Livre I

, 83-4 (footnote taken from the divine. And this appeareth sufficiently in | Vert translation) that there is no proceeding in invention | of knowledge but by similitude; and God is | only self-like, having nothing in common | with any creature, otherwise than as in | shadow and trope. Therefore attend his | will as himself openeth it, and give unto | faith that which unto faith belongeth{16}; | 16. St. Matthew 22, 21: for more worthy it is to believe than to | Authorized Version: ... Then saith he think or know, considering that in | unto them, Render therefore unto knowledge (as we now are capable of it) | Caesar the things which are Caesar's; the mind suffereth from inferior natures; | and unto God the things that are but in all belief it suffereth from a | God's. spirit which it holdeth superior and | more authorised than itself.{17} | 17. cf. A.L. Sp. III,478,1.8 sq. (D.A. | Sp. I, 830, I. 24 seq. To conclude, the prejudice hath been | infinite that both divine and human | knowledge hath received by the | intermingling and tempering of the one | with the other; as that which hath filled | the one full of heresies, and the other | full of speculative fictions and | 18. similarly: A.L. Sp.III, 350,I.24 Vanities{18}. | seq. (D.A. Sp. I, 545, I.35 swq.) | John Channing Briggs (""Bacon's But now there are again which in a | science and religion", in: THE contrary extremity to those which give to | CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO BACON, ed. by contemplation an over-large scope, do | Markku Peltonen, Cambridge 1996) offer too great a restraint to natural and | comments on Bacon's separation of lawful knowledge, being unjustly jealous | divinity and natural philosophy that every reach and depth of knowledge | (quotations in Briggs' text are from wherewith their conceits have not been | THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING): acquainted, should be too high an | elevation of man's wit, and a searching | A longstanding commonplace in Bacon and ravelling too far into God's secrets; | scholarship has been the notion that an opinion that ariseth either of envy | the Baconian advancement of learning (which is proud weakness and to be | depends upon a strict separation of censured and not confuted), or else of a | divinity and natural philosophy. In deceitful simplicity. For if they mean | a number of memorable passages Bacon that the ignorance of a second cause doth | indeed warns his readers of the dire make men more devoutly to depend upon the | consequences of confusing divinity providence of God, as supposing the | with natural science: to combine effects to come immediately from his hand, | them, he says, is to confound them. I demand of them, as Job demanded of his | This is supposedly what Plato and the friends, WILL YOU LIE FOR GOD AS MAN WILL | scholastics did, and what Bacon FOR MAN TO | explicitly designs the new learning | to overcome. Even the acceptable | hybrid "divine philosophy," when it | is "commixed together" with natural | philosophy, leads to "an heretical | religion, and an imaginary and | fabulous philosophy" (III, 350). | According to this emphatic strand of | Baconian doctrine, religion that | joins with the study of nature is in | danger of becoming atheistic, or an | enthusiastic rival of the true | church. Natural philosophy that | traffics unwisely with divinity | collapses into idolatry or fakery. | | Bacon's exemplum of these abuses in a | modern proto-science is the divine | philosophy of the Paracelsian school, | which seeks "the truth of all natural | philosophy in the Scriptures." The | Paracelsians mirror and reverse the | heresies of pagan pantheism by | seeking what is "dead" (mortal or | natural) from among the "living" | (eternal) truths of divinity, when | "the scope or purpose of the Spirit | of God is not to express matters of | nature in the Scriptures, otherwise | than in passage, and for application | to man's capacity and to matters | moral or divine" (ut 485-6). If we | take Thomas Sprat at his word, the | Royal Society was founded on | generally similar principles. The | first corruption of knowledge, he | argues, resulted from the Egyptians' | concealment of wisdom "as sacred | Mysteries." The current age of | inquiry benefitted from "the | dissolution of the ABBYES, whereby | their Libraries came forth into the | light, and fell into industrious Mens | hands." Surrounded by the warring | forces of contrary religions (the | society's rooms at Gresham College, | London, were occupied by soldiers in | 1658), the founders