)
"Gives the substance or general description of the knowledge which mankind
_at present possesses_." That is, let it be observed, not according to the
received system and divisions, but according to his own. It is a new
presentation of the existent state of knowledge, comprehending "not only
the things already invented and known, but also those omitted and wanted,"
for he says the intellectual globe, as well as the terrestrial, has its
broils and deceits.
In the branch "_De Partitione Scientiarum_," he divides all human learning
into _History_, which uses the memory; _Poetry_, which employs the
imagination; and _Philosophy_, which requires the reason: divisions too
vague and too few, and so overlapping each other as to be of little
present use. Later classifications into numerous divisions have been
necessary to the progress of scientific research.
II. Precepts for the interpretation of nature, (_Novum Organum_.) This
sets forth "the doctrine of a more perfect use of the reason, and the true
helps of the intellectual faculties, so as to raise and enlarge the powers
of the mind.
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