citatio,' published by Rawley in 1657, one piece occurs which may be reckoned among Bacon's Philosophical Writings, his Letter and Discourse to Sir Henry Savill touching Helps for the Intellectual Powers.'

In 1658 Rawley published a collection of Bacon's Posthumous Works, under the title of Opuscula Varia Posthuma, Philosophica, Civilia, et Theologica, Francisci Baconis, &c,, nunc primum edita;' which contained several philosophical treatises not previously printed, and also more perfect copies of some of those edited by Gruter.

A tract in English entitled Articles of Enquiry touching Metals,' &c., appeared along with an edition of the 'Sylva Sylvarum' in 1662; the publisher, William Lee, who is the same by whom all the editions both of the Sylva and of the Resuscitatio had been brought out, stating at the end that he had received it some months before from Rawley corrected for the press. And perhaps a few other short discourses may have first got abroad at various times in similar pamphlets, which are now unknown or difficult to be procured. "If it be objected,"

says Rawley, in his Preface to the First Part of the Resuscitatio, "that some few of the pieces whereof this whole consisteth had visited the public light before, it is true that they had been obtruded to the world by unknown hands, but with such scars and blemishes upon their faces that they could pass but for a spurious and adulterine brood, and not for his lordship's legitimate issue; and the publishers and printers of them deserve to have an action of defamation brought against them by the State of Learning for disgracing and personating his Lordship's works."

Of Archbishop Tenison's collection, entitled Baconiana, or Certain Genuine Remains of Sir Francis Bacon, &c., now the first time faithfully published,' which appeared in 1679, one division consists of Physiological Remains,' or 'Arguments appertaining to Natural Philosophy,' and another of Medical Remains.'

Finally, a few additions were made to this portion of Bacon's works by the publication, in 1734, of Letters

and Remains of the Lord Chancellor Bacon; collected by Robert Stephens, Esq., late Historiographer Royal; ' or, as the title runs in the second edition, published' in 1736,Letters, Memoirs, Parliamentary Affairs, State Papers, &c., with some curious pieces in Law and Philosophy; published from the Originals of the Lord Chancellor Bacon.' This is commonly called Stephens's second collection; his first, published in 1702, being entitled 'Letters of Sir Francis Bacon, &c., now collected, with an Historical Introduction;' or, in the second edi tion, published in 1736, Original Letters and Memoirs, written by the Lord Chancellor Bacon during the reign of King James I. . collected and published, with remarks, by Robert Stephens, Esq., late Historiographer Royal: to which is prefixed a large Historical Introduction.'

SECTION I.

PROLEGOMENA TO THE INSTAURATIO MAGNA.

THE Novum Organum,' or Second Part of the Instauratio, when first published in 1620, was accompanied, as has been stated above, by certain preliminary announcements, which, however, were evidently intended to be introductory to the entire Instauratio Magna. They are four in number, and are eminently deserving of our attention before entering upon the perusal of the work which they precede and usher in.

First there presents itself a brief but solemn and striking proclamation of the general design of the work, headed, Franciscus de Verulamio sic cogitavit, talemque apud se rationem instituit; quam viventibus et posteris notam fieri ipsorum interesse putavit' (Francis of Verulam thus thought, and proceeded in considering things in his own mind after this manner; which he deemed that it concerned both his contemporaries and posterity that they should be made acquainted with). It commences thus, to adopt a translation slightly modified from the old one by Gilbert Wats, which, although disfigured by some affectation or pedantry, is both closer to the original and more expressive than that of Dr. Shaw: Seeing it was manifest to him that the human understanding creates itself much trouble, nor makes an apt and sober use of such aids as are within the command of man; from whence infinite ignorance of things, and from the ignorance of things innumerable disadvantages; his opinion was, that with all our industry we should endeavour, if haply that same commerce of the mind and of things (than which a greater blessing can hardly be found upon earth, at least among earthly felicities) might by any means be entirely

restored, or at least brought to terms of nearer correspondence." This, then, we are to keep in remembrance, is the great purpose of the author :-to restore, or rather to establish that "commercium mentis et rerum," -that direct intercourse between the mind and thingsby which alone he conceives we can ever rightly understand and turn to proper account the natural forces and capabilities by which we are surrounded.

He goes on to observe that he had no hope at all that the prevailing errors would rectify themselves, either by the inherent power of the understanding or by the aid of dialectic, or logic; because the primary notions which the mind was wont almost passively and supinely to drink in, and from which all others spring, were unsound, confused, and rashly abstracted from the realities to which they relate; while there was the like luxuriant variety and inconstancy in the second and sequent notions; so that it came to pass that the whole system of reasoning which men employed in the inquisition of nature was not well put together and built up, but was merely a showy pile without any sound foundation. For, whilst men admired and celebrated the imaginary powers of the mind, her true faculties, such as they might be made, if due aids were made use of by her, and she were to carry herself complyingly towards things instead of insulting over them, were passed over and allowed to lie unused.

"This one way, therefore," he concludes, "remaineth, that the whole business be attempted anew with better preparations, or defences against error; and that there be a universal INSTAURATION, or re-construction, of the arts and sciences, and of all human learning, upon a due basis." That is the meaning of the word Instauratio : it was used by the Romans for the repetition of anything; and generally with a special view to correctness or completeness of performance; as, for instance, of games or sacrifices of which the first performance had been unsatisfactory. It is properly a building up, and is nearly the same thing with a restoration.

Of what remains of this preliminary intimation of the

design of the Instauratio the following are the most remarkable passages:-" It does not escape him how untrodden and solitary is the way of this experiment, and how hard it may be for him to win belief in its practicability. Nevertheless, he thought that he ought not to desert either the undertaking or himself, but should at least make trial of entering upon the road which alone is pervious and penetrable to the mind of man.

And being uncertain when these things might hereafter come into any other mind, led principally by this consideration that he had heard of no one hitherto who had applied himself to such cogitations, he determined to publish by themselves such portions of his design as he had been enabled first to finish. Assuredly he

esteemed any other ambition whatsoever as inferior to what he had thus taken in hand; for this which is here treated of either is nothing, or is so great that he may well be contented with the merit of that alone and seek for nought beyond it."

Then follows a Dedication to the King, James I. This address can in strictness be understood as referring only to the Novum Organum, which alone accompanied it when it first appeared; but it is sufficiently applicable also to the whole of the Instauratio Magna. What Bacon proposed as his new method, although recommended and illustrated in other parts of the Instauratio, is only formally propounded or explained in the Novum Organum. It is there that what he conceives to be the novelty of his general views or principles is chiefly to be found. In any circumstances, therefore, his preparatory observations on his main design would have had a special reference to that part of the work.

What he offers, he tells his majesty, is at least altogether new; new in its very kind; yet copied, he adds, from a very ancient original, namely, from the world itself and the nature of things and of the human mind. He has himself been accustomed to esteem the work as the offspring rather of time than of wit; for the only thing wonderful in it is, that the first conception of the truths it contains, and such strong suspicions respecting