curious to be acquainted with their acknowledgments, but we can only gratify them with the Oxford reception.

"Francis, Baron of Verulam, Viscount of St. Alban, to the most famous College of the holy and undivided Trinity, in Cambridge, Health.

"The progress of things, together with themselves, are to be ascribed to their originals. Wherefore, seeing I have derived from your fountains my first beginnings in the sciences, I thought it fit to repay to you the increases of them. I hope, also, it may so happen that these things of ours may the more prosperously thrive among you, being replanted in their native soil. Therefore, I likewise exhort you, that ye yourselves, so far as is consistent with all due modesty and reverence to the ancients, be not wanting to the advancement of the sciences: but that, next to the study of those sacred volumes of God, the holy Scriptures, ye turn over that great volume of the works of God, his creatures, with the utmost diligence, and before all other books, which ought to be looked on only as commentaries on those texts. Fare ye well."

"To the indulgent Mother, the famous University of Cambridge, Health.

"I here repay you, according to my ability, the debts of a son. I exhort you also to do the same thing with myself: that is, to set your whole might towards the advancement of the sciences, and to retain freedom of thought together with humility of mind; and not to suffer the talent which the ancients have deposited with you to lie dead in a napkin. Doubtless the favour of the divine light will be present and shine amongst you, if philosophy being submitted to religion, you lawfully and dexterously use the keys of sense; and if, all study of opposition being laid aside, every one of you so dispute with another as if he were arguing with himself. Fare ye well."

"To the famous University of Oxford, Health.

"Since I have written to my indulgent mother the famous University of Cambridge, I should be wanting in respect were I not to offer a similar token of my affection to her sister. But as I have exhorted them, so do I now exhort you, strenuously to exert yourselves in the advancement of learning; and instead of imagining, that by the labours of the ancients, nothing or every thing has been attained, to reflect with humility upon your own powers, and aid their discoveries by your experience. The event must be prosperous, if, instead of mutually attacking each other, you unite your forces against the strong-holds of This will afford you ample scope for honour and for victory. Fare ye well."

nature.

The following is the reply of Oxford; and that part of the heading, which is between brackets, was omitted by Tenison himself.

"Most noble and [what in nobility is next to a miracle] most learned Viscount. "Your honour could have given nothing more agreeable, and the University could have received nothing more acceptable, than the sciences; and those sciences which she formerly sent forth poor, of low stature, unpolished, she hath received elegant, tall, and by the supplies of your wit, by which alone they could have been advanced, most rich in dowry. She esteemeth it an extraordinary favour to have a return with usury made of that by a stranger, (if so near a relation may be called a stranger,) which she bestows as a patrimony upon her children; and she readily acknowledgeth that though the muses are born in Oxford, they grow elsewhere: grown they are under your pen, who, like some mighty Hercules in learning, have by your own hand further advanced those pillars in the learned world, which by the rest of that world were supposed immovable.

"We congratulate you, you most accomplished combatant, who by your most diligent patronage of the virtues of others have overcome other patrons, and by your own writings, yourself. For by the eminent height of your honour, you advanced only learned men; now at last (oh ravishing prodigy!) you have also advanced learning itself.

"The ample munificence of this gift lays a burden upon your clients, in the receiving of which we have the honour, but in the enjoying of it the emolument will descend to late posterity; if, therefore, we are not able of ourselves to return sufficient and suitable thanks, our nephews of the next age ought to give their assistance, and pay the remainder, if not to yourself, to the honour of your name. Happy they, but we how much more happy, &c. to whom you were pleased to do the honour of sending a letter written by no other than by your own hand; to whom you have pleased to send the clearest instructions for reading, (your work,) and for concord in our studies, in the front of your book; as if it were a small thing for your Lordship to enrich the muses out of your own stock, unless you taught them also a method of getting wealth. Wherefore, this most accurate pledge of your understanding has been with the most solemn reverence received in a very full congregation, both by the doctors and masters; and that which the common vote hath placed in our public library, every single person has gratefully deposited in his memory. Your Lordship's most devoted servant, The University of Oxford."

