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Mrs. Wallace Nesbltt

THE

WORKS

FRANCIS BACON,

BARON OF VERULAM, VISCOUNT ST. ALBANS, AND LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND.

BY '

JAMES SPEDDING, M. A;

OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE;

ROBERT LESLIE ELLIS, M.A.

LATE FELLOW OF TRIKITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; AND

DOUGLAS DENON HEATH,

BARRISTER-AT-LAW ; LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

VOLUME L

V^

BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY BROWN AND TAGGARD.

M DCCC LXI.

MICROFORMED BY

PRESERVATION

SERVICES

DATE AUG - 8 1989

RIVEKSIDK, CAMBRIDGE:

STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY

H. 0. HOUGHTON.

HISTORY AND PLAN

THIS EDITION.

Bacon's works were all published separately, and never collected into a body by himself ; and though he had determined, not long before his death, to distribute them into consecutive volumes, the order in which they were to succeed each other was confessedly irregular ; a volume of moral and political writings being intro- duced between the first and second parts of the Itv- stauratio Magna, quite out of place, merely because he had it ready at the time.^ In arranging the col- lected works therefore, every editor must use his own judgment.

Blackbourne, the first editor of an Opera Omnia,^ took the Distributio Operis as his groundwork, and endeavoured first to place the various unfinished por-

1 " Debuerat sequi Novum Organum : interposui tamen Scripta mea Mo- ralia et Politica, quia magis erant in promptu. . . . Atque hie tomus (ut diximus) interjectus est et non ex ordine Instaurationis." — Ep. ad Ful- gentium, Opuscula, p. 172.

2 Francisci JBaconi, ^c, Opera Omnia, quatuor voluminibus comprehensa. Londini, mdccxxx.

Vl HISTORY AND PLAN

tions of the Instauratio Magna in the order In which they would have stood had they been completed ac- cording to the original design ; and then to marshal the rest in such a sequence that they might seem to hang together, each leading by a natural transition to the next, and so connecting themselves into a kind of whole. But the several pieces were not written with a view to any such connexion, which is alto- gether forced and fanciful ; and the arrangement has this great inconvenience — it mixes up earlier writ- ings with later, discarded fragments with completed works, and pieces printed from loose manuscripts found after the author's death with those which were published or prepared for publication by himself. Birch, the original editor of the quarto edition in five volumes* which (reprinted in ten volumes oc- tavo) has since kept the market and is now known as the *' trade edition," followed Blackboume's ar- rangement in the main, — though with several varia- tions which are for the most part not improvements. The arrangement adopted by Mr. Montagu ^ is in these respects no better, in all others much worse. M. Bouillet, in his (Euvres Philomphiques de Fran- pats Bacon^ does not profess to include all even of the Philosophical works ; and he too, though the beat editor by far who has yet handled Bacon, has

» The Works of Francis Bacon, &c., in five volumes. London, 1768. « The Works of Francis Hacon, Lord Chancellor of England. A new edition hy Basil Montagu, Esq. London, 1826-34. • Paris, 1834.

OF THIS EDITION. vii

aimed at a classification of the works more system- atic, as it seems to me, than the case admits, and has thus given to some of the smaller pieces a promi- nence which does not belong to them.

In the edition of which the first volume is here offered to the public, a new arrangement has been attempted ; the nature and grounds of which I must now explain.

When a man publishes a book, or Avrites a letter, or delivers a speech, it is always with a view to some particular audience by whom he means to be understood without the help of a commentator. Giv- ing them credit for such knowledge and capacity as they are presumably furnished with, he himself sup- plies what else is necessary to make his meaning clear ; so that any additional illustrations would be to that audience more of a hindrance than a help. If however his works live into another generation or travel out of the circle to which they were original- ly addressed, the conditions are changed. He now addresses a new set of readers, differently prepared, knowing much which the others were ignorant of, ignorant of much which the others knew, and on hoth accounts requiring explanations and elucidations of many things which to the original audience were sufficiently intelligible. These it is the proper busi- ness of an editor to supply.

This consideration suggested to me, when con- sulted about a new edition of Bacon, the expediency

viii HISTORY AND PLAN

of arraiiffing his works with reference — not to sub- ject, size, language, or form — but to the different classes of readers whose requirements he had in view when he composed them. So classified, they will be foimd to fall naturally into three principal divisions. First, we have his works in philosophy and general literature; addressed to mankind at large, and meant to be intelligible to educated men of all generations. Secondly, we have his works on legal subjects ; ad- dressed to lawyere, and presuming in the reader such knowledge as belongs to the profession. Thirdly, we have letters, speeches, charges, tracts, state-papers, and other writings of business ; relating to subjects so various as to defy classification, but agreeing in this — they were all addressed to particular persons or bodies, had reference to particular occasions, as- sumed in the persons addressed a knowledge of the circumstances of the time, and cannot be rightly understood except in relation to those circumstances. In this division every thing will find a place which does not naturally fall into one of the two former ; and thus we have the whole body of Bacon's works arranged in three sufficiently distinguishable classes, which may be called for shortness, 1st, The Philo- sophical and Literary ; 2nd, The Professional ; and 3rd, The Occasional.

In each of these there is work for an editor to do, but the help he can render differs in the several cases both in nature and amount, and requires qual-

OF THIS EDITION. IX

ifications differing accordingly. To understand and illustrate the Philosophical works in their relation to this age, a man must be not only well read in the history of science both ancient and modern, but him- self a man of science, capable of handling scientific questions. To produce a correct text of the Profes- sional works and supply w^hat other help may be necessary for a modern student, a man must be a lawyer. To explain and interpret the Occasional works, and set them forth in a shape convenient for readers of the present generation, a man must have leisure to make himself acquainted by tedious and minute researches among the forgotten records of the time with the circumstances in which they were written. Now as it would not be easy to find any one man in whom these several qualifications meet, it was thought expedient to keep the three divisions separate, assigning each to a separate editor. It was agreed accordingly that the Philosophical works should be undertaken by Mr. Robert Leslie Ellis ; the Pro- fessional works by Mr. Douglas Denon Heath ; the Occasional and the Literary works by me ; each di- vision to be made complete in itself, and each editor to be solely responsible for his own part of the work.

Such was our original arrangement. It was con- cluded in the autumn of 1847; and Mr. Ellis, whose part was to come first, had already advanced so far that he expected to have it ready for the press with-

X HISTORY AND PLAN

in another half year, when unhappily about the end of 1849 lie was seized with a rheumatic fever, which left him in a condition of body quite incompatible with a labour of that kind. At which time, though the greater portion was in fact done, he did not con- sider any of it fit to be published as it was ; many blanks having been left to be filled up, and some doubtful notes to be corrected, in that general re- vision which the whole was to have undergone be- fore any part were printed. It was long before he could finally resolve to abandon his task. As soon as he had done so, he handed all his papers over to me, with permission to do with them whatever I thought best. And hence it is that my name ap- pears in connexion with the Philosophical works ; with Inch otherwise I should not have presumed to meddle.

As soon however as I had arranged and examined his papers, I felt that, however imperfect they might be compared with his own ideal and with what he would himself have made them, they must on no ac- count be touched by anybody else ; for that if any other man were allowed to make alterations in them, without notice, according to his own judgment, the reader could have no means of knowing when he was reading the words of Mr. Ellis and when those of his editor, and so their peculiar value would be lost. Per- fect or imperfect, it was clear to me that they must be kept as he left them, clear of all alien infusion ; and

OF THIS EDITION. Xl

not knowing of any one who was likely to take so much interest or able to spend so much time in the matter as myself, I proposed to take his part into my own hands and edit it; provided only that I might print his notes and prefaces exactly as I found them ; explaining the circumstances which had prevented him from completing or revising them, but making no alter- ation whatever (unless of errors obviously accidental which I might perhaps meet with in verifying any of the numerous references and quotations) without his express sanction. That the text should be carefully printed from the proper authorities, and all the biblio- graphical information supplied which was necessary to make the edition in that respect complete, — this I thought I might venture to promise. And although I could not undertake to meddle with purely scientific questions, for which I have neither the acquirements nor the faculties requisite, or to bring any stores of learning, ancient or modern, to bear upon the various subjects of inquiry, — although I had no means, I say, of supplying what he had left to be done in those de- partments, and must therefore be content to leave the work so far imperfect, — yet in all matters which lay within my compass I promised to do my best to complete the illustration and explanation of the text ; adding where I had anything to add, objecting where I had anything to object, but always disthiguishing as my own whatever was not his.

To this proposal he agreed, as the best course that

xii HISTORY AND PLAN

could be taken in the circumstances. Early in 1863 I took the work in hand ; and in the three volumes which follow, the reader will find the result.

The thinffs then for which in this division I am to be held responsible are —

1st. All notes and prefaces marked with my initials, and all words inserted between brackets, or otherwise distinguished as mine.

2dly. The general distribution of the Philosophical works into three parts, — whereby all those writings which were either published or intended for publication by Bacon himself as parts of the Great Instauration are (for the first time, I believe) exhibited separately, and distinguished as well from the independent and collateral pieces which did not form part of the main scheme, as from those which, though originally designed for it, were afterwards superseded or abandoned.

3dly. The particular arrangement of the several pieces within each part; which is intended to be ac- cording to the order in which they were composed; — a point however which is in most cases very dif- ficult to ascertain.

For the grounds on which I have proceeded in each case, and for whatever else in my part of the work re- quires explanation, I refer to the places. But there are two or three particulars in which this edition differs fi'om former ones, and which may be more conven- iently explained here.

OF THIS EDITION. Xiii

In the third and last division of the entire works, according to the scheme already explained, every au- thentic writing and every intelligibly reported speech of Bacon's (not belonging to either of the other divis- ions) which can be found in print or in manuscript will be set forth at full length, each in its due chron- ological place ; with an explanatory narrative running between, in which the reader will be supplied to the best of my skill and knowledge with all the informa- tion necessary to the right understanding of them. In doing this, — since the pieces in question are very numerous, and scattered with few and short intervals over the whole of Bacon's life, — I shall have to enter very closely into all the particulars of it ; so that this part when finished will in fact contain a complete biog- raphy of the man, — a biography the most copious, the most minute, and by the very necessity of the case the fairest, that I can produce ; for any material mis- interpretation in the commentary will be at once con- fronted and corrected by the text. The new matter which I shall be able to produce is neither little nor unimportant ; but more important than the new matter is the new aspect which (if I may judge of other minds by my own) will be imparted to the old matter by this manner of setting it forth. I have generally found that the history of an obscure transaction becomes clear as soon as the simple facts are set down in the order of their true dates ; and most of the difficulties presented by Bacon's life will be found to disappear

Xiv HISTORY AND PLAN

when these simple records of it are read in their natural sequence and in their true relation to the business of the time. By this means a great deal of controversy which would disturb and encumber the narrative, and help to keep alive the memory of much ignorant and superficial criticism which had better be forgotten, will I hope be avoided. And until this is done I do not think it desirable to attempt a summary biography in the ordinary form. Such a biogra2)hy may be easily added, if necessary, in a supplemental volume ; but I am persuaded that the best which could be written now would be condemned afterwards as altogether unsatisfactory.

It is true however, that a reader, before entering on the study of an author's works, wants to know some- thing about himself and his life. Now there exists a short memoir of Bacon, which was drawn up by Dr. Rawley in 1657 to satisfy this natural desire, and pre- fixed to the Resusdtatio^ and is still (next to Bacon's own writings) the most important and authentic evi- dence concerning him that we possess. The origin of Dr. Rawley's connexion with Bacon is not known, but it must have begun early. It was in special compli- ment to Bacon that he was presented on the 18th of January, 1616-17, (being then 28 years old,) to the rectory of Landbeach ; a living in the gift of Benet's College, Cambridge.^ Shortly after, Bacon becoming

1 " Ad quam pnesentatus fuit per honorand. virum Franciscum Bacon mil. Rcgije maj. advocatum generalem, ejusdem vicariaB [rectorioe] pro hac

OF THIS EDITION. XV

Lord-Keeper selected him for his chaplain ; and during the last five years of his life, which were entirely occu- pied with literary business, employed him constantly as a kind of literary secretary. Nor did the connexion cease with life ; for after Bacon's death Rawley was intrusted by the executors with the care and publica- tion of his papers. Rawley's testimony must therefore be regarded as that of a witness who, however favour- able and affectionate, has the best right to be heard, as speaking not from hearsay but from intimate and familiar knowledge during many years and many changes of fortune ; and as being moreover the only man among Bacon's personal acquaintances by whom any of the particulars of his life have been recorded. This memoir, which was printed by Blackbourne, with interpolations from Dugdale and Tenison, and placed in front of his edition of 1730, but is not to be found I think in any more modern edition, I have printed entire in its original shape ; adding some notes of my own, by help of which it may serve a modern reader for a sufficient biographical introduction.

The Latin translation of it, published by Rawley in 1658 as an introduction to a little volume entitled Opuscula Philosophical and now commonly prefixed to the Be Augmentis Sdentiarum^ I have thought it super- fluous to reproduce here ; this edition being of little

unica vice, ratione concessionis magistri et sociorum Coll. C. C (uti assere- batur) patronus." Collections prefixed, to Blackboume's edition 1730, i. 218. Bacon's father was a member and benefactor of Benet's; which accomits for this compliment.

XVI HISTORY AND PLAN

use to those who cannot read English, and the transla- tion being of no use to those who can. And this brings me to the second innovation which I have ventured to introduce.

Bacon had no confidence in the permanent vitality of EngHsh as a classical language. " These modern languages," he said, " will at one time or other play the bankrupts with books." Those of his works therefore which he wished to live and which were not originally written in Latin, he translated or caused to be translated into that language — " the universal language," as he called it. This, for his own time, was no doubt a judicious precaution. Appearances however have greatly changed since ; and though it is not to be feared that Latin will ever become ob- solete, it is certain that English has been rapidly gain- ing ground upon it, and that of the audience whom Bacon would in these days have especially desired to gather about him, a far greater number would be ex- cluded by the Latin dress than admitted. Consider- ing also the universal disuse of Latin as a medium of oral communication, and the almost universal disuse of it as a medium of communication in writing, even among learned men, and the rapid spreading of Eng- lish over both hemispheres, it is easy to predict which of the two languages is likely to play the bankrupt first. At any rate the present edition is for the Eng- lish market. To those who are not masters of Eng- lish it offers few attractions; while of those who are,

OF THIS EDITION. XVll

not one I suppose in a hundred would care to read a translation even in Baconian Latin, when he had the choice of reading the original in Baconian Eng- lish. And since the translations in question would increase the bulk of this work by four or five hundred pages and the cost in proportion, it has been thought better to leave them out.

In one respect, it is true, they have a value inde- pendent of the English originals. Having been made later and made under Bacon's own eye, the differ- ences, where they are greater than can be naturally accounted for by the different idiom and construction of the languages, must be considered as corrections ; besides which, when the meaning of the original is obscure or the reading doubtful, they serve sometimes as a glossary to decide it. This being an advantage which we cannot afford to sacrifice, I have thought it my duty in all instances to compare the translation carefully with the original, and to quote in foot-notes those passages in which the variation appeared to be material ; and as this is a labour which few readers would take upon themselves, I conceive that by the course which I have adopted the English student will be a gainer rather than a loser.

I have also departed from the practice of foimer editors in not keeping the Latin and English works separate. Such separation is incompatible with the chronological arrangement which I hold to be far preferable. I see no inconvenience in the change

VOL. I. 2

xviii HISTORY AND PLAN

which is at all material; and I only mention it here lest any future publisher, out of regard to a super- ficial synmietiy, should go back to the former prac- tice and so destroy the internal coherency of the present plan.

It may be thought perhaps that in arranging the works which were to form parts of the Great Instaura- tion, I ought to have followed the order laid down in the Dutributio Operis, marshalling them according to their place in the scheme rather than the date of com- position ; and therefore that the De Augmentis Scien- liar am which was meant to stand for the first part, should have been placed befoi-e the two books of the Novum Organum, which were meant for the com- mencement of the second. But the truth is that not one of the parts of the Great Instauration was com- pleted according to the original design. All were more or less abortive. In every one of them, the De Aug- mentis and the Novum Organum itself not excepted, accidental difficulties, and considerations arising out of the circumstances of the time, interfered more or less with the first intention and induced alterations either in form or substance or both. They cannot be made to fit their places in the ideal scheme. It was the actual conditions of Bacon's life that really moulded them into what they are ; and therefore the most nat- ural order in which they can be presented is that in which they stand here ; first, the Bistributio Operis^ setting forth the perfect work as he had conceived it in

OF THIS EDITION". xix

his mind, and tlien the series of imperfect and irregular efforts which he made to execute it, in the order in which they were made.

The text has been corrected throughout from the original copies, and no verbal alteration (except in case of obvious errors of the press) has been introduced into it without notice. The spelling in the English works has been altered according to modern usage. I have endeavoured however to distinguish those variations which belong merely to the fashion of orthography from those which appear to involve changes in the forms of words. Thus in such words as president (the invariable spelling in Bacon's time of the substantive which is now invariably written precedent^ and valuable as showing that the pronunciation of the word has not changed), prcejudice, fained, mathematiques, chymist^ &c., I adopt the modern form ; but I do not substitute lose for leese^ politicians for politiques, external for ex- terne, Solomon for Salomon, accommodated for the past participle accommodate; and so on; these being changes in the words themselves and not merely in the manner of writing them. In the spelling of Latin words there are but few differences between ancient and modern usage ; but I have thought it better to preserve the original form of all words which in the original are always or almost always spelt in the same way ; as foelix, author, chymista, chymicus, ^c.

In the matter of punctuation and typography, though I have followed the example of all modern editors in

XX raSTORY AND PLAN

altering at discretion, I have not attempted to reduce them entirely to the modern form ; which I could not have done without sometimes introducing ambiguities of construction, and sometimes deciding questions of construction which admit of doubt. But I have endeavoured to represent the effect of the original arrangement to a modem eye, with as little departure as possible from modern fashions. I say endeavoured ; for I cannot say that I have succeeded in satisfying even myself. But to all matters of this kind I have attended personally ; and though I must not suppose that my mind has observed everything that my eyes have looked at, I am not without hope that the text of this edition will be found better and more faithful than any that has hitherto been produced.

It was part of our original design to append to the Philosophical works an accurate and readable transla- tion of those originally written in Latin ; at least of so much of them as would suffice to give an English reader a complete view of the Baconian philosophy. Mr. Ellis made a selection for this purpose. Arrange- ments were made accordingly ; and a translation of the Novum Organum was immediately begun. As succes- sive portions were completed, they were forwarded in the first instance to myself; were by me carefully ex- amined ; and then passed on to Mr. Ellis, accompanied with copious remarks and suggestions of my own in the way of correction or improvement. Of these cor-

OF THIS EDITION. xxi

rections Mr. Ellis marked the greater part for adop- tion, improved upon others, added many of his own, and then returned the manuscript to be put into shape for the printer. But as he was not able to look over it again after it had received the last corrections, and as the translator did not wish to put his own name to it, and as this edition was to contain nothing; for which somebody is not personally responsible, I have been obliged to take charge of it myself. In my final revis- ion I have been careful to preserve all Mr. Ellis's cor- rections which affect the substance and sense of the translation. In matters which concern only the style and manner of expression, I have thought it better to follow my own taste ; a mixture of different styles be- ing commonly less agreeable to the reader, and mine (as the case now stands) being necessarily the predom- inating one. For the same reason I have altered at discretion the translation of the prefaces, &c. which precede the Novum Organum ; which were done by another hand, and have not had the advantage of Mr. Ellis's revision. For those which follow, the translator (Mr. Francis Headlam, Fellow of University College, Oxford) will himself be responsible.

Though this volume is already twice as thick as I would have had it, I must add a few words concern- ing the portraits of Bacon ; a subject which has not received the attention which it deserves, and upon which, if picture-dealers and collectors and inheritors

xxii HISTORY AND PLAN

of family })ortraits would take an interest in it, some valuable light might probably be thrown.

