Physics, general and particular, and chemistry, hich devotes its especial attention to the elementary particles of bodies, study, with different views, the causes and principles of the reciprocal action either of bodies in the aggregate or of their particles considered separately,* and lastly those of their different properties, general or ndividual.

Natural history considers from a single point of new all the natural bodies, and the general result of all their actions in the grand whole of na. ture. It investigates the causes capable of altering their species, and producing varieties in them.

Medicine seeks the causes of diseases, for the purpose of preventing them, or that, from a more intimate acquaintance with their nature, it may be able to administer remedies for their removal.

Logic, morality, legislation, politics, and rhetoric, search for the hidden springs that produce in the human heart all the movements and all the impressions of which it is susceptible; that from a thorough knowledge of these moving causes of our feelings, passions, and actions, they may operate upon it with the more powerful effect.+

* See the fifth and eighth laws of Division and Re-union, and Action and Re-action.

† All the secondary or accessary causes which we observe in

In the physical, moral and intellectual, social and political world, and in all the sciences, causes duly studied and appreciated are means of advancement and creation, or of the extension of the power of man. Means, says Bacon, being in practice what causes are in theory, so long as we are ignorant of the causes, we are destitute of means, and can produce no effects.

Our law of causes, or of generation, is therefore an absolute generality, highly useful in its applications, and prolific in consequences. It is con❤ nected with most of the laws which we are about

the world convince us of the necessity of a first and all-powerful cause, which conscience and reason seem to reveal to man by a secret and irresistible testimony. This first and universal cause, termed Providence or God, is manifested in all its works. Into the thinking atom which it has placed on this earth it has infused an emanation of itself, an immortal soul, the existence of which is attested by the boldness of our conceptions, the loftiness of our sentiments, the energy of our passions, and the very insatiability of our desires. All nature, in the magnificent and diversified scenery which she every where exhibits to our view, and in the alternate succession of day and night, of the seasons and of years, confirms to us, by public and solemn evidence, these consolatory truths, which all religions proclaim and too frequently distort. The phænomena of the earth and heavens are demonstrations of God and immortality: a sincere and persevering study of nature necessarily leads to the Author of nature.

:

*

to develop, and in the first place with the law of the point of support, of which we have already treated effects accurately observed are but points of support, which assist us in ascending to their causes, and the causes, discovered and ascertained, become in their turn points of support to aid us in producing effects. It is connected with the law of the chain, since it exhibits the relations which unite effects to causes, and vice versa. It is equally connected with the law of gradation, or the universal scale of beings,† which determines the natural and necessary progress of the human mind, continually advancing from the known to the unknown. It teaches us to watch all beginnings with attention, that we may discover the principles and elements of things and of the sciences: hence arises a new connection between it and that principle of gradation, which likewise recommends to us the most careful examination of every shade and every degree of the series or progression of a thing, considered from its first origin, that we may not suffer any of the links of the chain to escape our notice, but be able to ascend

* See the third law, the Law of the Chain—all things are conRected.

+ See the fourth law, the Law of Gradation.

without interruption from effects to causes, or to descend again from causes to effects. Lastly, it is connected with the law of ends,* since it enjoins us in all the sciences to keep in view a specific end-the investigation of the causes of the effects and phænomena which we observe.

Bacon frequently insists on the utility of the search after and discovery of forms and causes. According to him, the luminous, productive, and truly philosophical facts are such as are calculated to unfold the laws of nature, or causes, and to enrich practice by this knowledge. The power of man consists entirely in his knowledge. Knowledge and power are therefore in reality one and the same thing.

The art of inventing is, according to Bacon, the art of extracting principles or causes from experience or observation, and deducing from these principles new observations and new experiences.

Genius with bold and correct eye embraces causes and results: it applies the one and creates the other.

A good method of employing time is a fertile cause of pleasures and advantages, and a medium of happiness.

* See the twelfth law, the Law of Ends.

THIRD GENERAL LAW.

LAW OF THE UNIVERSAL CHAIN.

All Things in the World are connected.

WE will first examine the law of the chain properly so called, and then the law of gradation, which springs out of it, and is perhaps but a subdivision and a consequence of the former.

The study of the relations existing among all beings (which may be considered as a kind of universal, physical, metaphysical, philosophical, and moral chemistry), and the observation of the successive degrees of which the great scale of beings consists, and of which we shall treat separately, are intimately connected with the search after causes, already proposed, according to Bacon, as the real aim of the sciences, and as the creative principle, or the productive and generative medium of discoveries. The art of observation requires strict continuity. It is necessary to observe without the slightest interruption, and to follow every operation without once losing sight of it.

Relations are to be found between all the sciences, and even between things apparently the