It will be seen hereafter that, notwithstanding what has been said, we differ not at all from Bacon himself; we differ only from his pseudo-disciples, who have no more in common with his enlarged views of the uses of science than the schools had with Aristotle, or the New Academy with Plato. Nevertheless, we well know that we shall be well abused by these disciples as an impugner of Bacon, and as a heretic to his philosophy, just as your pious people condemn as an infidel or atheist every one who denies any dogma which their wild enthusiasm has grafted on the Bible. It is not in religion alone that bigotry is to be found. Bacon himself pursued the mode of study which we suggest. At fifteen he formed an hypothesis, and devoted his whole life to its elucidation. The hypothesis round which, as a centre, he gathered every fact within his reach was this: Whether or not the Aristotelian was the best mode of cultivating the mind, and of discovering the sciences? He seems at first to have been disposed to think that it was neither; but the conclusion to which he finally came, after many years of close thought and arduous study, was, that it was the best mode of cultivating the mind, but the worst mode of discovering the sciences. He did not soon sit down satisfied that he was right, and set up for a dogmatic teacher of his new philosophy. He waited patiently for any new light which years and experience might throw upon it, either bringing out more brightly its beauties or disclosing more satisfactorily its errors. Once in each year he reviewed it and tested it by the new facts which he had gleaned during the year’s studies. Once in each year, for twelve long years, he wrote out with his own hand, altering, condensing and verifying his _Novum Organum_ before he published it. So much stress has, notwithstanding this illustrious example of the master, been laid, ever since the publication of the Baconian or inductive philosophy, upon the bare accumulation of facts, and so much has been written against generalizing and hypothesizing, that it may be as well, before quitting the subject, to point out wherein the disciples of Bacon have neglected the precepts of their master; and to inquire whether this neglect, and the only _partial_ adoption of his teachings, have not contributed greatly to the advancement of mere Knowledge at the expense of true Wisdom, and thus been very important causes of the degeneracy of modern mind.