + | FORSTER S. SCHR. (1843) 4, 319. + | + | 2) ALS GEWÜRZ- UND HEIL PFLANZE. IN + | DEN VERSCHIEDENSTEN REZEPTEN SEIT DEM + | 11./12. JH. SEHR REICH BEZEUGT; DIE + | BLÄTTER WERDEN VEREINZELT BIS IN DIE + | GEGENWART ALS SOSZENWÜRZE UND ZUM + | GURGELN GEGEN HALSBESCHWERDEN BENUTZT; + | DARÜBER HINAUS IST DIE PFLANZE 'VOR + | ALLEM IN DER SCHWEIZ EIN BESTANDTEIL + | DER IN DIE KIRCHE (BESONDERS VON + | ÄLTEREN FRAUEN) MITGENOMMENEN + | RIECHSTRÄUSZLEIN' MARZELL WB. D. + | DT. PFLANZENN. 2, 069: isopo ist g_t + | chrût, obe diu geb_rt stirbet in demo + | wîbe; trinche iz mit warmem wazzer, SÔ + | vert iz vone ire. er ist g_t vur den + | stenken vnte hilfet och den der mage + | swirt (11./12. JH.) GERMANIA 8, 300; + | ÄHNLICH (13. JH.) MENHARDT VERZ. D. + | ALTDT. LIT. HSS. 1 (1960) 46; von der + | ispen. isopus haizt isp...wenn man + | ispen kocht mit honig, daz ist der + | lungel guot . und genuog ander + | tugent hât si an ir (UM 1350) KONRAD + | V. MEGENBERG BUCH der NATUR 405 PF.; + | vgl 420; der ysope . . . ist bitter + | und idoch ges_nt dem herzen und der + | I_ngen und der br_st die da siech ist + | (14 JH.) ALTDT.PRED. + | + | SCHÖNBACH SO WEME dat hoven sweret . . + | de scal nemen eyn bunt ysopen unde + | seden de (Bremen 1352) »MND. ARZNEIB. + | des A. DONELDEY 14 Windler vgl. 3, 10, + | 19, 26, 49; und alz ist gefügett daz + | pinlin z.B. dem honge, der ysop z.B. dem + | balsam, dú nahtegal z.B. der harpfen (so + | wie DIE seele ZU CHRISTUS) (HS. von + | 1357 NACH VORLAGE VON 1303) , ST. + | GEORGENER PRED. 287 RIEDER, VGL. 294; + | + | saluay, rawtten vnd polay, + | der krautt stünd pogen vnd + | gezindelt; + | dryment, yspen, die nit felt, + | grunten da in reicher wunn + | LIEDERBUCH DER HÄTZLERIN + | 234 HALTAUS: + | + | dem rind den husten zu vertreiben, + | pflegt man jnen...ysop.. .einzugeben + | SEBIZ feldbau (1579) 128; + | mit lavendel, isop, majoran, poley und + | anderen geringeres wehrtes, gewächsen + | und blurnenwerke ausgeziehret NEUMARK + | newspross. teut. palmb. (1668) 171; + | unter wild wachsenden pflanzen sah ich + | die dunkelrote scabiose unter gärten + | und ein ganzes feld mit ysop bewachsen + | STOLBERG + | GES.W. (1820) 8, 360. + | + | 3) ZU BEIDEN ANWENDUNGSGRUPPEN + | STELLEN SICH ZUSAMMENSETZUNGEN: + | ysopbitter: + | + | dieweil der königliche zecher + | umsonst nach ihren zügen gafft. + | leert sie den ysopbittren becher + | zurückgewiesener leidenschaft + | FONTANE GED. 7176 (VGL.. + | JOAN. 19, 29 u. ysop 1); + | + | --busch: + | + | nimm einen ysoppusch, + | entsündige mein Leben + | FLEMING, dt. ged. 1,8 + | lit.ver.; + | + | VGL. ysopbüschel (NURN. 19, 18) + | ZÜRCHER BIBEL (BERLIN 1956) 1, 165; - + | kraut: nimm rosinlin ein + | handvoll...salbeyblätter, hissopkraut, + | jedes 1 hand voll GÄBELKOVER ARTZNCYB. + | (1595) 1, 182; -saft: ysop safft + | getruncken mit oximel, waychet den + | verstopften bauch DAS KREÜTERBUCH OD. + | HERBARIOS (AUGSB. 1534) 144b ; -sirup: + | \STAUB-TOBLER 7, 1270; -stengel: sie + | steckten nun einen mit essig gefüllten + | schwamm auf einen ysopstengel (JOAN + | 19,29). ZÜRCHER BIBEL (BERLIN 1956) + | 2,148; hysopstengel (J. 19,29) + | TILLMANN NEUES TESTAM. (LPZ. 6-1959) + | 325; -strauch, + | s. isopstrauch TEIL 4,2, SP. 2182; - + | wasser: hysopwasser soll man allwegen + | in heysser aeschen disti1liren: + | welches (U. A.) trefflich gut für den + | grausamen schmertzen der zän ist SEBIZ + | feldbau (1580) 413; zerschmeltz den + | zucker in brandlattich oder + | issopwasser GÄBELKOVER artzneybuch + | (1595) 1, 193, GEBUCHT bei RÄDLEIN T.- + | IT.-FRZ.(1711) 1080;b; -wein, . VGL. + | isopwein TEIL 4. 2. sp. 2182 SOWIE: + | von ysopwein. ysopwein ist warm, + | reiniget die brust, machet gute däwung + | vnd weicht den bauch M. HERR FELDBAU + | (1551) 112a; eysop wein ZEHNER + | NOMENCL. (1645) 365; KIRSCH CORNU + | COPIAE 2 (1775), 908. + | + | Why then did Bacon translate "hyssop" + | as "moss"? The hyssop was known and + | used in England (compare OED; e.g. + | Skakespeare OTHELLO I,3 etc.). What + | appears from all the dictionaries + | consulted is, however, that it is not + | so very clear which plant was meant by + | the name. What led Bacon to use the + | word "moss" for "hyssop" is probably + | the sense of 1 K 4,33: Salomon knows + | every plant from the noblest (=cedar + | tree) to the meanest (=hyssop), "moss" + | obviously signifying a mean plant + | "which is but a rudiment between + | putrefaction and an herb". This does + | obviously leave out of consideration + | the holiness of the hyssop tested in + | various other contexts of the Old and + | the New Testament (see above). +philosophy{29}. Nay, the same Salomon the | 29. cf. A.L. Sp. III, 298, I.5 (D.A. +king affirmeth directly that the glory of | Sp.I,467, I.1) ; Cf. also N.O. I, 65 +God IS TO CONCEAL A THING, BUT THE GLORY | +OF THE KING IS TO FIND IT OUT{30}, as if | 30. Proverbs 25,2 +according to the innocent play of children | Geneva Bible: The glorie of God is to +the divine Majesty took delight to hide | conceile a thing secret: but the Kings +his works, to the end to have them found | honour is to searche out a thing. +out; for in naming the king he intendeth | +man, taking such a condition of man as | Authorized Version: It is the glory of +hath most excellency and greatest | God to conceal a thing: but the honour +commandment of wits and means, alluding | of kings is to search out a matter. +also to his own person, being truly one of | +those clearest burning lamps, whereof | Vulgata: Gloria Dei celare verbum et +himself speaketh in another place, when he | gloria regum investigare sermonem +saith THE SPIRIT OF MAN IS AS THE LAMP OF | +GOD, WHEREWITH HE SEARCHETH ALL | +INWARDNESS{31}; which nature of the soul | 31. Proverbs 20,27 +the same Salomon holding precious and | Geneva Bible: The light of the Lord is +inestimable, and therein conspiring with | the breth of man, and sercheth all the +the affection of Socrates who scorned the | bowels of the bellie. +pretended learned men of his time for | Authorized Version: The spirit of man +raising great benefit of their learning | is the candle of the Lord,searching +(whereas Anaxagoras contrariwise and | all the inward parts of the belly. +divers others being born to ample | Vulgata: lucerna Dominis spiraculum +patrimonies decayed them in | homninis quae investigat omnia secreta + | ventris + | Luther: Eine Leuchte des Herrn ist des + | Menschen Geist; die geht durch alle + | Kammern des Leibes. +contemplation){32}, delivereth it in | 32. see Platon, Hippias Major. 282 b - +precept yet remaining, BUY THE TRUTH, AND | 283 b +SELL IT NOT; | +AND SO OF WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE{33}. | 33. Proverbs 23, 23 + | Geneva Bible: Bye the trueth, but sel +And lest any man should retain a scruple | it not: likewise wisdome, and +as if this thirst of | instruction, and understanding. +knowledge were rather an humour of the | +mind than an emptiness or want in nature | Authorized Version: Buy the truth and +and an instinct from God, the same author | sell it not; also wisdom, and +defineth of it fully, saying, GOD HATH | instruction, and understanding. +MADE EVERY THING IN BEAUTY ACCORDING TO | +SEASON; ALSO HE HATH SET THE WORLD IN | Vulgata: veritatem eme et noli vendere +MAN'S HEART, YET CAN HE NOT FIND OUT THE | sapientiam et doctrinam et +WORK WHICH GOD WORKETH FROM THE | intelligentiam + | + | Luther: Kaufe Wahrheit und verkaufe + | sie nicht, Weisheit, Zucht und + | Verstand. + | + | on the mercantilist spirit in Bacon + | see: Julie Robin Salomon, Objectivity + | in the Making. The John Hopkins + | University Press, 1998. +BEGINNING TO THE END{34}: declaring not | 34. Ecclesiastes 3,11 +obscurely that God hath framed the mind of | Authorized Version: He hath made every +man as a glass capable of the image of the | thing beautiful in his time: also he +universal world, joying to receive the | hath set the world in their heart, so +signature thereof as the eye is of light | that no man can find out the work that +yea not only satisfied in beholding the | God maketh from the beginning to the +variety of things and vicissitude of | end. +times, but raised also to find out and | +discern those ordinances and decrees which | Vulgata: cuncta fecit bona in tempore +throughout all these changes are | suo et mundum tradidit disputioni +infallibly observed. And although the | eorum / ut non inveniat homo opus quod +highest generality of motion or summary | operatus est Deus ab initio usque ad +law of nature God should still reserve | finem. +within his own curtain, yet many and noble | +are the inferior and secondary operations | Luther Bible: Prediger Salomo 3,11: +which are within man's sounding. This is a | Er aber tut alles fein zu seiner Zeit +thing which I cannot tell whether I may so | und läßt ihr Herz sich ängstigen, wie +plainly speak as truly conceive, that as | es gehen solle in der Welt; denn der +all knowledge appeareth to be a plant of | Mensch kann doch nicht treffen das +God's own planting, so it may seem the | Werk, das Gott tut, weder Anfang noch +spreading and flourishing or at least the | Ende. +bearing and fructifying of this plant, by | +a providence of God, nay not only by a | +general providence but by a special | +prophecy, was appointed to this autumn | +of the world{35}: for to my understanding | 35. Melek Hasgün comments: Bacon sees +it is not violent to the letter, and safe | his time as "...autumn of the +now after the event, so to interpret that | world...". As in Shakespeare’s King +place in the prophecy of Daniel where | Lear (IV/6) ‘autumn’ implies the time +speaking of the latter times it is said, | shortly before the end of the world, +MANY SHALL PASS TO AND FRO, AND SCIENCE | this can also be applied to Bacon. The + | Apocalypse is preceded by the increase + | of knowledge (Daniel 12,4) and again + | Bacon uses the Bible to legitimate + | progress in science. +SHALL BE INCREASED{36}; as if the opening | 36. Daniel 12, 4; +of the world by navigation and commerce | Geneva Bible: But thou, o Daniel, shut +and the further discovery of knowledge | up the wordes, and seale the boke til +should meet in one time or age. | the end of the time: many shal runne + | to and fro, and knowledge shalbe +But howsoever that be, there are besides | increased [explanation f ("til the end +the authorities or Scriptures before | of the time"): Til the time that God +recited, two reasons of exceeding great | hathe appointed for the ful revelation +weight and force why religion should | of these things: and then many shal +dearly protect all increase of natural | runne to and fro to search the +knowledge: the one, because it leadeth to | knowledge of these mysteries, which +the greater exaltation of the glory of | things they obteine now by the light +God; for as the | of the Gospel] + | + | Authorized Version: But thou, O + | Daniel, shut up the words, and seal + | the book, EVEN to the time of the end: + | many shall run to and fro, and + | knowledge shall be increased. + | + | Vulgata: Tu autem Danihel clude + | sermones et signa librum usque ad + | tempus statutum / pertransibunt + | plurimi et multiplex erit scientia + | + | This quotation is repeated on the + | title page of NOVUM ORGANUM. Together + | with the allegorical content of the + | pillars of Hercules, this passage + | clearly is to be interpreted in an + | apocalyptical sense: The time has come + | and is ripe for a re-construction of + | Adams's paradisical dominion over the + | world.--The pillars of Hercules can + | also be understood as a typological + | allusion to the two pillars of + | Salomo's temple (cf. Charles Whitney): + | In 1 Kings 7, 21 the names of the + | pillars are given as "Jachin" and + | "Boas". The Jew's name in NOVA + | ATLANTIS, Joabin, can be explained as + | the result of playing around with + | these names and contracting them into + | one. In NOVA ATLANTIS Salomo's Temple + | is resurrected and is the centre of + | knowledge and power. +Psalms{37} and other Scriptures do often | 37. for example Psalms 19,1 +invite us to consider and to magnify the | +great and wonderful works of God, so if we | +should rest only in the contemplation of | +those shews which first offer themselves | +to our senses, we should do a like injury | +to the majesty of God, as if we should | +judge of the store of some excellent | +jeweller by that only which is set out to | +the street in his shop. The other reason | +is, because it is a singular help and a | +preservative against unbelief and error; | +for, saith our Saviour, YOU ERR, NOT | +KNOWING THE SCRIPTURES NOR THE | +POWER OF GOD;{38} laying before us two | 38. St. Matthew 22, 29: +books or volumes to study if we will be | Authorized Version: Jesus answered and +secured from error; first the Scriptures | said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing +revealing the will of God, and then the | the Scriptures, not the power of God. +creatures expressing his power; for that | see also St Mark 12, 24 +latter book will certify us that nothing | +which the first teacheth shall be thought | +impossible. And most sure it is, and a | +true conclusion of experience, that a | +little natural philosophy inclineth the | +mind to atheism, but a further proceeding | +bringeth the mind back to religion. | + | +To conclude then, let no man presume to | +check the liberality of God's gifts, who, | +as was said, | +HATH SET THE WORLD IN MAN'S HEART. So | +as whatsoever is not God but parcel of the | +world, he hath fitted it to the | +comprehension of man's mind, if man will | +open and dilate the powers of | +his understanding as he may.