strength of wits, but places all wits and understandings nearly 
on a level.” Print had inspired Bacon not only with the idea of 
applied knowledge by means of the homogeneity of segmental 
procedure, but it gave him the assurance that men would be 
levelled in their capacities and performance as well. Some 
strange speculations have resulted from this doctrine, but few 
would care to dispute the power of print to level and to extend 
the learning process as much as cannon or ordnance did level 
castles and feudal privilege. Bacon, then, argues that the text 
of Nature can be restored by great encyclopedic fact-finding 
sweeps. Man’s wits can be reconstructed so that they can once 
again mirror the perfected Book of Nature. His mind is now an 
enchanted glass, but the hex can be removed.
It is quite clear, then, that Bacon would have no respect 
for scholasticism any more than for the dialectics of Plato and 
Aristotle “because it is the duty of Art to perfect and exalt