The Advancement of Learning Page #70

The Advancement of Learning, published by Francis Bacon in 1605, is a foundational text in the history of science and philosophy. In this work, Bacon advocates for empirical research and the systematic organization of knowledge, laying the groundwork for the scientific method. The book critiques existing scholarly practices and proposes a new approach to learning based on observation and experimentation. It marks a significant shift towards modern scientific inquiry.

• Essay

								

so he saith, Quasi peccatum ariolandi est repugnare, et quasi scelus
idololatriæ nolle acquiescere.

(25) These things I have passed over so briefly because I can report no
deficiency concerning them: for I can find no space or ground that lieth
vacant and unsown in the matter of divinity, so diligent have men been
either in sowing of good seed, or in sowing of tares.

                                * * * * *

Thus have I made as it were a small globe of the intellectual world, as
truly and faithfully as I could discover; with a note and description of
those parts which seem to me not constantly occupate, or not well
converted by the labour of man.  In which, if I have in any point receded
from that which is commonly received, it hath been with a purpose of
proceeding in melius, and not in aliud; a mind of amendment and
proficiency, and not of change and difference.  For I could not be true
and constant to the argument I handle if I were not willing to go beyond
others; but yet not more willing than to have others go beyond me again:
which may the better appear by this, that I have propounded my opinions
naked and unarmed, not seeking to preoccupate the liberty of men’s
judgments by confutations.  For in anything which is well set down, I am
in good hope that if the first reading move an objection, the second
reading will make an answer.  And in those things wherein I have erred, I
am sure I have not prejudiced the right by litigious arguments; which
certainly have this contrary effect and operation, that they add
authority to error, and destroy the authority of that which is well
invented.  For question is an honour and preferment to falsehood, as on
the other side it is a repulse to truth.  But the errors I claim and
challenge to myself as mine own.  The good, it any be, is due tanquam
adeps sacrificii, to be incensed to the honour, first of the Divine
Majesty, and next of your Majesty, to whom on earth I am most bounden.
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