The portrait in the front of the volume is taken from an old engraving by Simon Pass ; which came, (as Mr. Smith of Lisle Street informed me, from whom I bought it some years ago,) out of a broken- up copy of Holland's Baziliologia.^ The original has a border, bearing the words honoratiss : d*. fran-

CISCUS BACON : EQUES AU I MAG : SIGILL : ANGL :

cusTos. Above are his arms, with the motto moniti MELIORA. Below the chancellor's bag, on which the left hand rests. These accessories, as being presuma- bly the device of the engraver and not suitable to the modern style which has been preferred for the copy, have been dispensed with ; but the inscription under- neath has been copied verbatim,^ and enables us to fix the date of the work. Bacon was created Lord Chancellor on the 4th of January, 1617-18, and Baron Verulam on the 12th of the following July ; and as it is not to be supposed that his newest title would have been omitted on such an occasion, we

1 This work was published in 1618; and though one would not expect from the title to find Baron there, Brunet mentions a copy in the Biblioth. du Roi at Paris "qui, outre les portraits qui composent ordinairenient le recueil, renferine encore d'autres portraits du meme genre, representants des reines, des princes du sang, et des seigneurs de la cour des Rois Jacques Iw et Charles I"," &c. The copy in the British Museum has no portrait of Bacon ; but as the plates are not numbered, and there is no table of contents, one cannot be stire that any copy is perfect.

2 The righte Honourable S^ Frauncis Bacon knight, Lorde highe Chancellour of Englande and one of his l&a!^ most honW« privie Coun- aell.

OF THIS EDITION. XXIU

may infer with tolerable certainty that the engraving was published during the first half of the year 1618. Below this inscription are engraved in small letters the words " Simon Passceus sculpsit L. Are to he sould by John Sudbury and Greorge Humble at the signe of the white horse in Pope^s head Allyy The plate appears to have been used afterwards for a frontis- piece to the Syha Sylvarum^ which was published in 1627, the year after Bacon's death. At least I have a copy of the second edition of that work (1628) in which the same print is inserted, only with the border and inscription altered; the title which originally sur- rounded it, together with the Chancellor's bag and the names of the engraver and publishers, being erased; the coat of arms altered ; and the words underneath being changed to The right Hon'''' Francis Lo. Veridam^ Viscount S' Alban. Mortuus 9° Aprilis^ Anno Dni 1626, Annoq^ Aetat. ^^. It is probable that the rapid demand for the Syha Sylvarum wore out the plate ; for none of the later editions which I have seen con- tain any portrait at all ; and that which was prefixed to the Resuscitatio in 1657, though undoubtedly meant to be a fac-simile of Simon Pass's engraving, has been so much altered in the process of restoration, that I took it for a fresh copy until Mr. Holl showed me that it was only the old plate retouched. The lower part of the face has entirely lost its individuality and physiognomical character; the outline of the right cheek has not been truly followed; that of the nose

XXIV HISTORY AND PLAN

has lost its shapeliness and delicacy ; and the first line- and-half of the inscription underneath has apparent- ly been erased in order to give the name and titles in Latin. Nevertheless the adoption by Dr. Rawley of this print sufficiently authenticates it as a likeness at that time approved ; only the likeness must of course be looked for in the plate as Simon Pass left it, — not in restorations or copies. This Mr. HoU has endeav- oured faithfully, and in my opinion very successfully, to reproduce ; it being understood however that his aim has been to give as exact a resemblance as he could, not of the old engraving (the style of which has little to recommend it), but of the man whom the engraving represents.

I selected this likeness by preference, partly because original impressions are scarce, and none of the others which I have seen give a tolerable idea of it ; whereas the rival portrait by Van Somer is very fairly repre- sented by the engraving in Lodge's collection; but chiefly because I have some reason to suspect that it was made from a painting by Cornelius Janssen, and some hope that the original is still in existence and that this notice may lead to the discovery of it. Jans- sen is said to have come over to England in 1618, the year in which, as I have said, the engraving must have been published. Bacon did sit for his portrait to some- body (but it may no doubt have been to Van Somer) about that time ; at least 33/, was " paid to the pic- ture drawer for his Lp's picture," on the 12th of Sep-

OF THIS EDITION. XXV

tember, 1618.^ Now I have in my possession an en- graving in mezzotinto, purporting to be a portrait of Bacon, representing him in the same position and at- titude, and the same dress (only that the figure on the vest is different), and having a similar oval frame with the same kind of border. In the left-hand cor- ner, where the painter's name is usually given, are the words Cornelius Johnson pinxit. The engraver's name is not stated ; but there is evidence on the face of the work that he was a poor performer. In all points which require accuracy of eye and hand, and a feeling of the form to be described, it differs much from Pass's work, and is very inferior ; but in those which the most unskilful artist need never miss, — such as the quantity of face shown, the disposition of the hair, and generally what may be called the com- position of the picture, — there is no more difference between the two than may be well accounted for by the difficulty which is often found in ascertaining the true outlines of the obscure parts of a dark or dam- aged picture, or by the alterations which an engraver will often introduce when the size of his plate obliges him to cut off the lower part of the figure. The hat, for instance, which is dark against a dark background, sits differently on the head ; sits in fact (in the mez- zotint) as it could not possibly have done in nature ; and the flap of the brim follows a somewhat different line, though the irregularity is of the same kind ; also 1 See a book of accounts preserved in the State Paper Office.

xxvl HISTORY AND PLAN

the light and shadow are differently distributed over the folds of the frill ; the fur hangs differently ; the figure is cut off too short to admit the hand ; and the ribbon i*ound the neck, the lower part of which is con- cealed in Pass's print, is changed into a George and Garter.^ But such varieties as these are of ordinary occurrence in copies of the same picture by different hands ; especially where one copier is attending chiefly to the outlines of the forms without caring to represent the effect of the picture (the practice I think of en- gravel's in Simon Pass's time), and the other is at- tending to the effect of the picture without caring, or without being able, to preserve the individual details, according to the practice of the popular engi'avers of the eighteenth century ; whereas in two independent and original portraits of the same face the correspond- encies which I have mentioned can hardly occur. But however that may be, this mezzotinto appears at least to prove that when it was made there was in existence a portrait which somebody believed to be a portrait of Bacon by Conielius Johnson, — that is (no doubt) Cor- nelius Janssen. When it was made becomes therefore an interesting question ; and I regret to say that it is a question which I have no data for determining, be- yond the fact that it is in mezzotinto (an art of com- paratively modern invention) ; that it was " sold by J. Cooper in James Street Co vent Garden ; " and

1 If the orif;inal picture really has this badge, we may conclude, I sup- po8«, that it was not a portrait of Bacon at all. And I should not be very much surprised if it turned out to be a Charles I.

OF THIS EDITION. XXvil

that there was an English engraver called Richard Cooper, who flourished about the year 1763, and among whose engravings a portrait of Francis Bacon Lord Keeper and Chancellor is mentioned as one.^

With reference to this subject of portraits, I may add that the various engravings of Bacon are all (with one exception which I will mention presently) derived directly or through successive copies from one or other of two originals. One is Simon Pass's print ; the fea- tures of which may be traced through many genera- tions of copies, each less like than its predecessor ; though always to be identified by the hat with irregu- lar brim curving upwards towards the sides, and bound with a scarf. The other is a portrait by Van Somer ; the same I suppose that Aubrey saw at Gorhambury in 1656 ; which has become the parent of two separate families ; one w^earing a hat with a brim describing a regular curve downwards towards the sides, which suf- ficiently distinguishes it from Pass's portrait ; the other without any hat ; the composition being in other re- spects the same. Of both these the originals are at Gorhambury ; and they are both ascribed to Van Somer. But the latter is so very inferior to the former in every quality of art, that unless there be some evidence of the fact more to be relied on than an ordinary family tradition, I shall never be able to believe that it is by the same hand. It seems to me far more probable that at some later period when the fash-

1 See Bryan's Painters and Engravers.

XXviii HISTORY AND PLAN

ion of painting people with the head covered had gone out, some one, wishing to have a portrait of Bacon without his hat, employed the nearest artist to make a copy of Van Somer's picture (Van Somer himself died in 1621, two or three years after it was painted, about the time when Bacon was in the Tower) with that alteration ; and that this is the work he produced. That he was not a skilful artist is sufficiently apparent from the execution of those parts which were intended to be copies ; the peculiar character and expression of eyebrows, eyes, nose and mouth, being entirely missed ; and the whole handling being weak and poor, and with- out any sense of form. Moreover the hair is of a dif- ferent texture; and although we have neither any description nor any drawing of the upper part of Ba- con's full-grown head, we know what it was like in his boyhood from two very admirable representations, quite independent of each other and yet exactly agree- ing ; and it is plain that such a head could never have grown into a shape at all like that which the painter has invented.

However, they were both called portraits by Van Somer ; and the first (which is a very good work, as far as the painting goes) was engraved by Houbraken ; the last by Vertue. Unfortunately, these two artists, whose style of execution made them very popular and gave them almost a monopoly of English historical por- traiture in the 18th century, were both utterly with- out conscience in the matter of likeness. And though

OF THIS EDITION. xxix

many of their works are brilliant specimens of effect in line-engraving, yet regarded as likenesses of the men, they are all alike worse than worthless. The original from which Vertue's engraving of Bacon was taken, being itself destitute of all true physiognomical char- acter, is indeed represented well enough. But if any one wishes to form a notion of Bacon's face as in- terpreted by Van Somer, he must consult the more modern engraving in Lodge's collection, which is at least a conscientious attempt to translate it faithfully ; Houbraken's can only mislead him. - The other engraving to which I have alluded as not derived from either of the originals above mentioned, is the small head engraved for Mr. Montagu's edition of Bacon's works. This was taken from a miniature by Hilliard then in the possession of John Adair Haw- kins, Esq., representing Bacon in his eighteenth year ; a work of exquisite beauty and delicacy. But here also, I regret to say, the laudable attempt to bring an image of it within reach of the general public has been attended with the same infelicity. The engraver has so completely failed to catch either expression, feature, character, or drawing, that I think no one can have once seen the original without wishing, in justice both to subject and artist, that no one who has not seen it may ever see the copy.

Judging from the issue of Mr. Montagu's attempt to obtain an engraving of this miniature, it is perhaps for- tunate that he did not fulfil the intention which he

XXX HISTORY AND PLAN OF THIS EDITION.

announced of giving an engraving of a bust in terra cotta representing Bacon in his twelfth year, which is at Gorliambury, in the possession of the Earl of Vem- 1am. But tliis also is a work of great merit, and ex- tremely interesting. It is coloured, and (like Hilliard's miniature) shows the head. I have been told by artists that it is probably of Italian workmanship ; and cer- tainly the work of an accomplished sculptor, who had a delicate perception of form and character. A faith- ful representation of it would be one of the most valuable contributions which could be made to our collections of the faces of memorable men.

There are other portraits of Bacon in existence, but I have not myself seen any which can be relied upon as authentic or which appear to have any independent value. If the foregoing remarks should be the means of bringing any such out of their hiding-places, I shall think them well bestowed ; and I need scarcely add that I should be most happy to receive any communi- cation on the subject, and to afford what help I can towards putting them in their true light.

JAMES SPEDDING. 60. Lincoln's Inn Fields, January, 1857.

CONTENTS

THE FIRST VOLUME.

Life of the Right Honourable Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, by William Rawley, D. D. 33

PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS.

General Preface to the Philosophical Works, BY Robert Leslie Ellis 61

PART L

WORKS PUBLISHED, OR DESIGNED FOR PUBLICATION, AS PARTS OF THE INSTAURATIO MAGNA.

NOVUM ORGANUM. Preface to the Novum Organum, by Robert Les- lie Ellis 131

Instauratio Magna 195

Prsefatio 199

Distributio Operis .212

Pars Secunda Operis, qu^ dicitur Novum Organum 231

Prgefatio .233

Aphorism! de Interpretatione Naturae et Regno Hom-

inis 241

Liber Secundus Aphorismorum de Interpretatione

Naturae sive de Regno Hominis . . . 341

->

3

THE

LIFE

OF

THE EIGHT HONOUEABLE

FRANCIS BACON,

BARON OF VERULAM, VISCONNT ST. ALBAN.

BY

WILLIAI EAWLEY, D.D.

lordship's first and last chaplain and of late his majesties chaplain in ordinary.

[This is the title of an edition printed in 1670, after Dr. Rawley's death, and prefixed to the ninth edition of the Sylva Sylvarum. The text of the Life itself is taken from the second edition of the Resuscitatio, tlie latest with which Rawley had anything to do. I have, however, modernised the spelling ; altered at discretion the typographical arrangement as to capitals, italics, and punctuation, which is very perplexing to a modern eye and has nothing to recommend it; and added the notes. — /. S.'\

VOL. I. 3

THE LIFE

THE HONOUKABLE AUTHOR.^

Francis Bacon, the glory of his age and nation, the adorner and ornament of learning, was born in York House, or York Place, in the Strand, on the two and twentieth day of January, in the year of our Lord 1560. His father was that famous counsellor to Queen Elizabeth, the second prop of the kingdom in his time, Sir Nicholas Bacon, knight, lord-keeper of the great seal of England ; a lord of known prudence, sufficiency, moderation, and integrity. His mother was Anne, one of the daughters of Sir Anthony Cook ; unto whom the erudition of King Edward the Sixth had been com- mitted ; a choice lady, and eminent for piety, virtue, and learning ; being exquisitely skilled, for a woman.

1 This Life was first published in 1657, as an introduction to the volume entitled " Resuscitatio ; or bringing into public light several pieces of the works, civil, historical, philosophical, and theological, hitherto sleeping, of the Right Honourable Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Al- ban; according to the best corrected copies." Of this volume a second edi- tion, or rather a re-issue with fresh titlepage and dedication, and several sheets of new matter inserted, appeared in 1661 ; the " Life of the Honour- able Author" being prefixed as before, and not altered otherwise than by the introduction of three new sentences ; to make room for which two leaves were cancelled. A third edition was brought out in 1671 by the original publisher, containing a good deal of new matter ; for which however Dr. Rawley, who died in 1667, is not answerable.

36 DR. RAW LEY'S LIFE OF BACON.

in the Greek and Latin tongues. These being the parents, you may easily imagine what the issue was like to be ; having had whatsoever nature or breeding could })ut into him.

His first and childish years were not without some mark of eminency ; at which time he was endued with that pregnancy and towardness of wit, as they were presages of that deep and universal apprehension which was manifest in him afterward ; and caused him to be taken notice of by several persons of worth and place, and especially by the queen ; who (as I have been in- formed) delighted much then to confer with him, and to prove him with questions ; unto whom he delivered himself with that gravity and maturity above his years, that Her Majesty would often term him, The young Lordrkeeper. Being asked by the queen how old he was, he answered with much discretion, being then but a boy. That he was two years younger than Her Majes- ty^s happy reign; with which answer the queen was much taken.^

At the ordinary years of ripeness for the university, or rather something earlier, he was sent by his father to Trinity College, in Cambridge,^ to be educated and bred under the tuition of Doctor John White-gift, then master of the college ; afterwards the renowned arch- bishop of Canterbury ; a prelate of the first magnitude

1 This last sentence was added in the edition of 1661. The substance of it had appeared before in the Latin Life prefixed to the Opuscula Philo- Bophica in 1658, which is only a free translation of this, with a few correc- tions.

2 He began to reside in April 1673 ; was absent from the latter end of August 1674 till the beginning of March, while the plague raged; and left the university finally at Christmas 1575, being then on the point of sixteen. See Whitgift's accounts, printed in the British Magazine, vol. xxxii. p. 366., and xxxiii. p. 444.

DR. RAWLEY'S LIFE OF BACON. 37

for sanctity, learning, patience, and humility ; under whom he was observed to have been more than an ordinary proficient in the several arts and sciences. Whilst he was commorant in the university, about six- teen years of age, (as his lordship hath been pleased to impart unto myself), he first fell into the dislike of the philosophy of Aristotle ; not for the worth- lessness of the author, to whom he would ever as- cribe all high attributes, but for the unfruitfulness of the way ; being a philosophy (as his lordship used to say) only strong for disputations and contentions, but barren of the production of works for the benefit of the life of man ; in which mind he continued to his dying day.

After he had passed the circle of the liberal arts, his father thouo;ht fit to frame and mould him for the arts of state ; and for that end sent him over into France with Sir Amyas Paulet then employed ambassador lieger into France ; ^ by whom he was after awhile held fit to be entrusted with some message or adver- tisement to the queen ; which having performed with great approbation, he returned back into France again, with intention to continue for some years there. In his absence in France his father the lord-keeper died,^ having collected (as I have heard of knowing persons) a considerable sum of money, which he had separated, with intention to have made a competent purchase of land for the livelihood of this his youngest son (who was only unprovided for ; and though he was the youngest in years, yet he was not the lowest in his

1 Sir Amyas landed at Calais on the 25th of September 1576, and suc- ceeded Dr. Dale as ambassador in France in the following February. See Burghley's Diary, Murdin, pp. 778, 779.

2 In February 1578-9.

88 DR. RAWLEY'S LIFE OF BACON.

fether's affection) ; but the said purchase being unac- complished at his father's death, there came no greater share to him than his single part and portion of the money dividable amongst five brethren ; by which means he lived in some straits and necessities in his younger years. For as for that pleasant site and man- or of Gorhambury, he came not to it till many years after, by the death of his dearest brother, Mr. Anthony Bacon,^ a gentleman equal to him in height of wit, though inferior to him in the endo^vments of learning and knowledge ; unto whom he was most nearly con- joined in affection, they two being the sole male issue of a second venter.

Being returned from travel, he apphed himself to the study of the common law, which he took upon him to be his profession ;2 in which he obtained to great ex- cellency, though he made that (as himself said) but as an accessary, and not his principal study. He wrote several tractates upon that subject : wherein, though some great masters of the law did out-go him in bulk, and particularities of cases, yet in the science of the grounds and mysteries of the law he was exceeded by none. In this way he was after awhile sworn of the queen's council learned, extraordinary ; a grace (if I err not) scarce known before.^ He seated himself,

1 Anthony Bacon died in the spring of 1601. See a letter from Mr. John Chamberlain to Sir Dudlev Cailton, in the State Paper Office, dated 27th May 1601.

2 He had been admitted de societate intrm-um of Gray's Inn on the 27th of June 1576; commenced his regular career as a student in 1579; became "utter barrister" on the 27th of June 1582; bencher in 1586; reader in 1688; and double reader in 1600. See Harl. MSS. 1912, and Book of Or- ders, p. 56.

8 In the Latin version of this memoir, for " after a while" Rawley substi- tutes nondum ti/rocinium in lege egressm, by which lie seems to assign a

DR. RAWLEY'S LIFE OF BACON. 39

for the commodity of his studies and practice, amongst the Honourable Society of Gray's-Inn, of which house he was a member ; where he erected that elegant pile or structure commonly known by the name of The Lord Bacon's Lodgings^ which he inhabited by turns the most part of his life (some few years only ex- cepted) unto his dying day. In w^hich house he carried himself with such sweetness, comity, and gen- erosity, that he was much revered and beloved by the readers and gentlemen of the house.

Notwithstanding that he professed the law for his livelihood and subsistence, yet his heart and affection

very early period as the date of this appointment. But I suspect he was mistaken, both as to the date and the nature of it. The title he got no doubt from a letter addressed by Bacon to King James, about the end of January 1620-1. " You found me of the Learned Council, Extraordinary, without patent or fee, a kind of indimduum vigum. You established me and brought me into Ordinary." Coupling this probably with an early but undated letter to Burghley, in which Bacon thanks the queen for " appro- priating him to her service," he imagined that the thanks were for the ap- pointment in question. This however is incredible. A copy of this letter in the Landsdowne Collection gives the date, — 18 October 1580; at which time Bacon had not been even a student of law for more than a year and a half, and could not therefore have been qualified for such a place ; still less could such a distinction have been conferred upon him without being much talked of at the time and continually referred to afterwards. Moreover, we have another letter of Bacon's to King James, written in 1606, in Avhich he speaks of his " nine years' service of the crown." This would give 1597 as the year in which he began to serve as one of the learned council ; at which time it was no extraordinary favour, seeing that he had been recommended for solicitor-general three or four years before, both by Burghley and Eger- ton. It appears however to have been no regular or formal appointment- He was not sworn. He had no patent; not even a Avritten warrant. His tenure was only ratione verbi regii EUzabeihce (see Rymer, A. d. 1604, p. 121.). Elizabeth, who "looked that her word should be a warrant," chose to employ him in the business which belonged properly to her learned council, and he was employed accordingly. His first sei-vice of that nature, — the first at least of which I find any record, — was in 1594. In 1597 he had come to be employed regularly, and so continued till the end of the reign, and was familiarly spoken of as " Mr. Bacon of the learned council."