{39} | 39. Compare to "mind of glass" above + | +But yet evermore it must be remembered | +that the least part of knowledge passed to | +man by this so large a charter from God | +must be subject to that use for which God | +hath granted it; which is the benefit and | +relief of the state and society or man; | +for otherwise all manner of knowledge | +becometh malign and serpentine, and | +therefore as carrying the quality of the | +serpent's sting and malice it maketh the | +mind of man to swell; as the Scripture | +saith excellently, KNOWLEDGE BLOWETH UP, | +BUT CHARITY BUILDETH UP{40}. And again the | 40. 1 Corinthians 8, 1 +same author doth notably disavow both | Authorized Version: Now as touching +power and knowledge such as is not | things offered unto idols, we know +dedicated to goodness or love, for saith | that we all have knowledge. Knowledge +he, IF I HAVE ALL FAITH SO AS I COULD | puffeth up, but charity edifieth. +REMOVE MOUNTAINS, (there is power active,) | +IF I RENDER MY BODY TO THE FIRE, (there is | +power passive,) IF I SPEAK WITH THE | +TONGUES OF MEN AND ANGELS, (there is | +knowledge, for language is but the | +conveyance of knowledge,) | +ALL WERE NOTHING{41}. | 41. 1 Corinthians 13, 1-3: + | Authorized Version: Though I speak +And therefore it is not the pleasure of | with the tongues of men and of angels, + | and have not charity, I am become as + | sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. + | And though I have the gift of + | prophecy, and understand all + | mysteries, and all knowledge; and + | though I have all faith, so that I + | could remove mountains, and have not + | charity, I am nothing. And though I + | bestow all my goods to feed the poor, + | and though I give my body to be + | burned, and have not charity, it + | profiteth me nothing. +curiosity{42}, nor the quiet of | 42. Bacon here contrasts "curiosity" +resolution, nor the raising of the spirit, | with "thirst of knowledge" (p. 220). +nor victory of wit, nor faculty of speech, | "Curiosity" is used in a traditional +nor lucre of profession, nor ambition of | sense (see St. Augustine on curiositas +honour or fame, nor inablement for | in Confessiones X,35). He speaks of +business, that are the true ends of | curiositas also in "Actaeon et +knowledge; some of these being more worthy | Pentheus, sive Curiositas" in: De +than other, though all inferior and | sapentia veterum", VI: The Theban king +degenerate: but it is a restitution and | Pentheus is punished with madness +reinvesting (in great part) of man to the | because out of curiosity he has dared +sovereignty and power (for whensoever he | to observe certain mysteries which are +shall be able to call the creatures by | dedicated to Dionysos, that is: he +their true names be shall again command | applied (scientific) observation to +them) which he had | divine things, he did not respect the + | division between LUMEN NATURALE and + | LUMEN DIVINUM.--Bacon draws the same + | conclusions from the myth of + | Prometheus ("Prometheus, sive Status + | hominis"). + | on curiosity see Hans Blumenberg, "Der + | Prozeß der theoretischen Neugierde", + | in: DIE LEGITIMITÄT DER NEUZEIT + | (Frankfurt, 1966). +in his first state of creation{43}. And | 43. compare with Milton's Paradise Lost +to speak plainly and clearly, it is a | Book XII +discovery of all operations and pos- | +sibilities of operations from immortality | +(if it were possible) to the meanest | +mechanical practice. And therefore | +knowledge that tendeth but to satisfaction | +is but as a courtesan, which is for | +pleasure and not for fruit or generation. | +And knowledge that tendeth to profit or | +profession or glory is but as the golden | +ball thrown before Atalanta{44}, which | 44. The Atalanta myth is treated by +while she goeth aside and stoopeth to take | Bacon in DE SAPIENTIA VETERUM (Works, +up she hindereth the | vol. VI) + | This is the German translation by + | Marina Münkler in: Weisheit der Alten, + | hrsg. von Philipp Rippel (Frankfurt + | a.M: Fischer, 1991): + | XXV. Atalanta oder die Gewinnsucht + | Atalanta, die für ihre Schnelligkeit + | berühmt war, forderte Hippomenes mit + | dem Versprechen zum Wettlauf heraus, + | daß er sie im Falle seines Sieges zur + | Frau nehmen dürfe, im Falle seiner + | Niederlage aber sein Leben verwirke. + | An Atalantas Sieg schien es keinen + | Zweifel geben zu können, da ihre + | unübertreffliche Schnelligkeit bereits + | durch den Tod zahlreicher Freier unter + | Beweis gestellt worden war. Hippomenes + | griff deshalb zu einer List. Er + | beschaffte sich drei goldene Äpfel, + | die er mit sich führte. Das Rennen + | begann, Atalanta ging in Führung. Als + | Hippomenes sah, daß er zurückfiel, + | griff er auf seine List zurück und + | warf einen seiner Äpfel so vor sie + | hin, daß sie ihn sehen mußte. Er warf + | ihn aber nicht direkt vor sie, sondern + | ein wenig abseits, damit sie sich + | nicht nur bücken, sondern auch ihre + | Bahn verlassen mußte. Erfüllt von + | weiblicher Gier und angezogen von der + | Schönheit der Frucht, verließ sie ihre + | Bahn, lief dem Apfel nach und hielt + | an, um ihn aufzuheben. In der + | Zwischenzeit lief Hippomenes weiter + | und ging in Führung. Aufgrund ihrer + | natürlichen Schnelligkeit machte + | Atalanta den Rückstand jedoch bald + | wieder wett und überholte ihn erneut. + | Nachdem Hippomenes sie jedoch in + | derselben Weise noch ein zweites und + | ein drittes Mal vom Weg abbrachte, + | gewann er schließlich den Wett!auf, + | freilich nicht durch seine Fähigkeit, + | sondern durch seine List. + | + | Diese Sage scheint eine hervorragende + | Allegorie über den Wettstreit von + | Kunst und Natur zu sein. Denn die + | Kunst, die von Atalanta repräsentiert + | wird, ist an sich, wenn ihr nichts im + | Wege steht, sehr viel schneller als + | die Natur, sie ist, wie man sagen + | könnte, der bessere Läufer und + | erreicht ihr Ziel schneller. Das zeigt + | sich an nahezu allen Dingen: Man + | sieht, daß sich Obstbäume nur langsam + | aus dem Kern, aber sehr viel schneller + | durch das Aufpfropfen von Zweigen + | entwickeln, daß Lehm sehr langsam zu + | Stein wird, während er sehr schnell zu + | Stein gebrannt werden kann. Auch die + | Sitten betreffend kann man beobachten, + | daß es sehr lange dauert, bis durch + | die Wohltaten der Natur ein Schmerz + | vergessen und Trost gefunden werden + | kann, während die Philosophie (die + | gleichsam die Kunst zu leben ist), den + | Tag nicht abwartet, sondern ihn + | vorhersieht und vor Augen führt. Dann + | aber wird dieser Vorsprung und die + | Fähigkeit der Kunst zum unendlichen + | Nachteil der Menschheit, durch jene + | goldenen Äpfel behindert. Denn es gibt + | keine Wissenschaft oder Kunst, die + | ihren wahren und richtigen Weg bis zum + | Ziel unbeirrt beibehält. Vielmehr + | geschieht es fortwährend, daß die + | Künste ihre Unternehmungen auf halbem + | Wege unterbrechen, vom Pfad abweichen + | und sich wie Atalanta Gewinn und + | Nutzen zuwenden: + | + | "Declinat cursus, aurumque volubile + | tollit" (Ovid, Metamorphosen X, 667). + | + | Und deshalb ist es nicht + | verwunderlich, daß es der Kunst nicht + | gegeben ist, den Sieg über die Natur + | zu erringen und sie nach den + | Bedingungen und Regeln des Wettkampfs + | zu töten und zu zerstören, sondern sie + | im Gegenteil der Natur unterworfen + | bleibt, wie das Weib dem Ehemann. + | + | Charles W. Lemmi (THE CLASSICAL + | DEITIES IN BACON. A STUDY IN + | MYTHOLOGICAL SYMBOLISM, Baltimore + | 1933, repr. New York 1971) says that + | Bacon draws on Natalis Comes (Conti) + | MYTHOLOGIAE SIVE EXPLICATIONUM + | FABULARUM LIBRI X (1551) and on + | Boccaccios DE GENEALOGIA DEORUM + | (1472). + | + | Simone Wirthmann comments: + | Treatises on classical mythology had a + | wide circulation during the + | Renaissance because it has been + | thought that one might discover in the + | stories of the gods and goddesses the + | wisdom of the ancients. + | It was in Italy, in the sixteenth + | century that the Renaissance produced + | the most widely known works on the + | classic deities. + | + | One of the most popular books was + | Natalis Conti's "MYTHOLOGY", which was + | fully as learned as any of its + | competitors, pleasanter to read and + | incomparably easier to use as a + | referencebook. Furthermore, it + | systematically interprets every myth + | it relates according to a multitude of + | authorities. It provides a list of + | authorities, an excellent index and + | synopses of the interpretations + | divided into ethical and physical. + | Despite all these new books, which + | largely superseded Boccaccio's famous + | "DE GENEALOGIIS DEORUM", they were far + | from causing it to be forgotten. + | + | For that reason it is to presume that + | Bacon draws on Natalis Comes (Conti) + | "MYTHOLOGIAE SIVE EXPLICATIONEM + | FABULARUM LIBRI X" (1551) and on + | "Boccaccio's De Genealogia + | Deorum"(1472) (see Charles W. Lemmi + | THE CLASSICAL DEITIES IN BACON. A + | STUDY IN MYTHOLOGICAL SYMBOLISM + | (Baltimore 1933, repr. New York 1971). +race{45}. And knowledge referred to some | 45. Ovid, Metamorphosen, Buch X, 665- +particular point of use is but | 680 +as Harmodius{46} which putteth down one | 46. see Herodot, Histories, V, 55 and +tyrant, and not like | VI, 109 and 123 + | The Oxford Classical Dictionary says: + | Aristogiton (6th c. B.C.), Athenian + | tyrannicide. He and Harmodius, both of + | noble family, planned to kill the + | tyrant Hippias and his younger brother + | Hipparchus, in consequence of a + | private quarrel (514 B.C.). The plot + | miscarried: only Hipparchus was + | killed. Harmodius was at one cut down + | by Hippias' guards, Aristogiton + | arrested and executed (after torture, + | it is said). As the tyranny was + | overthrown three years later, the two + | were popularly supposed to have made + | this possible, and were ever after + | called the Liberators. Simonides wrote + | a poem in their honour, statues of + | them were set up in the agora (and new + | ones erected when these were carried + | off by Xerxes in 480), and their + | descendants for all time honoured with + | the right to meals in the Prytaneum. +Hercules{47} who did perambulate the world | 47. Hercules is not a Baconian hero. +to suppress tyrants and giants and | The real hero is Orpheus as he is +monsters in every | interpreted in "Orpheus, sive + | Philosophia" in DE SAPIENTIA VETERUM. + | Orpheus is the Baconian philosopher, + | and the myth of Orpheus is about the + | opera scientiae. The works of Orpheus + | are superior to the works of Hercules + | as the "works of wisdom" (opera + | sapientiae) are superior to the "works + | of strength" (opera fortitudinis) (VI, + | 720). + | + | Simone Wirthmann comments: + | Hercules (gr. Heracles), (lit. "having + | or showing the glory of Hera"; Hera, + | wife of Zeus) Hercules, the son of + | Zeus and of the mortal Alkmene was a + | celebrated hero of Greek and Roman + | mythology, who after death was ranked + | among the gods and received divine + | honours. He is represented as + | possessed of prodigious strength, + | whereby he was enabled to perform + | twelve extraordinary tasks or + | "labours" imposed upon him by Hera. + | One of these tasks was to capture the + | cattles of the three-headed giant + | Geryoneus. It is said, that on this + | journey Hercules set up the rocks + | Calpé (now Gibraltar) and Abyla + | (Ceuta) / THE PILLARS OF HERCULES on + | either side of the Strait of + | Gibraltar, as a sign for his longest + | journey. THE PILLARS where seen by the + | ancients to be the supports of the + | western boundary of the world. + | + | Bacon uses the myth of Hercules and + | Harmodius in a methaphorical way, to + | elucidate the real contents of + | knowledge by comparing the two + | "heroes". Hercules impersonates + | strength and justice, throughout his + | life he tried to free people from + | tyranny, fought against giants and + | monsters without thinking of his own + | benefit. Harmodius in comparison tried + | to kill the tyrants Hippias and + | Hipparchus in consequence of a private + | quarrel and not primarily to free + | people. + | + | This shows, that for Bacon knowledge + | must be of general existence and not + | only refer to some particular point. + | + | Nevertheless, in one of his later + | works, DE SAPIENTIA VETERUM (1609), + | Hercules is not the Baconian hero + | anymore. The real hero is Orpheus, the + | philosopher. His works are superior to + | the works of Hercules as the "works of + | wisdom" (opera sapientiae) are + | superior to the "works of strength" + | (opera fortitudinis) (VI, 729). + | + | Orpheus was a legendary poet, a famous + | musician and singer of ancient Greece, + | who had the power of charming all + | animate and inanimate objects (he + | could move rocks and trees) by the + | sweet strains of his lyre. He + | descended living into Hades, to bring + | back to life his wife Eurydice, and + | perished, torn to pieces by infuriated + | Thracian maenads (see THE OXFORD + | CLASSICAL DICTIONARY; THE CENTURY + | DICTIONARY, VOL. 4) +part.