We now come to the second part of the "Great Work," the Novum Organum Scientiarum, which appeared in 1620, and was dedicated to the king. On presenting a copy to his Majesty, he thought fit to accompany it with some " private lines;" and this letter of the 12th October, 1620, was intended to "seek access" for the work, "not so much to his person, as to his judgment." The " private lines" are the best and most interesting account of it. "The work, in what colours soever it may be set forth, is no more but a new logic, teaching to invent and judge by induction, as finding syllogism incompetent for sciences of nature; and thereby to make philosophy more true and active." As it tended “to enlarge the bounds of reason, and to endow man's estate with new value," he thought it was no improper oblation to a king. The merit of this small book is mightily enhanced, when he informs his illustrious correspondent, that he "had been about such work near thirty years.” One reason of his publishing it, before completing his vast design, was the precarious state of his health—" to speak plainly, because I number my days, and would have it saved;" and another reason for ushering it into the world by itself, was his desire to obtain assistance, and royal assistance too, in the execution of an indispensable work-" to try whether I can get help in one intended part of this work, namely, the compiling a natural and experimental history, which must be the main foundation of a true and active philosophy." This short sentence was fraught with a volume of discovery. He thought his Majesty's favour to this work would be " as much as an hundred years' time." His assurance that this "portion of the work" would last, even if the whole were not completed by him, is perfect-" for I am persuaded the work will gain upon men's minds with ages;" and he stamps it with immortality, when with blended modesty and dignity, he describes it to be "a work not meant for praise or glory, but for practice and the good of men." "One thing" he was ambitious of, and he was ambitious of this one thing" with hope," and it was a memorable ambition to indulge in, when the ardent philosopher felt the weight of declining years," that after these beginnings, and the wheel once set agoing, men shall seek more truth out of christian pens, than hitherto they have done out of heathen;" and this he confesses he was ambitious of" with hope ""I say with hope, because I hear my former book of the Advancement of Learning is well tasted in the universities here, and abroad; and this is the same argument sunk deeper."

The "private lines" thus addressed to the king, whom he styled "the greatest master of reason, and author of beneficence," on earth, were acknowledged on the 16th October,

in a very gracious and sensible epistle, declaring the book " a most acceptable present," and his "firm resolution to read it through with care and attention;" and assuring the author, "that he could not have made choice of a subject more befitting his place, and his methodical and universal knowledge."

This "gracious acceptance" of the book was, of course, a " singular comfort" to the chancellor; and on the 19th October, he thanked his Majesty for his condescension in a splendid letter. As the king, however, had carefully avoided all reference to the "help" he had solicited, Bacon adroitly availed himself of" this comfortable beginning," to renew his application" to be aiding to him to set men on work for the collecting of a natural and experimental history," gravely tempting him with the pleasures of science; and he expresses a hope that " many noble inventions would be discovered for man's use," in the king's times; "for who can tell, now that this mine of truth is opened, how the veins go; and what lieth higher, and what lieth lower?" But the complimentary turn at the commencement of this letter is worthy of the " Wisdom of the ancients," where after comparing the king to a star, and quoting the famous "astrum Cæsaris" of Virgil, he thus evolves the application" This work, which is for the bettering of men's bread and wine, which are the characters of temporal blessings, and sacraments of eternal, I hope, by God's holy providence, will be ripened by Cæsar's star."

