View of as human nature. It is certainly a method of discovery; Bacon's for by these means general principles, formerly unknown, Philosophy. have come into view.

74

Is a just logic.

75 Its chief rule

It is a just and rational logic; for it is founded on, and indeed is only the habitual application of, this maxim, "That whatever is true with respect to every individual of a class of events, is true of the whole class." This is just the inverse of the maxim on which the Aristotelian logic wholly proceeds, and is of equal authority in the court of reason. Indeed the expression of the general law is only the abbreviated expression of every particular instance.

This new logic, therefore, or the logic of induction, must not be considered as subordinate to the old, or founded on it. See LOGIC, Part III. chap. 5. In fact, the use and legitimacy of the Aristotelian logic is found ed on the inductive,

All animals are mortal;

All men are animals; therefore
All men are mortal.

This is no argument to any person who chooses to deny the mortality of man; even although he acknowledges his animal nature, he will deny the major proposition.

It is beside our purpose to show, how a point so general, so congenial to man, and so familiar, remained so long unnoticed, although the disquisition is curious and satisfactory. It was not till within these two centuries that the increasing demand for practical knowledge, particularly in the arts, made inquisitive men see how useless and insufficient was the learning of the schools in any road of investigation which was connected with life and business; and observe that society had received useful information chiefly from persons actually engaged in the arts which the speculists were endeavouring to illustrate; and that this knowledge consisted chiefly of experiments and observations, the only contributions which their authors could make to science.

The Novum Organum of Bacon, which points out the true method of forming a body of real and useful knowledge, namely, the study of nature in the way of description, observation, and experiment, is undoubtedly the noblest present that science ever received. It may be considered as the grammar of nature's language, and is a counter-part to the logic of Aristotle; not exploding it, but making it effectual.

As the logic of Aristotle had its rules, so bas the Baconian or inductive; and this work, the Novum Orga num Scientiarum, contains them all. The chief rule, and indeed the rule from which all the rest are but derivations, is, that "the induction of particulars must 76 be carried as far as the general affirmation which is defor disco- duced from them." If this be not attended to, the vering ge- mind of man, which from his earliest years shows great neral prin- eagerness in searching for first principles, will frequently ciples. ascribe to the operation of a general principle events which are merely accidental. Hence the popular belief in omens, palmistry, and all kinds of fortune-telling.

This rule must evidently give a new turn to the whole track of philosophical investigation. In order to discover first principles, we must make extensive and accurate observations, so as to have copious inductions of facts, that we may not be deceived as to the extent of the principle inferred from them, We must extend our acquaintance with the phenomena, paying a minute at

tention to what is going on all around us; and we must View of study nature, not shut up in our closet drawing the pic- Bacon's ture from our own fancy, but in the world, copying our Philosophy. lines from her own features.

To delineate human nature, we must see how men act. To give the philosophy of the material world, we must notice its phenomena.

This method of studying nature has been prosecuted during these two last centuries with great eagerness and success. Philosophers have been busy in making accurate observations of facts, and copious collections of them. Men of genius have discovered points of resemblance, from which they have been able to infer many general powers both of mind and body; and resemblances among these have suggested powers still more general.

takes.

By these efforts investigation became familiar; philosophers studied the rules of the art, and became more expert; hypotheses were banished, and nothing was admitted as a principle which was not inferred from the most copious induction. Conclusions from such principles became every day more conformable to experience. Mistakes sometimes happened; but recourse being had to more accurate observation or more copious induction, the mistakes were corrected. In the 77 present study of nature, our steps are more slow, and and rectihesitating and painful; our conclusions are more limited ing misand modest, but our discoveries are more certain and progressive, and the results are more applicable to the purposes of life. This pre-eminence of modern philosophy over the ancient is seen in every path of inquiry. It was first remarkable in the study of the material world; and there it still continues to be most conspicuous. But it is no less to be seen in the later performances of philosophers in metaphysics, pneumatology, and ethics, where the mode of investigation by analysis and experiment has been greatly adopted; and we may add, that it is this juster view of the employment which has restored philosophers to the world, to society. They are no longer to be found only in the academies of the sophists and the cloisters of a convent, but in the discharge of public and private duty. A philosophic genius is a genius for observation as well as reflection, and he says, Homo sum, humani à me nihil alienum puto.

