Chapter 12 Section 11

One one one There is one more ground for hope that must not be overlooked.Let men but consider the infinite consumption of their understanding, their time, and their data in matters and businesses of far less utility and value; The difficulty is insurmountable.I think it is useful to add this layer, for I clearly admit that it is indeed a great task to bring together a natural and experimental history as I conceive it and as it should be. , It can also be said to be a solemn work, and it also requires a lot of labor and expense. ① Kachin noted: Bacon intends to use this collection of materials as the third part of "Resurrection", which has six parts, but he only completed the first and second parts. - translator

. one one two At the same time, people must not be dismayed by the abundance of special things, but they should use this to encourage their hope.It is true that alchemy deals with all kinds of special phenomena in nature, but there are many more things fabricated by human wisdom when it is separated from the evidence of things. ①Besides, the former road seems to be clearly marked in the square, and it is not far away; the latter road has no mark at all, but only endless entanglements.Experience has only been briefly touched and brushed aside, and the time wasted in intellectual contemplation and exploration is infinite.Actually, if someone could actually answer our questions with this and in every episode

If everything in the world can tell us what is the truth in nature, then all causes and all scientific discoveries should be a work that can be completed in just a few years. ① Kachin reminded: In this way, it is necessary to choose a suitable case, that is, the so-called priority case. one one three Also, I think people can take some hope from my own example.I say this not out of boasting, but because it is useful to say it.If anyone is down and down, let him see how I am.I am the busiest of all my contemporaries in the affairs of state; 1 my health is not very good (thus much time is wasted); and I am quite a pioneer in the matter in question , had no one else's track to follow, nor was anyone to consult with; but I think I have advanced the matter a little, by simply following the true path firmly, and subjecting my heart to things.Then, let people think about it again, when the road has been pointed out in this way, and under the conditions of people having leisure, working together, and inheriting from generation to generation, what should our hope be: the hope is of course greater, For this road cannot be traveled by one man in one age (as is the case with reasoning), but requires the labor and effort of many to be divided and then combined with the greatest effect ( This is especially true with regard to the collection of experience).Don't have a lot of people doing the same thing, but have each one do one thing:

Only then will people begin to know their own power. ②①Kachin said: Bacon is absolutely correct to say about himself here.Has any of his predecessors or successors been as deeply involved in all branches of science as he was, and at the same time so actively engaged in the affairs of social life? ②Kachin pointed out that here is the germination of the so-called division of labor principle in modern times. - translator one one four Finally, even if the winds of hope blown to us from the New World are weaker and more imperceptible than they actually are, we (if our spirits are not wholly depressed) must try by all means.It should be noted that there is no comparison between the loss of not trying and the loss of failure: not trying is completely throwing away the opportunity to obtain great benefits, and not succeeding is only a small loss of people's labor.To tell the truth, from what I have said and what I have not said, I see that we have enough hope, if not useless, not only enough for the brave to dare to try, but also enough for the sane to happen. confidence. ① This is an allusion to Peter Martyr Anghiera's story about the discovery of the New World by Columbus: he observed that there were westerly winds blowing to the coast of Portugal at certain times of the year, and he concluded that there must be land producing these winds.

one one five I have now concluded the grounds for relieving men of despair, which is one of the most powerful causes of slowing and retarding the progress of knowledge.And this at the same time brings to an end what I have to say about all past errors, signs and causes of laziness and ignorance; From the perspective of the illusion of the human heart. At this point, the destructive part of my "On Revival" should also be over.This destructive part contains three objections: First, a refutation of natural human reason left to its own devices; second, a refutation of arguments; and third, a refutation of doctrine, that is, of accepted philosophical systems and dogmas.The means by which I proceeded to these refutations, and the only means by which I could, was to argue by evidence of signs and causes; for since I had nothing in common with others both in first principles and in laws of demonstration, I There is no way to develop his kind of rebuttal at all.

Having said this, it is time to go on to talk about the alchemy itself and explain the rules of nature; but there are still some things that need to be explained first.For in this first book I intended to prepare the mind to understand and accept what the next book says; The next thing is to put my mind in a good position, or a convenient position to see what I want to put in front of it.You should know that when it comes to a new thing, not only the strong prejudice of some old opinions will cause harm to it, but also if there is a false preconception or expectation for the new thing introduced, it will also cause harm.Therefore, I try to give people some sound and correct views on these things I have proposed, although this is like giving the son's gold for the time being (let's say it) and the matter of being the mother gold itself remains to be seen later. break down. ①Articles 116 to 130 below. - translator

one six So I ask people, first of all, not to think that I wish to be like the ancient Greeks, and some of the more recent ones like Telesius, Patricius, and Severinas, etc. Create a new school in philosophy.For that is not my intention, nor do I think that it matters much to the fate of men that one has some abstract notion of nature and of the principles of things.Undoubtedly, many old theories of the same class will always be revived, and many new theories will always appear, just as many theories may be postulated about the celestial bodies, all corresponding to astronomical phenomena, but different from each other.

For my part, I don't trouble myself with any such conjectures, which are at the same time useless. My purpose, on the contrary, was to try whether the foundations of human power and greatness could be made stronger and the limits pushed wider, in fact itself.And although I have, in an incomplete form, on some particular subjects some results which I believe to be much truer, more accurate, and at the same time much cheaper than is now accepted Part V), but I still have no whole or general theory to offer. Because it seems that now is not the time to make such an attempt.Nor can I hope that in my life I will be able to finish the sixth part of the "Renewal" (which is destined to deal with the philosophy found in the qualified interpretation of nature); Intermediary duties, sowing some purer seeds of truth for later generations, and fulfilling the responsibility of starting this great cause, I think that is enough. ①Bernardino Telesio, 1508-1588, Italian philosopher and natural scientist, one of the advocates of the scientific movement in the Renaissance; founded the Academy in Naples (Naples); his learning focused on empirical methods He also believed that heat and cold are two expanding and contradictory forces in matter, trying to explain all physical phenomena with this; he wrote the article "De Natura Rerumjuxtapropria Principia".

