“Mind must raise itself from differences to species. The warmth of the sun and that of the fire are diverse. We see that grapes ripen by the warmth of the sun. But to see whether the warmth of the sun is specific, we also observe other warmth, and we find that grapes likewise ripen in a warm room; this proves that the warmth of the sun is not specific.” (23)“Physic,” he says, “directs us through narrow rugged paths in imitation of the crooked ways of nature. But he that understands a form knows the ultimate possibility of superinducing that nature upon all kinds of matter; that is to say, as he himself interprets this last expression, is able to superinduce the nature of gold upon silver,” that is to say to make gold from silver, “and to perform all those other marvels to which the alchymists pretended. The error of these last consisted alone in hoping to arrive at these ends by fabulous and fantastical methods;” the true method is to recognize these forms. “One leading object of the Instauratio Magna and of the Novum Organon is to point out the necessity of ascertaining the formal causes and logical rules.”
(24) They are good rules, but not adapted to attain that end.
This is all that we have to say of Bacon. In dealing with Locke we shall have more to say of these empirical methods which were adopted by the English.
1. Buhle: Gesch. D. neuern Philos. Vol. II. Section II. pp. 950-954; Brucker. Hist. Crit. Phil. T.
IV. P. II. pp. 91-95.
2. The Quarterly Review, Vol. XVII., April, 1817, p. 53.
3. Bacon. De augmentis scientiarum, II. c. 1 (Lugd. Batavor, 1652. 12), pp. 108-110 (Operum omnium, pp. 43, 44, Lipsi?, 1694).
4. Ibidem, c. 2, p. 111 (Operum, p. 44); c. 4, pp. 123, 124 (p. 49); c. 11, pp. 145-147 (pp. 57, 58).
5. Bacon. De augmentis scientiarum, IV. c. 2, pp. 294, 295 (p. 213) (Ellis and Spedding's translation, Vol. IV. p. 394).
6. Bacon. Novum Organon, L. I. Aphor. 11-34, pp. 280-282 (Operum).
7. Bacon. De augm. scient. V. c. 4, p. 358 (p. 137). (Ellis and Spedding's translation. Vol. IV. p.
428.
8. Bacon. De augmentis scientiarum, V. c. 2, pp. 320, 321 (pp. 122, 123).
9. Bacon. Novum Organon, L. I. Aphor. 105, p. 313; De augmentis scientiarum, V. c. 2, pp.
326, 327 (pp. 124, 125).
10. The Quarterly Review, Vol. XVII., April, 1817, pp. 50, 51: cf. Bacon silva silvarum sive historia naturalis, Cent. IV., Sect. 326, 327 (Operum, pp. 822, 823).
11. Bacon. De augmentis scientiarum, III. c. 5, pp. 245, 246 (p. 95).
12. Ibid. IV. c. 2, p. 293 (p. 112).
13. The Quarterly Review, Vol. XVII., April, 1817, pp. 51, 52; cf. Bacon. De augmentis scientiarum, III. c. 3, 4, pp. 200-206 (pp. 78-80).
14. Bacon. Novum Organon, L. II. Aphor. 2. (Ellis and Spedding's translation, Vol. IV. p. 119.)15. Bacon. Novum Organon, L. II. Aphor. 2; cf. the Quarterly Review, Vol. XVII. April, 1817, p. 52.
16. Bacon. De augmentis scientiarum, III, c. 4; p. 237 (p. 92).
17. Bacon. De augm. scient. III. c. 4, p. 239 (p. 92).
18. Bacon. De augmentis scientiarum, I. p. 46 (p. 19); III. c. 4, pp. 211-213 (pp. 82, 83);Novum Organon, L. I. Aphor. 85, p. 304.
19. Bacon. De augmentis scientiarum, III, c. 4, pp. 231-234 (pp. 89, 90).
20. The Quarterly Review, Vol. XVII. April, 1817, p. 52.
21. Bacon. Novum Organon, L. II. Aphor. 17, pp. 345, 346.
22. Bacon. Novum Organon, L. II. Aphor. II. pp. 325, 326. (Tennemann, Vol. X. pp. 35, 36);Lib. I. Aphor. 51, p. 286; L. II. Aphor. 9; Aphor. 3, p. 326.
23. Bacon. Novum Organon, L. II. Aphor. 35, p. 366.
24. The Quarterly Review, Vol. XVII. April, 1817, p. 52. Cf. Bacon. De auginentis scientiarum, III. c. 4, p. 236 (p. 91).
Section One: Modern Philosophy in its First Statement B. JACOB BOEHME.
WE now pass on from this English Lord Chancellor, the leader of the external, sensuous method in Philosophy, to the philosophus teutonicus, as he is called - to the German cobbler of Lusatia, of whom we have no reason to be ashamed. It was, in fact, through him that Philosophy first appeared in Germany with a character peculiar to itself: Boehme stands in exact antithesis to Bacon. He was also called theosophus teutonicus, just as even before this philosophia teutonica was the name given to mysticism.(1) This Jacob Boehme was for long forgotten and decried as being simply a pious visionary; the so-called period of enlightenment, more particularly, helped to render his public extremely limited. Leibnitz thought very highly of him, but it is in modern times that his profundity has for the first time been recognized, and that he has been once more restored to honour. It is certain, on the one hand, that he did not merit the disdain accorded him; on the other, however, he did not deserve the high honour into which he was elevated. To call him an enthusiast signifies nothing at all. For if we will, all philosophers may be so termed, even the Epicureans and Bacon; for they all have held that man finds his truth in something else than eating and drinking, or in the common-sense every-day life of wood-cutting, tailoring, trading, or other business, private or official. But Boehme has to attribute the high honour to which he was raised mainly to the garb of sensuous feeling and perception which he adopted; for ordinary sensuous perception and inward feeling, praying and yearning, and the pictorial element in thought, allegories and such like, are in some measure held to be essential in Philosophy. But it is only in the Notion, in thought, that Philosophy can find its truth, and that the Absolute can be expressed and likewise is as it is in itself. Looked at from this point of view, Boehme is a complete barbarian, and yet he is a man who, along with his rude method of presentation, possesses a deep, concrete heart. But because no method or order is to be found in him, it is difficult to give an account of his philosophy.
