after carefully distinguishing and rejecting all contradictory inftances that occur, he finds common to many. And thus from many collateral comparisons and judgments formed upon Particulars he afcends to Generals; and, by a repetition of the fame industrious process and laborious investigation, he advances from general to more general, till at laft he is enabled to form a few of the most general, with their attributes and operations, into AXIOMS or SECONDARY PRINCIPLES, which are the well-founded Laws enacted and enforced by the God of Nature.1

This Method of REASONING, founded on Experiment and Obfervation, by which

Secundum nos, axiomata continenter et gradatim excitantur, ut nonnifi poftremo loco ad generaliffima veniatur: Ea vero generaliffima evadunt, non notionalia, fed bene terminata; et talia quæ natura ut revera fibi notiora agnofcat, quæque rebus hæreant in medullis. Baconus de Augm. Sc. Præf.

iSee Nov. Org. lib. i. p. 302.

Ad veram philofophiam pertinet rerum naturas ex Caufis vere exiftentibus derivare: eas vero Leges quærere, quibus voluit fummus Opifex hunc mundi pulcherrimum ordinem ftabilire, non eas quibus potuit, fi ita vifum fuiffet. Cotefii Præf. in Newt. Princip.

the

the general ideas and Forms of Natural Philofophy are invented, is purely and exclufively INDUCTIVE. The Schools are not the theatre in which this philofophical logic is difplayed.' It does not delight in external appearance, and oftentatious formality. It retires from the clamour of verbal difputation into the retreat of the laboratory and Observatory, where, in filent investigation, it lays the foundation of substantial learning. And, as it mixes with Experiment and Observa

* Inquifitio formarum fic procedit; fuper naturam datum primo facienda eft comparentia ad intellectum omnium inftantiarum notarum, quæ in eadem natura conveniunt, per materias licet diffimillimas. Atque hujufmodi collectio facienda eft hiftorice, abfque contemplatione præfeftina aut fubtilitate aliqua majore. Bacon. Nov. Org. lib. ii. Aph.xi.

Rejicimus igitur fyllogifmum; neque id folum quoad principia, (ad quæ nec adhibent) fed etiam quoad propofitiones medias: quas educit fane atque parturit, utcunque fyllogifmus; fed operum fteriles et a practica remotas et plane quoad partem activam fcientiarum incompetentes. Quamvis igitur relinquamus fyllogifmo et hujufmodi demonftrationibus famofis et jactatis, jurifdictionem in artes populares et opinabiles, (nil enim in hac parte movemus ;) tamen ad naturam rerum, inductione per omnia et tam ad minores propofitiones, quam ad majores, utimur, De Augm. Sc. Præf.

tion, it is incapable of being adequately displayed by words, but is best seen and understood by attending it in the act, and pursuing it through every stage of the analytical progreffion.

Such is the genuine Logic of Phyfical learning; not that which was employed by the ancient philofophers the difciples of Pythagoras and the Lycæum, who, (to speak with all reverence of thefe exalted characters, and to think of them with all the gratitude due to their useful labours, without being a flave to their authority,") in haste to indulge in their national infirmity that vain and oftentatious parade of terms divorced from things and invented by themselves," overlooked the true ground-work of all found philosophy, Experience and Induc

☐ Pro certo habeant homines non fectæ nos alicujus aut placiti, fed utilitatis et amplitudinis humanæ fundamenta moliri. Baconus De Augm. Sc. Præf.

"Cum toti fint in rerum nominibus, non in ipfis rebus, Sermonem quendam Philofophicum cenfendi funt adinveniffe, Philofophiam tradidiffe non funt cenfendi. Cotefii Præf. in Newtoni Princip.

The Inductive Logic has, indeed, much humbler pretenfions, but more efficient operations, ftooping from the high prefumption of the mind thus raised upon the wings of an imaginary perfection, to the manual and ocular examination of the meaneft particulars in the universe, for the ground of its proceedings: and, fo far from having advanced to a state of perfection, it was in their day in its tendereft infancy, and, from the obstacles thrown in its way by its proud opponent, continues at the prefent in a state of flow progreffion. In the field of Natural Philofophy it has before it such a vast extent and variety of ground, as is fufficient to employ the joint and confederated labours of philofophers of different ages and countries, affifted by the largest collections and best arrangements of Natural History,' which is

poffe confidit; hunc oportet vel ftatuere Mundum ex neceffitate fuiffe, Legefque propofitas ex eadem neceffitate fequi; vel, fi per voluntatem Dei conftitus fit ordo NatuFæ, fe tamen homuncionem mifellum, quid optimum factu fit perfpectum habere. Cotefii Præf. in Newt. Princip.

• Phænomena Univerfi; hoc eft, omnigena experientia, atque hiftoria naturalis, ejus generis, quæ poffit

effe

the proper foundation of Natural Philosophy. From this ground Experience takes its flow but fteady course. It firftlights the candle, and then by that candle fhews the way, beginning with regular and well-conducted Experiments, not fuch as are vague and pre'posterous, from which it derives Axioms, and then from Axioms well established, ' defcends to new Experiments.' '

t

The more numerous and extenfive the Experiments and Obfervations are from

esse ad condendam philofophiam fundamentalis. Neque enim excellens aliqua demonftrandi via, five naturam interpretandi forma; ut mentem ab errore et lapfu defendere ac fuftinere, ita ei materiam ad fciendum præbere et subminiftrare, poffit. Verum iis, quibus non conjicere et hariolari, fed invenire et fcire propofitum eft; quique non fimiolas et fabulas mundorum comminifci, fed hujus ipfius veri mundi naturam introfpicere et velut diffecare in animo habent; omnia a rebus ipfis petenda funt. Neque buic labori et inquifitioni ac mundanæ perambulationi, ulla ingenii aut meditationis aut argumentationis substitutio, aut compenfatio fufficere poteft; non fi omnia omnium ingenia coierint. Baconus De Augm. Sc. Præf.

Verus experientia ordo primo lumen accendit, deinde per lumen iter demonftrat, incipiendo ab Experientia ordinata et digefta, et minime præpoftera et erratica, atque ex ea educendo Axiomata; atque ex Axiomatis conftitutis experimenta nova. Baconi Nov. Org. lib. i. Aph. 82.