"The fact is, my son, that the human mind in studying nature becomes big under the impact of things and brings forth a teeming brood of errors."
— Bacon, Sir Francis, Lord Verulam (1561-1626)
Date
c. 1603
Metaphor
"The fact is, my son, that the human mind in studying nature becomes big under the impact of things and brings forth a teeming brood of errors."
Metaphor in Context
The fact is, my son, that the human mind in studying nature becomes big under the impact of things and brings forth a teeming brood of errors. Aristotle stands for the tallest growth of one kind of error, Plato of another, and so on for the rest. Now, you would like me to confute them individually. But verily that would be to sin on the grand scale against the golden future of the human race, to sacrifice its promise of dominion by turning aside to attack transitory shadows. The need is to set up in the midst one bright and radiant light of truth, shedding its beams in all directions and dispelling all errors in a moment. It is pointless to light pale candles and carry them about to every nook and cranny of error and falsehood. I would have you learn to hate that for which you ask. Believe me, it is to sin against the light.
(p. 70)
(p. 70)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Trans. Benjamin Farrington, The Philosophy of Francis Bacon (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1964), 60-72. <Link to Online text>
Date of Entry
04/14/2010