{48} It is true, that in two points | 48. Spedding's note: The words "that +the curse is peremptory and not to be | is, man's miseries and necessities," +removed; the one that vanity must be the | which followed in the transcript, have +end in all human effects, eternity being | a line drawn through them. +resumed, though the revolutions and | +periods may he delayed{49}. The other that | 49. Melek Hasgün comments: +the consent of the creature being now | "...eternity being resumed...".: In +turned into reluctation, this power cannot | Henry VIII (..) and King Lear (I/4) +otherwise be exercised and administered | ‘resume’ means: to take back +but with labour, as well in inventing as | something previously given or +in executing; yet nevertheless chiefly | granted. The fact that it is written +that labour and travel which is described | in the passive form without an object +by the sweat of the brows more than of the | implies that eternity has been taken +body; that is such travel as is joined | back by God, referring to the Fall of +with the working and discursion of the | Man and Paradise Lost. +spirits in the brain: for as Salomon saith | +excellently, THE FOOL PUTTETH TO MORE | ‘Revolution’ is the action or fact, +STRENGTH, BUT THE WISE MAN CONSIDERETH | on the part of celestial bodies, of +WHICH | moving round in an orbit or circular + | course. The time in which a planet or + | other heavenly body completes a full + | circuit or course. (OED) A look at the + | complete works and consequences of his + | work, namely the foundation of + | scientific or academic institutions + | after his death that were the + | precursors of the Royal Society + | (1660), ‘revolution’ can also be + | understood in the modern sense. In + | fact, NEW ATLANTIS and NOVUM ORGANUM + | set the foundation for the + | "intellectual revolution" (Harvey + | Wheeler's essay on Nova Atlantis; to + | be obtained from the author: + | + | verulan@mindspring.com), which implies + | the complete overthrow of established + | state of affairs. (OED) +WAY{50}, signifying the election of the | 50. Ecclesiastes 10, 12: +mean to be more material than the | Authorized Version: The words of a +multiplication of endeavour. It is true | wise man's mouth are gracious; but the +also that there is a limitation rather | lips of a fool will swallow up +potential than actual, which is when the | himself. +effect is possible, but the time or place | +yieldeth not the matter or basis whereupon | for a commentary see A.L. Sp.III,322, +man should work. But notwithstanding these | I.14 seq. (D.A. Sp. I, 486, I, 11 +precincts and bounds, let it be believed, | seq.) +and appeal thereof made to TIME, (with | +renunciation nevertheless to all the vain | +and abusing promises of Alchemists and | +Magicians, and such like light, idle, | +ignorant, credulous, and fantastical wits | +and sects,) that the new-found world of | +land was not greater addition to the | +ancient continent than there remaineth at | +this day a world of inventions and | +sciences unknown, having respect to those | +that are known, with this difference, that | +the ancient regions of knowledge will seem | +as barbarous compared with the new, as the | +new regions of people seem barbarous | +compared to many of the old. | + | +The dignity of this end (of endowment of | +man's life with new commodities) | +appeareth by the estimation that | +antiquity made of such as guided | +thereunto. For whereas founders of states, | +lawgivers, extirpers of tyrants, fathers | +of the people, were honoured but with the | +titles of Worthies or Demigods, inventors | +were ever consecrated amongst the Gods | +themselves. And if the ordinary ambitions | +of men lead them to seek the amplification | +of their own power in their countries, and | +a better ambition than that hath moved men | +to seek the amplification of the power of | +their own countries amongst other nations, | +better again and more worthy must that | +aspiring be which seeketh the | +amplification of the power and kingdom of | +mankind over the world; the rather because | +the other two prosecutions are ever | +culpable of much perturbation and | +injustice; but this is a work, truly | +divine which cometh IN AURA LENI {51} | 51. 1 Kings 19,12 (Vulgata) +without noise or observation{52}. | 52. St Luke 17,20: + | Authorized Version: And when he was +The access also to this work hath been by | demanded of the Pharisees, when the +that port or passage, which the divine | kingdom of God should come, he +Majesty (who is unchangeable in his ways) | answered them and said, The kingdom +doth infallibly continue and observe; that | of God cometh not with observation. +is the felicity wherewith he hath blessed | +an humility of mind, such as rather | see Novum Organum. I, 93; A.L. Sp. +laboureth to spell and so by degrees to | III, 301,I, 29-302; also N.O. I, 129 +read in the volumes of his creatures, than | (Sp. I,222,I.16 seq.) +to solicit and urge and as it were to | +invocate a man's own spirit to divine and | +give oracles unto him. For as in the | +inquiry of divine truth, the pride of man | +hath ever inclined to leave the oracles of | +God's word and to vanish in the mixture of | +their own inventions; so in the self-same | +manner, in inquisition of nature they have | +ever left the oracles of God's works, and | +adored the deceiving and deformed imagery | +which the unequal mirrors of their own | +minds have represented unto them{53}. Nay | 53. compare this with the later idea of +it is a point fit and necessary in the | Idols +front and beginning of this work without | +hesitation or reservation to be professed, | +that it is no less true in this human | +kingdom of knowledge than in God's kingdom | +of heaven, that no man shall enter into it | +EXCEPT HE BECOME FIRST AS A LITTLE CHILD. | + | 54. Spedding's note: This chapter ends + | at the top of a new page. The rest is + | left blank. + | + | 55. In NO Bacon says that entrance into + | the new sciences depends upon their + | followers' imitating the little + | children favoured by Christ, children + | whose lack of vanity gives them + | privileged access to the kingdom of + | heaven (IV, 69). cf. John Channing + | Briggs, "Bacon's science and + | religion", in: THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION + | TO BACON, ed. by Markku Peltonen + | (Cambridge, 1966), 172-199. + | St Mark, 10,15: + | + | Authorized Version: Verily I say unto + | you, Whosoever shall not receive the + | kingdom of God as a little child, he + | shall not enter therein. + + + + + +CAP. 4. + +OF THE IMPEDIMENTS OF KNOWLEDGE, BEING THE 4TH CHAPTER, THE PREFACE +ONLY OF IT. + + +In some things it is more hard to attempt than to achieve, which +falleth out when the difficulty is not so much in the matter or +subject, as it is in the crossness and indisposition of the mind of +man to think of any such thing, to will or to resolve it. And +therefore Titus Livius in his declamatory digression wherein he doth +depress and extenuate the honour of Alexander's conquests saith, +NIHIL ALIUD QUAM BENE AUSUS VANA CONTEMNERE: in which sort of things +it is the manner of men first to wonder that any such thing should be +possible, and after it is found out to wonder again how the world +should miss it so long. Of this nature I take to be the invention +and discovery of knowledge, etc. + +THE IMPEDIMENTS WHICH HAVE BEEN IN THE TIMES, AND IN DIVERSION OF +WITS, BEING THE 5TH CHAPTER, A SMALL FRAGMENT IN THE BEGINNING OF +THAT CHAPTER. + +The encounters of the times have been nothing favourable and +prosperous for the invention of knowledge; so as it is not only the +daintiness of the seed to take, and the ill mixture and unliking of +the ground to nourish or raise this plant, but the ill season also of +the weather by which it hath been checked and blasted. Especially in +that the seasons have been proper to bring up and set forward other +more hasty and indifferent plants, whereby this of knowledge bath +been starved and overgrown; for in the descent of times always there +hath been somewhat else in reign and reputation, which hath generally +aliened and diverted wits and labours from that employment. + +For as for the uttermost antiquity which is like fame that muffles +her head and tells tales, I cannot presume much of it; for I would +not willingly imitate the manner of those that describe maps, which +when they come to some far countries whereof they have no knowledge, +set down how there be great wastes and deserts there: so I am not apt +to affirm that they knew little, because what they knew is little +known to us. But if you will judge of them by the last traces that +remain to us, you will conclude, though not so scornfully as +Aristotle doth, that saith our ancestors were extreme gross, as those +that came newly from being moulded out of the clay or some earthly +substance; yet reasonably and probably thus, that it was with them in +matter of knowledge but as the dawning or break of day. For at that +time the world was altogether home-bred, every nation looked little +beyond their own confines or territories, and the world had no +through lights then, as it hath had since by commerce and navigation, +whereby there could neither be that contribution of wits one to help +another, nor that variety of particulars for the correcting of +customary conceits. + +And as there could be no great collection of wits of several parts or +nations, so neither could there be any succession of wits of several +times, whereby one might refine the other, in regard they had not +history to any purpose. And the manner of their traditions was +utterly unfit and unproper for amplification of knowledge. And again +the studies of those times, you shall find, besides wars, incursions, +and rapines, which were then almost every where betwixt states +adjoining (the use of leagues and confederacies being not then known), +were to populate by multitude of wives and generation, a thing at +this day in the waster part of the West-Indies principally affected; +and to build sometimes for habitation towns and cities, sometimes for +fame and memory monuments, pyramids, colosses, and the like. And if +there happened to rise up any more civil wits; then would he found +and erect some new laws, customs, and usages, such as now of late +years, when the world was revolute almost to the like rudeness and +obscurity, we see both in our own nation and abroad many examples of, +as well in a number of tenures reserved upon men's lands, as in +divers customs of towns and manors, being the devices that such wits +wrought upon in such times of deep ignorance, etc. + +THE IMPEDIMENTS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR WANT OF A TRUE SUCCESSION OF WITS, +AND THAT HITHERTO THE LENGTH OF ONE MAN'S LIFE HATH BEEN THE GREATEST +MEASURE OF KNOWLEDGE, BEING THE 6TH CHAPTER, THE WHOLE CHAPTER. + +In arts mechanical the first device comes shortest and time addeth +and perfecteth. But in sciences of conceit the first author goeth +furthest and time leeseth and corrupteth. Painting, artillery, +sailing, and the like, grossly managed at first, by time accommodate +and refined. The philosophies and sciences of Aristotle, Plato, +Democritus, Hippocrates, of most vigour at first, by time degenerated +and imbased. In the former many wits and industries contributed in +one: In the latter many men's wits spent to deprave the wit of one. + +The error is both in the deliverer and in the receiver. He that +delivereth knowledge desireth to deliver it in such form as may be +soonest believed, and not as may be easiliest examined. He that +receiveth knowledge desireth rather present satisfaction than +expectant search, and so rather not to doubt than not to err. Glory +maketh the author not to lay open his weakness, and sloth maketh the +disciple not to know his strength. + +Then begin men to aspire to the second prizes; to be a profound +interpreter and commenter, to be a sharp champion and defender, to be +a methodical compounder and abridger. And this is the unfortunate +succession of wits which the world hath yet had, whereby the +patrimony of all knowledge goeth not on husbanded or improved, but +wasted and decayed. For knowledge is like a water that will never +arise again higher than the level from which it fell; and therefore +to go beyond Aristotle by the light of Aristotle is to think that a +borrowed light can increase the original light from whom it is taken. +So then no true succession of wits having been in the world, either +we must conclude that knowledge is but a task for one man's life, and +then vain was the complaint that LIFE IS SHORT, AND ART IS LONG: or +else, that the knowledge that now is, is but a shrub, and not that +tree which is never dangerous, but where it is to the purpose of +knowing Good and Evil; which desire ever riseth upon an appetite to +elect and not to obey, and so containeth in it a manifest defection. + + + + +CAP. 7. + + +THAT THE PRETENDED SUCCESSION OF WITS HATH BEEN EVIL PLACED, FOR +ASMUCH AS AFTER VARIETY OF SECTS AND OPINIONS, THE MOST POPULAR AND +NOT THE TRUEST PREVAILETH AND WEARETH OUT THE REST; BEING THE 7TH +CHAPTER; A FRAGMENT. + + +It is sensible to think that when men enter first into search and +inquiry, according to the several frames and compositions of their +understanding they light upon different conceits, and so all opinions +and doubts are beaten over, and then men having made a taste of all +wax weary of variety, and so reject the worst and hold themselves to +the best, either some one if it be eminent, or some two or three if +they be in some equality, which afterwards are received and carried +on, and the rest extinct. + +But truth is contrary, and that time is like a river which carrieth +down things which are light and blown up, and sinketh and drowneth +that which is sad and weighty. For howsoever governments have +several forms, sometimes one governing, sometimes few, sometimes the +multitude; yet the state of knowledge is ever a DEMOCRATIE, and that +prevaileth which is most agreeable to the senses and conceits of +people. As for example there is no great doubt but he that did put +the beginnings of things to be SOLID, VOID, AND MOTION TO THE CENTRE, +was in better earnest than he that put MATTER, FORM, AND SHIFT; or he +that put the MIND, MOTION, AND MATTER. For no man shall enter into +inquisition of nature, but shall pass by that opinion of Democritus, +whereas he shall never come near the other two opinions, but leave +them aloof for the schools and table-talk. Yet those of Aristotle +and Plato, because they be both agreeable to popular sense, and the +one was uttered with subtilty and the spirit of contradiction, and +the other with a stile of ornament and majesty, did hold out, and the +other gave place, etc. + + + + +CAP. 8. + + +OF THE IMPEDIMENTS OF KNOWLEDGE IN HANDLING IT BY PARTS, AND IN +SLIPPING OFF PARTICULAR SCIENCES FROM THE ROOT AND STOCK OF UNIVERSAL +KNOWLEDGE, BEING THE 8TH CHAPTER, THE WHOLE CHAPTER. + + +Cicero, the orator, willing to magnify his own profession, and +thereupon spending many words to maintain that eloquence was not a +shop of good words and elegancies but a treasury and receipt of all +knowledges, so far forth as may appertain to the handling and moving +of the minds and affections of men by speech, maketh great complaint +of the school of Socrates; that whereas before his time the same +professors of wisdom in Greece did pretend to teach an universal +SAPIENCE and knowledge both of matter and words, Socrates divorced +them and withdrew philosophy and left rhetoric to itself, which by +that destitution became but a barren and unnoble science. And in +particular sciences we see that if men fall to subdivide their +labours, as to be an oculist in physic, or to be perfect in some one +title of the law, or the like, they may prove ready and subtile, but +not deep or sufficient, no not in that subject which they do +particularly attend, because of that consent which it hath with the +rest. And it is a matter of common discourse of the chain of +sciences how they are linked together, insomuch as the Grecians, who +had terms at will, have fitted it of a name of CIRCLE LEARNING. +Nevertheless I that hold it for a great impediment towards the +advancement and further invention of knowledge, that particular arts +and sciences have been disincorporated from general knowledge, do not +understand one and the same thing which Cicero's discourse and the +note and conceit of the Grecians in their word CIRCLE LEARNING do +intend. For I mean not that use which one science hath of another +for ornament or help in practice, as the orator hath of knowledge of +affections for moving, or as military science may have use of +geometry for fortifications; but I mean it directly of that use by +way of supply of light and information which the particulars and +instances of one science do yield and present for the framing or +correcting of the axioms of another science in their very truth and +notion. And therefore that example of OCULISTS and TITLE LAWYERS +doth come nearer my conceit than the other two; for sciences +distinguished have a dependence upon universal knowledge to be +augmented and rectified by the superior light thereof, as well as the +parts and members of a science have upon the MAXIMS of the same +science, and the mutual light and consent which one part receiveth of +another. And therefore the opinion of Copernicus in astronomy, which +astronomy itself cannot correct because it is not repugnant to any of +the appearances, yet natural philosophy doth correct. On the other +side if some of the ancient philosophers had been perfect in the +observations of astronomy, and had called them to counsel when they +made their principles and first axioms, they would never have divided +their philosophy as the Cosmographers do their descriptions by globes, +making one philosophy for heaven and another for under heaven, as in +effect they do. + +So if the moral philosophers that have spent such an infinite +quantity of debate touching Good and the highest good, had cast their +eye abroad upon nature and beheld the appetite that is in all things +to receive and to give; the one motion affecting preservation and the +other multiplication; which appetites are most evidently seen in +living creatures in the pleasure of nourishment and generation; and +in man do make the aptest and most natural division of all his +desires, being either of sense of pleasure or sense of power; and in +the universal frame of the world are figured, the one in the beams of +heaven which issue forth, and the other in the lap of the earth which +takes in: and again if they had observed the motion of congruity or +situation of the parts in respect of the whole, evident in so many +particulars; and lastly if they had considered the motion (familiar +in attraction of things) to approach to that which is higher in the +same kind; when by these observations so easy and concurring in +natural philosophy, they should have found out this quaternion of +good, in enjoying or fruition, effecting or operation, consenting or +proportion, and approach or assumption; they would have saved and +abridged much of their long and wandering discourses of pleasure, +virtue, duty, and religion. So likewise in this same logic and +rhetoric, or arts of argument and grace of speech, if the great +masters of them would but have gone a form lower, and looked but into +the observations of Grammar concerning the kinds of words, their +derivations, deflexions, and syntax; specially enriching the same +with the helps of several languages, with their differing proprieties +of words, phrases, and tropes; they might have found out more and +better footsteps of common reason, help of disputation, and +advantages of cavillation, than many of these which they have +propounded. So again a man should be thought to dally, if he did +note how the figures of rhetoric and music are many of them the same. +The repetitions and traductions in speech and the reports and +hauntings of sounds in music are the very same things. Plutarch hath +almost made a book of the Lacedaemonian kind of jesting, which joined +ever pleasure with distaste. SIR, (saith a man of art to Philip king +of Macedon when he controlled him in his faculty,) GOD FORBID YOUR +FORTUNE SHOULD BE SUCH AS TO KNOW THESE THINGS BETTER THAN I. In +taxing his ignorance in his art he represented to him the perpetual +greatness of his fortune, leaving him no vacant time for so mean a +skill. Now in music it is one of the ordinariest flowers to fall +from a discord or hard tune upon a sweet accord. The figure that +Cicero and the rest commend as one of the best points of elegancy, +which is the fine checking of expectation, is no less well known to +the musicians when they have a special grace in flying the close or +cadence. And these are no allusions but direct communities, the same +delights of the mind being to be found not only in music, rhetoric, +but in moral philosophy, policy, and other knowledges, and that +obscure in the one, which is more apparent in the other, yea and that +discovered in the one which is not found at all in the other, and so +one science greatly aiding to the invention and augmentation of +another. And therefore without this intercourse the axioms of +sciences will fall out to be neither full nor true; but will be such +opinions as Aristotle in some places doth wisely censure, when he +saith THESE ARE THE OPINIONS OF PERSONS THAT HAVE RESPECT BUT TO A +FEW THINGS. So then we see that this note leadeth us to an +administration of knowledge in some such order and policy as the king +of Spain in regard of his great dominions useth in state; who though +he hath particular councils for several countries and affairs, yet +hath one council of State or last resort, that receiveth the +advertisements and certificates from all the rest. Hitherto of the +diversion, succession, and conference of wits. + + + + +CAP. 9. + + +THAT THE END AND SCOPE OF KNOWLEDGE HATH BEEN GENERALLY MISTAKEN, AND +THAT MEN WERE NEVER WELL ADVISED WHAT IT WAS THEY SOUGHT; BEING THE +9TH CHAPTER, WHEREOF A FRAGMENT (WHICH IS THE END OF THE SAME +CHAPTER) IS BEFORE. + + +It appeareth then how rarely the wits and labours of men have been +converted to the severe and original inquisition of knowledge; and in +those who have pretended, what hurt hath been done by the affectation +of professors and the distraction of such as were no professors; and +how there was never in effect any conjunction or combination of wits +in the first and inducing search, but that every man wrought apart, +and would either have his own way or else would go no further than +his guide, having in the one case the honour of a first, and in the +other the ease of a second; and lastly how in the descent and +continuance of wits and labours the succession hath been in the most +popular and weak opinions, like unto the weakest natures which many +times have most children, and in them also the condition of +succession hath been rather to defend and to adorn than to add; and +if to add, yet that addition to be rather a refining of a part than +an increase of the whole. But the impediments of time and accidents, +though they have wrought a general indisposition, yet are they not so +peremptory and binding as the internal impediments and clouds in the +mind and spirit of man, whereof it now followeth to speak. + +The Scripture speaking of the worst sort of error saith, ERRARE FECIT +COS IN INVIO ET NON IN VIA. For a man may wander in the way, by +rounding up and down. But if men have failed in their very direction +and address that error will never by good fortune correct itself. +Now it hath fared with men in their contemplations as