Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	day_n	great_a	time_n	4,794	5	3.3956	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28309	The novum organum of Sir Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Albans epitomiz'd, for a clearer understanding of his natural history / translated and taken out of the Latine by M.D.; Novum organum	Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626.; M. D.	1676 (1676)	Wing B310; ESTC R38681	37,586	38

the parts of other Philosophers by the introduction of abstract Formes final Causes first Causes and frequent omitting the medial and the like Wherefore take great heed to this matter for it is the worst of evils to defie errors and to adore vain things may be well accounted the plague of the Understanding Some modern Men guilty of much levity have so indulged this vanity that they have essayed to found natural Philosophy in the first Chapter of Genesis the Book of Job and other places of Holy Writ seeking the living among the dead Now this vanity is so much the more to be check'd and restrained because by unadvised mixture of divine and humane things not only a phantastical Philosophy is produced but also an Heretical Religion Therefore it is safe to give unto Faith with a sober mind the things that are Faiths Hitherto our Excellent Author hath spoken of the bad authority of Philosophy founded in vulgar notions a few Experiments or in Superstition he examines next the depraved matter of Contemplation especially in natural Philosophy He proceeds next to discover to us by what means demonstrations lead us into errors and mistakes and concludes that experience is the best demonstration if it be founded upon mature Experiments He discourses afterwards of the several sorts of Philosophers among the Greeks and takes notice of their imperfections of their ignorance in ancient History and in Cosmography so that they could not be acquainted with so many experiments as the Learned of our dayes Afterwards he discourseth of the causes of Errors and of their long continuance in credit in the World that none might wonder how it comes to pass that some in these last Ages find so many mistakes in the Learning and Wit admired in former Ages The first Cause of the small prosiciency in Sciences he saith is the streights of time and their ignorance of former Times for their Observation had not scope enough nor sufficient assistance from true History to gather right and judicious Experiments In the second place another Cause of great moment certainly offers it self namely that in those times when the wits of men and Learning flourished most or but indifferently Natural Philosophy had the least share in humane contemplations nevertheless this ought to be accounted the great Mother of Sciences for all Arts and Sciences pluck'd away from this Root may perhaps be polished and accommodated to use but they will never grow Now it is evident that since the Christian Faith was embrac'd and encreas'd the most part of the rarest Wits applied themselves to Divinity To this end large rewards were propounded and all manner of helps plentifully afforded This study of Divinity took up the third part or period of time amongst us Europeans and the more because about that time Learning began to flourish controversies touching Religion did wonderfully increase but in the preceding Age during the second period among the Romans the chiefest meditations and studies of Philosophers were imployed and spent in Moral Philosophy which was then the Heathens Divinity Moreover the greatest Wits in those dayes for the most part applied themselves to Civil affairs by reason of the Roman Empires greatness which required the labours of many men But that Age wherein Natural Philosophy seem'd chiefly to flourish among the Grecians was a parcel of time of small continuance for even in ancienter times those Seven called Wisemen all except Thales applied themselves to Moral Philosophy and Politicks And in after times when Isocrates had brought down Philosophy from Heaven upon Earth Moral Philosophy prevailed further still and diverted mens thoughts from physiological speculations That very period of time also wherein Physick Enquiries flourished was corrupted and spoiled with contradictions and new determinations Wherefore Natural Philosophy in every one of those periods being greatly neglected or hindred 't is no wonder men profited so little in it seeing they altogether minded other things Add moreover that those who studied Natural Philosophy especially in these modern times did not wholly addict themselves thereunto unless perhaps you may alledge the example of some Monk in his Cell or Nobleman in his Country House So at length it was made but a passage and draw-bridge to other things This this famous Mother of Sciences was basely thrust down into servile offices and made a drudge to wait upon Medicine or the Mathematicks and again to wash the immature wits of young men and give them a superficial mixture that they might afterwards be the better qualified to receive of another In the mean while let no man expect a great progress in Sciences especially in the practical part unless natural Philosophy be produced to particular Sciences and those again reduced to Natural Philosophy for hence it comes to pass that Astronomy Opticks Musick many Mechanichal Arts Physick it self and what is more wonderful even Moral Philosophy Politicks and Logick have for the most part no considerable depth but languish in the surface and variety of things because when once these particular Sciences are divided they are no longer nourished by Natural Philosophy which out of the Fountains and true contemplations of motions rayes sounds texture and figuration of Bodies affections and intellectual apprehensions communicates new strength and augmentation to them And therefore 't is no wonder that Sciences grow not since they are separated from their roots Another great and powerful cause why Sciences are so little advanced is this that race cannot rightly be run where the Goal is not rightly placed and fixed Now the true and legitimate mark of Sciences is to enrich Mans life with new inventions and forces But the greater number of men know nothing of this because they are mercenary and professory unless it happens that some Artist of a sharper wit and ambitious of Glory studies some new inventions which commonly tends to his own undoing Therefore most Men are so far from propounding to themselves the advancement of Arts and Sciences that even out of those things that they have they seek no more than what may be converted into professory use gain reputation or the like advantages And if any one amongst the multitude seeks knowledge ingeniously and for it self yet you will find he doth this rather to obtain variety of contemplations and precepts than for the rigid and severe inquiry of Truth Again suppose another more severely enquires after Truth yet even he propounds to himself such conditions of Truth as may satisfie his mind and understanding in reference to the causes of things known long ago not those which may give fresh pledges of operations or new light to Axioms The end therefore of Sciences being not yet rightly defined or well assigned by any body no wonder if Error and mistakes attend those things which are subordinate thereunto The Noble Author condemns next the erroneous wayes which conduct to Sciences namely obscure Traditiòns giddy Arguments the windings of Chance or unclean Experience and wonders that none yet have

