PREFACE. THIS Volume contains the two last books of the treatise" De Augmentis," and the "Novum Organum." In the year 1605 Lord Bacon, in the Advancement of Learning, divided knowledge respecting the Mind of Man, into the understanding and the will.* Knowledge respecting the understanding he divided into Invention, Judgment, Memory, Tradition.+ "Man's labour is to invent that which is sought or propounded; or to judge that which is invented; or to retain that which is judged; or to deliver over that which is retained. So as the arts must be four; art of inquiry or invention: art of examination or judgment; art of custody or memory; and art of elocution or tradition."† Under the head of Invention, after having explained the deficience of the Art of Invention, which," he says, " seemeth to me to be such a deficience as if, in the making of an inventory touching * See vol. ii. p. VOL. IX. 173. † See vol. ii.1 6. 46490 the estate of a defunct, it should be set down, of ready money nothing for as money will fetch all other commodities, so this knowledge is that which should purchase all the rest. And like as the WestIndies had never been discovered, if the use of the mariner's needle had not been first discovered, though the one be vast regions and the other a small motion; so it cannot be found strange if sciences be no farther discovered, if the art itself of invention and discovery hath been passed over." He then adds, "This part of invention, concerning the invention of sciences, I purpose, if God give me leave, hereafter to propound, having digested it into two parts; whereof the one I term " Experientia Literata," and the other " Interpretatio Naturæ:" the former being but a degree and rudiment of the latter. But I will not dwell too long, nor speak too great upon a promise."† The Novum Organum was published, imperfect and incomplete, in the year 1620, when Lord Bacon was Chancellor. The reasons for the publication at that period are stated in his letter to the King: "And the reason, why I have published it now, specially being unperfect, is, to speak plainly, because I number my days, and would have it saved. There is another reason of my so doing, which is to try, whether I can get help in one intended part of this work, namely, the compiling of a natural and experimental history, which must be the main foun Advancement of Learning, vol. ii. p. 176 + Advancement of Learning, vol. ii. 182. dation of a true and active philosophy."(x)-Such are the causes assigned by Lord Bacon, each deserving a separate consideration. The first of these two reasons is " because I number my days, and would have it saved." The meaning of this cannot be mistaken. Bacon was born in the year 1560. His health was always delicate. Etiam, he says, nonnihil hominibus spei fieri putamus ab exemplo nostro proprio ; neque jactantiæ causâ hoc dicimus, sed quòd utile dictu sit. Si qui diffidant, me videant, hominem inter homines ætatis meæ civilibus negotiis occupatissimum, nec firmâ admodum valetudine (quod magnum habet temporis dispendium), atque in hâc re planè protopirum, et vestigia nullius secutum, neque hæc ipsa cum ullo mortalium communicantem; et tamen veram viam constantèr ingressum, et ingenium rebus submittentem, hæc ipsa aliquatenùs (ut existimamus) provexisse. (a) In the year 1617, when he was fifty-seven years of age, the great seals were offered to him. Unmindful of the feebleness of his constitution; un(x) Postea, xii. (a) "We judge also that mankind may conceive some hopes from our example, which we offer, not by way of ostentation, but because it may be useful. If any one therefore should despair, let him consider a man as much employed in civil affairs as any other of his age, a man of no great share of health, who must therefore have lost much time, and yet, in this undertaking, he is the first that leads the way, unassisted by any mortal, and steadfastly entering the true path, that was absolutely untrod before, and submitting his mind to things, may somewhat have advanced the design."-Shaw's Translation. |