40 DR. RAWLEY'S LIFE OF BACON.

was more carried after the affairs and places of estate ; for whicli, if the majesty royal then had been pleased, he was most fit. In his younger years he studied the service and fortunes (as they call them) of that noble but unfortunate earl, the Earl of Essex ; unto whom he was, in a sort, a private and free counsellor, and gave him safe and honourable advice, till in the end the earl inclined too much to the violent and precipi- tate counsel of others his adherents and followers ; which was his fate and ruin.^

His birth and other capacities qualified him above others of his profession to have ordinary accesses at court, and to come frequently into the queen's eye, who would often grace him with private and free com- munication, not only about matters of his profession or business in law, but also about the arduous affairs of estate ; from whom she received from time to time great satisfaction. Nevertheless, though she cheered him much with the bounty of her countenance, yet she never cheered him with the bounty of her hand ; hav- ing never conferred upon him any ordinaiy place or

' The connexion between Bacon and Essex appears to have commenced about the year 1590 or 1591, and furnishes matter for a long story — too long to be discussed in a note. His conduct was much misunderstood at the time by persons who had no means of knowing the truth, and has been much misrepresented since by writers who cannot plead that excuse. The case is not however one on which a unanimous verdict can be expected. Always, where choice has to be made between fidelity to the state and fidel- ity to a party or person, popular sympathy will run in favour of the man who chooses the narrower duty ; for the narrower duty is not only easier to comprehend, but, being seen closer, appears the larger of the two. But though sentiments will continue to be divided, facts may be agreed upon; and for the correction of all errors in matter of fact, I must refer to the Occasional Works, where the whole story will necessarily come out in full detail. In the mean time I may say for myself that I have no fault to find with Bacon for any part of his conduct towards Essex, and I think many people will agree with me when they see the case fairly stated.

DR. RAWLEY'S LIFE OF BACON. 41

means of honour or profit, save only one dry reversion of the Register's Office in the Star Chamber, worth about 1600^. per annum^ for which he waited in expec- tation either fully or near twenty years ; ^ of which his lordship would say in Queen Elizabeth's time. That it was like another man^s ground huttalling upon his house, which might mend his prospect, hut it did not fill his ham; (nevertheless, in the time of King James it fell unto him) ; which might be imputed, not so much to Her Majesty's averseness and disaffection towards him, as to the arts and policy of a great statesman then, who laboured by all industrious and secret means to suppress and keep him down ; lest, if he had risen, he might have obscured his glory .^

But though he stood long at a stay in the days of his mistress Queen Elizabeth, yet after the change, and coming in of his new master King James, he made a great progress ; by whom he was much comforted in places of trust, honour, and revenue. I have seen a letter of his lordship's to King James, wherein he makes acknowledgment. That he was that master to him, that had raised and advanced him nine times ; thrice in dignity, and six times in office. His offices (as I conceive) were Counsel Learned Extraordinary^ to

1 The reversion, for which he considered himself indebted to Burghley, was granted to him in October 1589. He succeeded to the office in July 1608. In the Latin version Rawley adds that he administered it by deputj'.

2 The person here alluded to is probably his cousin Robert Cecil, who, though he always professed an anxiety to serve him, was supposed (appar- ently not without reason ) to have thrown obstacles secretly in the way of his advancement.

3 See note 3. p. 38. Rawley should rather have said " counsel learned, ru> longer extraordinary.'" It is true indeed that King James did at his first entrance confirm Bacon by warrant under the sign manual in the same office which he had held under Elizabeth by special commandment. But it was the "establishing him and bringing him into ordinary" with a sal-

42 DR RAWLEY'S LIFE OF BACON.

His Majesty, as lie had been to Queen Elizabeth ; King's Solicitor-General ; His Majesty's Attorney- General ; Counsellor of Estate, being yet but Attor- ney ; Lord-Keeper of the Great Seal of England ; lastly, Lord Chancellor ; which two last places, tliough they be the same in authority and power, yet they dif- fer in patent, height, and favour of the prince ; since whose time none of his successors, until this present honourable lord,^ did ever bear the title of Lord Chan- cellor. His dignities were first Knight, then Baron of Veinilam ; lastly. Viscount St. Alban ; besides other good gifts and bounties of the hand which His Majesty gave him, both out of the Broad Seal and out of the Alienation Office,^ to the value in both of eighteen hundred pounds per annum ; which, with his manor of Gorhambury, and other lands and possessions near thereunto adjoining, amounting to a third part more, he retained to his dying day.

Towards his rising years, not before, he entered into a married estate, and took to wife Alice, one of the daughters and coheirs of Benedict Barnham, Esquire and Alderman of London ; with whom he received a sufficiently ample and libei'al portion in marriage.^ Children he had none ; which, though they be the

ary of 40/., which he reckons as first in the series of advancements. This was in 1604. He was made solicitor in 1607, attorney in 1613, counsellor of state in 1616, lord-keeper in 1617, lord chancellor in 1618. His suc- cessive dignities were conferred respectively in 1603, 1618, and 1620-1.

1 Sir F:dward Hyde, made Lord Chancellor June 1. 1660. This clause was added in 1661 ; the leaf having been cancelled for the purpose.

2 Here the paragraph ended in the first edition. The rest was added in 1661.

« It appears, ftvm a manuscript preserved in Tenison's Library, that he had about 220/. a-year with his wife, and upon her mother's death was to have about 140/. a-year more.

r

DR. RAWLEY'S LIFE OF BACON. 43

means to perpetuate our names after our deaths, yet he had other issues to perpetuate his name, the issues of his brain ; in which he was ever happy and admired, as Jupiter was in the production of Pallas. Neither did the want of children detract from his good usage of his consort during the intermarriage, whom he prosecuted with much conjugal love and respect, with many rich gifts and endowments, besides a robe of honour which he invested her withal ; which she wore unto her dying day, being twenty years and more after his death.^

The last five years of his life, being withdrawn from civil affairs ^ and from an active life, he employed

1 By the "robe of honour" is meant, I presume, the title of viscountess. It appears however that a few months before Bacon's death his wife had given him some cause of grave offence. Special provision is made for her in the body of his will, but revoked in a codicil, "for just and great causes," the nature of which is not specified. Soon after his death she married Sir John Underwood, her gentleman-usher. She was buried at Eyworth in Bedfordshire on the 29th of June 1650.

2 On the 3rd of May 1621, Bacon was condemned, upon a charge of cor- ruption to which he pleaded guilty, to pay a fine of 40,000Z.; to be impris- oned in the Tower during the king's pleasure; to be for ever incapable of sitting in parliament or holding office in the state; and to be banished for life from the verge of the court. From that time his only business was to find means of subsistence and of satisfying his creditors, and to pursue his studies.

His offence was the taking of presents from persons who had suits in his court, in some cases while the suit was still pending; an act which un- doubtedly amounted to corruption as corruption was defined by the law. The degree of moral criminality involved in it is not so easily ascertained. To judge of this, we should know. First, what was the understanding, open or secret, upon which the presents were given and taken, — for a gift, though it be given to a judge, is not necessarily in the nature of a bargain to pervert justice: Secondly, to what extent the practice was prevalent at the time, — for it is a rare virtue in a man to resist temptations to which all his neighbours yield : Thirdly, how far it was tolerated, — for a practice may be universally condemned and yet universally tolerated; people may be known to be guilty of it and yet received in society all the same : Fourthly, how it stood with regard to other abuses prevailing at the same time, — for it is hard to reform all at once, and it is one thing for a man to leave a single abuse unreformed while he is labouring to remove or resist

44 DR. RAWLEY'S LIFE OF BACON.

wholly in contemplation and studies — a thing where- of his lordship would often speak during his active life, as if he affected to die in the shadow and not in the light ; which also may be found in several passages of his works. In which time he composed the greatest part of his books and writings, both in English and Latin, which I will enumerate (as near as I can) in the just order wherein they were written : ^ — The Hia- tory of the Reign of King Henry the Seventh ; Ahceda-

greater ones, and another thing to introduce it anew, or to leave all as it was, making no effort to remove any. Now all this is from the nature of the case very difficult to ascertain. But the whole question, as it regards Bacon's character, must be considered in connexion with the rest of his po- litical life, and will be fully discussed in its place in the Occasional works ; where all the evidence I can find shall be faithfully exhibited. In this place it may be enough to say that he himself always admitted the taking of presents as he had taken them to be indefensible, the sentence to be just, and the example salutary; and yet always denied that he had been an un- just judge, or " had ever had bribe or reward in his eye or thought when he pronounced any sentence or order; " and that I cannot find any reason for doubting that this was true. It is stated, indeed, in a manuscript of Sir Matthew Hale's, published by Hargrave, that the censure of Bacon " for many decrees made upon most gross bribery and corruption .... gave such a discredit and brand to the decrees thus obtained that they were easily set aside;" and it is true that some bills were brought into the House of Commonsybr the purpose of setting aside such decrees; but I can- not find that any one of them reached a third reading; and it is clear from Sir Matthew's own argument that he could not produce an instance of one reversed by the House of Lords ; and if any had been reversed by a royal commission appointed for the purpose (which according to his statement was the only remaining way), it must surely have been heard of; yet where is the record of any such commission ? Now if of all the decrees so discredited none were reversed, it is difficult to resist the conclusion that they had all been made bond fide with regard only to the merits of the cases, and were in fact unimpeachably just ; and we may believe that Bacon pronounced a true judgment on his own case when he said to his friends (as I find it recorded in a commonplace book of Dr. Rawley's in the Lambeth Library), •* I was the justest judge that was in England these fifty years; but it was the justest censure in parliament that was these two hundred years."

1 In the Latin version Rawley adds, quamprouem observavi; which gires this list a peculiar value.

DR. RAWLEY'S LIFE OF BACON. 45

Hwn Naturce^ or a Metaphysical piece which is lost ; ^ Historia Ventorum ; Historia Vitce et Mortis ; Historia Densi et Hari, not yet printed ; ^ Historia Gravis et Levis, which is also lost ; ^ a Discourse of a War with Spain; a Dialogue touching an Holy War ; the Fable of the New Atlantis ; a Preface to a Digest of the Laws of England; the beginning of the History of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth ; De Augmentis Scientiarum, or the Advancement of Learning, put into Latin/ with several enrichments and enlargements ; Counsels Civil and Moral, or his book of Essays, likewise enriched and enlarged ; the Conversion of certain Psalms into English Verse; the Translation into Latin of the History of King Henry the Seventh, of the Counsels Civil and Moral,^ of

1 A fragment of this piece was recovered and printed by Tenison in the Baconiana; and will appear in this edition after the Historia Ventorum, which it was intended to accompany.

2 This was true in 1657 ; but it was printed the next year in the Opuscula Philosophica ; and, therefore, for "not yet printed," the Latin version sub- stitutes yamjynmMTW typis mandata. In the edition of 1661 a corresponding alteration ought to have been made in the English, but was not; and as the words occur in one of the cancelled leaves they must have been left by oversight.

3 This was probably the tract which Gruter says he once had in his hands, and which he describes as merely a skeleton, exhibiting heads of chapters not filled up. " De Gravi et Levi in manibus hctbui integrum et grande volumen, sed quod, prceter nudam delineatce fabriece compagem ex tituUs materiam prout earn conceperat Baconus absolventibiis, nihil descrip- tionis continebat:' See his letter to Rawley, May 29. 1652, in the Ba- coniana, p. 223.

4 In this edition I have placed the De Augmentis before the Historia Ven- torum ; because, though published after, it was prepared and arranged, and in that sense composed, before. And in this view I am supported by a slight variation which is introduced here in the Latin version, viz. " Inter- venerat opus de Augmentis Scientiarum,''- &c.

We learn also from the Latin version that Bacon worked at the transla- tion of the Advancement of Learning himself : in quo e lingua vernaculd, proprio Marte, in Latinam transferendo honoratissimus auctor plurimum desudavit.

5 These were the Essays as they appeared in the third and last edition ;

46 DR. RAWLEY'S LIFE OF BACON.

the Dialogue of the Holy TFar, of the Fable of the New Atlantis^ for the benefit of other nations ; ^ his revising of his book De Sapientid Veterum ; Inquiaitio de Mag- nete ; Topica Inquisitionis de Luce et Lumine ; both these not yet printed ; ^ lastly, Sylva Sylvarum^ or the Natural History. These were the fruits and produc- tions of his last five years. His lordship also designed, upon the motion and invitation of his late majesty, to have written the reign of King Henry the Eighth ; but that work perished in the designation merely, God not lending him life to proceed farther upon it than only in one morning's work ; whereof there is extant an ex ungue leonem^ already printed in his lordship's Mis- cellany Works.

There is a commemoration due as well to his abili- ties and virtues as to the course of his life. Those abilities which commonly go single in other men, though of prime and observable parts, were all con- joined and met in him. Those are, sharpness of wit, memory, judgment, and elocution. For the former three his books do abundantly speak them ; which ^ with what sufficiency he wrote, let the world judge ; but with what celerity he wrote them, I can best tes- tify. But for the fourth, liis elocution, I will only set down what I heard Sir Walter Raleigh once speak of

but he gave them a weightier title when he had them translated into " the general language:" eximle dicli, senmmeajideles, sive interiora rerum.

1 The Latin version adds, npwl quoa expeti audiverat.

2 These words are omitted in the Latin version, and must have been left by oversight in the edition of IfiGl; for they occur in one of the cancelled leaves; and the works in question had been printed in 1658. The error is the more worth noticing because it shows that wherever the English and the Latin differ, the Latin must be regarded as the later and better authority.

> The Latin version adds, ut de JuUo Cxmre Hirtim.

DR. RAWLEY'S LIFE OF. BACON. 47

him by way of comparison (whose judgment may well be trusted), That the Earl of Salisbury was an excellent speaker^ hut no good penman ; that the Earl of North- ampton (the Lord Senry Howard) was an excellent perv- man^ hut no good speaker ; hut that Sir Francis Bacon was emineiit in hath.

I have been induced to think, that if there were a beam of knowledge derived from God upon any man in these modern times, it was upon him. For though he was a great reader of books, yet he had not his knowledge from books,^ but from some grounds and notions from within himself; which, notwithstanding, he vented with great caution and circumspection. His book of Instauratio Magna^ (which in his own ac- count was the chiefest of his works) was no slight imagination or fancy of his brain, but a settled and concocted notion, the production of many years' labour and travel. 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, till at last it came to that model in which it was committed to the press ; as many liv- ing creatures do lick their young ones, till they bring them to their strength of limbs.

In the composing of his books he did rather drive at a masculine and clear expression than at any fineness or affectation of phrases, and would often ask if the

li. e. not from books only: Ex libris tamen solis scientiam suam depromp- sisse haudquaquam concedere licet.

2 For Instauratio Magna in this place, and also for Instauration a few lines further on, the Latin version substitutes Novum Organum. Rawley, when he spoke of the Instauration^ was thinking, no doubt, of the volume in which the Novum Organum first appeared, and which contains all the pieces that stand in this edition before the De Augmentis.

48 DR. RAWLEY'S LIFE OF BACON.

meaning were expressed plainly enough, as being one that accounted words to be but subservient or minis- terial to matter, and not the principal. And if his style were polite,^ it was because he would do no otherwise. Neither was he given to any light con- ceits, or descanting upon words, but did ever purposely and industriously avoid them ; for he held such things to be but digressions or diversions from the scope in- tended, and to derogate from the weight and dignity of the style.

He was no plodder upon books ; though he read much, and that with great judgment, and rejection of impertinences incident to many authors ; for he would ever interlace a moderate relaxation of his mind with his studies, as walking, or taking the air abroad in his coach,^ or some other befitting recreation ; and yet he would lose no time, inasmuch as upon his first and im- mediate return he would fall to reading again, and so suffer no moment of time to slip from him without some present improvement.

His meals were refections of the ear as well as of the stomach, like the Nodes Atticoe, or Convivia Deiprw- sophistarum, wherein a man might be refreshed in his mind and understanding no less than in his body. And I have known some, of no mean parts, that have professed to make use of their note-books when they have risen from his table. In which conversations, and otherwise, he was no dashing man,^ as some men

1 The Latin version adds: Siquidem apud nostrates eloquii Angliatni arti- ftx habitus est.

2 In the Latin version Ravvley adds gentle exercise on horseback and playing at bowls : Equitatimem, non citam sed lentam, globorum lusum, et id gentu exercitia.

« The word dath is used here in the same sense in which Costard uses it in Love's Labour's Lost: " There, an't please you; a foolish, raild man; an

DR. RAWLEY'S LIFE OF BACON. 49

are, but ever a countenancer and fosterer of another man's parts. Neither was he one that would appro- priate the speech wholly to himself, or delight to outvie others, but leave a liberty to the co-assessors to take their turns. Wherein he would draw a man on and allure him to speak upon such a subject, as wherein he was peculiarly skilful, and would delight to speak. And for himself, he contemned no man's observations, but would light his torch at every man's candle.

His opinions and assertions were for the most part binding; and not contradicted by any ; rather like oracles than discourses ; which may be imputed either. to the well weighing of his sentence by the scales of truth and reason, or else to the reverence and esti- mation wherein he was commonly had, that no man would contest with him ; so that there was no argu- mentation, or pro and con (as they term it), at his table : or if there chanced to be any, it was carried with much submission and moderation.

I have often observed, and so have other men of great account, that if he had occasion to repeat another man's words after him, he had an use and faculty to dress them in better vestments and apparel than they had before ; so that the author should find his own speech much amended, and yet the substance of it still retained ; ^ as if it had been natural to him to

honest man, look you, and soon dashed: " Rawley means that Bacon was not a man who used his wit, as some do, to put his neighbours out of countenance : Convivantimn neminem aut alios colhquentium pudore sufFun- dere glorke sibi duxit, sicut nonnulU gestiunt.

1 This is probably the true explanation of a habit of Bacon's which seems at first sight a fault, and perhaps sometimes is ; and of which a great many instances have been pointed out by Mr. Ellis; — a habit of inaccurate quotation. In quoting an author's words, — especially where he quotes them merely by way of voucher for his own remark, or in acknowledgment

VOL. I. 4

50. DR. RAWLET'S LIFE OF BACON.

use good forms, as Ovid spake of his faculty of vei-sify-

" Et quod tentabam scribere, versus erat."

When his office called him, as he was of the king's council learned, to charge any offenders, either in crim- inals or capitals, he was never of an insulting and domineering nature over them, but always tender- hearted, and carrying himself decently towards the parties (though it was his duty to charge them home), but yet as one that looked upon the example with the eye of severity, but upon the person with the eye of pity and compassion. And in civil business, as he was counsellor of estate, he had the best way of ad- vising, not engaging his master in any precipitate or grievous courses, but in moderate and fair proceedings : the king whom he served giving him this testimony. That he ever dealt in business suavibus modis; which was the way that was most according to his otvn heart.

Neither was he in his time less gracious with the subject than with his sovereign. He was ever accept- able to the House of Commons ^ when he was a mem-

of the source whence he derived it, or to suggest an allusion which may give a better effect to it, — he very often quotes inaccurately. Sometimes, no doubt, this was unintentional, the fault of his memory; but more fre- quently, I suspect, it was done deliberately, for the sake of presenting the substance in a better form, or a form better suited to the particular occa- sion. In citing the evidence of witnesses, on the contrary, in support of a narrative statement or an argument upon matter of fact, he is always verj' careful.

1 The Latin version adds, in quo scepe peroravit, non sine magno applattsu ; a statement of the truth of which abundant evidence may be found in all the records which remain of the proceedings of the House of Commons. The first parliament in which he sate was that of 1584: after which he sate in every parliament that was summoned up to the time of his fall

As an edition of Bacon would hardly be complete unless it contained Ben Jonson's famous description of his manner of speaking, I shall insert it here : — '' Yet there happened in my time one noble speaker, who was

DR. RAWLEY'S LIFE OF BACON. 51

ber thereof. Being the king's attorney, and chosen to a place in parhament, he was allowed and dispensed with to ^it in the House ; which was not permitted to other attorneys.

And as he was a good servant to his master, being never in nineteen years' service (as himself averred) rebuked by the king for anything relating to His Majesty, so he was a good master to his servants, and rewarded their long attendance with good places freely ^ when they fell into his power ; which was the cause that so many young gentlemen of blood and quality sought to list themselves in his retinue. And if he were abused by any of them in their places, it was only the error of the goodness of his nature, but the badges of their indiscretions and intemperances.