78

racter.

After saying so much on the nature of the employ-Estimate of ment, and the mode of procedure, it requires no deep the philosophic cha penetration to perceive the value of the philosophical character. If there is a propensity in the human mind which distinguishes us from the inferior orders of sentient beings, without the least circumstance of interference, a propensity which alone may be taken for the characteristic of the species, and of which no trace is to be found in any other, it is disinterested intellectual curiosity, a love of discovery for its own sake, independent of all its advantages.

We think highly (and with great justice do we think so) of our rational powers; but we may carry this too far, as we do every ground of self-estimation. To every man who enjoys the cheering thought of living under the care of a wise Creator, this boasted prerogative will be viewed with more modesty and diffidence; and He has given us evident marks of the rank in which He esteems the rational powers of man. In no case that is of essential importance, of indispensable necessity, not on

ly

View of ly to our wellbeing but to our very existence, has He Bacon's left man to the care of his reason alone; for in the first Philosophy, instance, He has given us reason

79

We should

powers.

To guide the helm, while passion blows the gale.

think mo- God has not trusted either the preservation of the indestly of dividual or the continuance of the race to man's noour rational tions of the importance of the task, but has committed them to the surer guards of hunger and of sexual desire. In like manner, He has not left the improvement of his noblest work, the intellectual powers of the soul of man, to his own notions how important it is to his comfort that he be thoroughly acquainted with the objects around him. No: He has committed this also Importance to the sure hand of curiosity: and He has made this so of our in- strong in a few superior souls, whom He has appointed stinctive to give light and knowledge to the whole species, as to principles. abstract them from all other pursuits, and to engage them in intellectual research with an ardour which no attainment can ever quench, but, on the contrary, inflames it the more by every draught of knowledge. But what need words

80

81

To paint its power? For this the daring youth
Breaks from his weeping mother's folding arms
In foreign climes to rove. The pensive sage,
Heedless of sleep, or midnight's hurtful vapour,
Hangs o'er the sickly taper.-Hence the scorn
Of all familiar prospects, though beheld
With transport ouce. Hence the attentive gaze
Of young astonishment.

Such is the bounteous providence of Heaven,

In every breast implanting the desire

Of objects new and strange, to urge us on

With unremitting labour to attain

The sacred stores that wait the rip'ning soul
In Truth's exhaustless bosom.

Aikenside.

But human life is not a situation of continual necessity; this would ill suit the plans of its beneficent Author: and it is from induction of phenomena totally opposite to this, and from such induction alone, that we have ever thought of a wise Creator. His wisdom appears only in His beneficence. Human life is a scene filled with enjoyment; and the soul of man is stored with propensities and powers which have pleasure, in direct terms, for their object. Another striking distinction of our nature is a continual disposition to refinement, of which few traces are to be found in the actions of other animals. There is hardly a gift of Our dispo- nature so grateful in itself as to please the freakish sition to mind of man, till he has moulded it to his fancy. Not refinement. contented with food, with raiment, and with shelter, he must have nice cookery, ornamental dress, and elegant houses. He hunts when he is not hungry, and he refines sexual appetite into a most elegant passion. In like manner he has improved this anxious desire of the knowledge of the objects around him, so as to derive from them the means of subsistence and comfort, into the most elegant and pleasing of all gratifications, the accumulation of intellectual knowledge, independent of all consideration of its advantages. And as every man has a title to the enjoyment of such pleasures as he can attain without injuring his neighbour; so it is allowable to such as have got the means of intellectual improvement, without relinquishing the indispensable

View of

social duties, to push this advantage as far as it will go: and, in all ages and countries, it has been considered Bacon's as forming the greatest distinction between men of easy Philosophy. fortune and the poor, who must earn their subsistence by the sweat of their brow. The plebeian must learn to work, the gentleman must learn to think; and nothing can be a surer mark of groveling soul than for a man of fortune to have an uncultivated mind.

