Francis Bacon sounded the modern note; for him the end of knowledge
is utility. [Footnote; The passages specially referred to are: De
Aug. Sc. vii. i; Nov. Org. i. 81 and 3.]

2.

The principle that the proper aim of knowledge is the amelioration
of human life, to increase men's happiness and mitigate their
sufferings--commodis humanis inservire--was the guiding star of
Bacon in all his intellectual labour. He declared the advancement of
"the happiness of mankind" to be the direct purpose of the works he
had written or designed. He considered that all his predecessors had
gone wrong because they did not apprehend that the finis scientarum,
the real and legitimate goal of the sciences, is "the endowment of
human life with new inventions and riches"; and he made this the
test for defining the comparative values of the various branches of
knowledge.

The true object, therefore, of the investigation of nature is not,
as the Greek philosophers held, speculative satisfaction, but to
establish the reign of man over nature; and this Bacon judged to be
attainable, provided new methods of attacking the problems were
introduced. Whatever may be thought of his daring act in bringing
natural science down from the clouds and assigning to her the
function of ministering to the material convenience and comfort of
man, we may criticise Bacon for his doctrine that every branch of
science should be pursued with a single eye towards practical use.
Mathematics, he thought, should conduct herself as a humble, if
necessary, handmaid, without any aspirations of her own. But it is
not thus that the great progress in man's command over nature since