“Sphinx or Science” by Francis Bacon
MS / Science
Definition, Science, Story
Ask participants to take part in the following “Opinion Corners” activity:
1. Post signs in the four corners of the classroom: Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree,
Strongly Disagree.
2. Write on the board the following quote: “Science is the only truly effective way to
understand the world around us.”
3. Have participants move to the corner that reflects their response to this statement.
4. Give participants three to five minutes to discuss in their corners why they chose that
response. Have each group select a spokesperson to share their ideas.
5. Each spokesperson in turn summarizes that group’s thinking.
6. Allow participants to rethink their position and change corners if appropriate. Discuss
with the entire group their reason for choosing (and perhaps changing) their
positions.
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Distribute the text and explain that it was written during the time of Shakespeare and
that this is the original language. Note the title and explain that it is an early attempt to
describe the nature of science. Based on that, ask the students what they expect to
learn from such a text.
Have the students label the two paragraphs (A & B) on their copies of the text and then
number the sentences—not the lines (A: 1-7 and B: 1-12) for ease of reference in the
seminar.
Read the text aloud slowly, noting the numbers of the sentences as you go: while
students identify any unfamiliar words or phrases. Have a volunteer write the new
vocabulary on the (interactive) whiteboard. Be sure to include: griffin, Muses, calamity,
sovereignty, alacrity, decrepitude, quadruped, according to compact, allusion, ascribed,
axioms, eminence, assails, expatiate, contemplation, and laceration.
Share as appropriate: Francis Bacon (1591-1626) was an English philosopher,
statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, essayist and author. He served both as Attorney
General and Lord Chancellor of England. After his death, he remained extremely
influential through his works, especially as a philosopher and practitioner of the scientific
method.
Bacon has been called the father of empiricism. His works established and popularized
the idea of the scientific method.
Pass out index cards with the unfamiliar words and phrases listed on the board (also
include empiricism, scientific method, and any other science vocabulary that you would
like to teach as part of this literacy cycle). Have students work to define these terms and
then share their definitions in turn while you or a volunteer re-reads the text sentence by
sentence. Use the electronic version of the text (see below) to produce a version with
footnoted definitions to be used in the Analytical Reading section.
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There are 17 sentences in this text. Assign each of the seventeen to one or two
students (note that sentences A6 and B10 are very long and complex) to translate into
plain, modern English. Once the translations are complete, work through the entire text
again, sentence by sentence, while each individual or group first reads the original
sentence aloud and then provides the translation. Discuss as needed for clarity.
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 What word or words (up to five) from this text serve as the best definition
of science? (round-robin response)
 Why did you choose that word or phrase? (spontaneous discussion)
 According to Bacon, in what ways does the myth of the Sphinx illuminate
the practice of science? Refer to the text.
 Bacon argues in paragraph 2 (sentence 5) that “the discoveries of science
… fly abroad in an instant.” What do you think he means? Do you agree?
 Bacon writes that the science (like the Sphinx) proposes to men a variety
of hard questions and riddles” (B: 9). What do you think he means? Can
you think of an example?
 In sentence B:10, Bacon argues that in practice, science addresses
“painful and cruel” questions. Do you agree? Why or why not?
 Bacon concludes this section of his essay by saying that “he who
understands his subject is master of his end; and every workman is king
over his work.” How does this apply to science?
 When is it helpful to use a story to define something? Can you think of an
example to illustrate?
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Have students brainstorm how science helps us understand the natural world. Urge
students to consider what they heard, said, and thought during the seminar.
How does science help us understand the world around us? After reading and
discussing “Sphinx or Science” by Francis Bacon, write an essay in which you define
science and explain how it helps us understand the natural world. Support your
discussion with evidence from the text. (Informational or Explanatory/Definition)
(LDC Task#: 12 )
Display the writing task and then have students talk in pairs for two minutes to share
thoughts about what the writing task is asking and how they might respond. Discuss for
clarity with the entire class.
Ask students to design an outline for this multi-paragraph essay based on the task.
Encourage them to consider carefully what Bacon says in his second paragraph in
designing their essays.
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Challenge all to draft their essays by writing the paragraphs defined by their outlines.
Refer to the text in detail for support of their definition of science and their explanation of
how science helps us understand the world around us.
Have participants work in pairs to read their first drafts aloud to each other with
emphasis on reader as creator and editor. Listener says back one point heard clearly
and asks one question for clarification. Switch roles. Give time for full revisions resulting
in a second draft.