This lord was religious : for though the world be apt to suspect and prejudge great wits and politics to have somewhat of the atheist, yet he was conversant with God, as appeareth by several passages through- out the whole current of his writings. Otherwise he should have crossed his own principles, which were, That a little philosophy maheth men apt to forget Grod, as attributing too much to second causes; but depth of philosophy bringeth a man back to God again. Now I

full of gravity in his speaking. His language (where he could spare or pass by a jest) was nobly censorious. No man ever spake more neatly, more pressly, more weightily, or suffered less emptiness, less idleness, in what he uttered. No member of his speech but consisted of his own graces. His hearers could not cough, or look aside from him, without loss. He commanded where he spoke; and had his judges angry and pleased at his devotion. No man had their affections more in his power. The fear of every man that heard him was, lest he should make an end." — Dis- coveries: under title Dominus Verulamitts.

1 Gratis, in the Latin version ; e. e. without taking any money for them ; an unusual thing in Bacon's time, when the sale of offices was a principal source of all great men's incomes.

<52 DR. RAWLEY'S LIFE OF BACON.

am sure there is no man that will deny liim, or account otherwise of him, but to have him been a deep j)hilosopher. And not only so ; but he was able to render a reason of the hope which was in him, which that writing of his of the Confession of the Faith doth abundantly testify. He repaired frequently, when his health would permit him, to the service of the church, to hear sermons, to the administration of tlie sacrament of the blessed body and blood of Christ ; and died in the true faith, established in the church of England. This is most true — he was free from malice, which (as he said himself) he never bred norfed.^ He was no revenger of injuries ; which if he had minded, he had both opportunity and place high enough to have done it. He was no heaver of men out of their places, as delighting in their ruin and undoing. He was no defamer of any man to his prince. One day, when a great statesman was newly dead, that had not been his friend, the king asked him. What he thought of that lord which was gone? he answered, That he would never have made His Majesty's estate better, but he was sure

1 " He said he had breeding swans and feeding swans; but for malice, he neither bred it nor fed it." From a commonplace book of Dr. Rawley's in the Lambeth Library. " Et posso dir," says Sir Tobie Matthew, in his dedication to Cosmo de' Medici of an Italian translation of the Kssays and Sfipientin Veterum, 1618, " et posso dir con veritii (per haver io havute r honore di pratticarlo molti anni, et quando era in mvioribtis, et hora quando sta in colmo et fiore della sua grandezza) di non haver mai sco- perto in lui animo di vendetta, per qualsivoglia aggravio che se gli fosse fatto; nb manco sentito uscirgli di bocca parola d' ingiuria contra veruno, che mi paresse venire da passione contra la tal persona; ma solo (et questo ancora molto scarsamentc) per giudicio fattone in sangue freddo. Non 6 gik la sua grandezza quel che io ammiro, ma la sua virtu; non sono li favori fattimi da lui (per infiniti che siano) che mi hanno posto il cuore in quenti ceppi et catene in che mi ritrovo; ma si bene il suo procedere in com- mune; che »e egli fosse di conditione inferiore, non potrei manro honorarlo, e 86 mi fosse nemico io dovrei con tutto cib amar et procurar di servirlo."

DR. RAWLEY'S LIFE OF BACON. 53

he would have kept it from being worse ; which was the worst he would say of him : which I reckon not among his moral, but his Christian virtues.

His fame is greater and sounds louder in foreign parts abroad, than at home in his own nation ; thereby veri- fying that divine sentence, A prophet is not without hon- our, save in his own country, and in his own house. Con- cerning which I will give you a taste only, out of a letter written from Italy (the storehouse of refined wits) to the late Earl of Devonshire, then the Lord Candish : I will expect the new essays of my Lord Chan- cellor Bacon, as also his History, with a great deal of desire, and whatsoever else he shall compose : hut in par- ticular of his History I promise myself a thing perfect and singular, especially in Henry the Seventh, where he may exercise the talent of his divine understanding. This lord is more and more known, and his hooks here more and more delighted in; and those men that have more than ordinary knowledge in human affairs, esteem him one of the most capable spirits of this age; and he is truly such. Now his fame doth not decrease with days since, but rather increase. Divers of his works have been anciently and yet lately translated into other tongues, both learned and modern, by foreign pens. Several persons* of quality, during his lordship's life, crossed the seas on purpose to gain an opportu- nity of seeing him and discoursing with him ; whereof one carried his lordship's picture from head to foot^ over with him into France, as a thing which he fore- saw would be much desired there, that so they might enjoy the image of his person as well as the images of his brain, his books. Amongst the rest. Marquis

1 This picture was presented to him by Bacon himself, according to the Latin version.

M DR. RAWLEY'S LIFE OF BACON.

Fiat, a French nobleman, who came ambassador into England, in the beginning of Queen Mary, wife to King Charles, was taken with an extraordinary desire of seeing him ; for which he made way by a friend ; and when he came to him, being then througli weak- ness confined to his bed, the marquis saluted him with tliis high expression. That his lordship had been ever to him like the angels; of whom he had often heard, and read much of them in books, but he never saw them. Af- ter which they contracted an intimate acquaintance, and the marquis did so much revere liim, that besides his frequent visits, they wrote letters one to the other, under the titles and appellations of father and son. As for his many salutations by letters from foreign wor- thies devoted to learning, I forbear to mention them, because that is a thing common to other men of learn- ing or note, together with him.

But yet, in this matter of his fame, I speak in the comparative only, and not in the exclusive. For his reputation is great in his own nation also, especially amongst those that are of a more acute and sharper judgment ; which I will exemplify but with two tes- timonies and no more. The former, when his History of King Henry the Seventh was to come forth, it was delivered to the old Lord Brook, to be perused by him ; who, when he had dispatched it, returned it to the author with this eulogy. Commend me to my lord, and bid him take care to get good paper and ink, for the work is incomparable. The other shall be that of Doctor Samuel Collins, late provost of King's Col- lege in Cambridge, a man of no vulgar wit, who af- firmed unto me,^ That when he had read the book of the

1 In the Latin version Rawley lias thought it worth while to add that this may have been said p'ayfully : Siveftttive sive scrio.

DR. RAWLEY'S LIFE OF BACON. 65

Advancement of Learning^ he found himself in a case to heyin his studies a7iew^ and that he had lost all the time of his studying before.

It hath been desired, that something should be sig- nified touching his diet, and the regimen of his health, of which, in regard of his universal insight into nature, he may perhaps be to some an example. For his diet, it was rather a plentiful and liberal diet, as his stomach would bear it, than a restrained ; w hich he also com- mended in his book of the History of Life and Death, In his younger years he was much given to the finer and lighter sort of meats, as of fowls, and such like ; but afterward, when he grew more judicious,^ he pre- ferred the stronger meats, such as the shambles af- forded, as those meats which bred the more firm and substantial juices of the body, and less dissipable ; upon which he would often make his meal, though he had other meats upon the table. You may be sure he would not neglect that himself, which he so much ex- tolled in his writings, and that was the use of nitre ; whereof he took in the quantity of about three grains in thin warm broth every morning, for thirty years together next before his death. And for physic, he did indeed live physically, but not miserably ; for he took only a maceration of rhubarb,^ infused into a draught of white wine and beer mingled together for the space of half an hour, once in six or seven days, immediately before his meal (whether dinner or sup- per), that it might dry the body less ; which (as he said) did carry away frequently the grosser humours

1 More judicious (that is) by experience and observation: experientid edoctus is the expression in the Latin version.

2 In the Latin version Rawley gives the quantity : Rhabarbari sesqui- drachmam.

56 DR. RAWLEY'S LIFE OF BACON.

of the body, and not diminish or carry away any of the spirits, as sweating doth. And this was no griev- ous thing to take. As for other physic, in an ordi- nary way (whatsoever hath been vulgarly spoken) he took not. His receipt for the gout, which did constantly ease liim of his pain within two hours, is already set down in the end of the Natural History.

It may seem the moon had some principal place in the figure of his nativity : for the moon was never in her passion, or eclipsed,^ but he was surprised with a sudden fit of fainting ; and that, though he observed not nor took any previous knowledge of the eclipse thereof; and as soon as the eclipse ceased, he was restored to his former strength again.

He died on the ninth day of April in the year 1626,

1 Lord Campbell (who appears to have read Rawley's memoir only in the Latin, where the words are quoties luna defecit sive ecUpsin passu est), suppos- ing defecit to mean waned, discredits this statement, on the ground that " no instance is recorded of Bacon's having fainted in public, or put off the hearing of any cause on account of the change of the moon, or of any ap- proaching eclipse, visible or invisible." And it is true that if rfe/ec<MS lunce meant a change of the moon, or even a dark moon (which it might have meant well enough if the Romans had not chosen to appropriate the word to quite another meaning), the accident must have happened in public too often to pass unnoticed. But Rawley was too good a scholar to misapply so common a word in that way. He evidently speaks of eclipses only, and of eclipses visible at the place. Now it is not at all likely that lunar eclipses visible at Westminster would have coincided with important business in which Bacon was conspicuously engaged, often enough (even if he did faint every time) to establish a connexion between the two phe- nomena. Of course Rawley's statement is not sufficient to prove the reality of any such connexion ; but there is no reason to suppose it an invention, and the fact of the fainting-fits may be fairly taken, I think, as evidence of the extreme delicacy of Bacon's temperament, and its sen- sibility to the skiey influences. That Bacon himself never alluded to this relation between himself and the moon is easily accounted for by suppos- ing that he M'as not satisfied of the fact. He may have obser^'ed the co- incidence, and mentioned it to Rawley; and Rawley (whose common- place book proves that he had a taste for astrology) may have believed in the physical connexion, though Bacon himself did not.

DR. RAWLEY'S LIFE OF BACON. 57

in the early morning of the day then celebrated for our Saviour's resurrection, in the sixty-sixth year of his age, at the Earl of Arundel's house in Highgate, near London, to which place he casually repaired about a week before ; God so ordaining that he should die there of a gentle fever, accidentally accompanied with a great cold, whereby the defluxion of rheum fell so plentifully upon his breast, that he died by suffocation ; and was buried in St. Michael's church at St. Albans ; being the place designed for his burial by his last will and testament, both because the body of his mother was interred there, and because it was the only church then remaining within the precincts of old Yerulam : where he hath a monument erected for him in white marble (by the care and gratitude of Sir Thomas Meautys, knight, formerly his lordship's secretary, afterwards clerk of the King's Honourable Privy Council under two kings) ; representing his full portraiture in the posture of studying, with an inscription composed by that accomplished gentleman and rare wit, Sir Henry Wotton.^

FRANCISCUS BACON, BARO DE VERULAM, S\ AJ.BANI VIC""'*,

SEU NOTIOEIBUS TITULIS

SCIENTIAKUM LUMEN FACUNDI^ LEX

SIC SEDEBAT.

QUI rOSTQUAM OMNIA NATUKALIS SAPIENTI^

ET CIVILIS ARCANA EVOLVISSET •

NATURE DECRETUM EXPLEVIT

COMPOSITA SOLVANTUR

AN. DNI M.DC.XXVI.

^TATW LXVI.

TANTI VIRI

MEM.

THOMAS MEAUTUS

SUPERSTITIS CULTOR

DEFUNCTI ADMIRATOR

H. P.

58 DR. RAWLEY'S LIFE OF BACON.

But howsoever his body was mortal, yet no doubt his memory and works will live, and will in all proba- bility last as long as the world lasteth. In order to which I have endeavoured (after my poor ability) to do this honour to his lordship, by way of conduc- ing to the same.

PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS

FRANCIS BACON.

GENERAL PREFACE

TO

BACON'S PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS.

BY ROBERT LESLIE ELLIS.

(1.) Our knowledge of Bacon's method is much less complete than it is commonly supposed to be. Of the Novum Organum^ which was to contain a complete statement of its nature and principles, we have only the first two books ; and although in other parts of Bacon's writings, as for instance in the Cogitata et Visa de Interpretatione Naturce^ many of the ideas contained in these books recur in a less systematic form, we yet meet with but few indications of the nature of the sub- jects which were to have been discussed in the others. It seems not improbable that some parts of Bacon's system were never perfectly developed even in his own mind. However this may be, it is certain that an at- tempt to determine what his method, taken as a whole, was or would have been, must necessarily involve a conjectural or hypothetical element ; and it is, I think, chiefly because this circumstance has not been suffi- ciently recognised, that the idea of Bacon's philosophy has generally speaking been but imperfectly appre- hended.

62 GENERAL PREFACE TO

(2.) Of the subjects which were to have occupied the remainder of the Novum Organum we learn some- thing from a passage at the end of the second book.

" Nunc vero," it is said at the conclusion of the doc- trine of prerogative instances, " ad adminicula et rectifi- cationes inductionis, et deinceps ad concreta, et latentes processus, et latentes schematismos, et reliqua qua' aph- orismo xxi ordine proposuimus, pergendum." On re- ferring to the twenty-first aphorism we find a sort of table of contents of the whole work. *' Dicemus ita- que primo loco, de praerogativis instantiarum ; secundo, de adminiculis inductionis ; tertio, de rectificatione in- ductionis ; quarto, de variatione inquisitionis pro natura subjecti ; quinto, de praerogativis naturarum quatenus ad inquisitionem, sive de eo quod inquirendum est prius et posterius ; sexto, de terminis inquisitionis, sive de synopsi omnium naturarum in universo ; septimo, de deductione ad praxin, sive de eo quod est in ordine ad hominem ; octavo, de parascevis ad inquisitionem ; pos- tremo autem, de scala ascensoria et descensoria axioma- tum." Of these nine subjects the first is the only one with which we are at all accurately acquainted.

(3.) Bacon's method was essentially inductive. He rejected the use of syllogistic or deductive reasoning, except when practical applications were to be made of the conclusions, axiomata, to which the inquirer had been led by a systematic process of induction. " Log- ica quaB nunc habetur inutilis est ad inventionem sci-

entiarum Spes est una in inductione vera."^

It is to be observed that wherever Bacon speaks of an

" ascending " process, he is to be understood to mean

induction, of which it is the character to proceed from

1 Nov. Org. i. U. and 14.

THE PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS. 63

that which is fiohis notius to that which is notius simpli- citer. Contrariwise when he speaks of a descent, he always refers to the correlative process of deduction. Thus when in the Partis secuncke Delineatio he says, . . . " meminerint homines in inquisitione activ^ ne- cesse esse rem per scalam descensoriam (cujus usum in contemplativa sustulimus) confici : omnis enim operatio in individuis versatur quae infimo loco sunt," — we are to understand that in Bacon's system deduction is only admissible in the inquisitio activa ; that is, in practical applications of the results of induction. Similarly in the Distributio Operis he says, " Rejicimus syllogis- mum ; neque id solum quoad principia (ad quae nee illi eam adhibent) sed etiam quoad propositiones me- dias." Everything was to be established by induction. " In constituendo autem axiomate forma inductionis alia quam adhuc in usu fuit excogitanda est, eaque non ad principia tantum (quae vocant) probanda et invenienda, sed etiam ad axiomata minora, et media, denique omnia." ^

(4.) It is necessary to determine the relation in which Bacon conceived his method to stand to ordinary induction. Both methods set out " a sensu et particu- laribus," and acquiesce "in maxime generalibus ; " ^ but while ordinary induction proceeds " per enum- erationem simplicem," by a mere enumeration of particular cases, " et precario concludit et periculo exponitur ab instantia contradictori^," the new method " naturam separare debet, per rejectiones et exclusiones debitas; et deinde post negativas tot quot sufficiunt super affirmativas concludere."^ A form of induction was to be introduced, " quae ex aliquibus generaliter concludat ita ut instantiam contradictoriam 1 Nov. Org. i. 105. 2 Nov. Org. i. 22. a Nov. Org. i. 105.

64 GENERAL PREFACE TO

inveniri non posse demonstretur."^ In strong contrast with this method stands " the induction which the logi- cians speak of," wliich " is utterly vicious and incom- petent." . . . *' For to conclude upon an enumeration of particulars, without instance contradictory, is no conclusion, but a conjecture." ..." And this form, to say truth, is so gross, as it had not been possible for wits so subtile as have managed these things to have offered it to the world, but that they trusted to their theories and dogmaticals, and were imperious and scorn- ful towards particulars." ^ We thus see what is meant by the phrase " quot sufficiunt" in the passage which has been cited from the Novum Organum ; it means " as many as may suffice in order to the attainment of certainty," it being necessary to have a method of in- duction, " quae experientiam solvat et separet, et per exclusiones et rejectiones debitas necessario concludat."^ Absolute certainty is therefore one of the distinguishing characters of the Baconian induction. Another is that it renders all men equally capable, or nearly so, of at- taining to the truth. " Nostra vero inveniendi scientias ea est ratio ut non multum ingeniorum acumini et ro- bori relinquatur ; sed qua? ingenia et intellectus fere exa^quet;"* and this is illustrated by the difficulty of describing a circle libera manu, whereas every one can do it with a pair of compasses. " Omnino similis est nostra ratio." The cause to which this peculiarity is owing, is sufficiently indicated by the illustration : the

1 Cogitata et Visa, § 18.

2 Advancement of Learning. The corresponding passage in the De Augm. is in the 2nd chap, of tiie 5th book.

8 Distrib. Operi.s, § 10.

■* Nov. Org. i. 61., and comp. i. 122. Also the Inquisitio legitima de Motu, and Valerius Terminus, c. 19.

THE PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS. Q^

method " exagquat ingenia," " cum omnia per certis- simas regulas et demonstrationes transigat."

(5.) Absolute certainty, and a mechanical mode of procedure such that all men should be capable of employing it, are thus two great features of the Ba- conian method. His system can never be rightly understood if they are neglected, and any explanation of it which passes them over in silence leaves unex- plained the principal difficulty which that system pre- sents to us. But another difficulty takes the place of the one which is thus set aside. It becomes impossible to justify or to understand Bacon's assertion that his method was essentially new. " Nam nos," he says in the preface to the Novum Organum^ " si profiteamur nos meliora afferre quam antiqui, eandem quam illi viam ingressi, nulla verborum arte efficere possimus, quin inducatur qusedam ingenii, vel excellentiee, vel facultatis comparatio, sive contentio. . . . Verum cum per nos illud agatur, ut alia omnino via intellectui ape- riatur illis intentata et incognita, commutata tota jam ratio est," &c. He elsewhere speaks of himself as being " in hac re plane protopirus, et vestigia nullius sequutus." ^ Surely this language would be out of place, if the difference between him and those who had gone before him related merely to matters of detail ; as, for instance, that his way of arranging the facts of observation was more convenient than theirs, and his way of applying an inductive process to them more systematic. And it need not be remarked that induc- tion in itself was no novelty at all. The nature of the act of induction is as clearly stated by Aristotle as by any later writer. Bacon's design was surely much larger

1 Nov. Org. i. 113. vol.. I. 6

66 GENERAL PREFACE TO

than it would thus appear to have been. Whoever considers his writings without reference to their place in the histoiy of philosophy will I think be convinced that he aimed at giving a wholly new method, — a method universally applicable, and in all cases infal- lible. By this method, all the knowledge which the human mind is capable of receiving might be attained, and attained without unnecessary labour. Men were no longer to wander from the truth in helpless uncer- tainty. The publication of this new doctrine was the Temporis Partus Mascuhis ; it was as the rising of a new sun, before which " the borrowed beams of moon and stars" were to fade away and disappear.^

(6.) That the wide distinction which Bacon con- ceived to exist between his own method and any which had previously been known has often been but slightly noticed by those who have spoken of his philosophy, arises probably from a wish to recognise in the history of the scientific discoveries of the last two centuries the fulfilment of his hopes and prophecies. One of his early disciples however, who wrote before the scientific movement which commenced about Bacon's time had assumed a definite form and character — I mean Dr. Hooke — has explicitly adopted those portions of Ba- con's doctrine which have seemingly been as a stum- bling-block to his later followers. In Hooke's General Scheme or Idea of the Present State of Natural PhUos- ophy? which is in many respects the best commentary on Bacon, we find it asserted that in the pursuit of

1 See, for instance, the Pra-fatio Generalis, where Bacon compares his method to the mariner's compass, until the discovery of which no wide sea could be crossed; an image probably connected with his favourite device of a ship passing through the pillars of Hercules, with the motto " Plus ultra."

2 Published posthumously in 1705.

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knowledge, the intellect " is continually to be assisted by some method or engine which shall be as a guide to regulate its actions, so as that it shall not be able to act amiss. Of this engine no man except the incompar- able Verulam hath had any thoughts, and he indeed hath promoted it to a .very good pitch." Something however still remained to be added to this engine or art of invention, to which Hooke gives the name of philosophical algebra. He goes on to say, " I cannot doubt but that if this art be well prosecuted and made use of, an ordinary capacity with industry will be able to do very much more than has yet been done, and to show that even physical and natural inquiries as well as mathematical and geometrical will be capable also of demonstration ; so that henceforward the business of invention will not be so much the effect of acute wit, as of a serious and industrious prosecution."^ Here the absolute novelty of Bacon's method, its de- monstrative character, and its power of reducing all minds to nearly the same level, are distinctly recog- nised.

