THE FOURTH PART

OF THE GREAT INSTAURATION.

SCALING LADDER OF THE INTELLECT; OR, THREAD OF THE LABYRINTH.

any fellowship between the ancients and ourselves, it is principally as connected with this species of philosophy: as we concur in many things which they have judiciously observed and stated about the varying nature of the senses, the

It would be difficult to find fault with tnose who affirm that "nothing is known," if they had tempered the rigour of their decision by a softening explanation. For, should any one contend, that science rightly interpreted is a knowledge of things through their causes, and that the know-weakness of human judgment, and the propriety ledge of causes constantly expands, and by of withholding or suspending assent; to which gradual and successive concatenation rises, as it we might add innumerable other remarks of a were, to the very loftiest parts of nature, so that similar tendency. So that the only difference the knowledge of particular existences cannot be between them and ourselves is, that they affirm properly possessed without an accurate compre-"nothing can be perfectly known by any method hension of the whole of things; it is not easy to discover, what can reasonably be observed in reply. For it is not reasonable to allege, that the true knowledge of any thing is to be attained before the mind has a correct conception of its causes and to claim for human nature such a correct conception universally, might justly be pronounced perhaps not a little rash, or rather the proof of an ill-balanced mind. They, however, of whom we are writing, shrink not from thus desecrating the oracles of the senses, which must lead to a total recklessness. Nay, to speak the truth, had they even spared their false accusations, the very controversy itself appears to originate in an unreasonable and contentious spirit; since, independently of that rigid truth to which they refer, there still remains such a wide field for human exertion, that it would be preposterous, if not symptomatic of an unsettled and disturbed intellect, in the anxious grasping at distant extremes, to overlook such utilities as are obvious and near at hand. For, however they may seek, by introducing their distinction of true and probable, to subvert the certainty of science, without at the same time superseding the use or practically affecting the pursuit of it, yet, in destroying the hope of effectually investigating truth, they have cut the very sinews of human industry, and by a promiscuous license of disquisition converted what should have been the labour of discovery, into a mere exercise of talent and disputation.

We cannot, however, deny, that if there be

whatever; we, that "nothing can be perfectly known by the methods which mankind have hitherto pursued." Of this fellowship we are not at all ashamed. For the aggregate, if it consists not of those alone who lay down the abovementioned dogma as their peremptory and unchangeable opinion, but of such also as indirectly maintain it under the forms of objection and interrogatory, or by their indignant complaints about the obscurity of things, confess, and, as it were, proclaim it aloud, or suffer it only to transpire from their secret thoughts in occasional and ambiguous whispers; the aggregate, I say, comprises, you will find, the far most illustrious and profound of the ancient thinkers, with whom no modern need blush to be associated; a few of them may, perhaps, too magisterially have assumed to decide the matter, yet this tone of authority prevailed only during the late dark ages, and now maintains its ground simply through a spirit of party, the inveteracy of habit, or mere carelessness and neglect.

Yet, in the fellowship here spoken of, it is easy to discover that, agreeing as we do with the great men alluded to, as to the premises of our opinions, in our conclusions we differ from them most widely. Our discrepancies may, indeed, at first sight, appear to be but inconsiderable; they asserting the absolute, and we the modified incompetency of the human intellect; but the practical result is this, that as they neither point out, nor, in fact, profess to expect any remedy for the

defect in question, they wholly give up the busi- | ries, lays firm hold of certain fixed principles in ness; and thus, by denying the certainty of the the science, and, with immovable reliance upon senses, pluck up science from its very foundation; them, disentangles (as he will with little effort) whereas, we, by the introduction of a new me- what he handles, if he advances steadily onward, thod, endeavour to regulate and correct the aber- not flinching out of excess either of self-confirations both of the senses and of the intellect. dence or of self-distrust from the object of his The consequence is, that they, thinking the die pursuit, will find he is journeying in the first of finally cast, turn aside to the uncontrolled and these two tracks; and if he can endure to suspend fascinating ramblings of genius; while we, by his judgment, and to mount gradually, and to our different view of the subject, are constrained climb by regular succession the height of things, to enter upon an arduous and distant province, like so many tops of mountains, with persevering which we unceasingly pray we may administer and indefatigable patience, he will in due time to the advantage and happiness of mankind. attain the very uppermost elevations of nature, The introductory part of our progress we de- where his station will be serene, his prospects scribed in our second book, which, having delightful, and his descent to all the practical entered, in the third we treated on the pheno- arts by a gentle slope perfectly easy. mena of the universe, and on history, plunging into and traversing the woodlands, as it were, of nature, here overshadowed (as by foliage) with the infinite variety of experiments; there perplexed and entangled (as by thorns and briers) with the subtilty of acute commentations.

