any tolerable example of
it."[1]

There is a radical misconception here, which, for reasons that I hope
to make plain, imperatively needs to be cleared up. It obscures the
very essence of "philosophical induction".

There are three ways in which movement in any direction may be helped
forward, Exhortation, Example, and Precept. Exhortation: a man may
exhort to the practice of an art and thereby give a stimulus. Example:
he may practise the art himself, and show by example how a thing
should be done. Precept: he may formulate a clear method, and so make
plain how to do it. Let us see what was Bacon's achievement in each of
those three ways.

Undoubtedly Bacon's powerful eloquence and high political position
contributed much to make the study of Nature fashionable. He was high
in place and great in intellect, one of the commanding personalities
of his time. Taking "all knowledge for his province," though study
was really but his recreation, he sketched out a plan of universal
conquest with a clearness and confidence that made the mob eager
to range themselves under his leadership. He was the magnificent
demagogue of science. There had been champions of "Induction" before
him, but they had been comparatively obscure and tongue-tied.

While, however, we admit to the full the great services of this mighty
advocate in making an "Inductive" method popular, we should not
forget that he had pioneers even in hortatory leadership. His happiest
watchword, the Interpretation of Nature, as distinguished from the
Interpretation of Authoritative Books, was not of his invention. If we
read Whewell's _History of the Inductive Sciences_, we shall find that
many before him had aspired to "give a new turn to the labors of
the inquisitive," and in particular to substitute inquisition for
disquisition.

One might compile from Whewell a long catalogue of eminent men before
Bacon who held that the study of Nature was the proper work of the
inquisitive: Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), one of the wonders of
mankind for versatility, a miracle of excellence in many things,
painter, sculptor, engineer, architect, astronomer, and physicist;
Copernicus (1473-1543), the author of the Heliocentric theory;
Telesius (1508-1588), a theoretical reformer, whose _De Rerum Natura_
(1565) anticipated not a little of the _Novum Organum_; Cesalpinus
(1520-1603), the Botanist; Gilbert (1540-1603), the investigator of
Magnetism. By all these men experime