82

ed as far as

Let us then cherish to the utmost this distinguishing Ought to propensity of the human soul: but let us do even this be cherishlike philosophers. Let us cultivate it as it is: as the it is subserhandmaid to the arts and duties of life; as the guide vient to the to something yet more excellent. A character is not to duties of be estimated from what the person knows, but from life. what be can perform. The accumulation of intellectual knowledge is too apt to create an inordinate appetite for it and the man habituated to speculation is, like the miser, too apt to place that pleasure in the mere possession, which he ought to look for only or chiefly in the judicious use of his favourite object. Like the miser, too, his habits of hoarding up generally unfit him for the very enjoyment which at setting out he proposed to himself. Seldom do we find the man, who has devoted his life to scientific pursuits for their own sake, possessed of that superiority of mind which the active employ to good purpose in times of perplexity; and much seldomer do we find him possessed of that promptitude of apprehension, and that decision of purpose, which are necessary for passing through the difficult scenes of human life.

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our know

But we may use the good things of this life without abusing them; and by moderation here, as in all other pursuits, derive those solid advantages which philosophy is able to bestow. And these advantages are great. To enumerate and describe them would be to write a great volume. We may just take notice of one, which is an obvious consequence of that strict and simple view which we have given of the subject; and this is a modest opinion of our attainments. Appearances are all Limits of that we know; causes are for ever hid from our view; ledge. the powers of our nature do not lead us so far. Let us therefore, without hesitation, relinquish all pursuits which have such things as ultimate principles for objects of examination. Let us attend to the subordinations of things which it is our great business to explore. Among these there is such a subordination as that of means to ends, and of instruments to an operation. All will acknowledge the absurdity of the project of viewing light with a microscope. It is equally absurd for us to examine the nature of knowledge, of truth, of infinite wisdom, by our intellectual powers. We have a wide field of accessible knowledge in the works of God; and one of the greatest advantages, and of the most sublime pleasures, which we can derive from the contemplation, is the view which a judicious philosophical research will most infallibly give us of a world, not consisting of a number of detached objects, connected only by the fleeting tie of coexistence, but an universe, a system of beings, all connected together by causation, with innumerable degrees of subordination and subserviency, and all cooperating in the production of one great and glorious purpose. The heart which has but a spark of sensibility must be warned by such a prospect, must be pleased to find itself an important part of this stupendous machine; and cannot but adore the incomprehensible Ar3 D 2

tist

84

of God and of our own souls.

View of tist who contrived, created, and directs the whole. Let Bacon's us not listen, then, to the timid admonitions of theologiPhilosophy, cal ignorance, which shrinks with superstitious horror from the thoughts of accounting for every thing by the Philosophi powers of nature, and considers these attempts as an apcal disquisi-proach to atheism. Philosophical disquisition will, on tion gives the contrary, exhibit these general laws of the universe, just notions that wonderful concatenation and adjustment of every thing both material and intellectual, as the most striking instance of incomprehensible wisdom; which, by means so few and so simple, can produce effects which by their grandeur dazzle our imagination, and by their multiplicity elude all possibility of enumeration. Of all the obstacles which the weakness, the folly, or the sinful vanity of men, has thrown in the way of the theologian, there is none so fatal, so hostile to all his endeavours, as a cold and comfortless system of materialism, which the reasoning pride of man first engendered, which made a figure among a few speculatists in the last century, but was soon forgotten by the philosophers really busy with the observation of nature and of nature's God. It has of late reared up its head, being now cherished by all who wish to get rid of the stings of remorse, as the only opinion compatible with the peace of the licentious and the sensual; for we may say

66

to them as Henry IV. said to the prince of Wales, View of Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought." In Bacon's vain will the divine attempt to lay this devil with the Philosophy, metaphysical exorcisms of the schools; it is philosophy alone that can detect the cheat. Philosophy singles out the characteristic phenomena which distinguish every substance; and philosophy never will hesitate in saying that there is a set of phenomena which characterise mind and another which characterise body, and that these are toto cœlo different. Continually appealing to fact, to the phenomena, for our knowledge of every cause, we shall have no difficulty in deciding that thought, memory, volition, joy, hope, are not compatible attributes with bulk, weight, elasticity, fluidity. Tuta sub agide Pallas; philosophy will maintain the dignity of human nature, will detect the sophisms of the materialists, confute their arguments; and she alone will restore to the countenance of nature that ineffable beauty, of which those would deprive her, who would take away the supreme Mind which shines from within, and gives life and expression to every feature.

For a view of the progress of modern philosophy, see the Dissertations prefixed to the volumes of the SUPPLEMENT.

Philosophy.