(7.) Before we examine the method of which iBacon proposed to make use, it is necessary to determine the nature of the problems to which it was, for the most part at least, to be applied. In other words, we must endeavour to determine the idea which he had formed of the nature of science.

Throughout his writings, science and power are spoken of as correlative — " in idem coincidunt ; " and the reason of this is that Bacon always assumed that the knowledge of the cause would in almost all cases enable us to produce the observed effect. We shall see

1 Present State of Nat. PhiL pp. 6, 7.

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hereafter how this assumption connected itself with the whole spirit of his philosophy. I mention it now be- cause it presents itself in the passage in which Bacon's idea of the nature of science is most distinctly stated. " Super datum corpus novam naturam, sive novas na- turas, generare et superinducefe, opus et intentio est humanae potentise. Datae autem naturae formam, sive differentiam veram, sive naturam naturantem, sive fon- tem emanationis, (ista enim vocabula habemus quae ad indicationem rei proxime accedunt) invenire, opus et intentio est humanae scientiae." This passage, with which the second book of the Novum Organum com- mences, requires to be considered in detail.

In the first place it is to be remarked, that natura signifies "abstract quality," — it is used by Bacon in antithesis with corpus or " concrete body." Thus the passage we have quoted amounts to this, that the scope and end of human power is to give new qualities to bodies, while the scope and end of human knowledge is to ascertain the formal cause of all the qualities of which bodies are possessed.

Throughout Bacon's philosophy, the necessity of making abstract qualities (naturae) the principal object of our inquiries is frequently insisted on. He who studies the concrete and neglects the abstract cannot be called an interpreter of nature. Such was Bacon's judgment when, apparently at an early period of his life, he wrote the Temporis Partus Masculm ; ^ and in the Novum Organum he has expressed an equivalent

1 Mr. Ellis alludes, I think, to the De Intei'pretatione Naturce SententicB XII., which M. Bouillet prints as part of the Tempotis Partus Mmcultia. My reasons for differing with M. Bouillet on this point, and placing it by itself, and assigning it a later date, will be found in a note to Mr. Ellis's Preface to the Novum Organum. — J. 8.

THE PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS. 69

opinion : " quod iste modus operandi, (qui naturas in- tuetur simplices licet in corpore concreto) procedat ex iis quae in natura sunt constantia et seterna et catholica, et latas praebeat potentise humanae vias." ^ Quite in accordance wdth this passage is a longer one in the Adr vancement of Learning^ which I shall quote in extenso, as it is exceedingly important. " The forms of sub- stances, I say, as they are now by compounding and transplanting multiplied, are so perplexed as they are not to be inquired ; no more than it were either possi- ble or to purpose to seek in gross the forms of those sounds which make words, which by composition and transposition of letters are infinite. But on the other side to inquire the form of those sounds or voices which make simple letters is easily comprehensible, and being known induceth and manifesteth the forms of all words which consist and are compounded of them. In the same manner, to inquire the form of a lion, of an oak, of gold — nay of water, of air — is a vain pursuit ; but to inquire the forms of sense, of voluntary mo- tion, of vegetation, of colours, of gravity and levity, of density, of tenuity, of heat, of cold, and all other natures and qualities which like an alphabet are not many, and of which the essences upheld by matter of all creatures do consist, — to inquire, I say, the true forms of these, is that part of metaphysique which we now define of." And a little farther on we are told that it is the prerogative of metaphysique to consider " the simple forms or difference of things " (that is to say, the forms of simple natures), " which are few in number, and the degrees and co-ordinations whereof make all this variety."

1 Nov. Org. ii. 5.

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We see from these passages why the study of sim- ple natures is so important — namely because they are com j)a rati vely speaking few in number, and because, notwithstanding this, a knowledge of their essence would enable us, at least in theory, to solve every problem which the universe can present to us.

As an illustration of the doctrine of simple natures, we may take a passage which occurs in the Silva Sil- varum. " Gold," it is there said, " has these natures : greatness of weight, closeness of parts, fixation, pliant- ness or softness, immunity from rust, colour or tinc- ture of yellow. Therefore the sure way, though most about, to make gold, is to know the causes of the sev- eral natures before rehearsed, and the axioms concern- ing the same. For if a man can make a metal that hath all these properties, let men dispute whether it be gold or no." ^

Of these simple natures Bacon has given a list in the third book of the De Augmentis. They are divided into two classes : schematisms of matter, and simple motions. To the former belong the abstract qualities, dense, rare, heavy, light, &c., of which thirty-nine are enumerated, the list being concluded with a remark that it need not be carried farther, " neque ultra rem extendimus." The simple motions — and it will be observed that the word " motion " is used in a wide and vague sense — are the motus antitypiae, which se- cures the impenetrability of matter ; the motus nexus, commonly called the motus ex fuga vacui, &c. ; and of these motions fourteen are mentioned. Tliis list how- ever does not profess to be complete, and accordingly in the Novum Organum (ii. 48.) another list of sim-

1 Compare Nov. Org. ii. 6.

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pie motions is given, in which nineteen species are recognised.

The view of which we have now been speaking — namely, that it is possible to reduce all the phenomena of the universe to combinations of a limited number of simple elements — is the central point of Bacon's whole system. It serves, as we shall see, to explain the peculiarities of the method which he proposed.

(8.) In what sense did Bacon use the word " Form ? " This is the next question which, in con- sidering the account which he has given of the nature of science, it is necessary to examine. I am, for rea- sons which will be hereafter mentioned, much disposed to believe that the doctrine of Forms is in some sort an extraneous part of Bacon's system. His peculiar method may be stated independently of this doctrine, and he has himself so stated it in one of his earlier tracts, namely the Valerius Terminus. It is at any rate certain, that in using the word " Form " he did not intend to adopt the scholastic mode of employing it. He was much in the habit of giving to words already in use a new signification. " To me," he re- marks in the Advancement of Learning, *' it seemeth best to keep way with antiquity usque ad aras, and therefore to retain the ancient terms, though I some- times alter the uses and definitions." And thus though he has spoken of the scholastic forms as figments of the human mind,^ he was nevertheless willing to employ the word " Form " in a modified sense, " praesertim quum hoc vocabulum invaluerit, et familiariter oc- currat." ^ He has however distinctly stated that in speaking of Forms, he is not to be understood to speak

1 Nov. Org. i. 51. 2 Nov. Org. ii. 2.

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of tlie Forms " quibus hominum contemplationes et cogitationes hactenus assueverunt." ^

As Bacon uses the word in his own sense, we must endeavour to interpret the passages in wliich it occurs by means of wliat he lias liimself said of it ; and tliis may I think be satisfactorily accomplished.

We may begin by remarking that in Bacon's sys- tem, as in those of many others, the relation of sub- stance and attribute is virtually the same as the relation of cause and effect. The substance is conceived of as the causa immanens of its attributes,^ or in other words it is the formal cause of the qualities which are re- ferred to it. As there is a difference between the properties of different substances, there must be a cor- responding difference between , the substances them- selves. But in the first state of the views of which we are speaking this latter difference is altogether unimaginable : " distincte quidem intelligi potest, sed non explicari imaginabiliter." ^ It belongs not to nat- ural philosophy, but to metaphysics.

These views however admit of an essential modifi- cation. If we divide the qualities of bodies into two classes, and ascribe those of the former class to sub- stance as its essential attributes, while we look on those of the latter as connected with substance by the rela- tion of cause and effect — that is, if we recognise the distinction of primary and secondary qualities — the state of the question is changed. It now becomes pos- sible to give a definite answer to the question. Wherein

1 Nov. Org. ii. 17.

2 See Zimmerman's Essay on the Monadology of Leibnitz, p. 86. (Vien- na, 1807).

» Leibnitz, De ipsa Natura.

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does the diflPerence between different substances, corre- sponding to the difference between their sensible quah- ties, consist?

The answer to this question of course involves a ref- erence to the qualities which have been recognised as primary ; and we are thus led to the principle that in the sciences which relate to the secondary qualities of bodies the primary ones are to be regarded as the causes of the secondary.^

This division of the qualities of bodies into two classes is the point of transition from the metaphysical^^ view from which we set out to that of ordinary phys- ical science. And this transition Bacon had made, though not perhaps with a perfect consciousness of having done so. Thus he has repeatedly denied the truth of the scholastic doctrine that Forms are incog- noscible because supra-sensible ; ^ and the reason of this is clearly that his conception of the nature of Forms relates merely to the primary qualities of bodies. For instance, the Form of heat is a kind of local motion of the particles of which bodies are composed,^ and that of whiteness a mode of arrano;ement amono- those particles.* This peculiar motion or arrangement cor- responds to and engenders heat or whiteness, and this in every case in which those qualities exist. The state- ment of the distinguishing character of the motion or arrangement, or of whatever else may be the Form of a given phenomenon, takes the shape of a law ; it is the law in fldfilling which any substance determines the existence of the quality in question. It is for this

1 Whewell, Phil. Ind. Science, [book iv. ch. i.]

2 See Scaliger, Exercit. in Cardan.

8 [Nov. Org. ii. 20.] 4 [Valerius Terminus, ii. 1.]

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reason that Bacon sometimes calls the Form a law ; he has done this particularly in a passage which will be mentioned a little farther on.

With the view which has now been stated, we shall I think be able to understand every passage in which Bacon speaks of Forms ; — remembering however that as he has not traced a boundary line between primary and secondar}' qualities, we can only say in general terms tliat his doctrine of Forms is founded upon the theoiy that certain qualities of bodies are merely sub- jective and phenomenal, and are to be regarded as necessarily resulting from others which belong to sub- stance as its essential attributes. In the passage from which we set out,^ the Form is spoken of as vera dif- ferentia, the true or essential difference, — as natura naturans — and as the fons emanationis. The first of these expressions refers to the theory of definition by genus and difference. The difference is that which gives the thing defined its specific character. If it be founded on an accidental circumstance, the definition, thougli not incorrect if the accident be an inseparable one, will nevertheless not express the true and es- sential character of its subject ; contrariwise, if it involve a statement of the formal cause of the thing defined.

The second of these phrases is now scarcely used, except in connexion with the philosophy of Spinoza. It had however been employed by some of the scholastic writers.2 It is always antithetical to natura naturata, and in the passage before us serves not inaptly to ex-

1 [Nov. Org. ii. 1,]

2 See Vossius, De Vitiis Serm. in voce Naturare; and Castanaeus, Distinc- tiones in voc. Natura.

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press the relation in which the Form stands to the phe- nomenal nature which results from it.

The phrase fons emanationis does not seem to require any explanation. It belongs to the kind of philosophi- cal language which attempts, more or less successfully, to give clearness of conception by means of metaphor. It is unnecessary to remark how much this is the case in the later development of scholasticism.

A little farther on in the second book of the Novum Organum than the passage we have been considering, — namely in the thirteenth aphorism, — Bacon asserts that the " forma rei " is " ipsissima res," and that the thing and its Form differ only as " apparens et existens, aut exterius et interius, aut in ordine ad hominem et in ordine ad universum." Here the subjective and phe- nomenal character of the qualities whose form is to be determined is distinctly and strongly indicated.

The principal passage in which the Form is spoken of as a law occurs in the second aphorism of the same book. It is there said that, although in xiature noth- ing really exists (vere existat) except " corpora indi- vidua edentia actus puros individuos ex lege," yet that in doctrine this law is of fundamental importance, and that it and its clauses (paragraphi) are what he means when he speaks of Forms.

In denying the real existence of anything beside individual substances. Bacon opposes himself to the scholastic realism ; in speaking of these substances as " edentia actus," he asserts the doctrine of the essential activity of substance ; by adding the epithet " puros " he separates what Aristotle termed IvT^Xix^tat from mere motions or kivt^o-ci?, thereby by implication denying the objective reality of the latter ; and, lastly, by using the

76 GENERAL PREFACE TO

word " individuos," he implies that though in contem- plation and doctrine the form law of the substance (that is, the substantial form) is resoluble into the forms of the simple natures which belong to it, as into clauses, yet that this analysis is conceptual only, and not real.

It will be observed that the two modes in which Bacon speaks of the Form, namely as ipsissima res and as a law, differ only, though they cannot be reconciled, as two aspects of the same object.

Thus much of the character of the Baconian Form. That it is after all only a physical conception appears sufficiently from the examples already mentioned, and from the fact of its being made the most important part of the subject-matter of the natural sciences.

The investigation of the Forms of natures or ab- stract qualities is the principal object of the Baconian method of induction. It is true that Bacon, although he gives the first place to investigations of this nature, does not altogether omit to mention as a subordinate part of science, the study of concrete substances. The first aphorism of the second book of the Novum Orga- num sufficiently explains the relation in which, as he conceived, the abstract and the concrete, considered as objects of science, ought to stand to one another. This relation corresponds to that which in the De Angmentis [iii. 4.], he had sought to establish between Physique and Metaphysique, and which he has there expressed by saying that the latter was to be conversant with the formal and final causes, while the former was to be confined to the efficient cause and to the material. It may be asked, and the- question is not easily answered. Of what use the study of concrete bodies was in Ba-

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con's system to be, seeing that the knowledge of the Forms of simple natures would, in effect, include all that can be known of the outward world ? I believe that, if Bacon's recognition of physique as a distinct branch of science which was to be studied apart from metaphysique or the doctrine of Forms, can be ex- plained except on historical grounds, — that is, except by saying that it was derived from the quadripartite division of causes given by Aristotle,^ — the explana- tion is merely this, that he believed that the study of concrete bodies would at least at first be pursued more hopefully and more successfully than the abstract in- vestigations to which he gave the first rank.^

However this may be, it seems certain that Bacon's method, as it is stated in the Novum Organiim., is pri- marily applicable to the investigation of Forms, and that when other applications were made of it, it was to be modified in a manner which is nowhere distinctly ex- plained. All in fact that we know of these modifica- tions results from comparing two passages which have been already quoted ; ^ namely the two lists in which Bacon enumerates the subjects to be treated of in the latter books of the Novum Organum.

It will be observed that in one of these lists the sub- ject of concrete bodies corresponds to the " variation of the investigation according to the nature of the sub- ject " in the other, and from this it seems to follow that Bacon looked on his method of investigatino; Forms as the fundamental type of the inductive process, from which in its other applications it deviated more or less

1 For an explanation of which, see note on De Augmentis, iii. 4. — J. 8. '^ See, in illustration of this, Nov. Org. ii. 5. 8 Vide supra, ^ 2.

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according to the necessity of the case. This being un- derstood, we may proceed to speak of the inductive method itself.

(9.) The practical criterium of a Form by means of which it is to be investigated and recognised, reduces itself to this, — that the form nature and the phenome- nal nature (so to modify, for the sake of distinctness, Bacon's phraseology) must constantly be either both present or both absent ; and moreover that when either increases or decreases, the other must do so too.^ Set- ting aside the vagueness of the second condition, it is to be observed that there is nothing in this criterium to decide which of two concomitant natures is the Form of the other. It is true that in one place Bacon re- quires the form nature, beside being convertible with the given one, to be also a limitation of a more general nature. His words are " natura alia quae sit cum na- tura data convertibilis et tamen sit limitatio naturae notioris instar generis veri."^ Of this the meaning will easily be apprehended if we refer to the case of heat, of which the form is said to be a kind of motion — motion being here the natura notior, the more gen- eral natura, of which heat is a specific limitation ; for wherever heat is present there also is motion, but not vice vers^. Still the difficulty recurs, that there is nothing in the practical operation of Bacon's method which can serve to determine whether this subsidiary condition is fulfilled ; nor is the condition itself alto- gether free from vagueness.

To each of the three points of that which I have called the practical criterium of the Form corresponds one of the three tables with which the investigation 1 Nov. Org. ii. 4, 13, 16. 2 Nov. Org. ii. 4.

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commences. The first is the table " essentige et pras- sentiae," and contains all known instances in which the given nature is present. The second is the table of declination or absence in like case (declinationis sive absentise in proximo), and contains instances which re- spectively correspond to those of the first table, but in which, notwithstanding this correspondence, the given nature is absent. The third is the table of degrees or comparison (tabula graduum sive tabula comparativae), in which the instances of the given nature are arranged according to the degree in which it is manifested in each.

It is easy to see the connexion between these ta- bles, which are collectively called tables of appearance, " comparentiae," and the criterium. For, let any in- stance in which the given nature is present (as the sun in the case of heat, or froth in the case of whiteness) be resolved into the natures by the aggregation of which our idea of it is constituted ; one of these na- tures is necessarily the form nature, since this is always to be present when the given nature is. Similarly, the second table corresponds to the condition that the Form and the given nature are to be absent together, and the third to that of their increasing or decreasing together.

After the formation of these tables, how is the pro- cess of induction to be carried into effect ? By a method of exclusion. This method is the essential point of the whole matter, and it will be well to show how much importance Bacon attached to it.

In the first place, wherever he speaks of ordinary induction and of his own method he always remarks that the former proceeds " per enumerationem sim-

80 GENERAL PREFACE TO

plicem," that is, by a mere enumeration of particular cases, while the latter makes use of exclusions and rejections. This is the fundamental character of his method, and it is from this that the circumstances which distinguish it from ordinary induction neces- sarily follow. Moreover we are told that whatever may be the privileges of higher intelligences, man can only in one way advance to a knowledge of Forms : he is absolutely obliged to proceed at first by negatives, and then only can arrive at an affirmative when the process of exclusion has been completed (post omnim- odam exclusionem).^ The same doctrine is taught in the exposition of the fable of Cupid. For according to some of the mythographi Cupid comes forth from an egg whereon Night had brooded. Now Cupid is the type of the primal nature of things ; and what is said of the egg hatched by Night refers, Bacon affirms, most aptly to the demonstrations whereby our knowledge of him is obtained ; for knowledge obtained by exclusions and negatives results, so to speak, from darkness and from night. We see, I think, from this allegorical fancy, as clearly as from any single passage in his writings, how firmly fixed in his mind was the idea of the importance, or rather of the necessity, of using a method of exclusion.

It is not difficult, on Bacon's fundamental hypoth- esis, to perceive why this method is of paramount im- portance. For assuming that each instance in which the given nature is presented to us can be resolved into (and mentally replaced by) a congeries of elementary natures, and that this analysis is not merely subjective or logical, but deals, so to speak, with the very essence 1 Nov. Org. ii. 15.

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of its subject-matter, it follows that to determine the form nature among the aggregate of simple natures which we thus obtain, nothing more is requisite than the rejection of all foreign and unessential elements. We reject every nature which is not present in every affirmative instance, or which is present in any nega- tive one, or which manifests itself in a greater degree when the given nature manifests itself in a less, or vice vers&. And this process when carried far enough will of necessity lead us to the truth ; and meanwhile every step we take is known to be an approximation towards it. Ordinary induction is a tentative process, because we chase our quarry over an open country ; here it is confined within definite limits, and these limits become as we advance continually narrower and narrower.

From the point of view at which we have now ar- rived, we perceive why Bacon ascribed to his method the characters by which, as we have seen, he conceived that it was distinguished from any which had previ- ously been proposed. When the process of exclusion has been completely performed, only the form nature will remain ; it will be, so to speak, the sole survivor of all the natures combined with which the given na- ture was at first presented to us. There can therefore be no doubt as to our result, nor any possibility of con- founding the Form with any other of these natures. This is what Bacon expresses, when he says that the first part of the true inductive process is the exclusion of every nature which is not found in each instance where the given one is present, or is found where it is not present, or is found to increase where the given nature decreases, or vice vers^i. And then, he goes

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Oil to say, when this exclusion has been duly per- formed, there will in the second part of the process remain, as at the bottom, all mere opinions having been dissipated (abeuntibus in fumum opinionibus vola- tilibus), the affirmative Form, which will be solid and true and well defined.^ The exclusion of error will necessarily lead to truth.

Again, this method of exclusion requires only an attentive consideration of each *' instantia," in order first to analyse it into its simple natures, and secondly to see which of the latter are to be excluded — pro- cesses which require no higher faculties than ordinary acuteness and patient diligence. There is clearly no room in this mechanical procedure for the display of subtlety or of inventive genius.

Bacon's method therefore leads to certainty, and may be employed with nearly equal success by all men who are equally diligent.

