Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/560

 INTERPRETATION OF NATURE. first rate nations shaken, affairs lean to peace, which is like clear and mild weather for the sciences. Nor is the present state of letters itself unfavourable ; nay, it enjoys a certain facility, both from the art of printing, unknown to ancient times, by means of which the inventions and thoughts of individuals glance from side to side like lightning: and also by reason of religious controversies, from weariness of which perchance men have been able to turn their minds more readily to the contemplation of the power, the wisdom, and the goodness of God in his works. But, if any one is moved by the consent and continuance enjoyed by the opinions of the ancients, he will find, if he looks more carefully into the matter, very few leaders, and the rest fol lowers only and a crowd; men, that is to say, who have stepped from ignorance into prejudice, and have never met in true consent, which must be after the use of judgment. And on proper reflection, the length of time itself shrinks into a narrow shred. For of the five-and-twenty centuries with which the memory of man is acquainted, scarce five can be marked out which have been useful and productive in the increase of knowledge, and even they have been for the most part planted and cultivated with other know ledges, and not that of nature. For there are reckoned three periods and revolutions of opinions, one with the Greeks, another with the Romans, the last with the western nations of Europe; the remaining time of the world has been taken up with wars and other pursuits, and, as far as regards the growth of knowledge, is a barren wilderness. He thought thus then about time. From tht power and nature of chance also he augured thus. Chance, indeed, has been, without doubt, the author of many inventions, occasion being taken from the nature of things. Did then the Prome- thens of New India differ from the European in the discovery of fire, because the former have no supply of flints ? In those things, therefore, which are at hand, chance gives inventions in plenty ; in those which are removed from common use, she travails and brings forth more sparingly, but yet in all ages. For no cause can be seen why chance should be thought to have grown old and past the time of bearing. He thought, there fore, that if many discoveries chance to men without seeking, and while otherwise employed, no one can doubt that if the same men were to search, and by rule and order, not by fits and starts, many more things must be discovered. For, though it may happen in one or two cases that some one may by chance hit upon what has escaped him before when straining all his powers in the inquiry, yet, without doubt, the contrary will appear in the long run. For chance works thinly, and slowly, and irregularly ; but art con stantly, and rapidly, and connectedly. From j those inventions also, which are already brought about those which are yet hidden. But some of them are of that kind that, before their discovery, surmises of them would not readily come into any one s mind. For, men commonly guess at new things by a likeness to old ones, and by ideas learned df them, which is a very vain way of thinking, since those things that are sought from the fountain-head do not flow through the common channels. Thus, if some one, before the invention of firearms, had described them by their effects, and had said that a discovery was just made by means of which walls and the strongest fortifica tions might be battered and beaten down from a great distance, men would certainly reason much and variously about multiplying the powers of casting engines and machinery, by weights, wheels, and the like; but the idea of a fiery wind could scarcely occur, as what they had never seen an instance of, except perchance in an earthquake or thunderstorm, which they had neglected, as not imitable. In like manner if, before the invention of silken thread, some one had spoken thus : that there was a certain kind of thread useful for dress and furniture, which much excelled linen and woollen thread in fineness, and, notwithstanding, strength, arid moreover gloss and softness ; men would immediately begin to think of some vegeta ble silk, or the delicate part of some animal s hair, or the feathers and down of birds, but would never guess the fabric of a worm, and that too in such plenty and every year. And if any one had dropped a hint about worms, he would certainly have been ridiculed for dreaming of some new works of spiders. And hence, for the most part, those things which are still hidden in the womb of nature have this same property, that they escape and elude the imaginations and reasoning of men. So he thought, if it check any one s hope of new inventions, that, by inference from those before us, he counts them either impossible or unlikely, he should know that he is not competent, even to wish fitly and usefully. But again he thought that there are other things among those discovered of a different and almost contrary nature, which lead us to think that man kind may pass by and neglect great inventions lying close at their feet. For although the inven tion of gunpowder, and silk, and the compass, and sugar, and the like, seem to depend upon certain properties of matter and nature; the art of printing has certainly nothing which was not plain, and almost obvious, and gathered from what was a I. ready known. But in this race of invention the human mind is commonly so unlucky and awk ward, that in some things it first despairs, and shortly after despises itself; and at first it seems incredible that any such thing could be invented, but after it is invented, again it. appears incredible that it could have escaped men so long. And this
 * to light, he thought it might be truly conjectured