of the Royal | Society--according to Sprat's | account--were "invincibly arm'd" not | only against scholastic Catholicism, | but against the "inchantments of | ENTHUSIASM" and "spiritual Frensies" | that sometimes characterized the | Protestant revolutionaries. | | In Bacon's project, there is an | explicit, delineated role for the | study of divinity, which he carefully | separates from his own work. Reason | is at work "in the conception and | apprehension of the mysteries of God | to us revealed" and in "the inferring | and deriving of doctrine and | direction thereupon" (III, 479). In | the first instance reason stirs | itself only to grasp and illustrate | revelation; it does not inquire. This | is the foundation of Bacon's | distinction between true natural | philosophy, which inquires into the | world as God's manifestation of his | GLORY or power, and true theology, | which piously interprets the | scripturally revealed meaning of | God's inscrutable will. The natural | world declares God's glory but not | his will (III, 478). Reason's power | in theology therefore "consisteth of | probation and argument." lt | formulates doctrine only insofar as | God's revelation, largely or wholly | through Scripture, makes it possible. | The Lord "doth grift [graft) his | revelations and holy doctrine upon | the notions of our reason, and | applieth his inspirations to open our | understanding" (III, 480). (pp. 172- | 173) GRATIFY HIM?{19} But if any man without | 19. Job 13, 7-9: any sinister humour doth indeed make doubt | Authorized Version: Will ye speak that this digging further and further into | wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully | for him? Will ye accept his person? | will ye contend for God? Is it good | that he should search you out? as one | man mocketh another, do ye so mock | him? the mine of natural knowledge{20} is a | 20. This image is also used in A.L. Sp. thing without example and uncommended in | III, 351, I, 16 where Bacon refers to the Scriptures, or fruitless; let him | Democritus (Vert's footnote) remember and be instructed; for behold it | was not that pure light of natural | knowledge, whereby man in paradise was | able to give unto every living creature a | name according to his propriety{21}, which | 21. Genesis 2,19-20 gave occasion to the fall; but it was an | Geneva Bible: So the Lord God formed aspiring desire to attain to that part of | of the earth everie beast of the moral knowledge which defineth of good and | field, and everie foule of the heaven, evil, whereby to dispute God's | & broght them unto the man to se how commandments and not to depend upon the | he wolde call them: for howsoever the revelation of his will, which was the | man named the living creature, so was original temptation. And the first holy | the name thereof.The man therefore records, which within those brief | gave names unto all cattle, and to the memorials of things which passed before | foule of the heaven, and to everie the flood entered few things as worthy to | beast of the field: but for Adam found be registered but only | he not an help mete for him. | | Authorized Version: And out of the | ground the Lord God formed every beast | of the field, and every fowl of the | air; and brought THEM unto Adam to see | what he would call them: and | whatsoever Adam called every living | creature, that WAS the name thereof. | And Adam gave names to all cattle, and | to the fowl of the air, and to every | beast of the field; but for Adam there | was not found an help meet for him. | | Vulgata:Igitur Dominus Deus de humo | cunctis animantibus terrae et | universis volatilibus caeli adduxit ea | ad Adam ut videret quid vocaret ea / | omne enim quod vovavit Adam animae | viventis ipsum est nomen eius / | appelavitque Adam nominibus suis | cuncat animantia / et universa | volatilia et omnes bestias terrae / | Adam vero non inveniebatur adiutor | similis eius lineages{22} and propagations, yet | 22. Spedding's footnote: LINAGES in nevertheless honour the remembrance | original. See note 3, p. 148 of the inventor both of music{23} and | 23. Genesis 4,21: | Authorized Version: And his brother's | name was Jubal: he was the father of | all such as handle the harp and organ. | | Vulgata: et nomen fratris eius Iuabal | ipse fuit pater canentium cithara et | organo works in metal{24}. Moses again (who was | 24. Genesis, 4,22: the reporter) is said to have been seen in | Authorized Version: And Zillah, she all | also bare Tubalcain, an instructor of | every artificer in brass and iron... | | Vulgata: Sella quoque genuit | Thubalcain qui fuitmalleator et faber | in cuncta opera aeris et ferri... the Egyptian learning{25}, which nation | 25. The Acts 7,22: was early and leading in matter of | Authorized Version: And Moses was | learned in all the wisdom of the | Egyptians, and was mighty in words and | deeds. knowledge. And Salomon the king,{26} as | 26. cf. A.L. Sp.III, 298,I.38; N.A. Sp. out of a branch of his wisdom | III, 145, I seq. extraordinarily petitioned and granted | from God, is said to have written a | natural history of all that is green from | the cedar to the moss{27}, (which is but a | 27. 