Francesco Patrizio, a disciple of Teresias from 1529 to 1597; published the article "Novade Universe Philosophia" against Aristotle. MarcoAurelioSeverino, Italian physician; also wrote against Aristotle. The above three people were all around the same time as Bacon. - translator one hundred and seven Just as I do not seek to found a school, so I do not make any dedication or promise of any particular deed.One cannot help thinking, that since I refer so often to merit, and refer everything to this end, I must be earnestly doing some merit myself.But my procedure and method, which I have clearly stated many times and would like to declare again, are this: I do not derive work from work, or experiment from experiment (like an empiricist), but One can derive causes and principles from deeds and experiments, and then deduce new deeds and experiments from those causes and principles, like a qualified natural interpreter.And, although in my list of discoveries (that is, the fourth part of the "Renaissance"), in the examples of special things (see the quotations in the second part), and in my arguments about history (in the third part in which even a neutrosophic reader will find here and there many symptoms and outlines of noble deeds; yet I do rightly admit that the natural history I now have, whether collected in books or From my own investigations, it is neither rich enough nor examined precisely enough for a valid interpretation.

So, if anyone is more fit, more prepared, and more intelligent for mechanistic studies, to gain some merit by mere experimentation, let him by all means extract from my history and lists By the way, collect many things and use them to generate meritorious service, which is also enough to serve as the child gold before the mother gold expires.As for myself, since my aim is greater than this, I feel that it is wrong to make untimely stays and premature plans in such matters, thinking that it is like a race in Atalanta (as I said. often said).I can't be like that boy who ran off the track in pursuit of golden apples, and I'm going to stake everything in the race to win the victory of magic over nature; spike, but to wait until the proper season

A good harvest came. one hundred and eight Undoubtedly, after reading my natural history and tables of discoveries, one will also see something less accurate or even false in the experiments themselves, which inevitably reminds one of the basis and Principles are false and questionable.But this has no consequences; things of this kind are always inevitable in the first place. It is only as if a misspelled or misspelled letter or two appears in a written or printed text, which does not hinder the reader very much, since such errors are easily corrected with the meaning of the text.In the same way, in my natural history, there will be many experiments that are wrongly done or broken, which are easily eliminated and rejected by the discovery of causes and principles.But it is true that some errors, both in natural history and in experiment, are important, frequent, and continuous, and cannot be corrected or remedied by magic or artifice.Moreover, it is not conceivable from this that if in the natural history which I have collected and tested with such prudence, such seriousness, and so to speak, such religious care, there should still be some falsity or delusion in the details. Errors creep in, so what shall we say of a general natural history which is by comparison so sketchy and imprecise?What shall we say of those philosophies and sciences built on such sands, even quicksands?In this way, please don't worry about this. ①①This article is a very wise and important revelation.When we read the second volume of this book, we often see that Bacon has some mistakes in physics knowledge; what should we think of this situation?Kachin reminded: These mistakes seem strange to us today, but they were excusable and sometimes even admirable at Bacon's time. These errors did not sully his principles; and no one was more ready to correct them than Bacon himself. Generally, one of the functions of a growing philosophy is to accept the good and eliminate all the mistakes of the predecessors; for this reason, most books on physics tend to be obsolete within a few years.But the glory of this book is that advancing time cannot render it obsolete, and it will be more and more respected as the physical sciences develop; Insight is deep, and even some of its mistakes are often instructive. - translator one nine In my natural history and experiments one also sees many things that are trivial and commonly known; many things that are base and low; , and seemingly useless things: all these things dampen and interrupt interest. Let me talk about the so-called ordinary things first.Men should always think that what they have always been accustomed to do is to attribute the cause of rare things to common things, and never ask the cause of common things, but take it for granted.In consequence of this they are acquainted with cold, heat, softness, hardness, diluteness, density, light, liquid, solidity, weight, animate, inanimate, likeness, dissimilarity, motions of the heavenly bodies, constitutions, and the like. Not to inquire into their causes, but, taking them as self-evident, from which to argue and judge other things which occur less frequently. But in me, since I am consciously aware, nothing can be judged of the rare or extraordinary, nor can anything new be revealed, without first properly examining and finding out the causes of common things, and the causes of those causes. so I must necessarily have to include in my natural history some of the most common ones.Nay, in my judgment, the greatest hindrance to which philosophy has ever suffered is precisely this: people fail to pay attention to the familiar and familiar, and simply accept them in passing without asking why; The seeking of knowledge of things is not as good as a more constant attention to what is known. one twenty Then there are the so-called vile or even obscene things, things which, as Pliny said, require an apology before they can be spoken. ①This too must be accommodated in natural history, no less than the most beautiful and precious things. And natural history is not polluted by it, just as the sun shines on palaces and sewers without being stained.As for myself, I do not seek to build a pantheon or a pyramid for human pomp, but to lay a foundation for a temple of the divine on the model of the objective world in human understanding.So, I follow that model.Whatever is worth being is worth knowing, for knowledge is the appearance of being; and base and noble things exist alike.And, as certain rotting plastids—such as the musk deer and the civet—sometimes yield the sweetest scents, so sometimes the best light and news come from vile cases.Enough is enough about this, it is too much; for this kind of boasting is nothing but a woman's opinion. ① Pliny, from 23 to 79, a Roman naturalist; when Vesuvia (Vesuvius) erupted, he tended to observe and died of suffocation by the smoke; The records of the research became the book "Natural History".The quotations here are from the first volume of the book. - translator