Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/276

 148 ANALYSIS OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. The Mind. I. Division : 1st. As to the origin of the mind. 2d. As to its faculties. The Origin of the Mind ......... 205 To this appertains the consideration of the origin of the soul and its faculties. This subject may be more ddigently inquirer! than it hath been in philosophy : but it is referable to divinity. . Appendices to this knowledge: 1. Divination. 2. Fascination. Divination .............. 206 Division. . Rational. . ., . . 1. Artificial. . Su)erslitious . . Natural. . Native. . By Influxion. Artific : al Divination. . Artificial is a prediction by argument, concluding upon signs and tokens. . Division: 1st. Rational. 2d. Superstitious. . Rational artificial divination is when the argument is coupled with a derivation of causes. The astronomer hath his predictions, as of conjunctions, aspects, eclipses, and the like. The physician huth his predictions of death, of recovery, of the accidents and issues of dis eases. The politician hath his predictions ; &quot;0 urbcm vtnnlem, et cito perifuram, si emptorem invenrrit /&quot; which stayed not long to be. performed, in Sylla first, and after in Caesar. . Superstitious artificial divination is when there is a mere casual coincidence of the event and pre diction. Such as were the heathen observations upon the inspect inn of sacrifices, the flights of birds, th? swarming of bees / and such us was the Chaldean astrology., and the like. . Artificial divination is not proper to this place, but should be referred to the sciences to which i appertains. Natural Divinations. . It is a prediction from the internal nature of the soul. . Division: 1st. Native. 2d. By influxion. . Native divination is grounded on the supposition that the mind, when withdrawn and collected into itself, and not diffused into the organs of the body, hath, from the natural power of its own essence, some prenotion of future things as in sleep, ecstacies, propinquity of death &c 206 . It is furthered : by abstinence. . Divination by influxion is grounded upon the sup position that the mind, as a mirror, takes illu mination from the foreknowledge of God anc spirits. . Divination of influxion 1 is furthered by abstinence . Native divination is accompanied by repose anc quiet : divination by influxion is fervent anc impatient. Fascination 20( . It ia the power of imagination upon other bodies than the body of the imaginanL Query, Whether divination by influxion is not descrip tivo of the feeling which influences the benevolent and or .tfily class of society called Quakers? . Of the erroneous opinions upon fascination. . Iinjuiry how to fortify the imagination. 1. The only defect in this subject is as to not distin guishing its extent. 2 . Division of this knowlelge: 1st. Relating to tho understanding. 2d. Relating to the will. . The understanding produces decrees,- the will ac tions. This J/inus of imagination hath during faces ,- for the face towards reason uth the print of truth, but the face towards acthn hath the print of good; which never thtle&t are faces, It was well said by Aristotle, &quot;That the mind hath ovtr the body that commandment which the lord huth over a bondman ,- but that reason hath over the imagination that com mandment which a magistrate hath over a free citizen ,&quot; who may come also to rule in his turn. . Observations upon the imagination. Poesy is rather a pleasure or play of im agination, than a work or duty thereof. Of the Understanding, . Knowledge respecting the understanding is to most wits the least delightful ; and seems but a net of subtlety and spinosity ; but it is the key of all other arts. As knowledge is &quot;pabulum anind /&quot; so in the nature of mens appetite to this food, most men are of the taste and stomach of the Israelites in the desert, that would fain have returned &quot; ad ollas curnium.&quot; . Division 207 . Invention. 2 Judgment. . Memory. . Tradition. Invention 207 . Division. . Of arts and sciences. . Of arguments. . The art of inventing arts and sciences is deficient. This is such a d-ficience as if, in the mak ing of an inventory touching the state of a defunct, it should br set dawn, that there is no ready money. For as money will fetch all other commodities, so this knowledge is that which should purchase all the rest. And like as the West Indies hud never been discovered, if the use of the mariner s needle had not been first discovered, though the one be vast regions, and the other a small motion ; so it cannot be found strange if sciences be no further discovered, if the art itself of inven tion and discovery hath been passed over. . Proofs that the art of inventing arts and sciences is deficient. . Their logic does not pretend to invent sci ences or axioms. 207 Men are rather beholden to a wild goat for surgery, or to a nightingale for j^usic, or to the ibis for some part of physic, or to the pot dition upon Voluntary Motion Sense and Sensibility Per ception and Sense TUe Form of Light.
 * Here, in the Treatise l)e Au^mentis, is an extensive ad.