66 - immoveable basis of experiment, a philosophy purely axiomatical and scientific, freed from all visionary speculations, and all uncertain conjectures and theories, resulting from that just and patient investigation of natural phænomena, of which his own writings furnish SO admirable a model. Such," says his biographer, and the learned editor of his works, " such, and so unlimited were his views for the universal advancement of science. Such was the noble aim to which all his philosophic labours were directed. What Cæsar said, in compliment to Cicero, may, with justice, be applied to him that it was more glorious to have extended the limits of human wit, than to have enlarged the bounds of the Roman world. Sir Francis Bacon really did so : a truth acknowledged, not only by the greatest private names in Europe, but by all the public societies of its most civilized nations. France, Italy, Germany, Britain, I may add, even Russia, have taken him for their leader, and submitted to be governed by his institutions. The empire he has erected in the learned world, is as universal as the free use of reason, and the one must continue till the other is no more."* * Vide Bacon's Life, ut sup. p. 65. SECTION IV. SUMMARY VIEW OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF LORD BACON. 363. THE influence of Lord Verulam's writings on the progress of knowledge and genuine philosophy has been so great, that they may justly demand a more distinct review than the general sketch attempted in the last section. A brief outline will therefore be given, in the present, of the numerous and highly important topics introduced into his principal work, (the "Novum Organum,") a work, which contains the full development of his new and admirable method of philosophizing. (1.) The first object proposed, and which is obviously a prerequisite to the discovery of truth, is the detection of the principal causes of error. These (which in figurative language are termed idols, because they are a kind of false divinities, to which the mind of man had been long accustomed to do homage,) are classed under four heads, which he designates, Idols of the Tribe-of the Den-of the Forum--and of the Theatre. The former includes all those erroneous conceptions which are found to pervade human nature generally, and originate in principles common to all mankind; such as the love of system, the disposition to theorize, and the propensity which exists in all men to attribute effects to inadequate or imaginary causes. The second comprehends all those sources of error which arise out of the character and mental constitution of individuals; some of whom are carried away by their imaginations; others by their fondness for speculation and novelty; others by their love of controversy, or their taste for dialectic subtilties. The works of Aristotle, and the golden dreams of the alchemists, are alluded to as furnishing memorable specimens of this class of mental aberrations. The third embraces those errors, which arise out of the social relations of mankind, and especially which result from the imperfection of language as a medium of intercourse and vehicle of thought. By the fourth, it was intended to characterize those deceptions and illusions which may be traced to the imagination, or are the result of abstract speculation. Such were the dogmas of the schoolmen, and the physical systems of antiquity. The latter were again subdivided into the sophistical, or those into which the mind is betrayed by false reasonings; and the empirical, or those in which it is misled by imperfect experiments, as is usually the case in the infancy of science. 364. (2.) After this minute and philosophical analysis of the sources of error, Bacon proceeds to illustrate and demonstrate them by facts drawn from the history of mankind. This is the great object of his learned and elaborate review of the learning of the ancients, under the threefold division of the Greeks, the Romans, and the western nations of Europe; shewing distinctly how knowledge had been obstructed and truth obscured during all these successive stages of the history of the human mind, by one or other of the causes of error stated above. Particularly is the great erudition of the author employed in gathering proofs from the records of antiquity, that these perversions had chiefly arisen from neglecting the study of nature-from an undue reverence to authority, and from the fact that ancient philosophers considered it beneath them to investigate the causes of ordinary phænomena, confining their attention to occult qualities, and whatever was mysterious and uncommon in the operations of nature. In opposition to these fruitful sources of delusion, he urges upon men of learning the diligent investigation of nature, and the unfettered pursuit of truth, whithersoever it may lead. 365. (3.) The necessary preliminary steps having been taken, the illustrious author advances to a more distinct explanation of his method of induction, as that which can alone lead to the detection of error and discovery of truth. Here he shews that the primary object to be attained is to ascertain facts, or, in other words, to collect the history of nature. The next is, by a comparison of these facts, to endeavour to find out the cause of each particular phænomenon, or (to adopt his own phrase) its form, by which term he designed to express the permanent qualities, and not merely the outward configuration of any substance. To ascertain those forms, two processes of investigation are recommended, which he technically terms "latens processus" and "latens schematismus," the first of which denotes the secret invisible progress by which physical changes are effected; the second indicates the hidden structure or composition of bodies, on which those changes frequently depend; e. g. in mechanics e.g. we inquire into the phænomena of nature by means of the latens processus-in chemical researches and experiments, by that of latens schematismus. On this firm and solid basis rests the whole superstructure of the inductive or experimental philosophy, which first excludes from the investigation of forms or causes those properties which are either accidental or hypothetical, and then proceeds by a careful analysis to the establishment of general principles and laws. In other words, it is laid down as a rule of universal application, that "whatever may be the case with superior intelligences, man can only attain knowledge by beginning with negatives, and proceeding to affirmatives." 366. (4.) It was the boast of the Peripatetic philosophers, that the famous categories of their great master included all the objects of human knowledge philosophically arranged. But with far greater propriety might this be asserted with reference to the classification of facts, or instances, which Lord Bacon has introduced into his "Novum Organum," and illustrated by numerous examples. It is not possible, without extending unduly the limits of this work, to convey any adequate idea of this important division of the philosophical system of Lord Bacon; yet it would be still more inexcusable to pass it over unnoticed. As a middle and more convenient course, a simple enumeration will be made of the twenty-seven classes, or species of facts, which are distinctly mentioned, with one example of each, selected out of many adduced by |