is from no unworthy motive;[1] it arises rather from a pure and whole-hearted love of Truth—indeed, the man is carried away with the fine enthusiasm of the devotee of Truth “writ large.” “I am after the treasures of the Sciences,” he continues,[2] “the wonders of Truth whereof one excels a thousand of commonplace truths. I would diligently search out the dominion of the Sciences and of the Languages, and the other things needful to raise the edifice of Truth.” Bold words these are, but they well characterize the spirit and the labor of the man as we know it. And so it is not strange that the figure of Bacon has been drawn almost exclusively in these lines by the historians of Philosophy.[3]
But while his mind was so full of this inquiry after method, one does wrong to suppose that it held nothing more; nothing more than a critical opposition to the conditions then prevailing in the scholarly world, and an attempt to sketch some plan for its regeneration. On the contrary, his works make it plain that he had pondered—and pondered deeply, shrewdly and seriously—the problems that engaged the thoughtful men about him; and that he had his own views, and very decided ones they were, concerning these problems. To be sure, that degree of system which characterizes the work of Thomas Aquinas we are not to expect; for only in Bacon’s Scriptum Principale could this have been furnished, and that great work, if ever consummated, does not exist for us now.[4] But there is plain evidence of a system in the making, and it is our task to indicate some of its features, and to make clear his position with reference to certain of the problems which attracted the thinkers of his day.
Now in his work there is revealed a mind filled, out of all proportion to his time, with the conviction that the exactness of the mathematico-mechanical method alone could be fruitful in investigating the various departments of knowledge. And while there are
- ↑ See Ep. 503, cf. Br. 59, 42, 29ff.
- ↑ Cf. Ep. 501 with 498.
- ↑ Bacon stands pre-eminently for the restoration of learning, hence method is his first interest (Br. 60, cf. II—201), and conditions any systematic formulation (Ep. 501). The edifice to be raised he sketches in broad outline. Languages are the gateway to the wisdom of the past (Ep. 516); Mathematics is the foundation (I—103ff., cf. Br. 104ff.), as well as the gateway and key (I—97) of all the other Sciences. A universal hypothesis is found in his theory of Species (v. inf.). The field for urgent investigation, that of "Experimental Science" (II—167ff.). And the end of it all is Moral Philosophy and the regeneration of the world through the Church (Ep. 510, cf. 503; I—61, cf. 56. Not to be misunderstood; his conception is so broad as to be similar to that of the Positivists). But a project so grand required the assistance of a patron (Ep. 504, cf. I—300, 400) for its complete execution; and his Opus Majus, with its auxiliaries, the Opus Minus and Opus Tertium, pretended to be only a preamble (Ep. 498, 503, 507; II—298, 159; I—127; Br. 120). He was ready to produce the finished work under the proper conditions (Ep. 500, 501, cf. Br. 65), which he thought of as a Scriptum Principale.
- ↑ It is not probable that this projected work was ever actually completed. For its character see I—Introd. xliii. ff. Bacon often refers to it. Thus, e.g., Ep. 509; I—72, 305, 403; II—219, 377; Br. 56, 306; C. N. 10, 13, 105.
