The physical and metaphysical works of Lord Bacon : including the Advancement of learning and Novum organum / edited by Joseph Devey.

  • Francis Bacon
Date:
1886
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The physical and metaphysical works of Lord Bacon : including the Advancement of learning and Novum organum / edited by Joseph Devey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    65/608 (page 53)
    BOOK I.] THE TRUE END OF LEARNING MISTAKEN. 55 of knowledge ; for some men covet knowledge out of a natural curiosity and inquisitive temper; some to entertain the mind with variety and delight; some for ornament and reputation ; some for victory and contention; many for lucre and a livelihood ; and hut few for employing the Divine gift of reason to the use and benefit of mankind. Thus some appear to seek in knowledge a couch for a searching spirit; others, a walk for a wandering mind ; others, a tower of state ; others, a fort, or commanding ground ; and others, a shop for profit or sale, instead of a storehouse for the glory of the Creator and the endowment of human life. But that which must dignify and exalt knowledge is the more in- timate and strict conjunction of contemplation and action ; a conjunction like that of Saturn, the planet of rest and contemplation; and Jupiter, the planet of civil society and action. But here, by use and action, we do not mean the applying of knowledge to lucre, for that diverts the advance- ment of knowledge, as the golden ball thrown before Atalanta, which, while she stoops to take up, the race is hindered. “Declinat cursus, aurumque volubile tollit.”—Ovid, Metam. x. 667. Nor do we mean, as was said of Socrates, to call philosophy down from heaven to converse upon earth :a that is, to leave natural philosophy behind, and apply knowledge only to morality and policy : but as both heaven and earth con- tribute to the use and benefit of man, so the end ought to be, from both philosophies, to separate and reject vain and empty speculations, and preserve and increase all that is solid and fruitful. We have now laid open by a kind of dissection the chief of those peccant humours which have not only retarded the advancement of learning, but tended to its traduce- ment.b If we have cut too deeply, it must be remen- * Cicero, Tuscul. Qusest. v. c. 4. b To this catalogue of errors incident to learned men may be added, the frauds and impostures of which they are sometimes guilty, to the scandal of learning. Thus plagiarism, piracy, falsification, interpola- tion, castration, the publishing of spurious books, and the stealing of manuscripts out of libraries, have been frequent, especially among eccle- siastical writers, and the Fratres Falsarii. For instances of this kind, see Struvius “ De Doctis Impostoribus,” Morhof in “ Polyhist. de Pseudonymis, Anonymis, &c.,” Le Clerc’s “ Ars Critica,” Cave’s “ Hi:>