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SECTION III.

THE NOVUM ORGANUM, FORMING THE SECOND PART OF THE INSTAURATIO MAGNA.

THIS Second Part of the Instauration, it is to be recol lected, was the portion of the work that was first published. It appeared in a folio volume in October, 1620, with the title of Novum Organum Scientiarum, sive Instaurationis Magnae Pars Secunda.' The First Part of the Instauration, the treatise De Dignitate et Augmentis Scientiarum,' which we have just reviewed, was not given to the world till 1623, with the exception of so much of it as is contained in the Two Books of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning,' which had been published in 1605.

The amplification of the Two Books of the Advancement into the Nine Books of the De Augmentis, and the adaptation of the extended treatise to form the First Part of the Instauration, would appear not to have been contemplated in the original design of that work, nor even when the Second Part of it, the Novum Organum, was first published. At the head of the latter, as has been already mentioned, was given an intimation to the effect that the First Part of the Instauration, containing the Partitions of the Sciences, was wanting; but that the said Partitions might in part be sought from the Second Book of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning.' The two treatises, the De Augmentis and the Novum Organum, were afterwards distinctly connected by the publication along with the former both of the short prefatory advertisement by Rawley, and of a note at the end stating that after the De Augmentis followed in order the Second Part of the Instauration, explaining

the art of interpreting nature, and of the true application (adoperationis) of the intellect; not however in the form of a finished treatise, but only digested, according to the heads of the subject, into aphorisms. The subordinate title of the Novum Organum is Indicia de Interpretatione Naturae, sive de Regno Hominis' (Indications respecting the Interpretation of Nature, or respecting the Kingdom of Man).

The reader has already been informed that to the Novum Organum were prefixed various prolegomena which are properly to be regarded as introductory to the entire body of the Instauratio Magna. The Novum Organum, however, has also its own Preface, specially explaining its nature and design.

In this discourse Bacon begins by observing that they who have pronounced of nature as of a thing already explored have done the highest detriment to philosophy and the sciences, by extinguishing inquiry exactly in proportion as they have gained credit; while they who, on the other hand, have asserted that nothing can be certainly known, although they have adduced reasons for their opinion not to be despised, have yet also altogether exceeded the bounds of truth. The more ancient of the Greek philosophers, whose writings have perished, appear to him to have taken a wiser course than any of their successors; keeping a middle way between dogmatism and scepticism, and moreover being accustomed to test and judge of nature rather by experiment than by disputation: yet even they followed no rule or system in their experiments, but employed only the unregulated force of the intellect, and placed all their dependence upon intense meditation and perpetual revolution and agitation of mind. He then proceeds to describe generally his own method, as consisting in guarding the sense by what he calls a certain reduction (per reductionem quandam), by which he perhaps means a drawing of it back to its proper function; in rejecting for the most part the mental operation which follows the sensethat is, apparently, the conclusion to which the under

standing is naturally inclined to come at once on receiving the intimation of the sense ;* and in laying open and fortifying for the mind a new and certain road from the very perceptions of the senses. That the mind requires some props or helps he holds to have been without doubt perceived by those who assigned so great a part to Logic; but that art, from the manner in which it was employed, was rather efficacious in rivetting errors than in disclosing truth; so that nothing, he conceives, remains but that the whole work of the mind be begun afresh; that from the very commencement the mind be in nowise left to itself, but always forced to proceed according to rule; and that the business be finished as if by means of machinery. The necessity of mechanical aid for the production of all great effects in works of the hand is insisted upon as an illustration and proof of a similar necessity in works of the mind. Two special admonitions are then propounded; the first relating to persons, the second to things. The honour and reverence due to the ancients Bacon professes to be desirous of allowing to remain undiminished and untouched; with them he comes into no opposition or rivalry; the intellectual road or method by which he proposes to pursue his end is one which was to them wholly untried and unknown. Nor is it any part of his purpose to attempt to throw down either the actually received philosophy, or any other system, more correct or more comprehensive, which may exist or may arise. He does not deny but that the received philosophy and other systems of the like kind may be employed pro

