The _Instauratio Magna_ was published in 1620, while Bacon was still
chancellor.
In his dedication of it to James the First, in 1620, in which he says
he has been engaged in it nearly thirty years, he pathetically remarks:
“The reason why I have published it now, specially being imperfect,
is, to speak plainly, because I number my days, and would have it
saved.” His country and the world participate in the opinion of the
philosopher, and would have deemed its loss one of the greatest to
mankind.
Such was the care with which it was composed, that Bacon transcribed it
twelve times with his own hand.
It is divided into six parts. The first entitled _Partitiones
Scientiarum_, or the divisions of knowledge possessed by mankind, in
which the author has noted the deficiencies and imperfections of each.
This he had already accomplished by his _Advancement of Learning_.
Part 2 is the _Novum Organum Scientiarum_, or new method of studying
the sciences, a name probably suggested by Aristotle’s _Organon_
(treatises on Logic). He intended it to be “the science of a better
and more perfect use of reason in the investigation of things and of
the true end of understanding.” This has been generally denominated
the _inductive method_, i. e. the experimental method, from the
principle of _induction_, or bringing together facts and drawing from
them general principles or truths, by which the author proposes the
advancement of all kinds of knowledge. In this consists preëminently
the philosophy of Bacon. Not reasoning upon conjecture on the laws
and properties of nature, but, as Bacon quaintly terms it, “asking
questions of nature,” that is, making experiments, laboriously
collecting facts first, and, after a sufficient number has been brought
together, then forming systems or theories founded on them.
But this work is rather the summary of a more extensive one he
designed, the aphorisms of it being rather, according to Hallam, “the
heads or theses of chapters.” But some of these principles are of
paramount importance. An instance may be afforded of this, extracted
from the “Interpretation of Nature, and Man’s dominion over it.” It is
the very first sentence in the _Novum Organum_. “Man, the servant and
interpreter of nature, can only understand and act in proportion as he
observes and contemplates the order of nature; more, he can neither
know nor do.” This, as has justly been observed, is undoubtedly the
foundation of all our real knowledge.
The _Novum Organum_ is so important, that we deem it desirable to
present some more detailed accounts of it.
The body of the work is divided into two parts; the former of which is
intended to serve as an introduction to the other, a preparation of the
mind for receiving the doctrine.
Bacon begins by endeavoring to remove the prejudices and to obtain fair
attention to his doctrine. He compares philosophy to “a vast pyramid,
which ought to have the history of nature for its basis;” he likens
those who strive to erect by the force of abstract speculation to the
giants of old, who, according to the poets, endeavored to throw Mount
Ossa upon Pelion, and Olympus upon Ossa. The method of “anticipating
nature,” he denounces “as rash, hasty, and unphilosophical;” whereas,
“interpretations of nature, or real truths arrived at by deduction,
cannot so suddenly arrest the mind; and when the conclusion actually
arrives, it may so oppose prejudice, and appear so paradoxical as to
be in danger of not being received, notwithstanding the evidence that
supports it, like mysteries of faith.”
Bacon first attacks the “Idols of the Mind,” i. e. the great sources
of prejudice, then the different false philosophical theories; he
afterwards proceeds to show what are the characteristics of false
systems, the causes of error in philosophy, and lastly the grounds of
hope regarding the advancement of science.
He now aspires, to use his own language, “only to sow the seeds of pure
truth for posterity, and not to be wanting in his assistance to the
first beginning of great undertakings.” “Let the human race,” says he
further, “regain their dominion over nature, which belongs to them by
the bounty of their Maker, and right reason and sound religion will
direct the use.”
The second part of the _Novum Organum_ may be divided into three
sections. The first is on the discovery of forms, i. e. causes in
nature. The second section is composed of _tables_ illustrative of the
inductive method, and the third and last is styled the _doctrine of
instances_, i. e. facts regarding the discovery of causes.
Part the third of the _Instauratio Magna_ was to be a Natural History,
as he termed it, or rather a history of natural substances, in which
the art of man had been employed, which would have been a history of
universal nature.
Part 4, to be called _Scala intellectus_, or _Intellectual Ladder_, was
intended to be, to use his own words, “types and models which place
before our eyes the entire process of the mind in the discovery of
truth, selecting various and remarkable instances.”
He had designed in the fifth part to give specimens of the new
philosophy; a few fragments only of this have been published. It was to
be “the fragment of interest till the principal could be raised.”
The sixth and last part was “to display a perfect system of philosophy
deduced and confirmed by a legitimate, sober, and exact inquiry
according to the method he had laid down and invented.” “To perfect
this last part,” says Bacon, “is above our powers and beyond our hopes.”
Let us return, however, for a moment to the commencement, to remark
that he concludes the introduction by an eloquent prayer that his
exertions may be rendered effectual to the attainment of truth and
happiness. But he feels his own inability, for “his days are numbered,”
to conduct mankind to the hoped for goal. It was given to him to point
out the road to the promised land; but, like Moses, after having
descried it from afar, it was denied him to enter the land to which he
had led the way.