Passing by the other presentation epistles, it will be seen from an early letter to Mr. Matthew, who was anxious to smooth down impediments to his friend's scheme, that some portion of this part of the work was finished in October 1609. The "churchmen" were not, in Matthew's opinion, to be unnecessarily ruffled, and "church matters" were not to be disturbed. Bacon knew that " churchmen," political churchmen, were not to be conciliated, and therefore did his best not to offend them. These " impediments," the political "churchmen," were the same all over the world, and freedom of thought must necessarily be obnoxious to them. Touch their power, and you touch them; and whatever might have been their diversities of doctrine or politics, and wherever the attempt might have been made, the shock is universally felt and resented. If the Novum Organum had been published at Rome instead of London, its author would have been handed over to the Inquisition. The Jesuits, the schoolmen, the political churchmen, had formed an alliance, offensive and defensive, with the mighty shade of Aristotle; and to this day they have never forgiven the Verulam for casting him out,-to this day the Novum Organum is a branded and forbidden book by the Vatican. Mr. Matthew was an exile at the time on account of his identification with this class of men. Bacon thus alludes to his "caution "-"For your caution as to churchmen and church matters, as for any impediment it might be to the applause and celebrity of my work, it moveth me not; but as it may hinder the fruit and good part which it is bound, I hold it a just respect, so as to fetch a fair wind I go not far about. But the truth is that I at all have no occasion to meet them in my way, except it be as they will needs confederate themselves with Aristotle, who, you know, is intemperately magnified by the schoolmen; and is also allied, as I take it, to the Jesuits by Faber, who was a companion of Loyola, and a great Aristotelian." The "part" sent with this letter showed "that the question between him and the ancients, was not of the virtue of the race, but of the rightness of the way." We must not omit an amusing comparison-" Other matters I write not of; myself am like the miller of Grancester, that was wont to pray for peace amongst the willows; for while the winds blew, the wind-mills wrought and the water-mill was less customed. So I see that controversies of religion must hinder the advancement of sciences."

In another beautiful letter to Matthew, after confessing his desires to be "that his writings should not count the present time or some few places in such sort as might make them either less general to persons or less permanent in future ages," he says, " As to the

Instauration, your so fall approbation thereof I read with much comfort, by how much more my heart is upon it, and by how much less I expected consent and concurrence in a matter so obscure. Of this I can assure you, that though many things of great hope decay with youth, and multitude of civil businesses is wont to diminish the price, though not the delight, of contemplation, yet the proceeding in that work doth gain with me upon my affection and desire, both by years and businesses. And therefore I hope even by this, that it is wellpleasing to God, from whom and to whom all good moves."

In his letter to Bishop Andrews, in 1622, he speaks of this work as that which he "did most esteem," and declared his intention of proceeding with the "new parts thereof." But this design was never accomplished.

It should be observed, that the several tracts which are now prefixed to the De Augmentis, formed the introductory tracts of the Novum Organum; and this arrangement was not altered by the author himself, when he published the former work. But there can be no doubt, that the transfer was judiciously made, and is still properly retained; because the tracts in question were merely advertisements to the Great Instauration, and not to that part of it to which they were first prefixed, and Bacon has expressly declared that he intended the De Augmentis to serve as the basis or first part of that work, to which these tracts are simply preliminary. We have therefore, notwithstanding Mr. Montagu's caveat against it, preferred the old arrangement to that which he has thought proper to adopt; and we will proceed at once to a brief examination of the Instauratio Magna, in the order in which it stands. The Sic Cogitavit is the first of the small tracts, and fitly is it placed in the front. Franciscus de Verulamio sic cogitavit, talemque apud se rationem instituit; quam viventibus et posteris notam fieri, ipsorum interesse putavit. It is a brief and solemn announcement of the necessity of trying a "new way," and his motives for attempting it. Then comes the Præfatio, which, the reader will bear in mind, is not the preface to the De Augmentis, but to the Instauration; and it contains the pith of the whole matter. He discusses the state of the sciences, discovers their low condition, and shows that a different way must be opened, and other aids procured, in order to advance them. This Preface is a master-piece of writing; and it unites, with a magical facility, all the graces of the florid style, with the most substantial matter-with thought the boldest, yet calm; the profoundest, yet clear; the most minute and subtle, yet comprehensive. Many things will the reader find in it which he will meet with elsewhere, but Bacon's repetitions of himself, like those of Demosthenes, are always improvements. In the appeal to the Deity, after expressing his convictions and announcing his plan, in this flowing and figurative manner, he uses the exquisite form of supplication (the Student's) already quoted, and concludes with some excellent "admonitions" respecting the limits of human reason, and some very fair requests touching the matter in hand. A thorough school-man must have read this Preface with more than admiration; and if he set down the writer for a madman, he must have been convinced of his inspiration.

