22/27 And he meant to follow it up with a practical exemplification of his method. He had more than once expressed his preference for the form of _aphorisms_ over the argumentative and didactic continuity of a set discourse. He had, indeed, already twice begun a series of aphorisms on the true methods of interpreting nature, and directing the mind in the true path of knowledge, and had begun them with the same famous aphorism with which the _Novum Organum_ opens. He now reverted to the form of the aphorism, and resolved to throw the materials of the _Cogitata et Visa_ into this shape. |