The works of Francis Bacon, lord chancellor of England.

TRANSLATION OF
THE MASCULINE BIRTH OF TIME;
OR,
THREE BOOKS CONCERNING THE INTERPRETATION OF NATURE.
1. THE PURIFICATION AND APPLICATION OF human things,) as I shall disclose to you these
THE MIND. things with the fullest conviction, with the deep2. THE LIGHT OF NATURE, OR METHOD OF IN- est forecast of my mind, and after the profoundest
TERPRETATION. research into the present state of knowledge, in
3. NATURE ILLUMINATED, OR THE TRUTH OF'the method of all others the most legitimate.
THINGS.." And what," you will say, "is this legitimate
method I Have done with artifice and circumloC. I. Legitimate Mode of Statement. cution; show me the naked truth of your design,
I find, my son, that men in showing forth, and that I may be able to form a judgment for myno less in concealing the knowledge which they self." I would, my dearest son, that matters
think they have acquired, have not acted in a were in such a state with you as to render this
spirit of good faith and of duty. No less mis- possible. Do you suppose that when all the enchievous, though perhaps less shameful, is the trances and passages to the minds of all men are
error of those who, with good intentions, but lit- infested and obstructed with the darkest idols, and
tle wisdom, are ignorant of the art and rules these deep-seated and burned in, as it were, into
proper for setting forth their several subjects. their substance, that clear and smooth spaces can
We do not intend, however, to begin a complaint be found for receiving the true and natural rays
of either this perversity or ignorance in the ex- of objects! A new process must be instituted,
pounders of knowledge. Had they, by unskilful by which to insinuate ourselves into minds so enteaching, broken down the weight of the subjects tirely obstructed. For as the delusions of the
taught, it might, no doubt, have been matter insane are removed by art and ingenuity, but agof just indignation. But, in teaching inaptitude, gravated by violence and opposition, so must we
it was natural to expect absurdity. I, however, adapt ourselves here to the universal insanity.
far different from such instructors, intend to im- What! do even those less difficult requisites perpart to you not fictions of imagination or shadows taining to the legitimate method of delivering
of words; not a mixture of religion; not certain knowledge, appear to you such light and easy
commonplace observations, or certain well-known matters I That it be ingenuous, that is, afford
experiments adjusted to conformity with fanciful no handle or occasion for error; that it have a
theories, but to bind, and place at your command, certain native and inseparable quality, both to
nature with her offspring about her; and can this conciliate belief, and repel the injuries of time, so
be supposed a theme fit to be debased by preten- that the knowledge so delivered, like a vigorous
sion or unskilfulness, or other defective treatment. and healthy plant, may daily shoot and thrive;
So may I exist, my son, and so may I extend the that it appear to place itself in, and adapt itself to
now deplorably narrow limits of man's dominion the situation of its proper and reasonable reader:
over the universe to the permitted boundaries, whether I shall show in the sequel all these qua(which is the only object of my prayers among lities or not, I appeal to futurity. W. G. G.
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