See EXPERIMENTAL

Moral PHILOSOPHY. See MORAL Philosophy. PHILOSTORGIUS, an ecclesiastical historian of the 4th century, was born in Cappadocia, and wrote an abridgement of ecclesiastical history, in which he treats Athanasius with some severity. This work contains many curious and interesting particulars. The best edition is that of Henry de Valois in Greek and Latin. There is also attributed to him a book against Porphyry.

PHILOSTRATUS, FLAVIUS, was an ancient Greek author. He wrote the Life of Apollonius Tyanensis, and some other things which have come down to our time. Eusebius against Hierocles calls him an Athenian, because he taught at Athens; but Eunapius and Suidas always speak of him as a Lemnian: and he hints, in his Life of Apollonius, that he used to be at Lemnos when he was young. He frequented the schools of the sophists; and he mentions his having heard Damianus of Ephesus, Proclus Naucratitas, and Hippodromus of Larissa. This seems to prove that he lived in the reign of the emperor Severus, from 193 to 212, when those sophists flourished. He became known afterwards to Severus's wife Julia Augusta, and was one of those learned men whom this philosophic empress had continually about her. It was by her command that he wrote the Life of Apollonius Tyanensis, as he relates himself in the same place where he informs us of his connections with that learned lady. Suidas and Hesychius say that he was a teacher of thetoric, first at Athens and then at Rome, from the reign of Severus to that of Philippus, who obtained the empire in 244.

PHI

tus.

Philostratus's celebrated work is his Life of Apol- Philostralonius; which has erroneously been attributed to Lucian, because it has been printed with some of that author's pieces. Philostratus endeavours, as Cyril observes, to represent Apollonius as a wonderful and extraordinary person; rather to be admired and adored as a god than to be considered as a mere man. Hence Eunapius, in the preface to his Lives of the Sophists, says that the proper title of that work would have been, The Coming of a God to Men; and Hierocles, in his book against the Christians which was called Philalethes, and which was refuted by Eusebius in a work still extant, among other things drew a comparison between Apollonius and Jesus Christ. It has always been supposed that Philostratus composed his work with a view to discredit the miracles and doctrines of our Lord, by setting up other miracles and other doctrines against them, and this supposition may be true; but that A pollonius was really an impostor and magician may not be so certain. He may, for what we know, have been a wise and excellent person; and it is remarkable, that Eusebius, though he had the worst opinion of Philostratus's history, says nothing ill of Apollonius. He concluded that that history was written to oppose the history of Jesus; and the use which the ancient infidels made of it justifies his opinion; but he draws no information from it with regard to Apollonius. It would have been improper to have done so; since the sophistical and affected style of Philostratus, the sources from whence he owns his materials to have been drawn, and, above all, the absurdities and contradictions with which he abounds, plainly show his history to be nothing but a collection of fables, either invented or at least embellished by himself.

The works of Philostratus, however, have engaged
the

tus, Philotis.

Philostra- the attention of critics of the first class. Grævius had intended to have given a correct edition of them, as appears from the preface of Meric Casaubon to a dissertation upon an intended edition of Homer, printed at London in 1658, 8vo. So had Bentley, who designed to add a new Latin version of his notes; and Fabricius says that he saw the first sheet of Bentley's edition printed at Leipsic in 1691. Both these designs were dropped. A very exact and beautiful edition was published at length at Leipsic, 1709, in folio, by Olearius, professor of the Greek and Latin tongues in that university; who has proved himself perfectly qualified for the work he undertook, and shown all the judge. ment, learning, and industry, that are required in an excellent editor.

See APOL

BLOUNT

(Charles).

