In the Instauratio Magna Bacon expressed his belief that the wealth and power of the state should be used in advancing man's knowledge of the natural world, both as an end in itself and, more importantly, as the key to improving the material conditions of human life. This is followed by the Novum organum, his treatise on scientific method. The celebrated engraved title (illustrated above) shows a ship sailing through the pillars of Hercules with the motto "Multi pertransibunt et augebitur scientia" ("Many will pass through and knowledge will be multiplied").