Description of Part II of the Great Instauration

The New Method; or A True Guide to the Interpretation of Nature

Francis Bacon carefully chose the name of the second part of the Great Instauration so that we could easily make the inference that the New Method (Novum Organum) is to Aristotle’s Method (Organum) as the New Atlantis is to the original Atlantis, the latter having become full of corruption and errors which led to its demise by war and flood, and the former being intended to be guarded against corruption and error and therefore capable of manifesting paradise on earth. This New Method Bacon also calls the Art of Interpretation, and he saw it as the principal gift he had to give to mankind. He refers to it as being a special form of induction by means of which the ‘enchanted glass’ of the human mind might be purged of its erroneous habits and misconceptions, be guarded against erecting any new ‘idols’ or false conceptions, and be led step by step to a discovery of real truth. Recognising his own limitations and that of the state of knowledge in his time, Bacon also pointed out that his vision and definition of the Art of Interpretation should not be taken as a dogma but only as a starting point, and should be able to adapt, grow and evolve as new discoveries are made.

Bacon’s plan is to start with information derived from the senses and then, by means of a ‘true induction’, to discover axioms and then the various laws (‘Forms’) of the universe, from physical laws (physics) to the summary metaphysical laws, and ultimately the supreme law of all, referred to in Ecclesiastes as ‘the work which God worketh from the beginning to the end’ [Eccl. iii, 11]—this work being the divine act of love. In respect of the supreme law Bacon acknowledged that ‘we know not whether man’s enquiry can attain unto it’, but that if we imitated the Creator and practised charity then we might come to know it and thereby work as God works—divinely. It is how to act both individually and as a human race in ways that are truly useful and charitable to all creatures—mankind and nature—which is the difficult problem.

The method which Bacon proposed is to start by collecting histories (i.e. records) of particular examples drawn from life concerning the behaviour, design and nature of things (including human beings as well as the rest of nature), using information gleaned from books, men of repute and one’s own observations, experience and experiments. These histories are then to be made into various tables of ‘well ordered and digested experience’, made ready for ‘presentation to the intellect’. The making of these tables is a step by step affair, involving a careful scrutiny of each table and the forming of axioms (i.e. informed ideas or proposals based on experience) about them; then, with the help of further experiments, leading on to the creation of the next table. In this way the experimenter-interpreter is to ascend as if on a ladder from lesser to middle to higher and more general axioms, culminating with a final table called ‘the Ascending and Descending Ladder of Axioms or Tables of Invention’ from which a true philosophy regarding the laws of nature—divine, human and natural—can be derived. This philosophy is then to be put into action and, if true, its results will be good and stand the test of time as being truly good, for God is Good. Bacon summed it up as: ‘Truth prints goodness’.

Only two out of three books of the Novum Organum were actually published—Aphorisms on the Interpretation of Nature and the Realm of Man (Book I) and Aphorisms of the Interpretation of Nature or the Reign of Man (Book II). For some reason the third and final book (Remaining Helps or Ministrations to the Intellect) was never published, and so the general opinion on this is that Bacon never completed writing it. This does not mean, however, that he never taught these helps to his ‘sons of the sciences’ or ‘sons of wisdom’, thereby reserving a knowledge of the full working of the New Method for a ‘private succession’, or for ‘future ages’ to discover using their own wits; for there is no doubt that Bacon knew exactly what his method was, and had both practised and tested it out himself to his complete satisfaction before he even attempted to write it down for general publication. This habit of publishing part and reserving part is entirely in keeping with his whole cabalistic method and approach to life, and there may indeed be philanthropic people living now who both know and practice Bacon’s method in its entirety. There may also be many others who would like to if only they could know what the method really is and how to apply it.

Not surprisingly for a lawyer and Lord Chancellor, Bacon’s form of induction has a close similarity to the conduct of a lawsuit. In fact, his philosophical enquiry into the nature of the world and universe has much in common with his scheme for a new or reformed science of law, for Bacon saw the laws of heaven and earth, and of nature and man, as being (ideally) connected. In addition Bacon was a great poet, although concealed under a pseudonym, and this is another (hidden) clue as to the design and working of his Great Instauration. A third clue is that he was a master of Cabala and Hermeticism, well-versed in the Western Wisdom traditions and following the path of the Ancients, as he put it.

In the first Rosicrucian manifesto, Fama Fraternitatis, Bacon’s scheme to reform philosophy is described as a ‘philosophical Bibliotheca, amongst which our Axiomata was held for the chiefest, Rota Mundi for the most artificial, and Protheus the most profitable’. Protheus refers to Matter, and so the Book of Protheus is none other than the Natural History, referred to also as the ‘Librum Naturae’ (‘Book of Nature’) or ‘Book M’ (i.e. Librum Mundi or ‘Book of the World’) in the Fama. This is indeed the most profitable, as it is the basis of all the rest as well as the world of operations. Rota Mundi (‘Wheel of the World’) refers to the working of Bacon’s method, which is an art (the Art of Interpretation). The Axiomata are the axioms or philosophy derived from the method, which is the ‘Second Philosophy’ of Bacon’s scheme and the chief part or purpose of the work.

Click essay button below to read an overview of the Great Instauration

© Peter Dawkins, FBRT, 1999