of the third part of the Instauratio is merely a fragment-for the Sylva Sylvarum, a miscellaneous collection of observations gathered for the most part out of books, nowise completes Bacon's general design. In truth it is a design which cannot be completed, there being no limit to the number of the "Phanomena universi" which are potentially if not actually cognisable; and it is to be observed that even if all the facts actually known at any instant could be collected and systematised (and even this is plainly impossible), yet still Bacon's aim would not be attained. For these facts alone would be insufficient as materials for the sixth part of the Instauratio, in which was to be contained all the knowledge of Nature man is capable of. Every day brings new facts to light not less entitled than those previously known to find a place in a complete description of the phenomena of the universe. From many places in Bacon's writings it appears, as I have elsewhere remarked, that he had formed no adequate conception of the extent and variety of Nature. In a letter to R. P. Baranzan, who had apparently remarked by way of objection to Bacon's scheme of philosophy that a complete natural history would be a work of great extent and labour, Bacon observes that it would perhaps be sixfold as voluminous as that of Pliny. We have here therefore a sort of estimate of the limits which, in his judgment, the third part of the Instauratio would not exceed. What now exists of it is perhaps one twentieth in magnitude of this estimate. Even the second part of the Instauratio, the Novum Organum itself, is incomplete. The second book concludes with the doctrine of prerogative instances. But in its twenty-first aphorism a number of subjects are mentioned of which this doctrine is the first, the last being the "Scala ascensoria et descensoria axiomatum." Neither this, nor any of these subjects after the first, except the last but one, is anywhere discussed in Bacon's 1 This would be true, I think, of all new facts which were not obviously reconcilable with laws previously known. But is it not conceivable that so complete a knowledge might be attained of the laws of Nature, that it could not be increased or affected by the discovery of any new fact in Nature? If we had as complete a knowledge of other laws of Nature as we have of gravitation, for instance, new facts would still come to light, but with respect to the laws themselves they would all say the same thing, and therefore bring no new knowledge. Every new application of mechanical power contains some new fact more or less connected with gravitation; yet unless a machine can be made which shall produce results not only new (i. e. such as had never been produced before) but inexplicable by the received theory of gravitation, are we not entitled to say that we know all that can be known about gravitation? — J. S. writings; and our knowledge of his method is therefore incomplete. Even the penultimate division of the Novum Organum which was published along with the first two books, and which treats "de parascevis ad inquisitionem," has all the appearance of being a fragment, or at least of being less developed than Bacon had intended it to be. The first part of the Instauratio is represented, not inadequately, by the De Augmentis, published about three years after the Distributio Operis and the Novum Organum. It is a translation with large additions of the Advancement of Learning, published in 1605; and if we regard the latter as a development of the ninth chapter of Valerius Terminus, which is an early fragment containing the germ of the whole of the Instauratio1, the De Augmentis will appear to belong naturally to the great work of which it now forms the first and only complete portion. In the preface prefixed to it by Rawley it is said that Bacon, finding "the part relating to the Partitions of the Sciences already executed, though less solidly than the dignity of the argument demanded, . . . thought the best thing he could do would be to go over again what he had written, and to bring it to the state of a satisfactory and completed work. And in this way he considers that he fulfils the promise which he has given respecting the first part of the Instauration."2 ... From this general view of the different parts of the Instauratio, as described in the Distributio Operis, we proceed to consider more particularly the Novum Organum. Although it was left incomplete, it is nevertheless of all Bacon's works that upon which he bestowed the most pains. In the first book especially every word seems to have been carefully weighed ; and it would be hard to omit or to change anything without injuring the meaning which Bacon intended to convey. His meaning is not always obvious, but it is always expressed with singular precision and felicity. His chaplain, Rawley, says that he had seen among his papers at least twelve yearly re ' I should rather say, the germ of all that part of the Instauratio which treated of the Interpretation of Nature. For I cannot find in the Valerius Terminus any traces of the first part, of which the Advancement of Learning was the germ. See Note A. at the end.