Seneca saith it +fareth with them in their actions, DE PARTIBUS VITAE QUISQUE +DELIBERAT, DE SUMMA NEMO. A course very ordinary with men who receive +for the most part their final ends from the inclination of their +nature, or from common example and opinion, never questioning or +examining them, nor reducing them to any clear certainty; and use +only to call themselves to account and deliberation touching the +means and second ends, and thereby set themselves in the right way to +the wrong place. So likewise upon the natural curiosity and desire +to know, they have put themselves in way without foresight or +consideration of their journey's end. + +For I find that even those that have sought knowledge for itself, and +not for benefit or ostentation or any practical enablement in the +course of their life, have nevertheless propounded to themselves a +wrong mark, namely satisfaction (which men call truth) and not +operation. For as in the courts and services of princes and states +it is a much easier matter to give satisfaction than to do the +business; so in the inquiring of causes and reasons it is much easier +to find out such causes as will satisfy the mind of man and quiet +objections, than such causes as will direct him and give him light to +new experiences and inventions. And this did Celsus note wisely and +truly, how that the causes which are in use and whereof the +knowledges now received do consist, were in time minors and +subsequents to the knowledge of the particulars out of which they +were induced and collected; and that it was not the light of those +causes which discovered particulars, but only the particulars being +first found, men did fall on glossing and discoursing of the causes; +which is the reason why the learning that now is hath the curse of +barrenness, and is courtesanlike, for pleasure, and not for fruit. +Nay to compare it rightly, the strange fiction of the poets of the +transformation of Scylla seemeth to be a lively emblem of this +philosophy and knowledge; a fair woman upwards in the parts of show, +but when you come to the parts of use and generation, Barking +Monsters; for no better are the endless distorted questions, which +ever have been, and of necessity must be, the end and womb of such +knowledge. + +But yet nevertheless here I may be mistaken, by reason of some which +have much in their pen the referring sciences to action and the use +of man, which mean quite another matter than I do. For they mean a +contriving of directions and precepts for readiness of practice, +which I discommend not, so it be not occasion that some quantity of +the science be lost; for else it will be such a piece of husbandry as +to put away a manor lying somewhat scattered, to buy in a close that +lieth handsomely about a dwelling. But my intention contrariwise is +to increase and multiply the revenues and possessions of man, and not +to trim up only or order with conveniency the grounds whereof he is +already stated. Wherefore the better to make myself understood that +I mean nothing less than words, and directly to demonstrate the point +which we are now upon, that is, what is the true end, scope, or +office of knowledge, which I have set down to consist not in any +plausible, delectable, reverend, or admired discourse, or any +satisfactory arguments, but in effecting and working, and in +discovery of particulars not revealed before for the better endowment +and help of man's life; I have thought good to make as it were a +Kalendar or Inventory of the wealth, furniture, or means of man +according to his present estate, as far as it is known; which I do +not to shew any universality of sense or knowledge, and much less to +make a satire of reprehension in respect of wants and errors, but +partly because cogitations new had need of some grossness and +inculcation to make them perceived; and chiefly to the end that for +the time to come (upon the account and state now made and cast up) it +may appear what increase this new manner of use and administration of +the stock (if it be once planted) shall bring with it hereafter; and +for the time present (in case I should be prevented by death to +propound and reveal this new light as I purpose) yet I may at the +least give some awaking note both of the wants in man's present +condition and the nature of the supplies to be wished; though for +mine own part neither do I much build upon my present anticipations, +neither do I think ourselves yet learned or wise enough to wish +reasonably: for as it asks some knowledge to demand a question not +impertinent, so it asketh some sense to make a wish not absurd. + + + + +CAP. 10. + + +THE INVENTORY, OR AN ENUMERATION AND VIEW OF INVENTIONS ALREADY +DISCOVERED AND IN USE, TOGETHER WITH A NOTE OF THE WANTS AND THE +NATURE OF THE SUPPLIES, BEING THE 10TH CHAPTER; AND THIS A SMALL +FRAGMENT THEREOF, BEING THE PREFACE TO THE INVENTORY. + + +The plainest method and most directly pertinent to this intention, +will be to make distribution of sciences, arts, inventions, works, +and their portions, according to the use and tribute which they yield +and render to the conditions of man's life, and under those several +uses, being as several offices of provisions, to charge and tax what +may be reasonably exacted or demanded; not guiding ourselves neither +by the poverty of experiences and probations, nor according to the +vanity of credulous imaginations; and then upon those charges and +taxations to distinguish and present, as it were in several columns, +what is extant and already found, and what is defective and further +to be provided. Of which provisions, because in many of them after +the manner of slothful and faulty officers and accomptants it will be +returned (by way of excuse) that no such are to be had, it will be +fit to give some light of the nature of the supplies, whereby it will +evidently appear that they are to be compassed and procured. And yet +nevertheless on the other side again it will be as fit to check and +control the vain and void assignations and gifts whereby certain +ignorant, extravagant, and abusing wits have pretended to indue the +state of man with wonders, differing as much from truth in nature as +Caesar's Commentaries differeth from the acts of King Arthur or Huon +of Bourdeaux in story. For it is true that Caesar did greater things +than those idle wits had the audacity to feign their supposed +worthies to have done; but he did them not in that monstrous and +fabulous manner. + + + + +CAP. 11. + + +THE CHAPTER IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE INVENTORY; BEING THE 11TH IN +ORDER; A PART THEREOF. + + +It appeareth then what is now in proposition not by general +circumlocution but by particular note. No former philosophy varied +in terms or method; no new PLACET or speculation upon particulars +already known; no referring to action by any manual of practice; but +the revealing and discovering of new inventions and operations. This +to be done without the errors and conjectures of art, or the length +or difficulties of experience; the nature and kinds of which +inventions have been described as they could be discovered; for your +eye cannot pass one kenning without further sailing; only we have +stood upon the best advantages of the notions received, as upon a +mount, to shew the knowledges adjacent and confining. If therefore +the true end of knowledge not propounded hath bred large error, the +best and perfectest condition of the same end not perceived will +cause some declination. For when the butt is set up men need not +rove, but except the white be placed men cannot level. This +perfection we mean not in the worth of the effect, but in the nature +of the direction; for our purpose is not to stir up men's hopes, but +to guide their travels. The fullness of direction to work and +produce any effect consisteth in two conditions, certainty and +liberty. Certainty is when the direction is not only true for the +most part, but infallible. Liberty is when the direction is not +restrained to some definite means, but comprehendeth all the means +and ways possible; for the poet saith well SAPIENTIBUS UNDIQUE LATAE +SUNT VIAE, and where there is the greatest plurality of change, there +is the greatest singularity of choice. Besides as a conjectural +direction maketh a casual effect, so a particular and restrained +direction is no less casual than an uncertain. For those particular +means whereunto it is tied may be out of your power or may be +accompanied with an overvalue of prejudice; and so if for want of +certainty in direction you are frustrated in success, for want of +variety in direction you are stopped in attempt. If therefore your +direction be certain, it must refer you and point you to somewhat +which, if it be present, the effect you seek will of necessity follow, +else may you perform and not obtain. If it be free, then must it +refer you to somewhat which if it be absent the effect you seek will +of necessity withdraw, else may you have power and not attempt. This +notion Aristotle had in light, though not in use. For the two +commended rules by him set down, whereby the axioms of sciences are +precepted to be made convertible, and which the latter men have not +without elegancy surnamed the one the rule of truth because it +preventeth deceit, the other the rule of prudence because it freeth +election, are the same thing in speculation and affirmation which we +now observe. An example will make my meaning attained, and yet +percase make it thought that they attained it not. Let the effect to +be produced be Whiteness; let the first direction be that if air and +water be intermingled or broken in small portions together, whiteness +will ensue, as in snow, in the breaking of the waves of the sea and +rivers, and the like. This direction is certain, but very particular +and restrained, being tied but to air and water. Let the second +direction be, that if air be mingled as before with any transparent +body, such nevertheless as is uncoloured and more grossly transparent +than air itself, that then etc. as glass or crystal, being beaten to +fine powder, by the interposition of the air becometh white; the +white of an egg being clear of itself, receiving air by agitation +becometh white, receiving air by concoction becometh white; here you +are freed from water, and advanced to a clear body, and still tied to +air. Let the third direction exclude or remove the restraint of an +uncoloured body, as in amber, sapphires, etc. which beaten to fine +powder become white; in wine and beer, which brought to froth become +white. Let the fourth direction exclude the restraint of a body more +grossly transparent than air, as in flame, being a body compounded +between air and a finer substance than air; which flame if it were +not for the smoke, which is the third substance that incorporateth +itself and dyeth the flame, would be more perfect white. In all +these four directions air still beareth a part. Let the fifth +direction then be, that if any bodies, both transparent but in an +unequal degree, be mingled as before, whiteness will follow; as oil +and water beaten to an ointment, though by settling the air which +gathereth in the agitation be evaporate, yet remaineth white; and the +powder of glass or crystal put into water, whereby the air giveth +place, yet remaineth white, though not so perfect. Now are you freed +from air, but still you are tied to transparent bodies. To ascend +further by scale I do forbear, partly because it would draw on the +example to an over-great length, but chiefly because it would open +that which in this work I determine to reserve; for to pass through +the whole history and observation of colours and objects visible were +too long a digression; and our purpose is now to give an example of a +free direction, thereby to distinguish and describe it; and not to +set down a form of interpretation how to recover and attain it. But +as we intend not now to reveal, so we are circumspect not to mislead; +and therefore (this warning being given) returning to our purpose in +hand, we admit the sixth direction to be, that all bodies or parts of +bodies which are unequal equally, that is in a simple proportion, do +represent whiteness; we will explain this, though we induce it not. +It is then to be understood, that absolute equality produceth +transparence, inequality in simple order or proportion produceth +whiteness, inequality in compound or respective order or proportion +produceth all other colours, and absolute or orderless inequality +produceth blackness; which diversity, if so gross a demonstration be +needful, may