Bacon, Sir Francis, Lord Verulam (1561-1626)

The Two Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning Divine and Humane

1605, 1640

"By which wordes he declares, not obscurely, that God hath framed the Mind of Man, as a Mirror or Glasse capable of the Image of the universall world, and as joyfull to receive the impressions thereof, as the eye joyeth to receave light; and not only delighted in the beholding, the variety of things and the vicisitude of times, but raised also to finde out and to discerne the inviolable lawes and the infallible decrees of Nature."

II To discover then the error and ignorance of this opinion, and the misunderstanding in the grounds thereof, any man may see plainly that these men doe not observe and consider, That it was not that Pure and Primitive Knowledge of Nature, by the light whereof man did give names to other Creatures in Paradise, as they were brought before him, according to their Proprieties, which gave the occasion to the Fall; but it was that proud knowledge of Good and Evill, with an intent to shake of God and to give Law unto himselfe. Neither is it any Quantity of Knowledge; how great soever, that can make the mind of man to swel; for nothing can fill, much lesse extend the soule of man but God, and the contemplation of God: therefore Solomon speaking of the two Principall senses of Inquisition, the Eye and the Eare,* affirmes That the Eye is never satisfied with seeing, nor the Eare with hearing; and if there be no fulnesse, then is the Continent greater then the Content. So of Knowledge it selfe & the Mind of Man, whereto the Sences are but Reporters, he defines like wise in the words plac't after the Calendar or Ephemerides which he makes of the diversity of times and seasons for all Actions and Purposes,* concluding thus, God hath made all things Beautifull and Decent in the true returne of their seasons; also he hath placed the world in mans heart, yet cannot man finde out the worke which God worketh from the beginning unto the end: By which wordes he declares, not obscurely, that God hath framed the Mind of Man, as a Mirror or Glasse capable of the Image of the universall world, and as joyfull to receive the impressions thereof, as the eye joyeth to receave light; and not only delighted in the beholding, the variety of things and the vicisitude of times, but raised also to finde out and to discerne the inviolable lawes and the infallible decrees of Nature. And although he seem to insinuate that the supreme or summary law of Nature, which he calleth the worke which God worketh from the beginning to the end, is not possible to be found out by man, yet that doth not derogate from the Capacity of the Mind, but may be referred to the impediments of knowledge, as the shortnesse of life, the ill conjunction of labours deprav'd, and unfaithfull Tradition of knowledge over from hand to hand; and many other inconveniences wherewith the condition of man is ensnared and involv'd. For that no parcell of the world is denied to mans inquiry, or invention he cleerly declares in another place, where he saith,*The spirit of a man is as the Lamp of God wherewith he searcheth the inwards of all secrets. § If then such be the capacity and receipt of the mind of man, it is manifest that there is no danger at all from the Proportion or Quantity of knowledge how large soever, lest it should make it swell or outcompasse it selfe, but meerly in the Quality, which being in Quantity more or lesse, if it be taken without the true Corrective thereof, hath in it some nature of malignity, or venome full of flatuous symptomes. This Antidote, or Corrective spice, the mixture whereof tempers knowledge and makes it so soveraigne is Charity, which the Apostle immediatly addes in the former clause, saying,*Knowledge blowes up, but Charity builds up; Not unlike to that which he delivers in an other place,*If I spake (saith he) with the tongues of Men and Angels and had not Charity, it were but as a tinkling Cymball: Not but that it is an excellent thing to speak with the tongus of Men and Angels, but because if it be sever'd from Charity, and not referr'd to the publique good of Mankind, it rather exhibites a vaine and empty glory, then any substantiall and solid fruit.
(pp. 5-7 in EEBO-TCP edition)

Optics::Mirror::Glass Impressions Light

Reading Rayna Kalas, Frame, Glass, Verse: The Technology of Poetic Invention in the English Renaissance (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2007), 148.

See Of the Advancement and Proficience of Learning; or, the Partitions of Sciences. Nine Books. Written in Latin by the Most Eminent, Illustrious, and Famous Lord Francis Bacon Baron of Verulam, Vicount St. Alban, Councellor of Estate, and Lord Chancellor of England. Interpreted by Gilbert Watts. (Oxford: printed by Leon Lichfield printer to the University, for Robert Young and Edward Forrest, 1640). <Link to EEBO-TCP>

Some text drawn from EEBO-TCP; some from 1893 edition, from ebooks@Adelaide <Link>

Reading Francis Bacon, Selected Writings, introd. Hugh G. Dick (New York: Modern Library, 1955); and Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, ed. Michael Kiernan. The Oxford Francis Bacon, vol. iv (Oxford: OUP, 2000).

07/31/2014