1 Kings 4, 29-34 rudiment between putrefaction and | Geneva Bible: And God gave Salomon | wisdome, und understanding exceeding | muche, and a large heart, even as the | sand that is on the sea shore. And | Salomons wisdome excelled the wisdome | of all the children of the East and | all the wisdome of Egypt. For he was | wiser than anie man.... and he was | famous throughout all nacions rounde | about. And Salomon spake thre thousand | proverbes: and his songs were a | thousand and five. And he spake of | trees, from the cedar tre that is in | Lebanon, even unto the hyssope that | springeth out of the wall: he spake | also of beastes, and of foules, and of | creping things, and of fishes. And | there came all the people to heare the | wisdome of Salomon, from all Kings of | the earth, which had heard of his | wisdome. | | Authorized Version:And God gave | Salomon wisdom and understanding | exceeding much, and largeness of | heart, even as the sand that is on the | sea shore. And Salomon's wisdom | excelled the wisdom of all the | children of the east country, and all | the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser | than all men...and his fame was in all | nations round about. And he spake | three thousands proverbs; and his | songs were a thousand and five. And he | spake of trees, from the cedar tree | that is in Lebanon even unto the | hyssop that springeth out of the wall: | he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, | and of creeping things, and of fishes. | And there came all people to hear the | wisdom of Salomon. From all kings of | the earth, which had heard of his | wisdom. | | Vulgata: Liber Malachim 4, 29-34: | Dedit quoque Deus sapientiam Salomoni | et prudentiam multam nimis et | latitudinem cordis quasi harenam quae | est in litore maris / et praecedebat | sapientia Salomonis sapientiam omnium | orientalium et Aegyoptorum / et erat | sapientia cunctis hominibus.. Et erat | nominatus inuniversis gentibus per | cicuitum / locutus est quoque Salomon | tria milia parabolas et fuerunt | carmina eius quinque et mille / et | disputavit super lignis a cedro quae | est in Libano usque ad hysopum quae | egreditur de pariete et disseuit de | iumentis et volucribus et reptilibus | et piscibus / et veniebant de cunctis | populis ad audiendam sapientiam | Salomonis et ab universis regibus | terrae qui audiebant sapientiam eius | | Luther Bible: 1. Könige 5, 9-14 | | Melek Hasgün comments: The hyssop is | mentioned in Shakespeare’s OTHELLO | I,3: "Sow lettuce, set hyssop and | weed up thyme". Hyssop and thyme were | believed to aid the growth of each | other, one being moist and the other | dry. The reason why Bacon used moss | instead of hyssop could be that moss | is also a moist plant and he chose an | expression which is more general or | known. an herb{28},) and also of all that liveth | 28. The plant mentioned in the Bible is and moveth. And if the book of Job be | not "moss", but HYSOPPUS OFFICINALIS turned over; it will be found to have much | [in German: JOSEFSKRAUT, KIRCHENSEPPL, aspersion of natural | EISOP, YSOP)]. "The Greek plant name | HÝSSOOPOS is probably derived from | Hebrew ESOB (mentioned in the | Bible...), although it is not clear | whether ESOB referred to the plant | called hyssop today. Another | explanation gives Arabic AZZOF "holy | herb" as the source of the name (cf. | French HERBE SACRÉ) (Gernot Katzer | Website on Spices). Gernot Katzer in | his entry on the pomegranate | (http://www- | ang.kfunigraz.ac.at/~katzer/germ/index | .html) considers the problem of the | names of plants in the Bible: | | "The pomegranate tree is an ancient | cultigen in Western Asia; it is | mentioned in the oldest part of the | Old Testament (the Pentateuch). | Although the Old Testament is not a | collection of cooking recipes, it | names many plants of everyday or | cultic usage in ancient Israel; the | New Testament, though, has less | descriptive character, and