be signified by four tables; a blank, a chequer, a fret, +and a medley; whereof the fret is evident to admit great variety. +Out of this assertion are satisfied a multitude of effects and +observations, as that whiteness and blackness are most incompatible +with transparence; that whiteness keepeth light, and blackness +stoppeth light, but neither passeth it; that whiteness or blackness +are never produced in rainbows, diamonds, crystals, and the like; +that white giveth no dye, and black hardly taketh dye; that whiteness +seemeth to have an affinity with dryness, and blackness with moisture; +that adustion causeth blackness, and calcination whiteness; that +flowers are generally of fresh colours, and rarely black, etc. All +which I do now mention confusedly by way of derivation and not by way +of induction. This sixth direction, which I have thus explained, is +of good and competent liberty for whiteness fixed and inherent, but +not for whiteness fantastical or appearing, as shall be afterwards +touched. But first do you need a reduction back to certainty or +verity; for it is not all position or contexture of unequal bodies +that will produce colour; for AQUA FORTIS, oil of VITRIOL, etc. more +manifestly, and many other substances more obscurely, do consist of +very unequal parts, which yet are transparent and clear. Therefore +the reduction must be, that the bodies or parts of bodies so +intermingled as before be of a certain grossness or magnitude; for +the unequalities which move the sight must have a further dimension +and quantity than those which operate many other effects. Some few +grains of saffron will give a tincture to a tun of water; but so many +grains of civet will give a perfume to a whole chamber of air. And +therefore when Democritus (from whom Epicurus did borrow it) held +that the position of the solid portions was the cause of colours, yet +in the very truth of his assertion he should have added, that the +portions are required to be of some magnitude. And this is one cause +why colours have little inwardness and necessitude with the nature +and proprieties of things, those things resembling in colour which +otherwise differ most, as salt and sugar, and contrariwise differing +in colour which otherwise resemble most, as the white and blue +violets, and the several veins of one agate or marble, by reason that +other virtues consist in more subtile proportions than colours do; +and yet are there virtues and natures which require a grosser +magnitude than colours, as well as scents and divers other require a +more subtile; for as the portion of a body will give forth scent +which is too small to be seen, so the portion of a body will shew +colours which is too small to be endued with weight; and therefore +one of the prophets with great elegancy describing how all creatures +carry no proportion towards God the creator, saith, THAT ALL THE +NATIONS IN RESPECT OF HIM ARE LIKE THE DUST UPON THE BALANCE, which +is a thing appeareth but weigheth not. But to return, there resteth +a further freeing of this sixth direction; for the clearness of a +river or stream sheweth white at a distance, and crystalline glasses +deliver the face or any other object falsified in whiteness, and long +beholding the snow to a weak eye giveth an impression of azure rather +than of whiteness. So as for whiteness in apparition only and +representation by the qualifying of the light, altering the +INTERMEDIUM, or affecting the eye itself, it reacheth not. But you +must free your direction to the producing of such an incidence, +impression, or operation, as may cause a precise and determinate +passion of the eye; a matter which is much more easy to induce than +that which we have passed through; but yet because it hath a full +coherence both with that act of radiation (which hath hitherto been +conceived and termed so unproperly and untruly by some an effluxion +of spiritual species and by others an investing of the INTERMEDIUM +with a motion which successively is conveyed to the eye) and with the +act of sense, wherein I should likewise open that which I think good +to withdraw, I will omit. Neither do I contend but that this motion +which I call the freeing of a direction, in the received philosophies +(as far as a swimming anticipation could take hold) might be +perceived and discerned; being not much other matter than that which +they did not only aim at in the two rules of AXIOMS before remembered, +but more nearly also in that which they term the form or formal +cause, or that which they call the true difference; both which +nevertheless it seemeth they propound rather as impossibilities and +wishes than as things within the compass of human comprehension. For +Plato casteth his burden and saith THAT HE WILL REVERE HIM AS A GOD, +THAT CAN TRULY DIVIDE AND DEFINE; which cannot be but by true forms +and differences. Wherein I join hands with him, confessing as much +as yet assuming to myself little; for if any man call by the strength +of his ANTICIPATIONS find out forms, I will magnify him with the +foremost. But as any of them would say that if divers things which +many men know by instruction and observation another knew by +revelation and without those means, they would take him for somewhat +supernatural and divine; so I do acknowledge that if any man can by +anticipations reach to that which a weak and inferior wit may attain +to by interpretation, he cannot receive too high a title. Nay I for +my part do indeed admire to see how far some of them have proceeded +by their ANTICIPATIONS; but how? It is as I wonder at some blind men, +to see what shift they make without their eye-sight; thinking with +myself that if I were blind I could hardly do it. Again Aristotle's +school confesseth that there is no true knowledge but by causes, no +true cause but the form, no true form known except one, which they +are pleased to allow; and therefore thus far their evidence standeth +with us, that both hitherto there hath been nothing but a shadow of +knowledge, and that we propound now that which is agreed to be +worthiest to be sought, and hardest to be found. There wanteth now a +part very necessary, not by way of supply but by way of caution; for +as it is seen for the most part that the outward tokens and badges of +excellency and perfection are more incident to things merely +counterfeit than to that which is true, but for a meaner and baser +sort; as a dubline is more like a perfect ruby than a spinel, and a +counterfeit angel is made more like a true angel than if it were an +angel coined of China gold; in like manner the direction carrieth a +resemblance of a true direction in verity and liberty which indeed is +no direction at all. For though your direction seem to be certain +and free by pointing you to a nature that is unseparable from the +nature you inquire upon, yet if it do not carry you on a degree or +remove nearer to action, operation, or light to make or produce, it +is but superficial and counterfeit. Wherefore to secure and warrant +what is a true direction, though that general note I have given be +perspicuous in itself (for a man shall soon cast with himself whether +he be ever the nearer to effect and operate or no, or whether he have +won but an abstract or varied notion) yet for better instruction I +will deliver three particular notes of caution. The first is that +the nature discovered be more original than the nature supposed, and +not more secondary or of the like degree; as to make a stone bright +or to make it smooth it is a good direction to say, make it even; but +to make a stone even it is no good direction to say, make it bright +or make it smooth; for the rule is that the disposition of any thing +referring to the state of it in itself or the parts, is more original +than that which is relative or transitive towards another thing. So +evenness is the disposition of the stone in itself, but smooth is to +the hand and bright to the eye, and yet nevertheless they all cluster +and concur; and yet the direction is more unperfect, if it do appoint +you to such a relative as is in the same kind and not in a diverse. +For in the direction to produce brightness by smoothness, although +properly it win no degree, and will never teach you any new +particulars before unknown; yet by way of suggestion or bringing to +mind it may draw your consideration to some particulars known but not +remembered; as you shall sooner remember some practical means of +making smoothness, than if you had fixed your consideration only upon +brightness by making reflexion, as thus, make it such as you may see +your face in it, this is merely secondary, and helpeth neither by way +of informing nor by way of suggestion. So if in the inquiry of +whiteness you were directed to make such a colour as should be seen +furthest in a dark light; here you are advanced nothing at all. For +these kinds of natures are but proprieties, effects, circumstances, +concurrences, or what else you shall like to call them, and not +radical and formative natures towards the nature supposed. The +second caution is that the nature inquired be collected by division +before composition, or to speak more properly, by composition +subaltern before you ascend to composition absolute, etc. + + + +OF THE INTERNAL AND PROFOUND ERRORS AND SUPERSTITIONS IN THE NATURE +OF THE MIND, AND OF THE FOUR SORTS OF IDOLS OR FICTIONS WHICH OFFER +THEMSELVES TO THE UNDERSTANDING IN THE INQUISITION OF KNOWLEDGE; +BEING THE 16TH CHAPTER, AND THIS A SMALL FRAGMENT THEREOF, BEING A +PREFACE TO THE INWARD ELENCHES OF THE MIND. + +The opinion of Epicurus that the gods were of human shape, was rather +justly derided than seriously confuted by the other sects, demanding +whether every kind of sensible creatures did not think their own +figure fairest, as the horse, the bull, and the like, which found no +beauty but in their own forms, as in appetite of lust appeared. And +the heresy of the Anthropomorphites was ever censured for a gross +conceit bred in the obscure cells of solitary monks that never looked +abroad. Again the fable so well known of QUIS PINXIT LEONEM, doth +set forth well that there is an error of pride and partiality, as +well as of custom and familiarity. The reflexion also from glasses +so usually resembled to the imagery of the mind, every man knoweth to +receive error and variety both in colour, magnitude, and shape, +according to the quality of the glass. But yet no use hath been made +of these and many the like observations, to move men to search out +and upon search to give true cautions of the native and inherent +errors in the mind of man which have coloured and corrupted all his +notions and impressions. + +I do find therefore in this enchanted glass four Idols or false +appearances of several and distinct sorts, every sort comprehending +many subdivisions: the first sort, I call idols of the NATION or +TRIBE; the second, idols of the PALACE; the third, idols of the CAVE; +and the fourth, idols of the THEATRE, etc. + + + + +HERE FOLLOWETH AN ABRIDGMENT OF DIVERS CHAPTERS OF THE FIRST BOOK OF +INTERPRETATION OF NATURE. + + + +CAP. 12. + + +That in deciding and determining of the truth of knowledge, men have +put themselves upon trials not competent. That antiquity and +authority; common and confessed notions; the natural and yielding +consent of the mind; the harmony and coherence of a knowledge in +itself; the establishing of principles with the touch and reduction +of other propositions unto them; inductions without instances +contradictory; and the report of the senses; are none of them +absolute and infallible evidence of truth, and bring no security +sufficient for effects and operations. That the discovery of new +works and active directions not known before, is the only trial to be +accepted of; and yet not that neither, in ease where one particular +giveth light to another; but where particulars induce an axiom or +observation, which axiom found out discovereth and designeth new +particulars. That the nature of this trial is not only upon the +point, whether the knowledge be profitable or no, but even upon the +point whether the knowledge be true or no; not because you may always +conclude that the Axiom which discovereth new instances is true, but +contrariwise you may safely conclude that if it discover not any new +instance it is in vain and untrue. That by new instances are not +always to be understood new recipes but new assignations, and of the +diversity between these two. That the subtilty of words, arguments, +notions, yea of the senses themselves, is but rude and gross in +comparison of the subtilty of things; and