proponi tanquam ad exemplum et operis descriptionem fere visibilem. . . . 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 later2 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 Orgaпит. We may therefore conjecture that it was about this time that Bacon addressed himself to the great work of composing the Novum Organum; 3 and this agrees with what Rawley says of its having been twelve years in hand. This view also explains why the whole

1 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.

2 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.

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8 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.

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.

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That the Partis secunde Delineatio is earlier than the Cogitata 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 Delineatio. But 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 some

what in detail.

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, peric

ulo 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 own wishes. "Quin etiam illis, quibus in contemplationis amorem effusis frequens apud nos operum mentio asperum quiddam atque ingratum et mechanicum sonat, monstrabimus quantum illi desideriis suis propriis adversentur, quum puritas contemplationum atque substructio et inventio operum prorsus eisdem rebus nitantur, ac simul perficiantur."

In the Cogitata et Visa, this sentence recurs in a modified and much neater form : — "Si quis autem sit cui in contemplationis amorem et venerationem effuso ista operum frequens et cum tanto honore mentio quiddam asperum et ingratum sonet, is pro certo sciat se propriis desideriis adversari; etenim in naturâ, opera non tantum vitæ beneficia, sed et veritatis pignora esse." On comparing these two sentences, it

is difficult to believe that Bacon would have omitted the antithesis with which the latter ends in order to introduce the somewhat cumbrous expressions which

correspond to it in the former, especially as we find this antithesis reproduced, though with another context, in the Novum Organum. "Opera ipsa," it is there said, "pluris facienda sunt quatenus sunt veritatis pignora quam propter vitæ commoda." 1

These instances will probably be thought sufficient to justify us in concluding that the Partis secundæ Delineatio, in which no mention is made of the plan of setting forth the new method of induction by means of an example, is of earlier date than the Cogitata et Visa, in which this plan, actually employed in the Novum Organum, is spoken of as that which Bacon had decided on adopting. This question of priority is not without interest; for if the Partis secunda Delineatio is anterior to the Cogitata et Visa, the general plan of the Instauratio must have been formed a considerable time before 1607, about which time Bacon probably commenced the composition of the Novum Organum. If we could determine the date of Valerius Terminus, we should be able to assign limits within which the formation of this plan, so far as relates to the division of the work into six portions, may be supposed to lie. For the first book of Valerius Terminus was to include all that was to precede the exposition of the new method of induction, which was to be the subject of the second; that is, it was to comprehend, along with the first part of the Instauratio,2 the general reflexions and precepts which form the subject of the first book

1 Nov. Org. i. 124. It is well to mention that some of the expressions in this aphorism which do not occur in the Cogitata et Visa will be found in the Partis secunda Delineatio. But it will be observed that I am only comparing passages which occur in all three works. Of the greater general resemblance of the Cogitata et Visa to the Novum Organum there can be no question.

2 Query. See Note A. at the end, § 1. — J. S.