Where are those diagrams? And what does he mean, when
he tells us in this connection that he is not a vain promiser? Where
are those particular cases, in which this method of investigation is
applied to the noblest subjects? Where are the diagrams, in which the
order of the investigation is represented, as it were, to the eye,
which serve the same purpose, 'that globes and machines serve in the
more abstruse and subtle demonstrations in mathematics?' We are all
acquainted with one poem, at least, published about that time, in
which some very abstruse and subtle investigations appear to be in
progress, _not_ without the use of diagrams, and very lively ones too;
but one in which the intention of the poet appears to be to the last
degree 'enigmatical,' inasmuch as it has engaged the attention of the
most philosophical minds ever since, and inasmuch as the most able
critics have never been able to comprehend that intention fully in
their criticism. And it is bound up with many others, in which the
subjects are not less carefully chosen, and in which the method of
inquiry is the same; in which that same method that is exhibited in
the 'Novum Organum' in the abstract, or in its application to the
investigation of the physical phenomena, is everywhere illustrated in
the most chosen subjects--in subjects of the noblest kind. This
volume, and another which has been mentioned here, contain the THIRD
and FOURTH PARTS of the Great Instauration, whether this man who
describes them here, and who forgot, it would seem, to fulfil his
promise in reference to them, be aware of it or not.
That is the part of the Great Instauration that we want now, and we
are fairly entitled to it, because these are not 'the next ages,' or
'the times which were nearer,' and which this author seldom speaks of
without betraying his clear foresight of the political and social
convulsions that were then at hand. These are the times, which were
farther off, to which he appeals from those nearer ages, and to which
he expressly dedicates the opening of his designs.
Now, what is it that we have to find? What is it that is missing out
of this philosophy? Nothing less than the 'principal' part of it. All
that is good for anything in it, according to the author's own
estimate. The rest serves merely 'to pass the time,' or it is good as
it serves to prepare the way for this. What is it that we have to look
for? The 'Novum Organum,' that severe, rigorous method of scientific
inquiry, applied to _the more chosen subjects_ in the reigns of Queen
Elizabeth and James I. Tables of Review of Instances, and all that
Logic which is brought out in the doctrine of the PREROGATIVE
INSTANCES, whereby the mind of man is prepared for its encounter with
fact in general, brought down to particulars, and applied to the
noblest subjects, and to every sort of subject which the philosophic
mind of that age _chose_ to apply it to. That is what we want to find.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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