of the slothful and +flattering opinions of those which pretend to honour the mind of man +in withdrawing and abstracting it from particulars, and of the +inducements and motives whereupon such opinions have been conceived +and received. + + + + +CAP. 13. + + +Of the error in propounding chiefly the search of causes and +productions of things concrete, which are infinite and transitory, +and not of abstract natures, which are few and permanent. That these +natures are as the alphabet or simple letters, whereof the variety of +things consisteth; or as the colours mingled in the painter's shell, +wherewith he is able to make infinite variety of faces or shapes. An +enumeration of them according to popular note. That at the first one +would conceive that in the schools by natural philosophy were meant +the knowledge of the efficients of things concrete; and by metaphysic +the knowledge of the forms of natures simple; which is a good and fit +division of knowledge: but upon examination there is no such matter +by them intended. That the little inquiry into the production of +simple natures sheweth well that works were not sought; because by +the former knowledge some small and superficial deflexions from the +ordinary generations and productions may be found out, but the +discovery of all profound and radical alteration must arise out of +the latter knowledge. + + + + +CAP. 14. + + +Of the error in propounding the search of the materials or dead +beginnings or principles of things, and not the nature of motions, +inclinations, and applications. That the whole scope of the former +search is impertinent and vain; both because there are no such +beginnings, and if there were they could not be known. That the +latter manner of search (which is all) they pass over compendiously +and slightly as a by-matter. That the several conceits in that kind, +as that the lively and moving beginnings of things should be shift or +appetite of matter to privation; the spirit of the world working in +matter according to platform; the proceeding or fructifying of +distinct kinds according to their proprieties; the intercourse of the +elements by mediation of their common qualities; the appetite of like +portions to unite themselves; amity and discord, or sympathy and +antipathy; motion to the centre, with motion of stripe or press; the +casual agitation, aggregation, and essays of the solid portions in +the void space; motion of shuttings and openings; are all mere +nugations; and that the calculating and ordination of the true +degrees, moments, limits, and laws of motions and alterations (by +means whereof all works and effects are produced), is a matter of a +far other nature than to consist in such easy and wild generalities. + + + + +CAP. 15. + + +Of the great error of inquiring knowledge in Anticipations. That I +call Anticipations the voluntary collections that the mind maketh of +knowledge; which is every man's reason. That though this be a solemn +thing, and serves the turn to negotiate between man and man (because +of the conformity and participation of men's minds in the like +errors), yet towards inquiry of the truth of things and works it is +of no value. That civil respects are a lett that this pretended +reason should not be so contemptibly spoken of as were fit and +medicinable, in regard that hath been too much exalted and glorified, +to the infinite detriment of man's estate. Of the nature of words +and their facility and aptness to cover and grace the defects of +Anticipations. That it is no marvel if these Anticipations have +brought forth such diversity and repugnance in opinions, theories, or +philosophies, as so many fables of several arguments. That had not +the nature of civil customs and government been in most times +somewhat adverse to such innovations, though contemplative, there +might have been and would have been many more. That the second +school of the Academics and the sect of Pyrrho, or the considerers +that denied comprehension, as to the disabling of man's knowledge +(entertained in Anticipations) is well to be allowed, but that they +ought when they had overthrown and purged the floor of the ruins to +have sought to build better in place. And more especially that they +did unjustly and prejudicially to charge the deceit upon the report +of the senses, which admitteth very sparing remedy; being indeed to +have been charged upon the Anticipations of the mind, which admitteth +a perfect remedy. That the information of the senses is sufficient, +not because they err not, but because the use of the sense in +discovering of knowledge is for the most part not immediate. So that +it is the work, effect, or instance, that trieth the Axiom, and the +sense doth but try the work done or not done, being or not being. +That the mind of man in collecting knowledge needeth great variety of +helps, as well as the hand of man in manual and mechanical practices +needeth great variety of instruments. And that it were a poor work +that if instruments were removed men would overcome with their naked +hands. And of the distinct points of want and insufficiency in the +mind of man. + + + + +CAP. 16. + + +That the mind of a man, as it is not a vessel of that content or +receipt to comprehend knowledge without helps and supplies, so again +it is not sincere, but of an ill and corrupt tincture. Of the +inherent and profound errors and superstitions in the nature of the +mind, and of the four sorts of Idols or false appearances that offer +themselves to the understanding in the inquisition of knowledge; that +is to say, the Idols of the Tribe, the Idols of the Palace, the Idols +of the Cave, and the Idols of the Theatre. That these four, added to +the incapacity of the mind and the vanity and malignity of the +affections, leave nothing but impotency and confusion. A recital of +the particular kinds of these four Idols, with some chosen examples +of the opinions they have begot, such of them as have supplanted the +state of knowledge most. + + + + +CAP. 17. + + +Of the errors of such as have descended and applied themselves to +experience, and attempted to induce knowledge upon particulars. That +they have not had the resolution and strength of mind to free +themselves wholly from Anticipations, but have made a confusion and +intermixture of Anticipations and observations, and so vanished. +That if any have had the strength of mind generally to purge away and +discharge all Anticipations, they have not had that greater and +double strength and patience of mind, as well to repel new +Anticipations after the view and search of particulars, as to reject +old which were in their mind before; but have from particulars and +history flown up to principles without the mean degrees, and so +framed all the middle generalities or axioms, not by way of scale or +ascension from particulars, but by way of derivation from principles; +whence hath issued the infinite chaos of shadows and notions, +wherewith both books and minds have been hitherto, and may be yet +hereafter much more pestered. That in the course of those +derivations, to make them yet the more unprofitable, they have used +when any light of new instance opposite to any assertion appeared, +rather to reconcile the instance than to amend the rule. That if any +have had or shall have the power and resolution to fortify and +inclose his mind against all Anticipations, yet if he have not been +or shall not be cautioned by the full understanding of the nature of +the mind and spirit of man, and therein of the seats, pores and +passages both of knowledge and error, he hath not been nor shall not +be possibly able to guide or keep on his course aright. That those +that have been conversant in experience and observation have used, +when they have intended to discover the cause of any effect, to fix +their consideration narrowly and exactly upon that effect itself with +all the circumstances thereof, and to vary the trial thereof as many +ways as can be devised; which course amounteth but to a tedious +curiosity, and ever breaketh off in wondering and not in knowing; and +that they have not used to enlarge their observation to match and +sort that effect with instances of a diverse subject, which must of +necessity be before any cause be found out. That they have passed +over the observation of instances vulgar and ignoble, and stayed +their attention chiefly upon instances of mark; whereas the other +sort are for the most part more significant and of better height and +information. That every particular that worketh any effect is a +thing compounded (more or less) of diverse single natures, (more +manifest and more obscure,) and that it appeareth not to whether of +the natures the effect is to be ascribed, and yet notwithstanding +they have taken a course without breaking particulars and reducing +them by exclusions and inclusions to a definite point, to conclude +upon inductions in gross, which empirical course is no less vain than +the scholastical. That all such as have sought action and work out +of their inquiry have been hasty and pressing to discover some +practices for present use, and not to discover Axioms, joining with +them the new assignations as their sureties. That the forerunning of +the mind to frame recipes upon Axioms at the entrance, is like +Atalanta's golden ball that hindereth and interrupteth the course, +and is to be inhibited till you have ascended to a certain stage and +degree of generalities; which forbearance will be liberally +recompensed in the end; and that chance discovereth new inventions by +one and one, but science by knots and clusters. That they have not +collected sufficient quantity of particulars, nor them in sufficient +certainty and subtilty, nor of all several kinds, nor with those +advantages and discretions in the entry and sorting which are +requisite; and of the weak manner of collecting natural history which +hath been used. Lastly that they had no knowledge of the formulary +of interpretation, the work whereof is to abridge experience and to +make things as certainly found out by Axiom in short time, as by +infinite experiences in ages. + + + + +CAP. 18. + + +That the cautels and devices put in practice in the delivery of +knowledge for the covering and palliating of ignorance, and the +gracing and overvaluing of that they utter, are without number; but +none more bold and more hurtful than two; the one that men have used +of a few observations upon any subject to make a solemn and formal +art, by filling it up with discourse, accommodating it with some +circumstances and directions to practice, and digesting it into +method, whereby men grow satisfied and secure, as if no more inquiry +were to be made of that matter; the other, that men have used to +discharge ignorance with credit, in defining all those effects which +they cannot attain unto to be out of the compass of art and human +endeavour. That the very styles and forms of utterance are so many +characters of imposture, some choosing a style of pugnacity and +contention, some of satire and reprehension, some of plausible and +tempting similitudes and examples, some of great words and high +discourse, some of short and dark sentences, some of exactness of +method, all of positive affirmation, without disclosing the true +motives and proofs of their opinions, or free confessing their +ignorance or doubts, except it be now and then for a grace, and in +cunning to win the more credit in the rest, and not in good faith. +That although men be free from these errors and incumbrances in the +will and affection, yet it is not a thing so easy as is conceived to +convey the conceit of one man's mind into the mind of another without +loss or mistaking, specially in notions new and differing from those +that are received. That never any knowledge was delivered in the +same order it was invented, no not in the mathematic, though it +should seem otherwise in regard that the propositions placed last do +use the propositions or grants placed first for their proof and +demonstration. That there are forms and methods of tradition wholly +distinct and differing, according to their ends whereto they are +directed. That there are two ends of tradition of knowledge, the one +to teach and instruct for use and practice, the other to impart or +intimate for re-examination and progression. That the former of +these ends requireth a method not the same whereby it was invented +and induced, but such as is most compendious and ready whereby it may +be used and applied. That the latter of the ends, which is where a +knowledge is delivered to be continued and spun on by a succession of +labours, requireth a method whereby it may be transposed to another +in the same manner as it was collected, to the end it may be +discerned both where the work is weak, and where it breaketh off. +That this latter method is not only unfit for the former end, but +also impossible for all knowledge gathered and insinuated by +Anticipations, because the mind working inwardly of itself, no man +can give a just account how he came to that knowledge which he hath +received, and that therefore this method is peculiar for knowledge +gathered by interpretation. That the discretion anciently observed, +though by the precedent of many vain persons and deceivers disgraced, +of publishing part, and reserving part to a private succession, and +of publishing in a manner whereby it shall not be to the capacity nor +taste of all, but shall as it were single and adopt his reader, is +not to be laid aside, both for the avoiding of abuse in the excluded, +and the stregthening of affection in the admitted. That there are +other virtues of tradition, as that there be no occasion given to +error, and that it carry a vigour to root and spread against the +vanity of wits and injuries of time; all which if they were ever due +to any knowledge delivered, or if they were never due to any human +knowledge heretofore delivered, yet are now due to the knowledge +propounded. + + + + +CAP. 19. + + +Of the impediments which have been in the affections, the principle +whereof hath been despair or diffidence, and the strong apprehension +of the difficulty, obscurity, and infiniteness which belongeth to the +invention of knowledge, and that men have not known their own +strength, and that the supposed difficulties and vastness of the work +is rather in shew and muster than in state or substance where the +true way is taken. That this diffidence hath moved and caused some +never to enter into search, and others when they have been entered +either to give over or to seek a more compendious course than can +stand with the nature of true search. That of those that have +refused and prejudged inquiry, the more sober and grave sort of wits +have depended upon authors and traditions, and the more vain and +credulous resorted to revelation and intelligence with spirits and +higher natures. That of those that have entered into search, some +having fallen upon some conceits which they after consider to be the +same which they have found in former authors, have suddenly taken a +persuasion that a man shall but with much labour incur and light upon +the same inventions which he might with ease receive from others; and +that it is but a vanity and self-pleasing of the wit to go about +again, as one that would rather have a flower of his own gathering, +than much better gathered to his hand. That the same humour of sloth +and diffidence suggesteth that a man shall but revive some ancient +opinion, which was long ago propounded, examined, and rejected. And +that it is easy to err in conceit that a man's observation or notion +is the same with a former opinion, both because new conceits must of +necessity be uttered in old words, and because upon true and +erroneous grounds men may meet in consequence or conclusion, as +several lines or circles that cut in some one point. That the +greatest part of those that have descended into search have chosen +for the most artificial and compendious course to induce principles +out of particulars, and to reduce all other propositions unto +principles; and so instead of the nearest way, have been led to no +way or a mere labyrinth. That the two contemplative ways have some +resemblance with the old parable of the two moral ways, the one +beginning with incertainty and difficulty, and ending in plainness +and certainty, and the other beginning with shew of plainness and +certainty, and ending in difficulty and incertainty. Of the great +and manifest error and untrue conceit or estimation of the +infiniteness of particulars, whereas indeed all prolixity is in +discourse and derivations; and of the infinite and most laborious +expense of wit that hath been employed upon toys and matters of no +fruit or value. That although the period of one age cannot advance +men to the furthest point of interpretation of nature, (except the +work should be undertaken with greater helps than can be expected), +yet it cannot fail in much less space of time to make return of many +singular commodities towards the state and occasions of man's life. +That there is less reason of distrust in the course of interpretation +now propounded than in any knowledge formerly delivered, because this +course doth in sort equal men's wits, and leaveth no great advantage +or preeminence to the perfect and excellent motions of the spirit. +That to draw a straight line or to make a circle perfect round by aim +of hand only, there must be a great difference between an unsteady +and unpractised hand and a steady and practised, but to do it by rule +or compass it is much alike. + + + + +CAP. 21. + + +Of the impediments which have been in the two extreme humours of +admiration of antiquity and love of novelty, and again of +over-servile reverence or over-light scorn of the opinions of others. + + + + +CAP. 22. + + +Of the impediments which have been in the affection of pride, +specially of one kind, which is the disdain of dwelling and being +conversant much in experiences and particulars, specially such as are +vulgar in occurrency, and base and ignoble in use. That besides +certain higher mysteries of pride, generalities seem to have a +dignity and solemnity, in that they do not put men in mind of their +familiar actions, in that they have less affinity with arts +mechanical and illiberal, in that they are not so subject to be +controlled by persons of mean observation, in that they seem to teach +men that they know not, and not to refer them to that they know. All +which conditions directly feeding the humour of pride, particulars do +want. That the majesty of generalities, and the divine nature of the +mind in taking them (if they be truly collected, and be indeed the +direct reflexions of things,) cannot be too much magnified. And that +it is true that interpretation is the very natural and direct +intention, action, and progression of the understanding delivered +from impediments. And that all Anticipation is but a deflexion or +declination by accident. + + + + +CAP. 25. + + +Of the impediments which have been in the state of heathen religion +and other superstitions and errors of religion. And that in the true +religion there hath not nor is any impediment, except it be by +accident or intermixture of humour. That a religion which consisteth +in rites and forms of adoration, and not in confessions and beliefs, +is adverse to knowledge; because men having liberty to inquire and +discourse of Theology at pleasure, it cometh to pass that all +inquisition of nature endeth and limiteth itself in such metaphysical +or theological discourse; whereas if men's wits be shut out of that +port, it turneth them again to discover, and so to seek reason of +reason more deeply. And that such was the religion of the Heathen. +That a religion that is jealous of the variety of learning, discourse, +opinions, and sects, (as misdoubting it may shake the foundations,) +or that cherisheth devotion upon simplicity and ignorance, as +ascribing ordinary effects to the immediate working of God, is +adverse to knowledge. That such is the religion of the Turk, and +such hath been the abuse of Christian religion at some several times, +and in some several factions. And of the singular advantage which +the Christian religion hath towards the furtherance of true knowledge, +in that it excludeth and interdicteth human reason, whether by +interpretation or anticipation, from examining or discussing of the +mysteries and principles of faith. + + + + +CAP. 26. + + +Of the impediments which have been in the nature of society and the +policies of state. That there is no composition of estate or society, +nor order or quality of persons, which have not some point of +contrariety towards true knowledge. That monarchies incline wits to +profit and pleasure, and commonwealths to glory and vanity. That +universities incline wits to sophistry and affectation, cloisters to +fables and unprofitable subtilty, study at large to variety; and that +it is hard to say, whether mixture of contemplations with an active +life, or retiring wholly to contemplations, do disable and hinder the +mind more. + + + + +(Back Cover.) + + +Philosophy. +Line 1: see commentary +Line 2: libri dimidium est, pagina 34 +Line 3: pagellarum numeri veri + + + +Writing on the Back Cover of VALERIUS TERMINUS + + +The writing in the original is on the outside of the last leaf, which +is in fact the cover. The front cover, if there ever was one, is +lost. The ink with which the line containing the symbols is written +corresponds with that in the body of the manuscript; and the line +itself is placed symmetrically in the middle of the page, near the +top. The two lower lines are apparently by another hand, probably of +later date, certainly in ink of a different colour, and paler. The +word "Philosophy" is in Bacon's own hand, written lightly in the +upper corner at the left, and is no doubt merely a docket inserted +afterwards when he was sorting his papers. What connexion there was +between the note and the manuscript it is impossible to say. But it +is evidently a careful memorandum of something, set down by somebody +when the manuscript was at hand; and so many of the characters +resemble those adopted to represent the planets and the signs of the +zodiac, that one is led to suspect in it a note of the positions of +the heavenly bodies at the time of some remarkable accident;--perhaps +the plague, of which 30,578 persons died in London, during the year +ending 22nd December, 1603. The period of the commencement, the +duration, or the cessation of such an epidemic might naturally be so +noted. + +Now three of the characters clearly represent respectively Mercury, +Aquarius, and Sagittarius. The sign for Jupiter, as we find it in +old books, is so like a 4, that the first figure of 45 may very well +have been meant for it. The monogram at the beginning of the line +bears a near resemblance to the sign of Capricorn in its most +characteristic feature. And the mark over the sign of Aquarius +appears to be an abbreviation of that which usually represents the +Sun. (The blot between 1603 and B is nothing; being only meant to +represent a figure 6 blotted out with the finger before the ink was +dry.) Suspecting therefore that the writing contained a note of the +positions of Mercury and Jupiter in the year 1603, I sent a copy to a +scientific friend and asked him if from such data he could determine +the month indicated. He found upon a rough calculation (taking +account of mean motions only) that Jupiter did enter the sign of +Sagittarius about the 10th of August, 1603, and continued there for +about a twelvemonth; that the Sun entered Aquarius about the 12th or +13th of January, 1603-4; and that Mercury was about the 16th or 17th +of the same month in the 26th or 27th degree of Capricorn: +--coincidences which would have been almost conclusive as to the date +indicated, if Capricorn had only stood where Aquarius does, and vice +versa. But their position as they actually stood in the manuscript +is a formidable, if not fatal, objection to the interpretation. + +According to another opinion with which I have been favoured, the +first monogram is a NOTA BENE; the next group may mean DIES MERCURII +(Wednesday) 26TH JANUARY, 1603; and the rest refers to something not +connected with astronomy. But to this also there is a serious +objection. The 26th of January, 1603-4, was a Friday, and it seems +to me very improbable that any Englishman would have described the +preceding January as belonging to the year 1603. Bacon himself +invariably dated according to the civil year, and the occasional use +of the historical year in loose memoranda would have involved all his +dates in confusion. I should think it more probable that the writer +(who may have been copying a kind of notation with which he was not +familiar) miscopied the sign of Venus into that of Mercury; in which +case it would mean Friday, 26th January, 1603-4. But even then the +explanation would he unsatisfactory, as leaving so much unexplained. +Those however who are familiar with old manuscripts relating to such +subjects may probably be able to interpret the whole. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Valerius Terminus: of the Interpretation of Nature + |