It is therefore, our purpose, as in the second book we laid down the precepts of genuine and legitimate disquisition, so in this to propound and establish, with reference to the variety of subjects, illustrative examples; and that in the form which we think most agreeable to truth, and regard And now, perhaps, by our advance from the as approved and authorized. Yet, we do not alter woods to the foot of the mountains, we have the customary fashion, as well to all the constituent reached a more disengaged, but yet a more ardu-parts of this formula on absolute necessity, as if ous station. For, from history we shall proceed they were universally indispensable and inviolaby a firm and sure track, new indeed, and hitherto ble: for we do not hold, that the industry and the unexplored, to universals. To these paths of happiness of man are to be indissolubly bound, contemplation, in truth, might appositely be ap- as it were, to a single pillar. Nothing, indeed, plied the celebrated and often quoted illustration need prevent those who possess great leisure, or of the "double road of active life," of which have surmounted the difficulties infallibly enone branch, at first even and level, conducted the countered in the beginning of the experiment, traveller to places precipitous and impassable; from carrying onward the process here pointed the other, though steep and rough at the entrance, out. On the contrary, it is our firm conviction terminated in perfect smoothness. In a similar that true art is always capable of advancing. manner, he who, in the very outset of his inqui

F. W.

THE FIFTH PART

OF THE GREAT INSTAURATION.

PRECURSORS; OR, ANTICIPATIONS OF THE SECOND PHILOSOPHY.

THAT person, in our judgment, showed at once | our ambition to withdraw men, either all, or altoboth his patriotism and his discretion, who, when gether, or all at once, from what is established he was asked, "whether he had given to his fel- and current. But as an arrow, or other missile, low-citizens the best code of laws," replied, "the while carried directly onward, still, nevertheless, best which they could bear." And, certainly, during its progress incessantly whirls about in those who are not satisfied with merely thinking rapid rotation; so we, while hurrying forward to rightly, (which is little better, indeed, than dream- more distant objects, are carried round and round ing rightly, if they do not labour to realize and by these popular and prevalent opinions. And, effectuate the object of their meditations,) will therefore, we do not hesitate to avail ourselves of pursue not what may be abstractedly the best, the fair services of this common reason and these but the best of such things as appear most likely popular proofs; and shall place whatever concluto be approved. We, however, do not feel our- sions have been discovered or decided through selves privileged, notwithstanding our great affec- their medium (which may, indeed, have much of tion for the human commonwealth, our common truth and utility in them) on an equal footing country, to adopt this legislatorial principle of with the rest; at the same time protesting against selection; for we have no authority arbitrarily to any inferences thence to be drawn in derogation prescribe laws to man's intellect, or the general of what we have above stated about the incompenature of things. It is our office, as faithful secre- tency of both this reason and of these proofs. taries, to receive and note down as such have been We have rather, in fact, thrown out the preceding enacted by the voice of nature herself; and our hints, as it were, occasionally, for the sake of trustiness must stand acquitted, whether they are such as, feeling their progress impeded by an acaccepted, or by the suffrage of general opinions tual want either of talent or of leisure, wish to rejected. Still we do not abandon the hope, that, confine themselves within the ancient tracts and in times yet to come, individuals may arise who precincts of science, or, at least, not to venture will both be able to comprehend and digest the beyond their immediately contiguous domains; choicest of those things, and solicitous also to since we conceive that the same speculations carry them to perfection; and, with this confi- may (like tents or resting-places on the way) dence, we will never, by God's help, desist (so long minister ease and rest to such as, in pursuance of as we live) from directing our attention thither- our plan, seek the true interpretation of nature, ward, and opening their fountains and uses, and and find it; and may, at the same time, in some investigating the lines of the roads leading to slight degree, promote the welfare of man, and infuse into his mind ideas somewhat more closely

them.

