Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/92



Observe resemblances between apparent differences.—Are not gums of trees and gems produced in the same manner, both of them being only exudations and percolations of juices: gums being the transuded juices of trees, and gems of stones; whence the clearness and transparency of them both are produced by means of a curious and exquisite percolation?—Are not the hairs of beasts and the feathers of birds produced in the same manner, by the percolation of juices? and are not the colours of feathers more beautiful and vivid, because the juices are more subtilely strained through the substance of the quill in birds than through the skins of beasts? Do not the celestial bodies move in their orbits by the same laws which govern the motions of the bodies terrestrial.

From the conformity between a speculum and the eye, the structure of the ear and of the cavernous places that yield an echo, it is easy to form and collect this axiom,—that the organs of the senses, and the bodies that procure reflections to the senses, are of a like nature. And, again, the understanding being thus admonished, easily rises to a still higher and more noble axiom; viz., that there is no difference between the consents and sympathies of bodies endowed with sense, and those of inanimate bodies without sense, only that in the former an animal spirit is added to the body so disposed, but is wanting to the latter; whence, as many conformities as there are among inanimate bodies, so many senses there might be in animals, provided there were organs or perforations in the animal body, for the animal spirit to act upon the parts rightly disposed, as upon a proper instrument. And, conversely, as many senses as there are in animals, so many motions there may be in bodies inanimate, where the animal spirit is wanting; though there must, of necessity, be many more motions in inanimate bodies than there are senses in animate bodies, because of the small number of the organs of sense.

Real differences in apparent resemblances.—Do any two beings differ more from each other than two human beings? Men's curiosity and diligence have been hitherto principally employed in observing the variety of things, and explaining the precise differences of animals, vegetables, and fossils, the greatest part of which variety and differences are rather the sport of nature, than matters of any considerable and solid use to the sciences. Such things, indeed, serve for delight, and sometimes contribute to practice, but afford little or no true information, or thorough insight into nature; human industry, therefore, must be bent upon inquiring into, and observing the similitudes and analogies of things, as well in their wholes as in their parts; for these are what anite nature, and begin to build up the sciences.

Such are specimens, mere specimens, of this most valuable of all his works, and by him most highly valued. It is written in a plain, unadorned style, in aphorisms, invariably stated by him to be the proper style for philosophy, which, conscious of its own power, ought to go forth "naked and unarmed;" but, from the want of symmetry and ornament, from its abstruseness, from the novelty of its terms, and from the imperfect state in which it was published, it has, although the most valuable, hitherto been too much neglected: but it will not so continue. The time has arrived, or is fast approaching, when the pleasures of intellectual pursuit will have so deeply pervaded society, that they will, to a considerable extent, form the pleasures of our youth; and the lamentation in the Advancement of Learning will be diminished or pass away: "Nevertheless, I do not pretend, and I know it will be impossible for me, by any pleading of mine, to reverse the judgment, either of Æsop's cock, that preferred the barley-corn before the gem; or of Midas, that, being chosen judge between Apollo, president of the muses, and Pan, god of the flocks, judged for plenty; or of Paris, that judged for beauty and love, against wisdom and power; or of Agrippina, 'occidat matrem modo imperet,' that preferred empire with any condition, never so detestable; or of Ulysses, 'qui vetulam prætulit immortalitati,' being a figure of those which prefer custom and habit before all excellency; or of a number of the like popular judgments. For these things must continue as they have been: but so will that also continue, whereupon learning hath ever relied, and which faileth not: 'justificata est sapientia a filiis suis.'" Copies of the work were sent to the king, the University of Cambridge, Sir Henry Wotton, and Sir Edward Coke.

The tranquil pursuits of philosophy he was now, (1620,) for a time, obliged to quit, to allay, if possible, the political storm in which the state was involved, and which he vainly thought that he had the power to calm. It is scarcely possible for any chancellor to have been placed in a situation of greater difficulty. He knew the work that must be done, and the nature of his materials.

The king, who was utterly dependent upon the people, was every day resorting to expedients which widened the breach between them: despotic without dignity, and profuse without magnificence, meanly grasping, and idly scattering neither winning their love, nor commanding their reverence, he seemed in all things the reverse of his illustrious predecessor, exceptin what could be well spared, the arbitrary spirit common to them both. While the people were harassed and pillaged by the wretches to whom the king had delegated his authority, he reaped only part of the spoil, but all the odium.

The chancellor had repeatedly assured the king