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Knowledge First therefore let us seek the dignity of knowledge in the archetype or first platform, which is in the attributes and acts of God, as far as they are revealed to man and may be observed with sobriety; wherein we may not seek it by the name of Learning; for all Learning is Knowledge acquired, and all Knowledge in God is original: and therefore we must look for it by another name, that of Wisdom or Sapience, as the Scriptures call it. Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning, (1605), Bk I.
The essential form of knowledge…is nothing but a representation of truth: for the truth of being and the truth of knowing are one, differing no more than the direct beam and the beam reflected. Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning (1605), Bk I.
But we are not dedicating or building any Capitol or Pyramid to human Pride, but found a holy temple in the human Intellect, on the model of the Universe… For whatever is worthy of Existence is worthy of Knowledge—which is the Image (or Echo) of Existence. Francis Bacon, Novum Organum (1620), Bk I, Aph.120 (transl.).
My praise shall be dedicated to the mind itself. The mind is the man, and the knowledge is the mind. A man is but what he knoweth. The mind is but an accident to knowledge, for knowledge is the double of that which is. Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning (1605), Bk II.
For each individual of us is not anger, not fear, nor desire, just as he is neither pieces of flesh not humours; but that wherewith we think is the soul. Plutarch’s Morals: ‘On the Apparent Face in the Moon’.
Love looks not with the eyes, but
with the mind, Shakespeare, Midsummer Night’s Dream, I, i.
I say there is no darkness but ignorance... Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, IV, ii.
And seeing ignorance is the curse
of God, Shakespeare, 2 Henry IV, IV, vii.
Lastly, I would address one general admonition to all: that they consider what are the true ends of knowledge, and that they seek it not either for pleasure of the mind, or for contention, or for superiority to others, or for profit, or fame, or power, or any of these inferior things: but for the benefit and use of life; and that they perfect and govern it in charity. Francis Bacon, De Augmentis (1623), General Preface (transl.).
In sum, I would advise all in general, that they would take into serious consideration the true and genuine ends of knowledge; that they seek it not either for pleasure, or contention, or contempt of others, or for profit, or fame, or for honour and promotion, or such like adulterate or inferior ends; but for the merit and emolument of life; and that they regulate and perfect the same in charity. For the desire of power was the fall of angels, the desire of knowledge the fall of man; but in charity there is no excess, neither man nor angels ever incurred danger by it. Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning, The Preface (1640)
The true bounds and limitations, whereby human knowledge is confined and circumscribed,…are three: the first, that we do not so place our felicity in knowledge, as we forget our mortality: the second, that we make application of our knowledge, to give ourselves repose and contentment, and not distates or repining: the third, that we do not presume by the contemplation of Nature to attain to the mysteries of God. Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning (1605), Bk I.
It was not the pure knowledge of nature and universality, a knowledge by the light whereof man did give names unto other creatures in paradise as they were brought before him, according unto their properties, which gave the occasion to the fall: but it was in the proud knowledge of good and evil, with an intent in man to give law unto himself, and to depend no more upon God’s commandments, which was the form of the temptation. Neither is it any quantity of knowledge, how great soever, that can make the mind of man to swell; for nothing can fill, much less extend the soul of man, but God and the contemplation of God; and therefore Salomon, speaking of the two principal senses of inquisition, the eye and the ear, affirmeth that the eye is never satisfied with seeing, not the ear with hearing [Eccl. i, 8]; and if there be no fullness, then is the continent greater than the content: so of knowledge itself, and the mind of man, whereto the senses are but reporters, he defineth likewise in these words, placed after the Kalendar or Ephemerides, which he maketh of the diversities of times and seasons for all actions and purposes; and concludeth thus: God hath made all things beautiful, or decent, in the true return of their seasons: Also he hath placed the world in man’s heart, yet cannot man find out the work which God worketh from the beginning to the end [Eccl. iii, 11]: declaring not obscurely, that God hath framed the mind of man as a mirror or glass, capable of the image of the universal world, and joyful to receive the impression thereof, as the eye joyeth to receive light; and not only delighted in beholding the variety of things and vicissitudes of times, but raised also to find out and discern the ordinances and decrees, which throughout all those changes are infallibly observed. And although he doth insinuate that the supreme or summary law of nature, which he calleth, the work which God worketh from the beginning to the end, is not possible to be found out by man, yet that doth not derogate from the capacity of the mind, but may be referred to the impediments, as of shortness of life, ill conjunction of labours, ill tradition of knowledge over from hand to hand, and many other inconveniences whereunto the condition of man is subject. For that nothing parcel of the world is denied to man’s inquiry and invention he doth in another place rule over, when he saith, The spirit of man is as the lamp of God, wherewith he searcheth the inwardness of all secrets [Prov. xx, 27]. If then such be the capacity and receipt of the mind of man, it is manifest that there is no danger at all in the proportion or quantity of knowledge, how large soever, lest it should make it swell or outcompass itself; no, but it is merely the quality of knowledge, which be it in quantity more or less, if it be taken without the true corrective thereof, hath in it some nature of venom or malignity, and some effects of that venom, which is ventosity or swelling. This corrective spice, the mixture whereof maketh knowledge so sovereign, is Charity; which the apostle immediately addeth to the former clause; for so he saith, knowledge bloweth up, but charity buildeth up; not unlike that which he delivereth in another place: If I spake (saith he) with the tongues of men and angels, and had not charity, it were but as a tinkling cymbal; not but that it is an excellent thing to speak with the tongues of men and angels, but because if it be severed from charity, and not referred to the good of men and mankind, it hath rather a sounding and unworthy glory than a meriting and substantial virtue... Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning (1605), Bk I.