-J. S. 2 My own reasons for thinking that the De Augmentis did not form part of the original design, together with the circumstances which, as I suppose, determined Bacon to enlarge that design so as to take it in, will be exp'ained in the preface to the De Augmentis.-J. S. visions of the Novum Organum. Assuming, which there is no reason to doubt, that this statement may be relied upon, it would seem to follow that the composition of the Novum Organum commenced in 1608. And this agrees tolerably well with the circumstance that the Cogitata et Visa was sent to Bodley in 1607, as we learn from the date of Bodley's reply to it. If we suppose that the tract published with this title by Gruter is the same as that which was sent to Bodley, a passage near the end acquires a significance which has not I think been remarked. In the Cogitata et Visa Bacon speaks of the considerations whereby he had been led to perceive the necessity of a reform in philosophy, and goes on to say that the question as to how his new method might be most fitly given to the world had been much in his thoughts. "Atque diu," he proceeds, "et acriter rem cogitanti et perpendenti ante omnia visum est ei tabulas inveniendi, sive legitimæ inquisitionis formulas. . . in aliquibus subjectis proponi tanquam ad exemplum et operis descriptionem fere visibilem.2... Visum est autem, nimis abruptum esse ut à tabulis ipsis docendi initium sumatur. Itaque idonea quædam præfari oportuisse, quod et jam se fecisse arbitratur." It was Bacon's intention therefore when he wrote the Cogitata et Visa, and when apparently some years later3 he communicated it to Bodley, to publish an example of the application of his method to some particular subject-an intention which remained unfulfilled until the publication of the Novum "Ipse reperi in archivis Dominationis suæ autographa plus minus duodecim Organi novi, de anno in annum elaborati et ad incudem revocati; et singulis annis ulteriore limâ subinde politi et castigati." In the preceding sentence, he calls it "multorum annorum et laboris improbi proles."-Auctoris Vita, prefixed to the Opuscula varia posthuma, 1658. In the English Life prefixed to the Resuscitatio, which was published the year before, he says, "I myself have seen at the least twelve copies of the Instauration; revised year by year, one after another; and every year altered and amended in the frame thereof." I doubt whether we can fairly infer from these expressions that these twelve several copies were made in twelve several years; but substantially they bear out the inference drawn from them.-J. S. 2 In the Commentarius solutus, under date July 26. 1608, I find the following memorandum :-"Seeing and trying whether the B. of Canterb. may not be affected in it, being single and glorious, and believing the sense. "Not desisting to draw in the Bp. Awnd. [Bishop Andrews, probably] being single, rich, sickly, and professor to some experiments: this after the table of motion or some other in part set in forwardness." Some other memoranda in the same place relate to the gaining of physicians, and learning from them experiments of surgery and physic; which explains the epithet "sickly" in the above extract. —J. S. Bodley's answer is dated Feb. 19. 1607; i. e. 1607-8; in which he says, " I must tell you, to be plain, that you have very much wronged yourself and the world, to smother such a treasure so long in your coffer." But I do not think we can infer from this that the Cogitata et Visa had been written “some years" before. Bodley may only allude to his having kept such thoughts so long to himself. — J. S. Organum. We may therefore conjecture that it was about this time that Bacon addressed himself to the great work of composing the Novum Organum1; and this agrees with what Rawley says of its having been twelve years in hand. This view also explains why the whole substance of the Cogitata et Visa is reproduced in the first book of the Novum Organum; for this tract was designed to be an introduction to a particular example of the new method of induction, such as that which we find near the beginning of the second book. Bacon's purpose in writing it was therefore the same as that which