Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/84

 which must be the foundation of a true and active philosophy." Such are the consequences of vain attempts to unite deep contemplation and unremitting action! Such the consequences of forgetting our limited powers; that we can reach only to our arm's length, and our voice be heard only till the next air is still!

It will be remembered, that in the Advancement of Learning, he separates the subject of the human mind into

Under the head of Invention he says, "The invention of sciences, I purpose, if God give me leave hereafter to propound, having digested it into two parts; whereof the one I term experientia literata, and the other interpretatio naturæ: the former being but a degree and rudiment of the latter. But I will not dwell too long, nor speak too great upon a promise." This promise, he, however, lived partly to realize.

In the year 1623, he completed his tract upon Literate Experience, in which, after having explained that our inventions, instead of resulting from reason and foresight, have ever originated in accident; that "we are more beholden to a wild goat for surgery: to a nightingale for modulations of music: to the ibis for some part of physic: to a pot-lid that flew open for artillery: in a word, to chance rather than to logic: so that it is no marvel that the Egyptians had their temples full of the idols of brutes; but almost empty of the idols of men:" he divides this art of Discovery into two parts: "For either the indication is made from experiments to experiments, or from experiments to axioms, which may likewise design new experiments; whereof the former we will term Experientia Literata; the latter, Interpretatio Naturæ, or Novum Organum: as a man may go on his way after a threefold manner, either when himself feels out his way in the dark; or, being weak-sighted, is led by the hand of another; or else when he directs his footing by a light. So when a man essays all kind of experiments without sequence or method, that is a mere palpation; but when he proceeds by direction and order in experiments, it is as if he were led by the hand; and this is it which we understand by Literate Experience; for the light itself, which is the third way, is to be derived from the interpretation of nature, or the New Organ."

He then proceeds to explain his doctrine of "Literate Experience," or the science of making experiments. The hunting of Pan.

In this interesting inquiry the miraculous vigilance of this extraordinary man may possibly be more apparent than in his more abstruse works. An outline of it is subjoined.