the perverse Laws of demonstrations plainly infused and received But in these to undertake or endeavour a confutation is not agreeable to what we have spoken For seeing that we neither agree in our principles nor demonstrations all disputation it taken away But this is good luck for the Ancients that they may preserve their reputation for nothing is detracted from them seeing the way is so questionable Because a lame Man as they say in the way out goes a Racer out of the way for t is evident the stronger and nimbler he is the greater is his aberration whiles he is out of the way But such is our manner of inventing Sciences that we attribute not much to the sharpness and strength of wit and yet we almost equalize them for even as the describing of a right line or perfect Circle much depends on the 〈◊〉 and exercise of the hand 〈◊〉 it be done meerly by the hand but if a rule or compasses be used there is little or no such dependancy upon the hand So fares it exactly with our Reason Although there be no particular use of confutations 〈◊〉 yet we must say something of the Sects and Kinds of these Theories and afterwards of their outward signs because they are in a bad condition and lastly of the causes of so much unhappiness and so long and general a consent in error that Truth may have an easier access and the Humane Understanding may be more throughly purged and rid of these mistakes Idola Theatri or theoretical mistakes are many and may be more and in time to come will be for unless mens wits had been employed about Religion and Divinity during many Ages and also about civil Governments especially Monarchies they had 〈◊〉 such novelties in contemplations So that Men addicted unto them ran the hazard of their fortunes not only deprived of a reward but also exposed to contempt and envy Doubtless many more Sects of Philosophy and Theories like to those which once in great varieties flourished amongst the Grecians had been introduced for as upon the etherial Phoenomena's more figures of Heaven may be formed likewise many more various opinions may be as easily founded and established upon the Phenomena's of Philosophy Now the Fables of this Theater are like those that are acted on the poetical Stage whence it comes to pass that Scenical and 〈◊〉 narrations are more quaint and elegant than those taken out of true history and better please the Readers In general either much out of little or little out of much is assumed into Philosophical matter so that on all sides Philosophy is founded on the too narrow basis of experience and Natural History and determines out of fewer things than it ought for the rational sort of Philosophers snatch from experience several vulgar things and they to neither certainly found out nor diligently examined or tried the rest they place in meditation and the exercise of wit There is another sort of Philosophers who have bestowed a great deal of pains in few experiments and from thence have presumed to draw and frame a Philosophy strangely wresting all other things thereunto There is also a third sort of them who intermingle divinity and traditions of Faith and Adoration amongst whom the vanity of some has inclined them to seek and derive Sciences from Spirits and Demons Therefore the stock of Errours and false Philosophy is threefold namely Sophistical Emperical and Superstitious Of the first kind Aristotle is an evident Example By his Logick he corrupted natural Philosophy made the world consist of Categories attributed to the humane Soul a most noble substance a genus made up ofsecondary notions transacted the business of dense and rare whereby bodies under go greater or 〈◊〉 dimensions or spaces by the cold distinction of act and power He asserted only one proper motion to be in all bodies and if they had any other that he said was from another many more things he affirmed according to his fancy which he imposed upon Nature being every where more solicitous how he might explain himself in answers and make any thing positive in words than of the internal truth of things This plainly appears if you compare his Philosophy with others famous amongst the Grecians for the Homoiomera of Anaxagoras the Atoms of Lencippus and Democritus the Heaven and Earth of 〈◊〉 the discord and concord of Empedocles Heraclitus's resolution of Bodies into the adiaphorous nature of Fire and the replication of them to density have something of natural Philosophy in them and a relish of nature and experience whereas Aristotles Physicks are nothing but logical notions which under a more specious name not nominal but more real he retracts in his Metaphysicks nor let not that move any one that in his Books of Animals in his Problems and other Treatises he frequently useth Experiments For he first decreed them neither did he rightly consult experience in establishing his Determinations and Axioms but after he had determined them according to his pleasure he made experience a slave to his fancies And upon this account he is more to be blamed than his modern Followers I mean a Sect of Scholastical Philosophers who have altogether forsaken experiments But the Emperical kind of Philosophy brings forth more deformed and monstruous opinions than the Sophistical or rational because it is not founded in the light of common notions which though slender and superficial is notwithstanding in some measure universal and conducive to many things but in a few narrow and obscure experiments And therefore to those who daily converse in such experiments and have thereby corrupted their fancy this Philosophy seems probable and certain but to others incredible and vain A notable example whereof we find in the Chymists and their opinions but now scarcely any where else unless in Gilberts Philosophy However we must by no means omit a caution concerning this Philosophy because we inwardly foresee and presage that if men awakened by our precepts shall at last betake themselves to experience bidding adieu to Sophistical doctrines they will sustain some damage through a praemature and inconsiderate haste of the understanding by soaring too soon to generals and principles which evil we ought to prevent But the corruption of Philosophy through superstition and intermixed Divinity extends it self further and works much mischief both to Philosophy in general and particular For the humane understanding is no less obnoxious to the impressions of Fancy than to the impressions of vulgar notions For the contentious and Fallacious kind of Philosophy ensnares the Understanding but the other kind being phantastical swoln and Poetical doth rather flatter it For there is in Man a certain ambition of the Understanding as well as in the Will especially in sublime and elevated Wits Of this kind you have an example amongst the Grecians especially in Pythagoras but joyned with gross superstition but more dangeroufly and subtilly in Plato and his School This kind of evil is found in