In considering the only example which we have of its practical operation, namely the investigation of the form of heat,^ it is well to remark a circumstance which tends to conceal its real nature. After the three tables of Comparentia, Bacon proceeds to the Exclusiva, and concludes by saying that the process of exclusion can- not at the outset (sub initiis) be perfectly performed. He therefore proposes to go on to provide additional assistance for the mind of man. These are manifestly to be subsidiary to the method of exclusions ; they are to remove the obstacles which make the Exclusiva de- fective and inconclusive. But in the meanwhile, and as it were provisionally, the intellect may be permitted to attempt an affirmative determination on the subject I Nov. Org. ii. 16. a Nov. Org. ii. 11—20.

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before it : " Quod genus tentamenti Permissionem Intellectus, sive Interpretationem inchoatam, sive Vin- demiationem primam, appellare consuevimus." The phrase Permissio Intellectus sufficiently indicates that in this process the mind is suffered to follow the course most natural to it ; it is relieved from the restraints hitherto imposed on it, and reverts to its usual state. In this Vindemiatio we accordingly find no reference to the method of exclusion : it rests immediately on the three tables of Comparentia ; and though of course it does not contradict the results of the Exclusiva, yet on the other hand it is not derived from them. If we lose sight of the real nature of this part of the investigation, which is merely introduced by the way " because truth is more easily extricated from error than from confu- sion," we also lose sight of the scope and purport of the whole method. All that Bacon proposes henceforth to do is to perfect the Exclusiva ; the Vindemiatio prima, though it is the closing member of the example which Bacon makes use of, is not to be taken as the type of the final conclusion of any investigation which he would recognise as just and legitimate. It is only a parenthesis in the general method, whereas the Ex- clusiva, given in the eighteenth aphorism of the second book, is a type or paradigm of the process on which every true induction (inductio vera) must in all cases depend.

It may be well to remark that in this example of the process of exclusion, the table of degrees is not made use of.

Bacon, as we have seen, admits that the Exclusiva must at first be in some measure imperfect ; for the Exclusiva, being the rejection of simple natures, cannot

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be satisfactory unless our notions of these natures are just and accurate, whereas some of those which occur in his example of the process of rejection are ill-defined and vague.^ In order to the completion of his method, it is necessary to remove this defect. A subsidiary method is required, of which the object is the formation of scientific conceptions. To this method also Bacon gives the name of induction ; and it is remarkable that induction is mentioned for the first time in the Novum Organum in a passage which relates not to axioms but to conceptions.''^ Bacon's induction therefore is not a mere liraymyrf, it is also a method of definition ; but of the manner in which systematic induction is to be employed in the formation of conceptions we learn nothing from any part of his writings. And by this circumstance our knowledge of his method is rendered imperfect and unsatisfactory. We may perhaps be per- mitted to believe that so far as relates to the subject of which we are now speaking, Bacon never, even in idea, completed the method which he proposed. For of all parts of the process of scientific discovery, the for- mation of conceptions is the one with respect to which it is the most difficult to lay down general rules. The process of establishing axioms Bacon had succeeded, at least apparently, in reducing to the semblance of a mechanical operation ; that of the formation of concep- tions does not admit of any similar reduction. Yet these two processes are in Bacon's system of co-or- dinate importance. All commonly received general scientific conceptions Bacon condemns as utterly worth-

1 Nov. Org. ii. 19. ; and compare i. 16., which shows the necessity of a complete reform. * Nov. Org. i. 14., and comp. i. 18.

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less.^ A complete change is, therefore, required; yet of the way in which induction is to be employed in order to produce this change he has said nothing.

This omission is doubtless connected with the kind of realism which runs through Bacon's system, and which renders it practically useless. For that his method is impracticable cannot I think be denied, if we reflect not only that it never has produced any re- sult, but also that the process by which scientific truths have been established cannot be so presented as even to appear to be in accordance with it. In all cases this process involves an element to which nothing cor- responds in the tables of comparence and exclusion ; namely the application to the facts of observation of a principle of arrangement, an idea, existing in the mind of the discoverer antecedently to the act of induction. It may be said that this idea is precisely one of the naturae into which the facts of observation ought in Bacon's system to be analysed. And this is in one sense true ; but it must be added that this analysis, if it be thought right so to call it, is of the essence of the discovery which results from it. To take for granted that it has already been effected is simply a petitio prin- cipii. In most cases the mere act of induction follows as a matter of course as soon as the appropriate idea has been introduced. If, for instance, we resolve Kep- ler's discovery that Mars moves in an ellipse into its constituent elements, we perceive that the whole diffi- culty is antecedent to the act of induction. It con- sists in bringing the idea of motion in an ellipse into connexion with the facts of observation ; that is, in showing that an ellipse may be drawn through all the

1 Nov. Org. i. 15, 16.

bb GENERAL TREFACE TO

observed places of tlie planet. The mere act of induc- tion, the eVaycoyj;, is perfectly obvious. If all the ob- served places lie on an ellipse of which the sun is the focus, then every position which the planet successively occupies does so too. This inference, which is so ob- vious that it must have passed through the mind of the discoverer almost unconsciously, is an instance of in- duction '' per enumeratjonem sjmplicem ; " of which kind of induction Bacon, as we have seen, has said that it is utterly vicious and incompetent.

The word realism may perhaps require some ex- planation. I mean by it the opinion, which Bacon undoubtedly entertained, that for the purposes of in- vestigation, the objects of our thoughts may be re- garded as an assemblage of abstract conceptions, so that these conceptions not only correspond to realities, which is of course necessary in order to their having any value, but may also be said adequately to represent them. In his view of the subject, ideas or conceptions (notiones) reside in some sort in the objects from which we derive them ; and it is necessary, in order that the work of induction may be successfully accomplished, that the process by which they are derived should be carefully and systematically performed. But he had not perceived that which now at least can scarcely be doubted of, that the progress of science continually re- quires the formation of new conceptions whereby new principles of arrangement are introduced among the results which had previously been obtained, and that from the necessary imperfection of human knowledge our conceptions never, so to speak, exhaust the essence of the realities by which they are suggested. The notion of an alphabet of the universe, of which Bacon

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has spoken more than once, must therefore be given up ; it could at best be only an alphabet of the present state of knowledge. And similarly of the analysis into abstract natures on which the process of exclusion, as we have seen, depends. No such analysis can be used in the manner which Bacon prescribes to us ; for every advance in knowledge presupposes the introduction of a new conception, by which the previously existing analysis is rendered incomplete, and therefore erroneous.

We have now, I think, succeeded in tracing the cause both of the peculiarities of Bacon's method, and of its practical inutility. Some additional information may be derived from an examination of the variations with which it is presented in different parts of his writ- ings ; — less however than if we could arrange his smaller works in chronological order. Nevertheless two results, not without their value, may be thus ob- tained ; the one, that it appears probable that Bacon came gradually to see more of the difficulties which beset the practical application of his method ; and the other, that the doctrine of Forms is in reality an ex- traneous part of his philosophy.

(10.) In the earliest work in which the new method of induction is proposed, namely, the English tract en- titled Valerius Terminus^ no mention is made of the necessity of correcting commonly received notions of simple natures. The inductive method is therefore presented in its simplest form, unembarrassed with that which constitutes its principal difficulty. But when we advance from Valerius Terminus to the Partis seeundce Delineatio et Argumentum^ which is clearly of a later date, we find that Bacon has become aware of the necessity of having some scientific method for the

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due construction of abstract conceptions. It is there said that the " pars informans," that is, the descriptions of the new method, will be divided into three parts — the ministration to the senses, the ministration to the memory, and the ministration to the reason. In the first of these, three things are to be taught ; and of these three the first is how to construct and elicit from facts a duly formed abstract conception (bona notio) ; tlie sec- ond is how the senses may be assisted ; and the third, how to form a satisfactory collection of facts. He then proposes to go on to the other two ministrations. Thus the construction of conceptions would have formed the first part of the then designed Novum Or- ganum ; and it w^ould seem that this arrangement was not followed when the Novum Organum was actually written, because in the meantime Bacon had seen that this part of the work involved greater difficulties than he had at first supposed. For the general division into " ministrationes " is preserved in the Novum Organum^ though it has there become less prominent than in the tract of which we have been speaking. In the minis- tration to the senses, as it is mentioned in the later work, nothing is expressly included but a good and sufficient natural and experimental historia ; the theory of the formation of conceptions has altogether disap- peared, and both this ministration and that to the memory are postponed to the last of the three, which contains the theory of the inductive process itself. We must set out, Bacon says, from the conclusion, and proceed in a retrograde order to the other parts of the subject. He now seems to have perceived that the theory of the formation of conceptions and that 1 Nov. Org. ii. 10.

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of the establishment of axioms are so intertwined to- gether, that the one cannot be presented independently of the other, although in practice his method abso- lutely requires these two processes to be carried on separately. His view now is, that at first axioms must be established by means of the commonly received conceptions, and that subsequently these conceptions must themselves be rectified by means of the ulterior aids to the mind, the fortiora auxilia in usum intellectus, of which he has spoken in the nineteenth aphorism of the second book. But these fortiora auxilia were never given, so that the difficulty which Bacon had once pro- posed to overcome at the outset of his undertaking remained to the last unconquered. The doctrine of the Novum Organum (that we must first employ com- monly received notions, and afterwards correct them) is expressly laid down in the De Interpretatione Naturoe Sententice Duodecim?- Of this however the date is uncertain.

It is clear that while any uncertainty remains as to the value of the conceptions (notiones) employed in the process of exclusion, the claim to absolute immu- nity from error which Bacon has made on behalf of his general method, must be more or less modified ; and of this he seems to have been aware when he wrote the second book of the Novum Organum?

(11.) Thus much of the theory of the formation of conceptions. With regard to the doctrine of Forms, it is in the first place to be observed that it is not men- tioned as a part of Bacon's system, either in Valerius Terminus or in the Partis secundce Delineatio, or in the Be Interpretatione Naturoe Sententice Duodecim, although

1 Vide § viii. of this tract. 2 Nov. Org. ii. 19.

90 GENERAL PREFACE TO

in the two last-named tracts the definition of science which is found at the outset of the second book of the Novum Organum is in substance repeated. Tliis defi- nition, as we have seen, makes the discovery of Forms the aim and end of science ; but in both cases the word form is replaced by causes. It is however to be ad- mitted that in the Advancement of Learning^ published in 1605, Forms are spoken of as one of the subjects of Metaphysique. Their not being mentioned except ex obliquo in Valerius Terminus is more remarkable, be- cause Bacon has there given a distinct name to the process which he afterwards called the discovery of the Form. He calls it the freeing of a direction, and re- marks that it is not much other matter than that which in the received philosophies is termed the Form or formal cause. Forms are thus mentioned historically, but in the dogmatic statement of his own view they are not introduced at all.^

The essential character of Bacon's philosophy, name- ly the analysis of the concrete into the abstract, is nowhere more prominent than in Valerius Terminus. It is there said " that every particular that worketh any effect is a thing compounded more or less of di- verse single natures, more manifest and more obscure, and that it appeareth not to whether (which) of the natures the effect is to be ascribed." ^ Of course the great problem is to decide this question, and the method of solving it is called " the freeing of a direc- tion." In explanation of this name, it is to be ob- served that in Valerius Terminus the practical point

1 I refer to my preface to Valerius Terminus for an illustration of some of the difficultien of this very obscure tract.

2 Val. Ter. c. 17.

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of view predominates. Every instance in which a given nature is produced is regarded as a direction for its artificial production. If air and water are mingled together, as in snow, foam, &c., whiteness is the result. This then is a direction for the production of white- ness, since we have only to mingle air and water to- gether in order to produce it. But whiteness may be produced in other ways, and the direction is therefore not free. We proceed gradually to free it by rejecting, by means of other instances, the circumstances of this which are unessential : a process which is the exact counterpart of the Exclusiva of the Novum Organum, The instance I have given is Bacon's, who developes it at some length.

Here then we have Bacon's method treated entirely from a practical point of view. This circumstance is worthy of notice because it serves to explain why Bacon always assumes that the knowledge of Forms would greatly increase our command over nature, that it " would enfranchise the power of man unto the greatest possibility of works and effects." It has been asked what reason Bacon had for this assumption. " Whosoever knoweth any Form," he has said in the Advancement^ " knoweth the utmost possibility of su- perinducing that nature upon any variety of nature." Beyond question, the problem of superinducing the nature is reduced to the problem of superinducing the Form ; but what reason have we for supposing that the one is more easy of solution than the other ? If we knew the Form of malleability, that is, the conditions which the intimate constitution of a body must fulfil in order that it may be malleable, does it follow that we could make glass so ? So far as these questions

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admit of an answer, Valerius Terminus appears to sug- gest it. Bacon connected the doctrine of Forms with practical operations, because this doctrine, so to speak, represented to him his original notion of the freeing of a direction, which, as the phrase itself implies, had alto- gether a practical significance.

Even in the Novum Organum the definition of the Form is made to correspond with the praeceptum ope- randi, or practical direction.^ The latter is to be " cer- tum, liberum, et disponens sive in ordine ad actionem." Now a direction to produce the Form as a means of producing the given nature is certain, because the pres- ence of the Form necessarily determines that of the nature. It is free, because it requires only that to be done which is necessary, since the nature can never be present unless its Form is so too. Thus far the agree- ment between the practical and the scientific view is satisfactory. But to the third property which the practical direction is to possess, namely its being in ordine ad actionem, or such as to facilitate the pro- duction of the proposed result, corresponds the condi- tion that the Form is to be " the limitation of a more general nature ; " that is to say, the Form presents it- self as a limitation of something more general than the given nature, and as determining, not merely logically but ^ also causatively, the existence of the latter. At this point the divergence between the practical and the scientific view becomes manifest ; practical operations do not, generally speaking, present to us anything anal- ogous to the limitation here spoken of, and there is no reason to suppose that it is easier to see how this limi-

1 Nov. Org. ii. 4., which is the best comment on the dictum, Knowledge is power.

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tation is to be introduced than to see how the original problem, the H apx% TrpoKct/xevor, may be solved. But this divergence seems to show that the two views are in their origin heterogeneous ; that the one contains the fundamental idea of Bacon's method, while the other represents the historical element of his philosophy. We shall however hereafter have occasion to suggest con- siderations which may seem to modify this conclusion.

(12.) In a survey of Bacon's method it is not ne- cessary to say much of the doctrine of prerogative instances, though it occupies the greater part of the second book of the Novum Organum. It belongs to the unfinished part of that work ; at least it is prob- able that its practical utility would have been explained when Bacon came to speak of the Adminicula Induc- tionis.

Twenty-seven kinds of instances are enumerated, which are said to excel ordinary instances either in their practical or their theoretical usefulness. To the word instance Bacon gives a wide range of signification. It corresponds more nearly to observation than to any other which is used in modern scientific language.

Of some classes of these instances collections are to be made for their own sake, and independently of any investigation into particular natures. Such, for in- stance, are the instantiae conformes ; Bacon's exam- ples of which are mostly taken from comparative anatomy. One of them is the analogy between the fins of fishes, the feet of quadrupeds, and the feet and wings of birds ; another, the analogy of the beak of birds and the teeth of other animals, &c.-^

1 Nov. Org. ii. 27. It does not seem that Bacon added much to what he found in Aristotle on the subject of these analogies.

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The other classes of prerogative instances have es- pecial reference to particular investigation, and are to be collected when individual tables of comparence are formed.

It would seem from this that the theory of preroga- tive instances is intended to guide us in the formation of these tables. But it is difficult to see how the cir- cumstances which give any instance its prerogative could have been appreciated a priori. An instantia crucis,^ to take the most celebrated of all, has its dis- tinguishing character only in so far as it is viewed with reference to two contending hypotheses. In forming at the outset of an inquiry the appropriate tables, noth- ing would have led the interpreter to perceive its pecu- liar value.

This theory, whatever may be its practical utility, may supply us with new illustrations of the importance in Bacon's method of the process of exclusions.

At the head of the list — and placed there, we may presume, from the importance of the end which they promote — stand the instantiae solitariae, whose prerog- ative it is to accelerate the Exclusiva.^ These are instances which exhibit the given nature in subjects which have nothing in common, except that nature itself, with the other subjects which present it to us. Thus the colours shown by the prism or by crystals are a solitary instance of colour, because they have nothing in common with the fixed colours of flowers, gems, &c. Whatever therefore is not independent of the particular constitution of these bodies must be ex- cluded from the form of colour.

Next to the instantiae solitariae are placed the instan- 1 Nov. Org. ii. 36. 9 Nov. Org. ii. 22.

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tiae migrantes, which show the given nature in the act of appearing or of disappearing ; as when glass, being pounded, becomes white. Of these it is said that they not only accelerate and strengthen the Exclusiva, but also confine within narrow limits the Affirmative, or Form itself, by showing that it is something which is given or taken away by the observed change. A little farther on Bacon notices the danger in these cases of confounding the efficient cause with the Form, and concludes by saying " But this is easily remedied by a legitimately performed Exclusiva."

Other remarks to the same effect might be made with reference to other classes of instances ; but these are probably sufficient.

I shall now endeavour to give an account of Ba- con's views on some questions of philosophy, which are not immediately connected with the reforms he pro- posed to introduce.

(13.) It has sometimes, I believe, been supposed that Bacon had adopted the atomic theory of Democritus. This however is by no means true ; but certainly he /^ often speaks much more favourably of the systems of the earlier physicists, and especially of that of Democ- ritus, than of the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. In doing this he may, perhaps, have been more or less influenced by a wish to find in antiquity something with which the doctrines he condemned might be con- trasted. But setting this aside, it is certain that these systems were more akin to his own views than the doc- trine of the schools of which Socrates may be called the founder. The problems which they proposed were essentially physical, — given certain material first prin-

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dples, to determine the origin and causes of all phe- nomena. They were concerned, for the most part, with that which is accessible to the senses, or which would be so if the senses were sufficiently acute. In this they altogether agree with Bacon, who, though he often speaks of the errors and shortcomings of the senses, yet had never been led to consider the question which stands at the entrance of metaphysical philosophy, namely whether the subjective character of sensation does not necessarily lead to scepticism, if no higher grounds of truth can be discovered. The scepticism of Protagoras, and Plato's refutation of it, seemed to him to be both but idle subtleties. Plato, Aristotle, and their followers, were in his opinion but a better kind of sophists. What Dionysius said to Plato, that his discourse was but dotage, might fitly be applied to them all.^

It cannot be denied, that to Bacon all sound philos- ophy seemed to be included in what we now call the natural sciences ; and with this view he was naturally led to prefer the atomic doctrine of Democritus to any metaphysical speculation. Every atomic theory is an attempt to explain some of the phenomena of matter by means of others ; to explain secondary qualities by means of the primary. And this was what Bacon himself proposed to do in investigating the Forms of simple natures. Nevertheless he did not adopt the peculiar opinions of Democritus and his followers. In the Novum Organum he rejects altogether the notion of a vacuum and that of the unchangeableness of matter .^ His theory of the intimate constitution of bodies does

1 Redargut. Phil, et Nov. Org. i. 71.

2 Nov. Org. ii. 8. Compare Cogit. De Nat. Rerum.

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not, lie remarks, relate to atoms properly so called, but only to the actually existing ultimate particles. Bacon cannot therefore be said to be a follower of Democri- tus, though he has spoken of him as being, of all the Greek philosophers, the one who had the deepest in- sight into nature.^

But though Bacon was not an atomist, he was what has been called a mechanical physiologist. Leibnitz's remark that the restorers of philosophy ^ all held the principle that the properties of bodies are to be ex- plained by means of magnitude, figure, and motion (a statement which envelopes every such theory of matter as that of Descartes, together with the old atomic doctrine), is certainly true of Bacon.

(14.) The opinion which Bacon had formed as to the class of subjects which ought to be included in Summary Philosophy (the English phrase by which he renders the expression he sometimes uses, namely prima philosophia), is worthy of attention.

In the writings of Aristotle, the first philosophy denotes the science which since his time has been called metaphysics. It is the science of first princi- ples, or as he has himself defined it, the science of that which is, as such. In the first book of the Meta- physics we find a proof of the necessity of having such a science, distinct from and in a manner superior to all others.

Bacon, adopting Aristotle's name, applied it differ- ently. With him, the first philosophy is divided into two parts. Of these the first is to be a receptacle of

1 Nov. Org. i. 51. ; also Parm. Teles, and Dem. Phil.

2 Namely, the Cartesians, Verulam, Hobbes, &c. See his letter to Tho- masius, p. 48. of the edition of his philosophical works by Erdmann.

