BACON, Sir Francis Bacon: Novum Organum Book 1

Sir Francis Bacon: Novum Organum, Preface, Book 1 pg. 105 – 136

Francis Bacon wrote:
Lastly, there are idols which have crept into men’s minds from the various dogmas of peculiar system of philosophy, and also from the perverted rules of demonstration, and these we denominate idols of the theatre; for we regard all the systems of philosophy hitherto received or imagined, as so many plays brought out and performed, creating fictitious and theatrical worlds.
Novum Organum, Book 1 pg. 110, #44


Francis Bacon wrote:
The empiric School produces dogmas of a more deformed and monstrous nature than the sophistic or theoretic school; not being founded in the light of common notions… in the confined obscurity of a few experiments. Hence this species of philosophy appears probably, and almost certain to those who are daily practised in such experiments, and have thus corrupted their imagination.
Novum Organum, Book 1 pg. 114, #64


Francis Bacon wrote:
The present method of experiment is blind and stupid; hence men wandering and roaming without any determined course, and consulting mere chance are hurried about to various points.
Novum Organum, Book 1 pg. 116, #70


Francis Bacon wrote:
…groping in the dark, as men at night try all means of discovering the right road, whilst it would be better and more prudent either to wait for day, or procure a light, and then to proceed. ON the contrary the real order of experience begins by setting up a light, and the shows the road by it, commencing with a regulated and digested, not a misplaced and vague course of experiment, and thence deducing axiom, and from those axioms new experiments; for not even the Divine word proceeded to operate on the general mass of things without due order.
Novum Organum, Book 1 pg. 121, #82


Francis Bacon wrote:
I mean superstition and a blind and immoderate zeal for religion. For we see that, among the Greeks, those who first disclosed the natural causes of thunder and storms to the yet untrained ears of man were condemned as guilty of impiety towards the gods.
Novum Organum, Book 1 pg. 124, #89


Francis Bacon wrote:
Let us then speak of hope, especially as we are not vain promisers, nor are willingly to enforce or ensnare men’s judgment, but would rather lead them willingly forward… We must therefore disclose and prefer our reasons for not thinking the hope of success improbable, as Columbus, before his wonderful voyage over the Atlantic, gave reasons of his conviction that new lands and continents might be discovered besides those already known; and these reasons, though at first rejected, were yet proved by subsequent experience, and were the causes and beginnings of the greatest events.
Novum Organum, Book 1 pg. 125, #92


Francis Bacon wrote:
Nor should we neglect to mention the prophecy of Daniel, of the last days of the world, “Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased,” thus plainly hinting and suggesting that fate, which is Providence, would cause the completed circuit of the glove, now accomplished, or at least going forward by means of so many distant voyages, and the increase of learning to happen at the same epoch.
Novum Organum, Book 1 pg. 125 #93


Francis Bacon wrote:
Before the discovery of cannon…
Before the discovery of silk thread…
If before the discovery of the compass, any one had said…
Novum Organum, Book 1 pg. 129, #109


Francis Bacon wrote:
There are more over, some inventions which render it probably that men may pass and hurry over the most noble discoveries which lie immediately before him…
Novum Organum, Book 1 pg. 129 #110


Francis Bacon wrote:
The human mind is often so awkward and ill-regulated in the career of invention that it is a first diffident, and then despises itself. For it appears at first incredible that any such discovery should be made, and when it has been made, it appears incredible that it should so long have escaped mane’s research. All which affords good reason for the hope that a vast mass of inventions yet remains, which may be deduced not only from the investigation of new modes of operation, but also from transferring comparing, and applying these already known by the method of what we have termed literate experience.
Novum Organum, Book 1 pg. 129 #110



VOCABULARY - Novum Organum, Sir Francis Bacon

Antipodes, pg. 124 – one who lives on the opposite side of the globe, and of course, whose feet are directly opposite.
Antipodal, pertaining to the antipodes; having the feet directly oppostite