Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/87

Rh by which all mankind swerve from the truth, are of two classes: 1st. When man is under the influence of a passion more powerful than the love of truth, as worldly interest, crying "Great is Diana of the Ephesians:" or, 2dly, When, under the influence of the love of truth, he, like every lover, is hurried without due and cautious inquiry by the hope of possessing the object of his affections; which manifests itself either in hasty assent, or hasty generalization, the parents of credulity:—in tenacity in retaining opinions, the parent of prejudice:—in abandoning universality, the parent of feeble inquiry:—or in indulging in subtleties and refinements and endless inquiry, the parent of vain speculations, spinning out of itself cobwebs of learning, admirable for their fineness of texture, but of no substance or profit.

As men associate by discourse, and words are imposed according to the capacity of the vulgar, a false and improper imposition of words unavoidably possesses the understanding, leading men away to idle controversies and subtleties, irremediable by definitions, which, consisting of words, shoot back, like the Tartar's bow, upon the judgment from whence they came.

These defects of words, or Idols of the Market, are either names of non-existences, as the primum mobile, the element of fire, &c.; or confused names of existences, as beauty, virtue, &c.; which, from the subtlety of nature being infinite, and of words finite, must always exist. Words tell the minutes, but not the seconds. When we attempt to reach heaven, we are stopped by the confusion of languages.

The Idols of the Den, or attachment by particular individuals to particular opinions, he thus explains: "We every one of us have our particular den or cavern, which refracts and corrupts the light of nature; either because every man has his respective temper, education, acquaintance, course of reading, and authorities; or from the difference of impressions, as they happen in a mind prejudiced or prepossessed, or in one that is calm and equal. Of which defects Plato's cave is an excellent emblem: for, certainly, if a man were continued from his childhood to mature age in a grotto or dark and subterraneous cave, and then should come suddenly abroad, and should behold the stately canopy of heaven and the furniture of the world, without doubt he would have many strange and absurd imaginations come into his mind and people his brain. So in like manner we live in the view of heaven, yet our spirits are enclosed in the caves of our bodies, complexions, and customs, which must needs minister unto us infinite images of error and vain opinions, if they do seldom and for so short a time appear above ground out of their holes, and do not continually live under the contemplation of nature, as in the open air." Of these Idols of the Den, the attachment of professional men, divines, lawyers, politicians, &c., to their respective sciences, are glaring instances.

Idols of the Theatre, or depraved theories, are, of course, infinite and inveterate; appearing in that numerous litter of strange, senseless, absurd opinions, which crawl about the world to the disgrace of reason, and the wretchedness of mankind.

Upon the destruction of these idols, Bacon is unceasing in his exhortations. "They must," he says, "by the lover of truth be solemnly and forever renounced, that the understanding may be purged and cleansed; for the kingdom of man, which is founded in the sciences, can scarce be entered otherwise than the Kingdom of God, that is, in the condition of little children:" and, with an earnestness not often found in his works, he adds, "If we have any humility towards the Creator; if we have any reverence and esteem of his works; if we have any charity towards men, or any desire of relieving their miseries and necessities; if we have any love for natural truths; any aversion to darkness, any desire of purifying the understanding, we must destroy these idols, which have led experience captive, and childishly triumphed over the works of God; and now at length condescend, with due submission and veneration, to approach and peruse the volume of the creation; dwell some time upon it, and bringing to the work a mind well purged of opinions, idols, and false notions, converse familiarly therein. This volume is the language which has gone out to all the ends of the earth, unaffected by the confusion of Babel; this is the language that men should thoroughly learn, and not disdain to have its alphabet perpetually in their hands; and in the interpretation of this language they should spare no pains, but strenuously proceed, persevere, and dwell upon it to the last."

Such is a faint outline of Bacon's celebrated doctrine of idols, which has sometimes been supposed to be the most important of all his works, and to expose the cause of all the errors by which man is misled.

Upon the motives by which the lover of truth, seeking nature with all her fruits about her, can alone be actuated, and which he has explained in other parts of his works, he, in the Novum Organum, contents himself with saying, "We would in general admonish all to consider the true ends of knowledge, and not to seek it for the gratification of their minds, or for disputation, or that they may despise others, or for emolument, or fame, or power, or such low objects, but for its intrinsic merit and the purposes of life." The obstacles to the acquisition of knowledge are: