Francis Bacon · 1627
New Atlantis
- Language
- English
- Form
- Fiction
- Text
- Full text
- English
- English original
- Source text
- gutenberg.org
- Wikidata
- Q1233830
- Selected
- Ben Breen, 2026-09-29; suggested by Claude research agents, 29 Sep 2026
- Status
- Arguments unverified; quotations chosen by machine, unchecked
Q27CONTROL
Should a useful invention be restricted if its harmful consequences cannot be reliably controlled?Yes. dangerous inventions should be withheld by those who make them. The scientists of Salomon's House consult on which of their inventions to publish and swear an oath to keep secret those they think fit, revealing some only to the state.
Lastly, we have three that raise the former discoveries by experiments into greater observations, axioms, and aphorisms. These we call Interpreters of Nature. "We have also, as you must think, novices and apprentices, that the succession of the former employed men do not fail; besides, a great number of servants and attendants, men and women. And this we do also: we have consultations, which of the inventions and experiences which we have discovered shall be published, and which not: and take all an oath of secrecy, for the concealing of those which we think fit to keep secret: though some of those we do reveal sometimes to the state and some not.
Gutenberg #2434; oath-of-secrecy passage read. Published posthumously 1626/1627.