VOL. I. 7

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the axioms which do not belong exclusively to particu- lar sciences, but are common to more than one ; wliile the second is to inquire into the external or adventi- tious conditions of existences — such as the much and the little, the like and the unlike, the possible and im- possible, &c.

In illustration of the contents of the first part, Bacon quotes several axioms which are applicable in more than one science. Of these the first is, " If to unequals are added equals, the sums are unequal," which is a mathematical principle, but which. Bacon says, refeiTing to the distinction laid down by Aris- totle between commutative and distributive justice, obtains also in moral science ; inasmuch as it is the rule by which distributive justice must be guided. The next is, " Things which agree with a third, agree with one another," — which is also a mathematical principle, but yet, differently stated, forms the foun- dation of the theory of syllogism. Thus far Bacon's doctrine does not materially dissent from Aristotle's, who has taught the necessity of recognising in all sciences two kinds of principles, those which are proper to the subject of each science, and those which, connecting themselves with the doctrine of the cate- gories, are common to all. The last are in his nomen- clature axioms, though Bacon, following probably Ra- mus, who in his turn followed Cicero and the Stoics, gives a much more general sense to this word ; and it is to be remarked that Aristotle has given as an instance of an axiom the first of the two which I have quoted from Bacon, or at any rate another which is in effect equivalent to it. But most of the instances which Bacon goes on to give are of a different na-

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ture. They are not derived from the laws of thought, but on the contrary involve an empirical element, and therefore are neither self evident, nor capable of an k priori proof. Thus the axiom that " a discord resolved, into a concord improves the harmony," is, Bacon says, not only true in music, but also in ethics and the doc- trine of the affections. But this axiom is in its literal sense merely a result of observation, and its application to moral subjects is clearly only analogical or tropical. Again, that " the organs of the senses are analogous to instruments which produce reflection," is. Bacon says, true in perspective, and also in acoustics ; being true both of the eye and ear. Here we have a result of observation which is made to enter into two differ- ent sciences simply in virtue of the classification em- ployed. For this axiom, if true, properly belongs to physiology, and neither to perspective nor to acoustics ; though in a secondary and derivative manner a portion of the truth it includes may be introduced into these sciences. And so on. There is however one of these axioms which is of higher authority : " Quantum na- turae nee minuitur nee augetur : " which. Bacon says, is true not only in physics, but also in natural theology, if it be stated in a modified form ; viz. if it be said that it belongs to Omnipotence to make something out of nothing, or vice versa. Of this axiom it may be re- marked, that it is common to physics and natural theology simply because the subjects of these sciences are, in some measure, common to both ; wherein it differs from the Aristotelian conception of an axiom. But it is of more interest to observe, that this axiom of which the truth is derived from our notion of sub- stance, and which can never be established by an

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empirical demonstration, is constantly quoted by Ba- con as a principle of incontestable truth ; of which his theory of specific gravities is in some sort only an application.

The question arises both with regard to this axiom and to the others, In wliat manner Bacon supposed that they ought to be demonstrated ; or, if he thouglit they required no demonstration, in what manner he conceived that the mind apprehended their truth ? He has certainly affirmed in express terms that there can be only two ways of arriving at truth, namely syllogism and induction ; both of which are manifestly inapplicable to some at least of the principles which he includes in the philosophia prima. But whether he •would have admitted that this dictum admits of ex- ception in relation to these cases, or on the other hand had not been led to consider the nature of the difficulty which they present, we have, I think, no means of deciding. It is to be observed that the philosophia prima is spoken of as a collection (recep- taculum) of axioms — a phrase which implies that it is not a science in itself, having its own principles and an independent development, but that, contrariwise, it derives from the contributions of other sciences the elements of which it is composed. Of the second part we are unable to speak more definitely than of the first. It is obviously a reflexion of the Aristotelian doctrine of the categories,^ from which, however. Bacon intended to contrast it by requiring that the ^' conditiones entium," which he has doubtless called transcendent from their applicability to all classes of

1 Trendelenberg has accordinglj' quoted the passages in the De Augmtntis which relate to it, in the historical part of his work on the categories.

I

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objects, should be treated not logically but physi- cally.^

But then what are the questions to be resolved in this mode of treating them? Bacon gives some ex- amples of the discussions which ought to occupy this part of philosophy. The first is, why there is so much of one kind of substance, and so little of another — why, for instance, so much more iron in the world than gold, &c. This belongs to the inquiry " de multo et parvo." Again, in treating " de simili et diverso," it ought to be explained why between dissimilar species are almost always interposed others which partake of the nature of both, and form, as it were, ambiguous species — for instance, bats between birds and quadru- peds, or moss between corruption and plants, &c. The difficulty however which I have already men- tioned in speaking of the other part of the philosophia prima recurs with reference to this, namely by what method were the questions here proposed to be an- swered? If by induction, by induction on what data ? and if not, by what other way of arriving at truth ?

The illustrations which Bacon has given, and per- haps his way of looking at the whole subject, connect themselves with what has recently been called palae- tiology. The questions which Bacon proposes are questions as to how that which actually exists, and which in the present order of things will continue to exist, came into being — whether abruptly or by slow transitions, and under what agency. He seems to point, though from a distance, to discussions as to the formation of strata and the succession of species..

1 De Augmeiitis iii. 4.

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Yet on the other hand the discussion on Like and Unhke was to include at least one portion of a differ- ent character, namely why, in despite of the maxim " similia similibus gaudent," iron does not attract iron but the magnet, nor gold gold, but quicksilver.

(15.) Another subject, sufficiently interesting to be here mentioned, though less connected with Bacon's general views, is the doctrine which he entertained touching the nature of the soul. He distinguishes in several parts of his writings between the animal soul, common, at least in kind, to man and to the brutes, and the immortal principle infused by the divine favour into man only.^ To the latter he gave the name of spiraculum, which was of course suggested by the text, " Spiravit in faciem ejus spiraculum vitai." M. Bouil- let, in his edition of Bacon's philosophical works,^ con- demns this doctrine of man's having two souls, and goes on to remark that Bacon was led to adopt it in deference to the opinions of the schoolmen, and that it is also sanctioned by S. Augustine. In these remarks he is much less accurate than usual ; the truth being that the doctrine of the duality of the soul is con- demned very strongly by S. Augustine and by the schoolmen, and that there is no doubt as to the source from which Bacon derived it, namely from the writ- ings of Telesius. The notion of a lower soul, distinct in essence from the higher principle of man's nature, is in reality much older than Telesius. We find it for instance among the Manichees — a circumstance which makes it singular that S. Augustine should have been supposed to countenance it. Both in his work De

1 De Augmentis iv. 3.

'i CEuvres Philosophiques de Bacon. Paris, 1834. —J. 8.

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^ L

Ecclesice Dogmatihus^ and nearly in the same words in that De Animd^ he rejects in the most precise and accurate manner the doctrine of two distinct souls, affirming that there is but one, which is at once the principle of nutrition, of sensation, and of reason. In opposing the tenets of the Manicheeans, he has more than once condemned the same doctrine, though less at length than in the works just mentioned. The school- men also peremptorily rejected the doctrine which M. Bouillet has affirmed that Bacon derived from them. Thus S. Thomas Aquinas says, " Impossibile est in uno homine esse plures animas per essentiam differen- tes, sed una tantum est anima intellectiva quae vege- tativaB et sensitivag et intellectivae officiis fungitur." ^ And this follows at once from the received opinion, that the soul is joined to the body as its form (ut fornia unitur corpori). It would be easy to multiply cita- tions to the same effect ; but as no schoolman could venture to contradict an emphatically expressed opin- ion of S. Augustine, it appears unnecessary to do so.^

Telesius of Cozensa, whom Bacon has commended as " the best of the novellists," w^as one of the Italian reformers of philosophy. Tennemann's remark that the reform which he attempted to introduce was but

1 S. Thorn. Prim. Q. 76. a. 3. Cond.

2 With what bold ignorance the schoolmen are sometimes spoken of is well seen in Dr. Gutwauer's preface to his edition of Leibnitz De Prin- cipio Jndividui. The sixth proposition in the Corollarium attached to this disputation is as follows : — " Hominis solum una est anima quae vegetati- vam et sensitlvam virtualiter includat." The learned Doctor declares that in this statement Leibnitz set himself in direct opposition to the schoolmen, and that it contains the germ of Leibnitz's own psychology; the statement being almost a literal transcript of that of St. Thomas Aquinas. Sum. i. Q. 76. a. 3., to which I have already referred. Leibnitz scarcely thought that in following the Angelic Doctor, he was protesting against scholas- ticism.

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partial, as having reference only to the natural sciences, is not altogether accurate, but it describes with suffi- cient correctness the general character of his writings. They contain an attempt to explain all phenomena, including those of animal life, on the hypothesis of the continuous conflict and reciprocal action of two formal principles, heat and cold. His other doctrines are either subordinated to this kind of dualism, or are merely the necessary complements of a system of phi- losophy. In proposing to inquire into the nature and origin of the soul, he had no other end in view than to arrive at an explanation of the phenomena of sensa- tion, voluntary motion, &c., which should be in accord- ance with his fundamental hypothesis. He therefore sets out from the physiological point of view ; and in order to explain the phenomena of animal and vegeta- ble life, refers them to an indwelling spiritus, or animal soul, which in plants resides in the bark and fibres, and in animals in the white and exsanguine parts of the body, the bones being however excepted.^ The ani- mal and vegetable souls are in essence alike, but the latter is " paulo quam qui in animalibus inest crassior." In both cases the origin of this anima is the same ; it is educed from the seed (educta ex semine), and is to all intents as truly material as any other part' of the body.

In the application of these views to the soul of man, Telesius was met by considerations of another order. The soul educed ex semine, was (like the body which it animated, and of which it was only the subtlest por- tion) propagated by generation ; whereas it was decided by orthodox theology that souls are not ex traduce, do 1 De Rerum Nat. v. 1. et vi. 26.

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not pass from parent to child in the way Telesius must have supposed. The soul is a gift, which after death is to return to Him who gave it. I do not conceive that Telesius's attempt to co-ordinate this doctrine with his own views arose merely from a wish to avoid the imputation of heresy. His writings are, I think, free from that tone of mocking deference to authority by which those of many of his contemporaries are disfig- ured. They have, on the contrary, much of the mel- ancholy earnestness which characterises those of his disciple Campanella. The difference between the fac- ulties of men and brutes appeared to him to be such that merely a subtler organisation of the spiritus would be insufficient to account for it. Man's higher faculties are to be ascribed to a higher principle, and this can only be conceived of as a divinely formed soul. The question as to the relation between the two souls may be presented under two aspects, namely what are the faculties in man which ought to be ascribed to each of them ? and again are these two souls wholly indepen- dent, and if not, how are they connected ? The crite- rion by which Telesius would decide what ought to be reserved as the peculiar appanage of the divinely cre- ated soul, appears to be this — that which in man is analogous to the faculties we recognise in brutes ought to be ascribed to the principle by which they are ani- mated and which we possess in common with them. Whatever, on the contrary, seems peculiar to man, more especially the sense of right and wrong, which is the foundation of all morality, ought to be ascribed to the principle which it is our prerogative to possess.^ As to the connexion between the two, Telesius

1 De Rerum Natura, v. 2.

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decides " both on grounds of human reason and from the authority of Scripture " that they cannot be wliolly independent of each other, and he accordingly affirms that the divinely created soul is the Form of the whole body, and especially of the spiritus itself. That the soul is the Form of the body he could not without heresy deny,^ although he condemns Aristotle for saying so ; asserting that Aristotle refers to the spiritus, and not to the true soul, with which probably he was unac- quainted.'^ The tendency of these views is towards materialism; the immaterial principle being annexed to the system, as it were, ab extra. Accordingly Te- lesius's disciple Donius, whom Bacon has more than once referred to, omits it altogether.^

Comparing the views of Telesius with those of Bacon, we see that in both the duality of the soul is distinctly asserted, and that in both the animal soul is merely material.* Our knowledge of the divinely derived principle must rest principally on revelation. Let this knowledge be drawn, he counsels us, from the same fountain of inspiration from whence the substance of the soul itself proceeded.

Bacon rejects or at least omits Telesius's formula, that this higher soul is the Form of the body — a for- mula to which either in his system or that of Telesius no definite sense could be attached. He differs from

1 The collection known as the Clementines contains an authoritative de- cision on this point. " Ut quisque deinceps asserere defendere aut tenere pertinaciter prsesumpserit, quod anima rationalis non sit forma corporis hu- mani per se et esaentialiter tanquam hajreticus sit censendus." I quote from Vulpes on Duns Scotus, Disp. 46. a. 5. To this decision Telesius seems to allude, De Rer. Nat. v. 40. Campanella has expressly mentioned it

2 De Rer. Nat. v. 3.

* See his De Nat. Hominis.

* Proceeding e matricibus elementorum, De Augm. iv. 8.

THE PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS. 107

his predecessor in this also, that with him the spiritus is more a physiological and less a psychological hypoth- esis than with Telesius — it is at least less enwrapped in a psychological system than we find it in the De JRerum Naturd.

On the other hand, he has not, I think, recognised so distinctly as Telesius or Campanella the prmciple that to the rational soul alone is to be referred the idea of moral responsibility ; and the fine passage on the contrast of public and private good in the seventh book of the De Augmentis seems to show (if Bacon meant that the analogy on which it is based should be accepted as anj'-thing more than an illustration) that he con- ceived that something akin to the distinction of right and wrong is to be traced in the workings, conscious or unconscious, of all nature.

(16.) We are here led to mention another subject, on which again the views of Telesius appear to have in- fluenced those of Bacon. That all bodies are animated, that a principle of life pervades the whole universe, and that each portion, beside its participation in the life of the world, has also its proper vital principle, are doc- trines to which in the time of Bacon the majority of philosophical reformers were at least strongly inclined. The most celebrated work in which they are set forth is perhaps the De Sensu Rerum of Campanella. The share which it had in producing the misfortunes of his life is well known, and need not here be noticed.

In one of his letters to Thomasius,^ Leibnitz points

out how easy the transition is from the language which

the schoolmen held touching substantial forms and the

workings of nature to that of Campanella: " Ita reditur

1 P. 48. of Erdmann's edition of his philosophical works.

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•

ad tot deunculos quot formas sabstantiales et Gentilem prope polytheismum. Et certe omnes qui de siib- stantiis illis incorporalibus corporum loquuntur non possunt mentem suam explicare nisi translatione a Men- tibus sumpta. Hinc enim attributus illis appetitus vel instinctiis ille naturalis ex quo et sequitur cognitio nat- uralis, hinc illud axioma; Natura nihil facit frustra, omnis res fugit sui destructionem, similia similibus gaudent, materia appetit formam nobiliorem, et alia id genus. Quum tamen revera in natura nulla sit sapi- entia, nullus appetitus, ordo vero pulcher ex eo oriatur, quia est horologium Dei." To the censure implied in these remarks Aristotle is himself in some measure liable, seeing that he ascribed the various changes which go on around us to the half-conscious or uncon- scious workings of an indwelling power which pervades all things, and to which he gives the name of Nature. Nature does nothing in vain and of things possible realises the best, but she does not act with conscious prevision. She is, so to speak, the instinct of the uni- verse.

It is on account of these views that Bacon charges Aristotle with having set aside the doctrine of a prov- idence, by putting Nature in the place of God.^ Nev- ertheless Bacon himself thought it possible to explain large classes of phenomena by referring them, not cer- tainly to the workings of Nature, but to the instincts and appetites of individual bodies. His whole doctrine of simple motions is full of expressions which it is very difficult to understand without supposing that Bacon had for the time adopted the notion of universally dif- fused sensation. Th

1 De Aug. iii. 4.

THE PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS. ^ 109

virtue of which bodies, as delighting in mutual contact, will not suffer themselves to be separated. All bodies, we are told, abhor a solution of continuity, and the rising of cream is to be explained by the desire of homo- geneous elements for one another.

The distinction which Bacon has elsewhere taken between sensation and perception, which corresponds to Leibnitz's distinction between apperception and per- ception, does not appear to accord with these expres- sions. He there asserts that inanimate bodies have perception without sensation. But such words as dedre and horror imply not only a change worked in the body to which they are applied in virtue of the presence of another, but also a sense of that presence, — that is, in Bacon's language, not only perception but sensation.

The contrast between the expressions I have quoted and those of which he made use in other parts of his writings, is remarkable. In stating the doctrine of simple motions, he speaks as if all phenomena were to be explained by means of the desires and instincts of matter, every portion of which is more or less conscious- ly sentient. But in other passages we find what at first appears to be a wholly different view, namely that phenomena are to be explained by the site, form, and configuration of atoms or ultimate particles, capable neither of desire nor fear, and in all their motions simply fulfilling the primary law impressed on them by Providence.

Nevertheless there is here no real inconsistency. For Bacon, following Telesius, ascribed all the phenomena of animal life to the spiritus, which, though it is the subtlest portion of the body which it animates, is not- withstanding as truly material as any other part. In

110 GENERAL PREFACE TO

every body, whether animated or not, dwells a portion of spirit, and it was natural therefore to ascribe to it some share of the powers which the more finely consti- tuted spirits of animals were supposed to possess. How far however this analogy between animate and inani- mate bodies ought to be carried, was a doubtful ques- tion ; and we need not be surprised to find that Bacon sometimes denies and sometimes appears to admit that the latter as well as the former are, to a certain extent at least, consciously sentient. But in all cases he pro- posed to explain the phenomena of animal life by means of the ultimate constitution of matter. Thus such phenomena as the rising of cream, the subsidence of the lees of wine, the clinging of gold leaf round the finger, &c., were to be explained in the first instance by the instincts and appetites of portions of matter, and afterwards to receive a deeper and more funda- mental explanation when these instincts and appetites were themselves shown to result from the site, form, and configuration of the ultimate particles of which all bodies are composed.

To the doctrine of universally diffused sensation, so far as he adopted it, Bacon was led by the writings of many of his contemporaries, and in particular by those of Telesius. Brucker has remarked, and with perfect truth, that this doctrine is stated as distinctly, though not so conspicuously, by Telesius as by Campanella. Added to which this doctrine serves to explain phenom- ena of which, without it, no explanation could readily be given. Thus Bacon is much disposed to ridicule Gilbert for the pains he had bestowed on the subject of electrical attraction, affirming that it is merely the result of the power which friction possesses to excite

THE PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS. Ill

the appetite of bodies for contact. This appetite " ae- rem non bene tolerat, sed aliud tangibile mavult."

(17.) Bacon's opinion as to Final Causes has often been discussed. It seems however scarcely necessary to refute the interpretation which on no just grounds has been given to the phrase, " causarum finaliura inquisitio tanquam virgo Deo consecrata nihil parit." ^ Nihil parit, as the context plainly shows, [means simply 7wn parit opera] ? Bacon is speaking of the classifica- tion of physics and metaphysics — the one being the science of the material and efficient cause, and the other containing two parts, namely the doctrine of forms and the doctrine of final causes. To physics corresponds in practical application mechanica or me- chanics— to metaphysics, magia or natural magic. But magia corresponds to metaphysique because the latter contains the doctrine of Forms ; that of final causes admitting from its nature of no practical appli- cation. It is this idea which Bacon has expressed by saying that the doctrine in question is, as it were, a consecrated virgin.

It is not sufficiently remarked that final causes have often been spoken of without any reference to a benev- olent intention. When it is said that the final cause of a stone's falling is " locus deorsum," the remark is at least but remotely connected with the doctrine of an intelligent providence. We are to remember that Ba- con has expressly censured Aristotle for having made use of final causes without referring to the fountain

1 De Augm. iii. 5. See note on the place. — J. 8.

2 I have supplied these words to complete the sentence, which ends ab- ruptly at the bottom of a page, a fresh page having apparently been substi- tuted for that which originally followed. — /. S.

112 GENERAL PREFACE TO

from which they flow^, namely the providence of the Creator. And in this censure he has found many to concur.

Again, in any case in which the benevolent intention can be perceived, we are at liberty to ask by what means and according to what laws this benevolent intention is manifested and made efficient. If this question is not to be asked, there is in the first place an end of physical science, so far as relates to every case in which a benevolent intention has been or can be recognised ; and in the second, the argument a posteri- ori founded on the contrivance displayed in the w^orks of creation is entirely taken away.