plants are, | consequently, named much less | frequently. | | If one wants to set up a "collection | of biblical spices", one must not | forget that there are three millennia | between the language of the Old | Testament and ours; therefore, exact | translations are sometimes impossible. | The following quote (Isaiah 28,27) may | illustrate the difficulties of | translation: | | 'QETSACH is not threshed with a | sledge, nor is a cartwheel rolled over | KAMMON; QETSACH is beaten out with a | rod, and KAMMON with a stick.' | | Because of the dialectic structure, we | may infer that the two plants are | similar, but differ in details of | their harvest. The term KAMMON | obviously is related to Greek KÝMINON | (cumin), but also lies behind English | CARAWAY; QETSACH is more difficult to | analyze. Probably it means NIGELLA, | sometimes also called BLACK CUMIN, | whose seeds ripen in a closed capsule, | which must first be opened. | | Yet in translating the Bible, botanic | accuracy is less an aim than general | matters of style. "Black cumin" is | less elegant than "cumin", and | "nigella" is not an English word at | all. Therefore, English Bible | translations render QETSACH as DILL, | CARAWAY or "fitches", a word that is | missing from every modern dictionary. | German translators, on the other hand, | who don't have a traditional, elegant | word for CUMIN, commonly translate | KAMMON as CARAWAY (which is almost | certainly wrong), and have to resort | to DILL for QETSACH. | | Comparing different translations of | the Old Testament, one find some or | all of the following (Hebrew terms are | given in parenthesis): garlic (shuwm), | onion (b@tsel), nigella (qetsach, also | rendered as caraway oder dill, quite | obscure), cumin (kammon, also | caraway), coriander (gad), caper | (abiyownah, also translated "desire"), | cinnamon (qinnamown), cassia (qiddah, | also interpreted as a synonym of | cinnamon or cassia buds), hyssop | (ezowb, frequent but very obscure), | myrtle (hadac), olive (shemen and | zayith, very frequent), juniper | (b@rowsh, also given as "fir" or | "pine"), almond (shaqed), pomegranate | (rimmown or rimmon), rose | (chabatstseleth, very obscure) and | saffron (karkom). | | Similarly, the New Testament has not | been translated by biologists--the | latter had not suspected birds to live | in mustard plants (sínapi). Other | plant names from the New Testament | include the following (Greek given in | parenthesis): mint (heedýosmon, this | is not the common name of mint in | Greek), cumin (kýminon, also | translated caraway), anis (áneethon, | also rendered dill), rue (peéganon, | not the common term), cinnamon | (kinnámoomon), hyssop (hýssoopos, | referring to the obscure word in the | Old Testament) and olive (agriélaios | "olive tree" and elaíon "olive oil"). | | The DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE (ed. by | James Hastings and John A. Selbie, | Edinburgh, 3rd ed.1914) says about the | HYSSOP: "It was used for sprinkling | blood (Ex. 12,22) and in the ritual of | the cleansing of lepers (Lv 14,4, Nu | 19,6); it was an insignificant plant | growing out of the wall (1 K 4,33); it | could afford a branch strong enough to | support a wet sponge (Jn 19,29). It is | possible that all these references are | not to a single species. Among many | suggested plants the most probable is | either a species of majoran, e.g., | ORIGANUM MARU, or the common caper- | plant (CAPPARIS SPINOSA), which may be | seen growing out of crevices in walls | all over Palestine" (E.W.G.Masterman). | | For the German traditions about the | hyssop Jacob and Wilhem Grimm in | DEUTSCHES WÖRTERBUCH (1854 seq.) give | the following information: | YSOP, isop, ispe(n), eisop; hysop, m. | (F.),HYSSOPUS OFFICINALIS L., KLEINER | BUSCH MIT STARK DUFTENDEN BLÄTTERN und | VIOLETTEN BLÜTEN. GELEGENTLICH WIRD | DER NAME AUF VERWANDTE PFLANZEN | ÜBERTRAGEN, VOR ALLEM AUF SATUREJA | HORTENSIS L., VGL. MARZELL WB. D. DT. | PFLANZENN. 2, 966 ff.; PRITZEL-JESSEN | PFLANZEN (1882) 363 f.; FISCHER | SCHWÄB. 4, 53. | | HERKUNFT UND form. | | ASS. zûpu; SYR.-ARAB. züfä; HEBR. .; | GRIECH. ; ; LAT. hyss_pus F., hyss_pum | N.; GOT. hwssopon (DAT. SG.); AGS. | ysope f.; AHD. hysop ST. M. NEBEN | SPÄTEREM ISOPO, isipo 5W. M.; MHD. | ysope M. (NOCH BEI LUTHER MEIST | SCHWACH FLEKTIERT: EXOD. 12, 22; | LEVIT. 14, 52; PS. 51, 9; HEBR. 9, | 19); SPÄTAHD.-FRÜHNHD. AUCH ALS FEM. | (YSOPUS îspa [12. JH.] AH. GL. 3, 264, | 53 ST.-S.; DE ISOPO von der ispen | [12.JH.] EBDA 4, 365, 46; von der | ispen [UM 1350] KONRAD V. MEGENBEEG |