His knowledge is imperfect, who knows the cause of any nature…only in certain subjects: his power likewise is imperfect, who can induce the effect only upon certain materials… And he who knows only the efficient and material causes, (which are variable, and nothing more than vehicles, and causes conveying Form in some substances,) can arrive at new discoveries in such matter as is to some extent of one kind and previously prepared: but he does not move the limits of things more deeply fixed. Whilst he who knows Forms embraces the Unity of Nature in most dissimilar materials; …Wherefore from the discovery of Forms follow both true contemplation and free operation. Francis Bacon, Novum Organum (1620), Bk II, Aph.4 (transl.).
Upon a given body to generate and superinduce a new nature or new natures is the work and aim of human power. To discover the Form of a given nature, or its true difference, or its causal nature, or fount of its emanation…this is the work and aim of human knowledge. Francis Bacon, Novum Organum, Bk II, Aph. 1 (transl.).
It is rightly laid down that ‘true knowledge is knowledge by causes’. Also the establishment of four causes is not bad: material, formal, efficient and final. Francis Bacon, Novum Organum (1620), Bk II, Aph.3 (transl.).
For knowledges are as pyramids, whereof History is the basis. So of Natural Philosophy, the basis is Natural History; the stage next the basis is Physique [Physics]; the stage next the vertical point [apex] is Metaphysique. As for the vertical point, opus quod operatur Deus à principio usque ad finem [‘no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end’ – Eccles. 3:11], the Summary Law of Nature, we know not whether man's enquiry can attain unto it. Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning (1605), Bk II.
In Philosophy, the contemplations of man do either penetrate unto God, or are circumferred to Nature, or are reflected and reverted upon himself. Out of which several inquiries there do arise three knowledges, Divine Philosophy, Natural Philosophy, and Human Philosophy or Humanity. For all things are marked and stamped with this triple character of the power of God, the difference of Nature and the use of Man. Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning (1605), Bk II.
Nevertheless there remaineth yet another part of Natural Philosophy, which is commonly made a principal part and holdeth rank with Physique special and Metaphysique, which is Mathematique; but I think it more agreeable to the nature of things and to the light of order to place it as a branch of Metaphysique; for the subject of it being ‘quantity’…it appeareth to be one of the essential Forms of things; as that it is causative in Nature of a number of effects; inasmuch as we see, in the schools both of Democritus and of Pythagorus, that the one did ascribe figure to the first seeds of things, and the other did suppose numbers to be the principles and originals of things: and it is true also that of all other Forms, it is the most abstracted and separable from matter, and therefore most proper to Metaphysique; which hath likewise been the cause why it hath been better laboured and inquired than any of the other Forms, which are more immersed in matter. Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning (1605), Bk II..
But yet the commandment of knowledge is yet higher than the commandment over the will; for it is a commandment over the reason, belief, and understanding of man, which is the highest part of the mind, and giveth law to the will itself. For there is no power on earth which setteth up a throne or chair of state in the spirits and souls of men, and in their cogitations, imaginations, opinions, and beliefs, but knowledge and learning… The just and lawful sovereignty over men's understanding, by force of truth rightly interpreted, is that which approacheth nearest to the similitude of the Divine Rule. Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning (1605), Bk II.
