For Seneca the exploration of nature was a means of escaping from the sordid miseries of life.

For the friar of Oxford the principal use of increasing knowledge was to prepare for the coming of Antichrist.

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.