[We have just spoken of _Theories_ and _Facts_, of _Ideas_ and _Facts_, and of _Inductive_ Sciences, which imply the opposition of _Induction_ and _Deduction_. The explanation of these antitheses must be the starting point of our Philosophy.] [Knowledge grows, and] through the ages one increasing purpose runs, And the thoughts of men are widen'd with the process of the Suns. BOOK I. OF IDEAS IN GENERAL. Quæ adhuc inventa sunt in Scientiis, ea hujusmodi sunt ut Notionibus Vulgaribus fere subjaceant: ut vero ad interiora et remotiora Naturæ penetretur, necesse est ut tam NOTIONES quam AXIOMATA magis certâ et munitâ viâ a particularibus abstrahantur; atque omnino melior et certior intellectûs adoperatio in usum veniat. BACON, _Nov. Org._, Lib. 1. Aphor. xviii. {{23}} BOOK I. OF IDEAS IN GENERAL. CHAPTER I. OF THE FUNDAMENTAL ANTITHESIS OF PHILOSOPHY. _Sect._ 1.--_Thoughts and Things._ IN order that we may do something towards determining the nature and conditions of human knowledge, (which I have already stated as the purpose of this work,) I shall have to refer to an antithesis or opposition, which is familiar and generally recognized, and in which the distinction of the things opposed to each other is commonly considered very clear and plain. I shall have to attempt to make this opposition sharper and stronger than it is usually conceived, and yet to shew that the distinction is far from being so clear and definite as it is usually assumed to be: I shall have to point the contrast, yet shew that the things which are contrasted cannot be separated:--I must explain that the antithesis is constant and essential, but yet that there is no fixed and permanent line dividing its members. I may thus appear, in different parts of my discussion, to be proceeding in opposite directions, but I hope that the reader who gives me a patient attention will see that both steps lead to the point of view to which I wish to lead him. The antithesis or opposition of which I speak is denoted, with various modifications, by various pairs of terms: I shall endeavour to shew the connexion of these different modes of expression, and I will begin with that form which is the simplest and most idiomatic. {24} The simplest and most idiomatic expression of the antithesis to which I refer is that in which we oppose to each other THINGS and THOUGHTS. The opposition is familiar and plain. Our thoughts are something which belongs to ourselves; something which takes place within us; they are what we think; they are actions of our minds. Things, on the contrary, are something different from ourselves and independent of us; something which is without us; they _are_; we see them, touch them, and thus know that they exist; but we do not make them by seeing or touching them, as we make our _Thoughts_ by thinking them; we are passive, and _Things_ act upon our organs of perception.