The Distributio Operis contains the several divisions of the work, with the arguments of each division. The following are the six divisions or parts, into which it was proposed to distribute the Magna Instauratio.

I. Partitionis Scientiarum,—the Partition of Sciences.

II. Novum Organum, sive Indicia de Interpretatione Naturæ,-the New Organ, or Directions for the Interpretation of Nature.

III. Phænomena Universi, sive Historia Naturalis et Experimentalis ad condendam Philosophiam,-the Phenomena of the World, or Natural and Experimental History for the building up of Philosophy.

IV. Scala Intellectus,-the Ladder of the Understanding.

V. Prodromi, sive Anticipationes Philosophia Secundæ,-the Forerunners, or Anticipations of the Second Philosophy.

VI. Philosophia Secunda, sive Scientia Activa,―the Second Philosophy, or Active Science. It was a part of his design to deliver every thing with all possible plainness and perspicuity—" for the nakedness of the mind, as once of the body, is the companion of innocence and simplicity;" and he proceeds to exhibit the order of the work, and the reasons for it. This small piece, well studied, will enable us to form some idea of the author's design, of which the first two divisions only were completed; and as we are not aware of any other account of it, at once so full and succinct, we shall present a short outline of it.

The first part exhibits the sum or universal description of the science or learning then possessed, in order to improve the labours of the ancient, as well as to introduce what is new. Deserted plots are to be found in the very midst of cultivated ones, and he intended to point them out, though this might bring about some change in the accustomed divisions and partitions, as an addition to the whole varies the parts. But he promises to assist in supplying the desiderata that may be noted. For these designs of his were no slight, super ficial notions-mere desires and good wishes-but practicable and within compass.

Having examined into the ancient arts, the next thing is to enable the human intellect to advance; therefore to the second part belongs the doctrine concerning a better and more perfect use of reason in the investigation of things, and concerning the true helps of the understanding in the interpretation of nature. This new logic, while it agreed with the old in its professed object, differed from it in three things: viz. ipso fine, ordine demonstrandi, et inquirendi initiis. The end was not arguments, but arts; not things consentaneous to principles, but principles themselves; not probable reasons, but designations and indications of works. And from a diversity of intention, there ensues a diversity of effect; in the one an adversary is to be overcome by disputation, in the other nature, by works. The demonstrations of the vulgar logic accorded with their end, employing syllogisms, and passing over induction. He rejects demonstration by the former, as it proceeds confusedly, and lets nature escape out of our hands; as it is barren of operations, and remote from practice, and incompetent to the active part of sciences. For though the things which are coincident in a middle term, are in themselves coincident, yet the syllogism consists of propositions, propositions of words, and words are the tokens and signs of the things; and if the notions of the mind themselves (" quæ verborum quasi anima sunt") be improperly and rashly abstracted, or not sufficiently defined or limited, all is lost. He therefore leaves it to its jurisdiction," in artes populares et opinabiles," with which he does not meddle, and makes use of induction. The order also is different, as well as the initials of inquiring; for instead of proceeding immediately from the sense, and some few "particulars," to the highest "generals," axioms are gradually to be raised into general truths, by solution and separation of experience, and advised rejections and exclusions, by questioning the prime notions of the intellect, by guarding the very senses themselves, and purifying the understanding of every thing that may hinder the reception, conception, and erection of truths. By clearly showing what the nature of things, and what the nature of the mind, would bear, he presumed that he had prepared and adorned (the divine goodness being present at the rites) thalamum mentis et universi, the bride-chamber of the mind and of the universe; and his epithalamium was," ut ex eo connubio auxilia humana, et stirps inventorum, quæ necessitates ac miserias hominum aliqua ex parte docent et subigant, suscipiatur.

But his object was not only to point out and fortify the way, but to proceed in it; and therefore the third part of the work was to comprise the Phænomena Universi, or such an experimental and natural history, as shall be fundamental to the building up, as it were, of natural philosophy. For the method must have materials, and all must be sought from the very things themselves; nor can all the wits in the world be a substitute for this laborious acquisition. And as nothing of this sort had been accomplished, and that which had been attempted had merely furnished depraved matter for the preposterous subtleties of argu

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