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

  • Francis Bacon
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

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.

    93/608 (page 81)
    CHAP. II.] IMPORTANCE OF MINUTE INQUIRIES. !a deeper disclosure of nature. Nor should men scruple examining into these things, in order to discover truth : the sun, though it passes through dirty places, yet remains as pure as before. Those narrations, however, which have a tincture of superstition, should be kept separate, and un- mixed with others, that are merely natural. But the relations of religious prodigies and miracles, as being either false or supernatural, are unfit to enter into a history of nature. As for the history of nature wrought or formed, we have some collections of agriculture and manual arts, but com- monly with a rejection of familiar and vulgar experiments, which yet are of more service in the interpretation of nature than the uncommon ones: an inquiry into mechanical matters being reputed a dishonour to learning; unless such as appear secrets, rarities, and subtilties. This supercilious arrogance, Plato justly derides in his representation of the dispute between Hippias and Socrates touching beauty. Socrates is represented, in his careless manner, citing first an example of a fair virgin, then a fine horse, then a smooth pot curiously glazed. This last instance moved Hippias’s clioler, who said, “ Were it not for politeness’ sake, I would disdain to dispute with any that alleged such low and sordid examples.” Whereupon Socrates replied, “You have reason, and it be- comes you well, being a man so sprucely attired, and so trim in your shoes.” a And certainly the truth is, that they are not the highest instances that always afford the securest infor- mation ; as is not unaptly expressed in the tale so common of the philosopher,13 who, while he gazed upwards to the stars, fell into the water.c For had he looked down, he might have discovered the stars in the water ; but looking up to heaven, he could not see the water in the stars; for mean and small things often discover great ones, better than great can dis- cover the small; and therefore Aristotle observes, “ That the ; nature of everything is best seen in its smallest portions.”11 Whence he seeks the nature of a commonwealth, first in a | family; and so the nature of the world, and the policy thereof must be sought in mean relations and small portions. a Plato, Hipp. Maj. iii. 291. ° Thales; see Plato, Tlieaet. i. 174. - Laertius, “Lire of Thales.” d Arist. Polit. i. and Pliys. i 2 o