*This obscure passage is rendered by Shaw,-"to guard the sense by a kind of reduction" (explained in a foot-note as meaning, "by contriving ways of transmitting things, in a proper manner, to the senses, that a true judgment may be formed of them when thus again brought under view"); "generally to reject that work of the mind which is consequent to sense.' Mr. Wood's translation is,-"We, as it were, restore the senses to their former rank, but generally reject that operation of the mind which follows close upon the senses."

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perly and with good effect in promoting discussion, in embellishing oratory, in the professorial office, in the business of civil life. Nay, he adds, we openly intimate and declare that the philosophy which we bring forward will not be very useful for such purposes. It is not ready at hand; it is not to be caught hold of in passing; it does not flatter the understanding through its preconceived notions; it does not descend to the apprehension of the multitude, excepting only in its utility and its effects. Let there be, then, he continues, and well and happy may it prove for both, two emanations and also two dispensations of learning; two tribes and, as it were, kindreds of contemplators or philosophers; and they not enemies or aliens the one to the other, but confederated and bound together by assistance mutually rendered in a word, let there be one method of cultivating the sciences, and another of discovering them. The former he afterwards proposes to call the Anticipation of the Mind; the latter, the Interpretation of Nature. He concludes by requesting that the reader, notwithstanding all the pains he has taken to make his statements not only true but perspicuous, will not expect to acquire a full understanding and conviction of what the work sets before him by a cursory or inattentive perusal of it, but that whoever would really comprehend the new system of philosophy will try the method for himself, will accustom his mind to that subtilty of things which experiment alone discovers, will finally correct the depraved and deeply inherent habits of his mind by a temperate and as it were legitimate hesitation, and will then only (if it should so please him) make use of his judgment after he has begun to be master of himself.

The First Book of the Novum Organum is, not perhaps in respect of its pure Latinity, but yet in all such essential qualities of writing as do not depend upon the usages of a particular language, one of the most perfect of human compositions. Every sentence has evidently been elaborated with the greatest care; and yet the easy unforced vigour and animation of the expression are as remarkable as its economy, compactness, and perspicuity. Nothing

is redundant, and yet nothing is harsh or cramped: it would be difficult to mention any other writing in which aphoristic concentration and energy are so admirably blended with all the highest qualities of illustrative and frequently even decorative eloquence. No where else, probably, is there to be found either so crowded a succession of brilliant sentences, or yet a splendour more mild and grateful.

Much of this power and beauty must be lost in the best translation; some of it is perhaps due to qualities in the Latin language which the English does not possess, and might have been wanting if the work had been written by Bacon himself in his mother tongue-although in that case its place would probably have been supplied by something as good of a different kind. The first English translation of the Novum Organum professing to be complete was that given by Shaw in his edition of Bacon's Philosophical Works, 3 vols., 4to, London, 1733. The next is that published in the 14th volume of Mr. Montagu's edition of Bacon's Works, 8vo., London, 1831, which was executed by Mr. William Wood. And there is a third translation, of which, however, we have seen only the First Book, by the late James Glassford, Esq., 8vo., Edinburgh, 1844.

The first four aphorisms of Book First may be regarded as enunciating the principles or ideas that form the basis of the work. They may be thus literally translated :

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1. Man, the servant and interpreter of nature, does and understands so far as he may have observed, respecting the order of nature, in things or in his mind;* and further he has neither knowledge nor power.

* That is, by simple observation of facts, or by meditation upon them. The original is "quantum, de naturae ordine, re vel mente observaverit." In the Distributio Operis, where the aphorism is given in the same terms with the exception of this one phrase, we have "opere vel mente observaverit." In either case the distinction that is intended to be marked is between things, facts, effects, and the inferences which the

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