At the end of Apollonius's Life there are 95 letters LONIUS, and which go under his name. They are not, however, believed to be his; the style of them being very affected, and like that of a sophist, while they bear in other respects all the marks of a forgery. Philostratus says that he saw a collection of Apollonius's Letters in Hadrian's library at Antium, but had not inserted them all among these. They are short, and have in them little else than moral sentences. The Lives of the Sophists contain many things which are to be met with nowhere else. The Heroics of Philostratus are only a dialogue between a vintner of Thracian Chersonesus and a Phoenician, in which the former draws characters of Homer's heroes, and represents several things differently from that poet; and this upon the faith of Prote silaus's ghost, who had lately visited his farm, which was not far from the tomb of this hero. Olearius conjectures, with much probability, that Philostratus's design in this dialogue was secretly to criticise some things in Homer, which he durst not do openly on account of the great veneration then paid to him, and for fear of the odium which Zoilus and others had incurred by censuring him too freely. The images are elegant descriptions and illustrations of some ancient paintings and other particulars relating to the fine arts; to which Olearius has subjoined the description of some statues by Callistratus; for the same reason that he subjoined Eusebius's book against Hierocles to the Life and Letters of Apollonius, namely, because the subjects of these respective works are related to each other. The last piece is a collection of Philostratus's Letters; but some of these, though it is not easy to determine which, were written by a nephew to our Philostratus, of the same name, as were also the last eighteen in the book of images. This is the reason why the title runs not Philostrati, but Philostratorum quæ supersunt omnia.

There were many persons of the name of Philostratus among the ancients; and there were many other works of the Philostratus here recorded, but no others are extant besides those we have mentioned.

PHILOTIS, a servant maid at Rome, saved her countrymen from destruction. After the siege of Rome by the Gauls, the Fidenates assembled an army, and marched against the capital, demanding all the wives and daughters in the city as the only conditions of peace. This demand astonished the senators; and when they refused to comply, Philotis advised them to send all the female slaves disguised in matrons.clothes, and she offered to march herself at the head. Her advice was followed; and when the Fidenates had feasted late

in the evening, and were quite intoxicated and fallen Philotis asleep, Philotis lighted a torch as a signal for her countrymen to attack the enemy. The whole was success- Philyra. ful; the Fidenates were conquered; and the senate, to reward the fidelity of the female slaves, permitted them to appear in the dress of the Roman matrons. PHILOXENUS, an officer of Alexander, who received Cilicia at the general division of the provinces.

-A son of Ptolemy, who was given to Pelopidas as an hostage. A dithyrambic poet of Cythera. He enjoyed the favour of Dionysius tyrant of Sicily for some time, till he offended him by seducing one of his female singers. During his confinement Philoxenus composed an allegorical poem called Cyclops; in which he had delineated the character of the tyrant under the name of Polyphemus, and represented his mistress under the name of Galatea, and himself under that of Ulysses. The tyrant, who was fond of writing poetry, and of be ing applauded, removed Philoxenus from his dungeon; but the poet refused to purchase his liberty by saying things unworthy of himself, and applauding the wretched verses of Dionysius, and therefore he was sent to the quarries. Being set at liberty, he some time after was asked his opinion at a feast about some verses which Dionysius had just repeated, and which the courtiers had received with the greatest applause. Philoxenus gave no answer, but he ordered the guards that surrounded the tyrant's table to take him back to the quarries. Dionysius was pleased with his pleasantry and with his firmness, and immediately forgave him. Philoxenus died at Ephesus about 380 years before Christ.

PHILTER, or PHILTER, (Philtrum), in Pharmacy, &c. a strainer.

PHILTER, is also used for a drug or preparation, which it is pretended will excite love. The word is formed from the Greek pa," I love," or Qiλos, “lover.??

Philters are distinguished into true and spurious, and were given by the Greeks and Romans to excite love. The spurious are spells or charms, supposed to have an effect beyond the ordinary laws of nature by some magic virtue; such are those said to be given by old women, witches, &c.-The true philters are those supposed to work their effect by some natural and magnetical power. There are many grave authors who believe the reality of these philters, and allege matter of fact in confirmation of their sentiments: among the rest, Van Helmont, who says, that upon holding a certain herb in his hand for some time, and taking afterwards a little dog by the foot with the same hand, the dog followed him wherever he went, and quite deserted his former master; which he pretends to account for thus: The heat communicated to the herb, not coming alone, but animated by the emanations of the natural spirits, determines the herb towards the man, and identifies it to him having then received this ferment, it attracts the spirit of the other object magnetically, and gives it an amorous motion. But this is mere cant; and all philters, whatever facts may be alleged, are mere chi

meras.

PHILYCA. See PHYLICA, BOTANY Index.

PHILYRA, in fabulous history, was one of the Oceanides, whom Saturn met in Thace. The god, to escape from the vigilance of Rhea, changed himself into a horse, to enjoy the company of Philyra, by whom he had a son half a man and half a horse, called Chiron.

Philyra..