OF THE INTERPRETATION OF NATURE

[DE INTERPRETATIONE NATURAE]

[ca 1603 ]

Proem

Believing that I was born for the ser\ice of mankind, and

regarding the care of the commonwealth as a kind of com-
mon property which like the air and the water belongs to
everybody, I set myself to consider in what way mankind
might be best served, and what service I was myself best
fitted by nature to perform.
Now among allthe benefits that could be conferred upon
mankind, I found none so great as the discovery of new
arts, endowments, and commodities for the bettering
of
mans life. For I saw tliat among the rude people in the
primitive times the authors of rude inventions and discov-
eries were consecrated and numbered among the Gods.
And it was plain that the good effects wrought by founders
of cities, law-givers, fathers of the people, extirpers of ty-
rants, and heroes of that class, extend but over narrow
spaces and last but for short times; whereas the work of
the Inventor, though a thing of less pomp and shew, is felt
everywhere and lasts for ever. But above all, if a man could
succeed, not in striking out some particular invention, how-
ever useful, but in kindling a light in nature-a light which
should in its very rising touch and illuminate all the border-
regions that confine upon the circle of our present knowl-
edge; and so spreading further and further should presently
150
 OF THE INTERPRETATION OF NATURE I5I

disclose and brin^ into sight all that is most hidden and
secret in the world,— that man (I thought) would be tlie
benefactor indeed of the human race,— the propagator of
man’s empire over the universe, the champion of liberty,
the conqueror and subduer of necessities.
For myself, I found that I was fitted for nothing so well
as for the study of Truth; as having a mind nimble and
versatile enough to catch the resemblances of things (which
is the chief point), and at the same time steady enough to

fix and distinguish their subtler differences; as being gifted

by nature with desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness

to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to reconsider,
carefulness to dispose and set in order; and as being a man
that neither aflFects what is new nor admires what is old,
and that hates every kind of imposture. So I thought my
nature had a kind of familiarity and relationship with
Truth.
Nevertheless, because my birth and education had sea-
soned me in business of state; and because opinions (so
young as I was ) would sometimes stagger me; and because
I thought that a man’s own country has some special claims

upon him more than the rest of the world; and because I
hoped that, if I rose to any place of honour in the state,
I should have a larger command of industiy and ability to

help me in my work;- for these reasons I both applied my-

self to acquire the arts of civil life, and commended my
service, so far as in modesty and honesty I might, to the
favour of such friends as had any influence. In which also
I had another motive: for I felt that those things I have
spoken of— be they great or small— reach no further than
the condition and culture of this mortal life; and I was not
without hope (the condition of Religion being at that time
not very prosperous) that if I came to hold office in the
state, I might get something done too for the good of men’s
souls.
When found however that my zeal was mistaken for
I

ambition, and my life had already reached the turning-

point, and my breaking health reminded me how ill I could
 ,

152 OF THE INTERPRETATION OF NATURE

aflFord to be so slow, and I reflected moreover that in leav^-
ing undone the good that I could do by myself alone, and
applying myself to that which could not be done without
the help and consent of others, I was by no means dis-
charging the duty that lay upon me,— put all those
I
thoughts aside, and (in pursuance of my old determination)
betook myself wholly to this work. Nor am I discouraged
from it because I see signs in the times of the decline and
overthrow of that knowledge and erudition which is now
in use. Not that I apprehend any more barbarian invasions
(unless possibly the Spanish empire should recover its
strength, and having crushed other nations by arms should
itself sink under its own weight): but the civil wars which
may be expected, I think, (judging from certain fashions
which have come in of late ) to spread tlirough many
countries,— together with the malignity of sects, and those
compendious artifices and devices which have crept into
the place of solid erudition— seem to portend for literature
and the sciences a tempest not less fatal, and one against
which the Printing-office will be no effectual security. And
no doubt but that fair-weather learning which is nursed by
leisure, blossoms under reward and praise, wliich cannot
withstand the shock of opinion, and is liable to be abused
by tricks and quackery, will sink under such impediments
as these. Far otherwise is it with that knowledge, whose
dignity is maintained by works of utility and power. For
the injuries therefore which should proceed from the times,
I am not afraid of them; and for the injuries which proceed

from men I am not concerned. For if any one charge me

with seeking to be wise overmuch, I answer simply that
modesty and civil respect are fit for civil matters; in con-
templations nothing is to be respected but Truth. If any
one call on me for works and that presently; I tell him
frankly, without any imposture at all, that for me— a man
not old, of weak health, my hands full of civil business,
entering without guide or light upon an argument of all
others the most obscure,— I hold it enough to have con-
structed the machine, though I may not succeed in setting
 I

OF THE mTERPRETATION OF NATURE I53

it on work. Nay with the same candour I profess and de-
clare, that the Interpretation of Nature, rightly conducted,
ought in the first steps of the ascent, until a certain stage of
Generals^ be reached, to be kept clear of all application
to Works. And this has in fact been the .error of all tliose
who have heretofore ventured themselves at all upon the
waves of experience— that being either too weak of pur-
pose or too eager for display, they have all at the outset
sought prematurely for works, as proofs and pledges of
their progress, and upon that rock have been wrecked and
cast away. If again any one ask me, not indeed for actual
works, yet for definite promises and forecasts of the works
that are to be, I would have him know that the knowledge
which we now possess will not teach a man even what to
wish. Lastly— though this is a matter of less moment— if any
of our politicians, who use to make their calculations and
conjectures according to persons and precedents, must
needs interpose his judgment in a thing of this nature,—
would but remind him how (according to the ancient fable)
the lame man keeping the course won the race of the swift
man who left it: and that there is no thought to be taken
about precedents, for the thing is without precedent.
Now for my plan of publication— those parts of the work
which have it for their object to find out and bring into
correspondence such minds as are prepared and disposed
for the argument, and to purge the floors of men’s under-
standings, I wish to be published to the world and circulate
from mouth to mouth: the rest I would have passed from
hand to hand, with selection and judgment. Not but 1
know that it is an old trick of impostors to keep a few of
their follies back from the public which are indeed no
better than those they put forward: but in this case it is
no imposture at all, but a sober foresight, which tells me
that the formula itself of interpretation, and the discoveries
made by the same, will thrive better if committed to the
charge of some fit and selected minds, and kept private.
This however is other people’s concern. For myself, my
heart is not set upon any of those things which depend
154 OF THE INTERPRETATION OF NATURE
upon external accidents. I am not hunting for fame: I have
no desire to found a sect, after the fashion of heresiarchs;
and to look for any private gain from such an undertaking
as this, I count both ridiculous and base. Enough for me
the consciousness of well-deserving, and those real and
effectual results with which Fortune itself cannot interfere.