This is, in effiict, what Bacon says in the passage of the De Augmentis in which he complains of the abuse of final causes. If, he affirms, the physical cause of any phenomenon can be assigned as well as the final, so far is this from derogatino; from our idea of the di- vine wisdom, that on the contrary it does but confirm and exalt it. " Dei sapientia effulget mirabilius cum natura aliud agit, providentia aliud elicit, quam si sin- gulis schematibus et motibus naturalibus providentiae characteres essent impressi." ^ And a little farther on he expresses an opinion which we shall do well always to remember, namely that so far is the study of phys- ical causes from withdrawing men from God and provi- dence, that on the contrary those who have occupied themselves in searching them out have never been able to find the end of the matter without having recourse at length to the doctrine of divine providence.

In one respect Bacon seems to have overlooked the advantage which is to be derived from the study of 1 De Aug. iii. 4.

THE PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS. 113

final causes. In the sciences which relate to animal and vegetable life, the conviction that every part of the organisation has its appropriate function which con- duces to the well-being of the whole, serves not only to direct our thoughts to the wisdom of the Creator, but also to guide our investigation into the nature of the organisation itself.

(18.) It will now, I think, be well to attempt to arrange the fundamental ideas of Bacon's system in the order in which, as we may conceive, they presented themselves to his mind. To do this will necessarily involve some degree of repetition ; but it will enable us to form a better idea of the scope and spirit of his philosophy.

When, at the outset of his philosophical life, he looked round on the visible universe, it would seem that to him the starry heavens, notwithstanding the grandeur of the spectacle they present to us, were of less interest than things on earth. The stars in their courses declare the glory of God ; but, excepting the great lights which rule the day and night, they exert no conspicuous influence on the welfare of mankind. And on the other hand it is certain that we can in no- wise affect the causes by which these phenomena are produced. But on the earth beneath, and in the waters under the earth. Nature is perpetually working in ways which it is conceivable that we may be able to imitate, and in which the beneficence of the Creator, wherein His glory is to us chiefly visible, is everywhere to be traced. Wherever we turn, we see the same spectacle of unceasing and benevolent activity. From the seed of corn Nature developes the stalk, the blade,

VOL. I. 8

114 GENERAL PREFACE TO

and the ear, and superinduces on the yet immature produce the qualities which make it fit for the suste- nance of man. And so, too, animal life is developed from its first rudiments to all the perfection which it is capable of attaining. And though this perfection is necessarily transitory, yet Nature, though she cannot perpetuate the individual, yet continues the species by unceasing reproduction.

But the contemplation of God's works, glorious as they are, is not the whole of man's business here on earth. For in losing his first estate he lost the domin- ion over the creatures which was its highest privilege, and ever since has worn out few and evil days, exposed to want, sickness, and death. His works have all been vanity and vexation of spirit, his labour nearly profit- less, his knowledge for the most part useless. Is his condition altogether hopeless, or may it not be possible to soften, though not to set aside, the effects of the primal curse ? To this question Bacon unhesitatingly made answer, that of His great mercy God would bless our humble endeavours to restore to suffering human- ity some part at least of what it had lost ; and thus he has more than once described the instauration of the sciences as an attempt to regain, so far as may be, that of which the Fall deprived us.

A deep sense of the misery of mankind is visible throughout his writings. The principal speaker in the Redargutio Philosophiarum, and the son [father] of Solomon's House in the New Atlantis^ both express Bacon's idea of what the philosopher ought to be ; and of both it is said that their countenance was as the countenance of one who pities men. Herein we see the reason why Bacon has oflen been called an utili-

THE PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS. 115

tarian ; not because lie loved truth less than others, but because he loved men more.

The philosopher is therefore not merely to contem- plate the works of the Creator, but also to employ the knowledge thus obtained for the rehef of man's estate. If we ask how this is to be done, we find. Bacon tells us (and here he still seems to recur to the idea that the new philosophy is to be in some sort a restoration to man of his original condition), that as no one can enter into the kingdom of heaven "nisi sub persona infantis," so, too, in order to obtain a real and fruitful insight into Nature, it is necessary to become as a little child, to abnegate received dogmas and the idols by which the mind is most easily beset, and then to follow with childlike singleness of purpose the indications which Nature gives us as to how her operations are per- formed. For we can command Nature only by obeying her ; nor can Art avail anything except as Nature's handmaiden. We can affect the conditions under which Nature works ; but things artificial as well as things natural are in reality produced not by Art but Nature. Our power is merely based upon our knowledge of the procedure which Nature follows. She is never really thwarted or controlled by our oper- ations, though she may be induced to depart from her usual course, and under new and artificial conditions to produce new phenomena and new substances.

Natural philosophy, considered from this point of view, is therefore only an answer to the question. How does Nature work in the production of phenomena ? When, to take a trivial instance, she superinduces yel- lowness on the green leaf, or silently and gradually transforms ice into crystal, we ask how are these

116 GENERAL PREFACE TO

changes brought about ? — what conditions are neces- sary and sufficient in order that the phenomena we observe may be engendered ? If we knew what these conditions are, we might ourselves be able to determine their existence, and then the corresponding phenomena would necessarily follow, since the course of Nature is absolutely uniform.

At this point of the development of Bacon's system, the question of method would naturally present itself to him. Having determined what the object of our inquiries is to be, we must endeavour to find a way of attaining it.

For this end Bacon, as we have seen, proposes to examine all the cases in which the phenomenon to be reproduced has been observed, and to note all the con- ditions which in each case accompany its production. Of all these those only can be necessary which are uni- versally concomitant. Again he proposes to observe all the cognate cases in which, though certain of the conditions before mentioned are present, they are not accompanied by the required phenomenon. By these two classes of observations all the superfluous condi- tions may be rejected, and those which remain are what we seek. Wherever we can determine their ex- istence we can produce the phenomenon in question.

This process is what Bacon calls, in Valerius Termi- nus^ the freeing of a direction, and in his later writings the investigation of the Form.

His thinking that this process would in all cases, or even generally, be successful, arose from his not hav- ing sufficiently appreciated the infinite variety and com- plexity of Nature. Thus he strongly condemns as most false and pernicious the common opinion that the num-

THE PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS. 117

ber of individual phenomena to be observed is sensibly infinite, and commends Democritus (a commendation which seems rather to belong to Lucretius) for having perceived that the appearance of limitless variety which the first aspect of Nature presents to us disappears on a closer inspection.

The transition from this view of Nature to the idea that it was possible to form an alphabet of the uni- verse, and to analyse all phenomena into their real elements, is manifestly easy.

By the new method of induction it would be possible to ascertain the conditions requisite and sufficient for the production of any phenomenon ; and as this de- termination was meant chiefly to enable us to imitate Nature, or rather to direct her operations, Bacon was naturally led to assume that the conditions in question would be such that it would in all cases be possible to produce them artificially. Now the power of man is limited to the relations of space. He brings bodies together, he separates them ; but Nature must do the rest. On the other hand the conditions of the exist- ence of any phenomenon must be something which in- heres more closely in the essence of the substance by which that phenomenon is exhibited than the phenome- non itself. And this something is clearly the inward configuration of the substance ; that is, the form and arrangement &c. of its ultimate particles. Whiteness, for instance, depends on an even arrangement of these particles in space ; and herein we perceive a perfect analogy between what man can do and what Nature requires to be done. The familiar processes of the arts consist simply in giving particular forms to portions of matter, in arranging them and setting them in motion

(

118 GENERAL PREFACE TO

according to certain rules. Between arranging stones 80 as to form a house, and arranging particles so as to produce whiteness, there is no difference but that of scale. So in other cases. The difference of scale once set aside, it seemed to follow that the knowledge of the Form would in all cases lead to great practical results.

Thus far of the end which the new philosophy proposes to itself, and of the method which it must employ. The next question relates to the mode of procuring and arranging the materials on which this method is to work. In this part of the subject we again perceive the influence of Bacon's opinion touch- ing the limitedness of Nature. No one acquainted with the history of natural philosophy would think it possible to form a collection of all the facts which are to be the materials on which any science is to operate, antecedently to the formation of the science itself.

In the first place, the observations necessary in order to the recognition of these facts would never have been made except under the guidance of some precon- ceived idea as to the subject of observation ; and in the second, the statement which embodies the result of ob- servation always involves some portion of theory. Ac- cording to the common use of language, it is a fact and not a theory that in ordinary refraction the sine of the angle of incidence is to the sine of the angle of refrac- tion in a given ratio. But the observations on which this statement is based, and the statement itself, presup- pose the recognition of a portion of the theory of light, namely that light is propagated in straight lines — in other words, they presuppose the conception of a ray. Nor would these observations have been made but for the idea in the mind of the observers that the magni-

THE PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS.

119

tude of the angle of refraction depends on that of the angle of incidence.

As we advance farther in any science, what we call facts involve more and more of theory. Thus it is a fact that the tangent of the angle of polarisation is equal to the index of refraction. But no one could have made the observations which prove it, or have stated their result in words, without a distinct concep- tion, first of the law of refraction, and secondly of the distinguishing character of polarised light.

The history of science and the nature of the case concur in showing that observation and theory must go on together; — it is impossible that the one can be completed before the other begins. Now although Bacon did not think that observation and experiments might altogether be laid aside when once the process of interpretation had begun (we see on the contrary that one of the works of Solomon's House was the trying of experiments suggested by previously obtained conclusions), he certainly thought it possible so to sever observation from theory that the process of col- lecting facts and that of deriving consequences from them might be carried on independently and by differ- ent persons. This opinion was based on an imperfect apprehension of the connexion between facts and the- ories ; the connexion appearing to him to be merely an external one, namely that the former are the ma- terials of the latter. With these views that which has been already noticed touching the finiteness of Nature, namely that there are but a finite and not very large number of things which for scientific purposes require to be observed,^ is altogether in accordance.

1 See the Phaenomena Universi, and the Partis secundas Del., &c.

120 GENERAL PREFACE TO

The facts on which the new philosophy was to be based, being conceivable apart from any portion of theory, and moreover not excessively numerous, they might be observed and recorded within a moderate length of time by persons of ordinary diligence.

If this registering of facts were made a royal work, it might. Bacon seems to have thought, be completed in a few years : he has at least remarked that unless this were done, the foundation of the new philosophy could not be laid in the lifetime of a single generation. The instauration, he has said in the general preface, is not to be thought of as something infinite and beyond the power of man to accomplish ; nor does he believe that its mission can be fully completed (rem omnino perfici posse) within the limits of a single life. Some- thing was therefore left for posterity to do ; and prob- ably the more Bacon meditated on the work he had in hand, the more was he convinced of its extent and difficulty. But the Distributio Operis sufficiently shows that he believed, when he wrote it, that the instaura^ tion of the sciences might speedily become an opus operatum. Of the ffistoria Naturalis on which it was to be based be there speaks, not less than of the Novum Organum^ as of a work which he had himself accom- plished, — " Tertia pars operis complectitur Phaenom- ena Universi," — not " complecti debet." Doubtless the preface was written before the work itself was commenced ; still if he had not thought it possible to make good what he here proposes to do, he would have expressly said so.^

1 The sixth part, containing the new philosophy itself, is spoken of at tho end of the Distributio as at least an inchoate work, which others naust finish, but to which he hopes to give " initia non coutemueudo."

THE PHILOSOPHICAL WOKKS. 121

In a letter to Fulgenzio, written probably when Ba- con was "dagli anni e da fortuna oppresso," he remarks that " these things " (the instauration of the sciences) require some ages for the ripening of them. But though he despaired of completing his design himself, and even thought that some generations- must pass be- fore it received its consummation, yet he always re- garded it as a thing which sooner or later would be effectually accomphshed, and which would thenceforth remain as a KTrjixa es dct. His instauration of the sciences had a definite end, in which when it was once attained it would finally acquiesce ; nor is there anything in his writings to countenance the assumption which has been often made, that in his opinion the onward progress of knowledge was to continue throughout all time. On the contrary, the knowledge which man is capable of might, he thought, be attained, not certainly at once, but within the compass of no very long period. In this doubtless he erred ; for knowledge must always continue to be imperfect, and therefore in its best es- tate progressive.

Bacon has been likened to the prophet who from Mount Pisgah surveyed the Promised Land, but left it for others to take possession of. Of this happy image perhaps part of the felicity was not perceived by its author. For though Pisgah was a place of large pros- pect, yet still the Promised Land was a land of defi- nite extent and known boundaries, and moreover it was certain that after no long time the chosen people would be in possession of it all. And this agrees with what Bacon promised to himself and to mankind from the instauration of the sciences.

A truer image of the progress of knowledge may

122 GENERAL PREFACE TO

be derived from the symbol which, though on other grounds, Bacon himself adopted. Those who strive to increase our knowledge of the outward universe may be said to put out upon an apparently boundless sea : they dedicate themselves

'' To impathed waters — undreamed shores ; "

and though they have a good hope of success, yet they know they can subdue but a small part of the new world which lies before them.

(19.) In this respect then, as in others, the hopes of Francis Bacon were not destined to be fulfilled. It is neither to the technical part of his method nor to the details of his view of the nature and prog- ress of science that his great fame is justly owing. His merits are of another kind. They belong to the spirit rather than to the positive precepts of his phi- losophy.

He did good service when he declared with all the weight of his authority and of his eloquence that the true end of knowledge is the glory of the Creator and the relief of man's estate. The spirit of this declara- tion runs throughout his writings, and we trust has worked for good upon the generations by which they have been studied. And as he showed his wisdom in coupling together things divine and human, so has he shown it also in tracing the demarcation between them, and in rebuking those who by confounding religion and philosophy were in danger of making the one heretical and the other superstitious.

When, not long before Bacon's time, philosophy freed itself from the tutelage of dogmatic theology, it became a grave question how their respective claims

THE PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS. 123

P

^m to authority might be most fitly co-ordinated. It was H to meet, perhaps rather to evade, this question, that H the distinction between that which is true in philos- ophy and that which is true in religion was proposed and adopted. But it is difficult to believe that the mind of any sincere and truth-loving man was sat- isfied by this distinction. Bacon has emphatically condemned it. " There is," he affirms, " no such opposition between God's word and his works." Both come from Him who is the father of lights, the foun- tain of all truth, the author of all good ; and both are therefore to be studied with diligence and humility. To those who wish to discourage philosophy in order that ignorance of second causes may lead men to refer all things to the immediate agency of the first. Bacon puts Job's question, "An oportet mentiri pro Deo," — will you offer to the God of truth the unclean sacrifice of a lie ?

The religious earnestness of Bacon's writings be- comes more remarkable when we contrast it with the tone of the most illustrious of his contemporaries. Galileo's works are full of insincere deference to au- thority and of an affected disbelief in his own discov- eries. Surely he who loves truth earnestly will be slow to believe that the cause of truth is to be served by irony. But we must not forget the difference be- tween the circumstances in which the two men were placed.

Next to his determination of the true end of natural philosophy and of the relation in which it stands to nat- ural and to revealed theology, we may place among Bacon's merits his clear view of the essential unity of science. He often insists on the importance of this

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idea, and has especially commended Plato and Par- menides for affirming " that all things do by scale ascend to unity." The Creator is holy in the multi- tude of his works, holy in their disposition, holy in their unity : it is the prerogative of the doctrine of Forms to approach as nearly as possible towards the unity of Nature, and the subordinate science of Physics ought to contain two divisions relating to the same subject. One of these ought to treat of the first principles which govern all phenomena, and the other of the fabric of the universe.^ All classifi- cations of the sciences ought to be as veins or mark- ings, and not as sections or divisions ; nor can any object of scientific inquiry be satisfactorily studied apart from the analogies which connect it with other similar objects.

But the greatest of all the services which Bacon rendered to natural philosophy was, that he perpetu- ally enforced the necessity of laying aside all pre- conceived opinions and learning to be a follower of Nature. These counsels could not to their full extent be followed, nor has he himself attempted to do so. But they contain a great share of truth, and of truth never more needful than in Bacon's age. Before his time doubtless the authority of Aristotle, or rather that of the scholastic interpretation of his philosophy, was shaken, if not overthrown. Nevertheless the sys- tematising spirit of the schoolmen still survived, and of the reformers of philosophy not a few attempted to substitute a dogmatic system of their own for that from which they dissented.

Nor were these attempts unsuccessful. For men

i The latter is in effect what ia now called Kosmos.

THE PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS. 125

still leaned upon authority, and accepted as a test of truth the appearance of completeness and scien- tific consistency. This state of things was one of transition ; and probably no one did more towards putting an end to it than Bacon. To the dealers in systems and to their adherents he opposed the solemn declaration, that they only who come in their own name will be received of men. He constantly exhorted the seeker after truth to seek it in intercourse with Nature, and has repeatedly professed that he was no founder of a sect or school. He condemned the arrogance of those who thought it beneath the dignity of the philosopher to dwell on matters of observation and experiment, and reminded them that the sun " aeque palatia et cloacas ingreditur ; nee tamen pol- luitur." We do not, he continues, erect or dedicate to human pride a capitol or a pyramid; we lay the foundations in the mind of man of a holy temple, whereof the exemplar is the universe. Throughout his writings the rejection of systems and authority is coupled with the assertion, that it is beyond all things necessary that the philosopher should be an humble fol- lower of Nature. One of the most remarkable parts of the Novum Organum is the doctrine of Idola. It is an attempt to classify according to their origin the false and ill-defined notions by which the mind is commonly beset. They come, he tells us, from the nature of the human mind in general, from the pecu- liarities of each man's individual mind, from his inter- course with other men, from the formal teaching of the received philosophies. All these must be re- nounced and put away, else no man can enter into the kingdom which is to be founded on the knowl-

126 GENERAL PREFACE TO

edge of Nature.^ Of the four kinds of idols Mersenne has spoken in his VSritS des Sciences, published in 1625, as of the four buttresses of the Organum of Verulam. This expression, though certainly inaccu- rate, serves to show the attention which in Bacon's time was paid to his doctrine of idola.'^

His rejection of syllogistic reasoning in the proposed process for the establishment of axioms, was not without utility. In the middle ages and at the reform of phi- losophy the value of the syllogistic method was unduly exalted. Bacon was right in denying that it was possi- ble to establish by a summary process and a priori the first principles of any science, and thence to deduce by syllogism all the propositions which that science could contain ; and though he erred in rejecting deductive reasoning altogether, this error could never have ex- erted any practical influence on the progress of science, while the truth with which it was associated was a truth of which his contemporaries required at least to be reminded. The reason of his error seems to have been that he formed an incorrect idea of the nature of syllogism, regarding it rather as an entirely artificial process than as merely a formal statement of the steps necessarily involved in every act of reasoning. How- ever this may be, it is certain that whenever men attempted to set aside every process for the discovery of truth except induction, they must always have been led to recognise the impossibility of doing so.

Lastly, the tone in which Bacon spoke of the future destiny of mankind fitted him to be a leader of the age

1 Nov. Org. i. 68. The word idolon is used by Bacon in antithesis to idea. He does not mean by it an idol or false object of worship.

2 Comoare Gassendi, Inst. Log.

THE PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS. 127

in which he lived. It was an age of change and of hope. Men went forth to seek in new-found worlds for the land of gold and for the fountain of youth ; they were told that yet greater wonders lay within their reach. They had burst the bands of old au- thority ; they were told to go forth from the cave where they had dwelt so long, and look on the light of heaven. It was also for the most part an age of faith; and the new philosophy upset no creed, and pulled down no altar. It did not put the notion of human perfectibility in the place of religion, nor de- prive mankind of hopes beyond the grave. On the contrary, it told its followers that the instauration of the sciences was the free gift of the God in whom their fethers had trusted — that it was only another proof of the mercy of Him whose mercy is over all his works.

PHILOSOPHICAL WOKKS

PAET L

WORKS PUBLISHED, OR DESIGNED FOR PUBLICATION, AS PARTS OF THE INSTAURATIO MAGNA ;

AKRANGED ACCORDING TO THE ORDER IN WHICH THEY WERE WRITTEN.

Consilium est universum opus Instaurationis potius promovere in multis quam perficere in paucis ; iioc perpetuo maximo cum ardore (qualem Deus mentibus ut plane confidimus addere solet) appetentes ; ut quod adhuc nunquam tentatum sit id ne jam frustra tentetur. — Auctoris Monitum, 1622.

NOVUM ORGANUM.

NOTE.

Mr. Ellis's preface to the Novum Organum was written when he was travelling abroad and had not his books of reference about him. He was at work upon it the night he was taken ill at Men- tone, and was not afterwards able either to finish or to revise it. I have added a page or two at the end, by which the analysis of the first book is completed. Of the second book it was not neces- sary to say anything ; the subject of it being Bacon's method^ which has been fully discussed in the General