he had in view in the first book of the Novum Organum, - namely to procure a favourable reception for an example and illustration of his method. What has been said may be in some measure confirmed by comparing the Cogitata et Visa with an earlier tract,—namely the Partis secundæ Delineatio et Argumentum. When he wrote this tract Bacon did not propose to set forth his method merely by means of an example; on the contrary, the three ministrations to the sense, to the memory, and to the reason, of which the last is the new method of induction, were to be set forth in order and didactically. Whereas in the Novum Organum Bacon remarks, "incipiendum est à fine" (that is, the method of induction must be set forth before the method of collecting facts and that of arranging them so as best to assist the memory); and having said this, he goes on at once to his example,-namely, the investigation of the Form of heat. Thus it appears that after Bacon had not only decided on writing a great work on the reform of philosophy, but had also determined on dividing it into parts of which the second was to contain the exposition of his new method, he in some measure changed his plan, and resolved to set forth the essential and operative part of his system chiefly by means of an example. This change of plan appears to be marked by the Cogitata et Visa,-a circumstance which makes this tract one of the most interesting of the precursors of the Novum Organum. That the Partis secundæ Delineatio is earlier than the Cogi 1 In the Commentarius solutus, under date July 26. 1608, I find the following memorandum:-"The finishing the Aphorisms, Clavis interpretationis, and then setting forth the book," and in the same page, a little after, "Imparting my Cogitata et Visa, with choice, ut videbitur." The aphorisms here spoken of may have been the "Aphorismi et Consilia de auxiliis mentis et accensione luminis naturalis; " a fragment containing the substance of the first, second, and third aphorisms of the first book of the Novum Organum, and the first, third, and sixteenth of the second. Clavis interpretationis was probably the name which was afterwards exchanged for Novum Organum. -J. S. . tata et Visa appears plainly from several considerations which M. Bouillet, who expresses a contrary opinion, seems to have overlooked. In the first place, whole sentences and even paragraphs of the Cogitata et Visa are reproduced with scarcely any alteration in the Novum Organum; whereas this is by no means the case with any passage of the Partis secundæ DelineBut as it may be said that this difference arises from the different character of the two tracts, of which the one is simply a summary of a larger work, whereas the more developed style of the other resembles that of the Novum Organum, it may be well to compare them somewhat in detail. atio. In speaking of the prospects which the reform of philosophy was to open to mankind, Bacon thus expresses himself in the Novum Organum:-" Quinetiam prudentia civilis ad consilium vocanda est et adhibenda, quæ ex præscripto diffidit, et de rebus humanis in deterius conjicit." The corresponding sentence in the Cogitata et Visa is, "Consentaneum enim esse, prudentiam civilem in hâc parte adhibere, quæ ex præscripto diffidit et de humanis in deterius conjicit." Again, in the Partis secundæ Delineatio the same idea is thus expressed, "Si quis sobrius (ut sibi videri possit,) et civilis prudentiæ diffidentiam ad hæc transferens, existimet hæc quæ dicimus votis similia videri," &c. Here the somewhat obscure phrase "civilis prudentiæ diffidentiam" is clearly the germ of that by which it is replaced in the other two passages, namely, "prudentia civilis quæ ex præscripto diffidit." Again, in the Partis secundæ Delineatio Bacon affirms that ordinary induction "puerile quiddam est et precario concludit, periculo ab instantiâ contradictoriâ exposita:" in the Cogitata et Visa, that the logicians have devised a form of induction "admodum simplicem et plane puerilem, quæ per enumerationem tantum procedat, atque propterea precario non necessario concludat." The clause "quæ per enumerationem tantum procedat," which adds greatly to the distinctness of the whole sentence, is retained in the Distributio Operis, in which it is said that the induction of the logicians, "quæ procedit per enumerationem simplicem, puerile quiddam est, precario concludit, et periculo ab instantiâ contradictoriâ exponitur." To take another case: in the Partis secundæ Delineatio, Bacon, speaking of those who might object to his frequent mention of practical results as a thing unworthy of the dignity of philosophy, affirms that they hinder the accomplishment of their |