Another error hath proceeded from too great a reverence, and a kind of adoration of the mind and understanding of man; by means whereof men hath withdrawn themselves too much from the contemplation of nature, and the observations of experience, and have tumbled up and down in their own reason and conceits. Upon these intellectualists, which are not withstanding commonly taken for the most sublime and divine philosophers, Heraclitus gave a just censure, saying, Men sought truth in their own little worlds, and not in the great and common world; for they disdain to spell, and so by degrees to read in the volume of God's Works: and contrariwise by continual meditation and agitation of wit do urge and as it were invocate their own spirits to divine and give oracles unto them, whereby they are deservedly deluded. Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning (1605), Bk I.
But this is that which will dignify and exalt knowledge: if contemplation and action be more nearly and straitly conjoined and united together than they have been: a conjunction like unto that of the highest planets, Saturn, the planet of rest and contemplation, and Jupiter, the planet of civil society and action. Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning (1605), Bk II.
As touching the explication of Mysteries, we see that God vouchsafeth to descend to the weakness of our capacity, so expressing and unfolding His Mysteries as they may be best comprehended by us; and inoculate, as it were, His Revelations upon the conceptions and notions of our Reason; and so applying His inspirations to open our understandings, as the form of the key is fitted to the ward of the lock. In which respect notwithstanding, we ought not to be wanting to our selves; for seeing God makes use of the faculty and function of Reason in His Illuminations, we ought also every way to employ and improve the same, whereby we may become more capable to receive and draw in such Holy Mysteries: with this caution, that the mind for its module be dilated to the amplitude of the Mysteries, and not the Mysteries be girt into the small compass of the mind. Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning (1605), Bk II.
He that cometh to seek after knowledge, with a mind to scorn, shall be sure to find matter for his humour, but no matter for his instruction. Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning (1605), Bk II.
Be it remembered that I am far from wishing to interfere with the philosophy which now flourishes, or with any other philosophy more correct and complete than this which has been or may hereafter be propounded. For I do not object to the use of this received philosophy, or others like it, for supplying matter for disputations or ornaments for discourse,—for the professor's lecture and for the business of life. Nay more, I declare openly that for these uses the philosophy which I bring forward will not be much available. It does not lie in the way. It cannot be caught up in passage. It does not flatter the understanding by conformity with perceived notions. Nor will it come down to the apprehension of the vulgar except by its utility and effects. Let there be therefore (and may it be for the benefit of both) two streams and two dispensations of knowledge; and in like manner two tribes or kindreds of students in philosophy—tribes not hostile or alien to each other, but bound together by mutual services;—let there in short be one method for the cultivation, another for the invention, of knowledge. And for those who prefer the former, either from hurry or from considerations of business or for want of mental power to take in and embrace the other (which must needs be most men's case), I wish that they may succeed to their desire in what they are about, and obtain what they are pursuing. But if any man there be who, not content to rest in and use the knowledge which has already been discovered, aspires to penetrate further; to overcome, not an adversary in argument, but nature in action; to seek, not pretty and probably conjectures, but certain and demonstrable knowledge;—I invite all such to join themselves, as true sons of knowledge, with me, that passing by the outer courts of nature, which numbers have trodden, we may find a way at length into her inner chambers. And to make my meaning clearer and to familiarise the thing by giving it a name, I have chosen to call one of these methods or ways Anticipation of the Mind, and the other Interpretation of Nature. Francis Bacon, Novum Organum (1620), Preface (transl.)
By this means we presume we have established for ever, a true and legitimate marriage between the Empirical and Rational faculty; whose fastidious and unfortunate divorce and separation hath troubled and disordered the whole race and generation of mankind. Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning (1640), Preface.
Lastly, I confess that I have as vast contemplative ends, as I have moderate civil ends: for I have taken all knowledge as my province; and if I could purge it of two sorts of rovers, whereof the one with frivolous disputations, confutations, and verbosities, the other with blind experiments and auricular traditions and impostures, hath committed so many spoils, I hope I should bring in industrious observations, grounded conclusions, and profitable inventions and discoveries; the best state of that province. This, whether it be curiosity, or vain glory, or nature, or (if one take it favourably) philanthropia, is so fixed in my mind as it cannot be removed. Francis Bacon, Letter to Burghley (1593).
I work for posterity, these things requiring ages for their accomplishment. Francis Bacon, letter to Father Fulgentio of the Republic of Venice. |
