The works of Francis Bacon, lord chancellor of England.

198 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. BOOK II.
The ways of sapience are not much liable either that the firmness of hides is for the armour of the
to particularity or chance. body against extremities of heat and cold, doth
The second part of metaphysic is the inquiry not impugn the cause rendered, that contraction
of final causes, which I am moved to report not of pores is incident to the outwardest parts, in reas omitted, but as misplaced; and yet if it were gard of their adjacence to foreign or unlike bodies;
but a fault in order, I would not speak of it: for and so of the rest: both causes being true and
order is matter of illustration, but pertaineth not compatible, the one declaring an intention, the
to the substance of sciences. But this misplacing other a consequence only.
hath caused a deficience, or at least a great impro- Neither doth this call in question, or derogate
ficience in the sciences themselves. For the from divine providence, but highly confirm and
handling of final causes, mixed with the rest in exalt it. For as in civil actions he is the greater
physical inquiries, hath intercepted the severe and deeper politician, that can make other men
and diligent inquiry of all real and physical the instruments of his will and ends, and yet
causes, and given men the occasion to stay upon never acquaint them with his purpose, so as they
these satisfactory and specious causes, to the great shall do it, and yet not know what they do, than
arrest and prejudice of further discovery. For he that imparteth his meaning to those he employthis I find done not only by Plato, who ever an- eth; so is the wisdom of God more admirable,
choreth upon that shore, but by Aristotle, Galen, when nature intendeth one thing, and providence
and others which do usually likewise fall upon draweth forth another, than if he had communithese fiats of discoursing causes. For to say that cated to particular creatures and motions the
the hairs of the eyelids are for a quickset and characters and impressions of his providence.
fence about the sight; or that the firmness of the And thus much for metaphysic; the latter part
skins and hides of living creatures is to defend whereof I allow as extant, but wish it confined
them from the extremities of heat or cold; or that to its proper place.
the bones are for the columns or beams, whereupon Nevertheless there remaineth yet another part
the frames of the bodies of living creatures are of natural philosophy, which is commonly made
built; or that the leaves of trees are for protecting a principal part, and holdeth rank with physic
of the fruit; or that the clouds are for the water- special and metaphysic, which is Mathematic;
ing of the earth; or that the solidness of the earth but I think it more agreeable to the nature of
is for the station and mansion of living creatures, things, and to the light of order, to place it as a
and the like, is well inquired and collected in branch of metaphysic: for the subject of it being
metaphysic; but in physic they are impertinent. quantity, (not quantity indefinite, which is but a
Nay, they are indeed but remoras and hinderances relative, and belongeth to 1" philosophia prima,"
to stay and slug the ship from further sailing; and as hath been said, but quantity determined or
have brought this to pass, that the search of the proportionable,) it appeareth to be one of the
physical causes hath been neglected, and passed essential forms of things; as that that is causative
in silence. And therefore the natural philosophy in nature of a number of effects; insomuch as we
of Democritus and some others, (who did not see, in the schools both of Democritus and of
suppose a mind or reason in the frame of things, Pythagoras, that the one did ascribe figure to the
but attributed the form thereof, able to maintain first seeds of things, and the other did suppose
itself, to infinite essays or proofs of nature, which numbers to be the principles and originals of
they term fortune,) seemeth to me, as far as I can things: and it is true also, that of all other forms,
judge by the recital and fragments which remain as we understand forms, it is the most abstracted
unto us, in particularities of physical causes, more and separable from matter, and therefore most
real and better inquired than that of Aristotle and proper to metaphysic: which hath likewise been
Plato; whereof both intermingled final causes, the cause why it hath been better laboured and
the one as a part of theology, and the other as a inquired than any of the other forms, which are
part of logic, which were the favourite studies more immersed in matter.
respectively of both those persons. Not because For it being the nature of the mind of man, to
those final causes are not true, and worthy to be the extreme prejudice of knowledge, to delight
inquired, being kept within their own province; in the spacious liberty of generalities, as in a
but because their excursions into the limits of champaign region, and not in the enclosures of
physical causes hath bred a vastness and solitude particularity; the mathematics of all other knowin that tracki. For otherwise, keeping. their pre- ledge were the goodliest fields to satisfy that
cincts and borders, men are extremely deceived if appetite.
they think there is an enmity or repugnancy at all But for the placing of this science, it is not
between them. For the cause rendered, that the much material: only we have endeavoured, in
hairs about the eyelids are for the safeguard of these our partitions, to observe a kind of perspecthe sight, doth not impugn the cause rendered, tive, that one part may cast light upon another.
that pilosity is incident to orifices of moisture; The Mathematics are either pure or mixed..Muscosi fontes," &c. Nor the cause rendered, To the pure mathematics are those sciences