SIXTEENTH-CENTURY PHILOSOPHY direction, operates in the realm of metaphysics Bacon admits candidly that he is using ‘metaphysics’ in a novel way What others call metaphysics he calls ‘Wrst philosophy’ or ‘summary philosophy’: it is a receptacle, he tells us, for all the universal principles that are not exclusive to particular disciplines (An example is ‘If equals be added to unequals the result will be unequal,’ an axiom which he believes applies in law as well as in mathematics.) But the distinction made between physics and metaphysics on the basis of the Aristotelian four causes is itself misleading Bacon’s scheme for natural magic leaves no real room for teleology: ‘inquiry into Wnal causes’, he tells us, ‘is sterile, and like a virgin consecrated to God, produces nothing.’ And when he speaks of ‘forms’ he is not thinking of Aristotle’s substantial forms—such as the form of a lion, or of water—because these, he believes, are too varied and complicated to be discovered Instead of studying these, we should look rather for the simpler forms which go into their composition, in the way that letters go to make up words The task of metaphysics is to investigate the simpler forms which correspond to individual letters: To enquire the forms of sense, of voluntary motion, of vegetation, of colours, of gravity and levity, of density, of tenuity, of heat and of cold, and all other natures and qualities, which like an alphabet are not many, and which the essences (upheld by matter) of all creatures now consist (AL, 196) Bacon’s elementary forms are obscure characters in comparison with the mathematical shapes and symbols which Galileo declared to be the alphabet in which the book of the world is written But most probably when he talked of forms he had in mind hidden material structures underlying the overt appearance and behaviour of things So much for natural philosophy Human philosophy, the other great branch of the subject, has two parts, Bacon tells us, one which considers ‘man segregate’ and another which considers ‘man congregate’ The Wrst part corresponds to anatomy, physiology, and psychology, and the second embraces what would nowadays be called the social sciences The detailed subdivisions Bacon enumerates appear arbitrary and haphazard The sciences of the body include medicine, ‘cosmetic’, ‘athletic’, and the ‘Arts Voluptuary’, which include practical joking The study of the nature of the soul is a matter for theology, but there is a human science which studies 29