Yet, anxious as we are with respect to the sub-connected with the true nature of things, This jects of general interest and common concern, in aspiring to the greater, we do not condemn the inferior, for those are frequently at a distance, while these are at hand and around us, nor though we offer (as we think) more valuable things, do we therefore put our veto upon things received and ancient, or seek to cover their estimation with the multitude. On the contrary, we earnestly wish them to be amplified and improved, and held in increased regard; as it is no part of VOL. III.-66

result, however, we are far from anticipating in confidence of any faculty which we ourselves possess, but we entertain no doubt that any one even of moderate abilities, yet ripened mind, who is both willing and able to lay aside his idols, and to institute his inquiries anew, and to investigate with attention, perseverance, and freedom from prejudice, the truths and computations of natural history, will, of himself, by his genuine and native powers, and by his own simple anti

2 x 2

521

In this, however, we do not wish to be considered as demanding for our own dogma the authority which we have withheld from those of the ancients. We would rather, indeed, testify and proclaim, that we are far from wishing to be|vidual existences.

MISCELLANEOUS TRACTS.

[TRANSLATED FROM THE LATIN.]

OF THE EBB AND FLOW OF THE SEA.

THE investigation of the causes of the ebb and which return at regular periods of the year. That flow of the sea, attempted by the ancients and in consequence of these and similar causes, they then neglected, resumed by the moderns, but vary their states of flow and eddy, both as relates rather frittered away than vigorously agitated in to extending and widening the motion itself, and a variety of opinions, is generally, with a hasty to the velocity and measure of the motion; and anticipation, directed to the moon, because of thus produce what we term currents. Thus, in certain correspondences between that motion, and the seas the depth of the basin or channel, the the motion of that orb. But to a careful inquirer occurrence of whirlpools or submarine rocks, the certain traces of the truth are apparent, which curvature of the shore, gulfs, bays, the various may lead to surer conclusions. Wherefore, to position of islands, and the like, have great effect, proceed without confusion, we must first distin-acting powerfully on the waters, their paths, and guish the motions of the sea, which, though agitations in all possible directions, eastward and thoughtlessly enough multiplied by some, are in westward, and in like manner northward and reality found to be only five; of these one alone southward; wherever, in fact, such obstacles, is eccentric, the rest regular. We may mention open spaces, and declivities exist in their respectfirst the wandering and various motions of what ive formations. Let us then set aside this parare called currents: the second is the great six- ticular, and, so to speak, casual motion of the hours motion of the sea, by which the waters waters, lest it should introduce confusion in the alternately advance to the shore, and retire twice inquisition which we now pursue. For no one a day, not with exact precision, but with a varia- can raise and support a denial of the statement tion, constituting monthly periods. The third is which we are presently to make, concerning the the monthly motion itself, which is nothing but a natural and catholic motions of the seas, by cycle of the diurnal motion periodically recurring: opposing to it this motion of the currents, as not the fourth is the half-monthly motion, formed by at all consistent with our positions. For the curthe increase of the tides at new and full moon, rents are mere compressions of the water, or more than at half-moon: the fifth is the motion, extrications of it from compression: and are, as once in six months, by which, at the equinoxes, as we have said, partial, and relative to the local the tides are increased in a more marked and form of the land or water, or the action of the signal manner. winds. And what we have said is the more necessary to be recollected and carefully noted, because that universal movement of the ocean of which we now treat is so gentle and slight, as to be entirely overcome by the impulse of the currents, to fall into their order, and to give way, be agitated, and mastered by their violence. That this is the case is manifest particularly from this fact, that the motion of ebb and flow, simply, is not perceptible in midsea, especially in seas broad and vast, but only at the shores. It is, therefore, not at all surprising, that, as inferior in force, it disappears, and is as it were annihilated amidst the currents; except that where the currents are favourable, it lends them some aid and impetuosity, and, on the contrary, where they

It is the second, the great six-hours or diurnal motion, which we propose for the present as the principal subject and aim of our discourse, treating of the others only incidentally and so far as they contribute to the explanation of that motion.

First, then, as relates to the motion of currents, there is no doubt that to form it the waters are either confined by narrow passages, or liberated by open spaces, or hasten as with relaxed rein, down declivities, or rush against and ascend elevations, or glide along a smooth, level bottom, or are ruffled by furrows and irregularities in the channel, or fall into other currents, or mix with them and become subject to the same influences, or are affected by the annual or trade winds,