Once the second draft is complete, have participants work in groups of three-four and
this time take turns reading each other’s second drafts slowly and silently, marking any
spelling or grammar errors they find. (Have dictionaries and grammar handbooks
available for reference.) Take this opportunity to clarify/reteach any specific grammar
strategies you have identified your students needing. Give time for full revisions
resulting in a third and final draft.
Publish (either virtually or on paper) the final copies of the resulting definition essays in
a collection to be shared via the class web site and as exemplary analysis essays for
future students (both your own and those of other teachers).
Terry Roberts
National Paideia Center
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“Sphinx or Science”
Francis Bacon
SPHINX, says the story, was a monster combining many shapes in one. She had the
face and voice of a virgin, the wings of a bird, the claws of a griffin. She dwelt on the
ridge of a mountain near Thebes and infested the roads, lying in ambush for travellers,
whom she would suddenly attack and lay hold of; and when she had mastered them,
she propounded to them certain dark and perplexed riddles, which she was thought to
have obtained from the Muses. And if the wretched captives could not at once solve and
interpret the same, as they stood hesitating and confused she cruelly tore them to
pieces. Time bringing no abatement of the calamity, the Thebans offered to any man
who should expound the Sphinx’s riddles (for this was the only way to subdue her) the
sovereignty of Thebes as his reward. The greatness of the prize induced Oedipus, a
man of wisdom and penetration, but lame from wounds in his feet, to accept the
condition and make the trial: who presenting himself full of confidence and alacrity
before the Sphinx, and being asked what kind of animal it was which was born fourfooted, afterwards became two-footed, then three-footed, and at last four-footed again,
answered readily that it was man; who at his birth and during his infancy sprawls on all
four, hardly attempting to creep; in a little while walks upright on two feet; in later years
leans on a walking-stick and so goes as it were on three; and at last in extreme age and
decrepitude, his sinews all failing, sinks into a quadruped again, and keeps his bed.
This was the right answer and gave him the victory; whereupon he slew the Sphinx;
whose body was put on the back of an ass and carried about in triumph; while himself
was made according to compact King of Thebes.
The fable is an elegant and a wise one, invented apparently in allusion to Science;
especially in its application to practical life. Science, being the wonder of the ignorant
and unskillful, may be not absurdly called a monster. In figure and aspect it is
represented as many-shaped, in allusion to the immense variety of matter with which it
deals. It is said to have the face and voice of a woman, in respect of its beauty and
facility of utterance. Wings are added because the sciences and the discoveries of
science spread and fly abroad in an instant; the communication of knowledge being like
that of one candle with another, which lights up at once. Claws, sharp and hooked, are
ascribed to it with great elegance, because the axioms and arguments of science
penetrate and hold fast the mind, so that it has no means of evasion or escape; a point
which the sacred philosopher also noted: The words of the wise are as goads, and as
nails driven deep in. Again, all knowledge may be regarded as having its station on the
heights of mountains; for it is deservedly esteemed a thing sublime and lofty, which
looks down upon ignorance as from an eminence, and has moreover a spacious
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prospect on every side, such as we find on hill-tops. It is described as infesting the
roads, because at every turn in the journey or pilgrimage of human life, matter and
occasion for study assails and encounters us. Again Sphinx proposes to men a variety
of hard questions and riddles which she received from the Muses. In these, while they
remain with the Muses, there is probably no cruelty; for so long as the object of
meditation and inquiry is merely to know, the understanding is not oppressed or
straitened by it, but is free to wander and expatiate, and finds in the very uncertainty of
conclusion and variety of choice a certain pleasure and delight; but when they pass
from the Muses to Sphinx, that is from contemplation to practice, whereby there is
necessity for present action, choice, and decision, then they begin to be painful and
cruel; and unless they be solved and disposed of, they strangely torment and worry the
mind, pulling it first this way and then that, and fairly tearing it to pieces. Moreover the
riddles of the Sphinx have always a twofold condition attached to them; distraction and
laceration of mind, if you fail to solve them; if you succeed, a kingdom. For he who
understands his subject is master of his end; and every workman is king over his work.
(Source – “Of the Wisdom of the Ancients.” In The Works of Francis Bacon, collected
and edited by James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis and Doublas Denon Heath. London:
Longman, 1857-1870.)
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