4‘ It is not to be esteemed a small matter in this estimate, that, by the voyages and travels of these later times, so much more of nature has been discovered than was known at any former period. It would, indeed, be disgraceful to mankind, if, after such tracts of the material world have been laid open, which were unknown in former thnes,—so many seas traversed,—so many countries explored,—so many stars discovered,—that philosophy, or the intelligible world, should be circumscribed by the same boundaries as before." . Another cause has greatly obstructed the progress of philosophy, viz. that men inquire only causes of rare, extraordinary, and great phenomena, without troubling them selves about the explanation of such as are common, and make a part of the general course of nature. ' It is, however, certain, that no judgment oan be formed concerning the extra ordinary and singular phenomena of nature, without them with those that are ordinary and frequent.
The laws which are every day in action, are those which it is most important for us to uderstand ; and this is well illustrated by what has.happened in the scientific world since the time when Bacon wrote. The simple falling of a stone to the ground has been found to involve principles which are the basis of all we know in mechanical philosophy. With out accurate experiments on the descent of bodies at the surface of the earth, the objec tions against the earth's motion could not have been answered, the inertia of body would have remained unknown, and the nature of the force which retains the planets in their edits could never have been investigated. Nothing, therefore, can lie more out of its place than the fastidiousness of those philosophers, who suppose things to be unworthy of study, because, with respect to ordinary life, they are trivial and unimportant. It is an error of the same sort which leads men to consider experiment, and the actual application of the hands, as unworthy of them, and unbecoming of the dignity of science. " There are some," says Bacon, " who, delighting in mere contemplation, are offended with our frequent reference to experiments and operations to be performed by the hand, things which appear to them mean and mechanical ; but these men do in fact oppose the attain meat of the object they profess to pursue, since the exercise of contemplation, and the construction and invention of experiments, are supported on the same principles, and per fected by the same means." After- these preliminary discussions, the great restorer of philosophy proceeds, in the se cond book of the Novum Organum, to describe and exemplify the nature of the induction, which he deems essential to the right interpretation of nature.
The first object must be to prepare a history of the phenomena to be explained, in all their modifications and varieties. This history is to comprehend not only all such facts as spontaneously offer themselves, but all the experiments instituted for the sake of discovery, or for any of the purposes of the useful arts. It ought to be composed with great care ; the facts accurately related, and distinctly arranged ; their authenticity diligently examin ed ; those that rest on doubtful evidence, though not rejected, being noted as uncertain, with the grounds of the judgment so formed. This last is very necessary ; for facts often appear incredible, only because ore are ill informed, and cease to appear marvellous, when our knowledge is farther extended.
All such facts, however, as appear contrary to the ordinary course of our experience, though thus noted down and preserved, must have no weight allowed them in the first steps of investigation, and are to be used only when the general principle, as it emerges from the inductive process, serves to increase their probability.
This record of facts is what Bacon calls natural history, and it is material to take notice of the comprehensive sense in which that term is understood through all his writings. According to the arrangement of the sciences, which he has explained in his treatise on the advancement of knowledge, all learning is classed relatively to the three intellectual faculties of Memory, Reason, and Imagination. Under the first of these divisions is con tained all that is merely Narration or History, of whatever kind it may be. Under the second are contained the different sciences, whether they respect the Intellectual or the Material world. Under the third are comprehended Poetry and the Fine Arts. It is with the first of these classes only that we are at present concerned. T1 two first divisions of . it are Sacred and Civil History, the meaning of which is sufficiently understood. The third division is Natural History, which comprehends the description of the facts relative to inanimate matter, and to all animals, except man. Natural history is again subdivided into three parts : 1. The history of the phenomena of nature, which are uniform ; 2. Of the facts which are anomalous or extraordinary; 3. Of the processes in the diffbrent arts.