own wishes.

"Quin etiam illis, quibus in contemplationis amorem effusis frequens apud nos operum mentio asperum quiddam atque ingratum et mechanicum sonat, monstrabimus quantum illi desideriis suis propriis adversentur, quum puritas contemplationum atque substructio et inventio operum prorsus eisdem rebus nitantur, ac simul perficiantur." In the Cogitata et Visa, this sentence recurs in a modified and much neater form:"Si quis autem sit cui in contemplationis amorem et venerationem effuso ista operum frequens et cum tanto honore mentio quiddam asperum et ingratum sonet, is pro certo sciat se propriis desideriis adversari; etenim in naturâ, opera non tantum vitæ beneficia, sed et veritatis pignora esse." On comparing these two sentences, it is difficult to believe that Bacon would have omitted the antithesis with which the latter ends in order to introduce the somewhat cumbrous expressions which correspond to it in the former, especially as we find this antithesis reproduced, though with another context, in the Novum Organum. Opera ipsa," it is there said, "pluris facienda sunt quatenus sunt veritatis pignora quam propter vitæ commoda." 1

66

These instances will probably be thought sufficient to justify us in concluding that the Partis secundæ Delineatio, in which no mention is made of the plan of setting forth the new method of induction by means of an example, is of earlier date than the Cogitata et Visa, in which this plan, actually employed in the Novum Organum, is spoken of as that which Bacon had decided on adopting. This question of priority is not without interest; for if the Partis secundæ Delineatio is anterior to the Cogitata et Visa, the general plan of the Instauratio must have been formed a considerable time before 1607, about which time Bacon probably commenced the composition of the Novum Organum. If we could determine the date of Valerius Terminus, we should be able to assign limits within which the formation of this plan, so far as relates to the division of the work into six portions, may be supposed to lie. For the first book of Valerius Terminus was to include all that was to precede the exposition of the new method of induction, which was to be

1 Nov. Org. i. 124. It is well to mention that some of the expressions in this aphorism which do not occur in the Cogitata et Visa will be found in the Partis secunda Delineatio. But it will be observed that I am only comparing passages which occur in all three works. Of the greater general resemblance of the Cogitata et Visa to the Novum Organum there can be no question.

the subject of the second; that is, it was to comprehend, along with the first part of the Instauratio', the general reflexions and precepts which form the subject of the first book of the Novum Organum. Nor does it appear that Valerius Terminus was to contain anything corresponding to the last four parts of the Instauratio2; it was a work, as its title shows, on the Interpretation of Nature; that is, it was to be a statement of Bacon's method, without professing either to give the collection of facts to which the method was to be applied, or the results thereby obtained. Unfortunately, there appears to be no evidence tending to enable us to assign the time at which (or not long after it) Valerius Terminus was written. That it is earlier than the Advancement of Learning seems to follow from the circumstance that Bacon, when he wrote it, designed to include in a single chapter the general survey of human knowledge which in the Advancement is developed into two books.' Bacon has on all occasions condemned epitomes, and it is therefore altogether improbable that after writing the Advancement of Learning he would have endeavoured to compress its contents, or even those of the second book, within the limits proposed in Valerius Terminus. On the other hand, we may suppose that before writing the Advancement he had not seen how much he had to say on the subject to which it relates. We may conclude therefore, on these and other grounds, that Valerius Terminus was written some time before 1605: how much before cannot be known; but as by comparing the Partis secundæ Delineatio and the Cogitata et Visa with the Novum Organum we have seen reason to conclude that the general plan of the Instauratio was formed before Bacon had decided on propounding his method by means of an example, so by comparing the first-named of these three works with Valerius Terminus, we perceive that the idea of the work on the Interpretation of Nature, that is, on the new method of induction, was anterior in Bacon's mind to that of the Instauratio.

And this conclusion is confirmed by all we know of Bacon's early writings. In the earliest of all, (if we assume that the

Query, See Note A. at the end, § 1. — J. S.

2 Query.

34

See Note A. at the end, § 2.-J. S.

Valerius Terminus of the Interpretation of Nature; with the Annotations of Hermes Stella. A few fragments of the first book, viz.," &c.

Query. See Note A. at the end, § 1. —J. S.

Temporis Partus Masculus, published by Gruter', is the same as the Temporis Partus Maximus mentioned by Bacon in his letter to Fulgenzio,) the most prominent notion is that true science consists in the interpretation of Nature-a phrase by which Bacon always designates a just method of induction. But nothing is said either there or in any early fragment whereby we are led to suppose that Bacon then thought of producing a great work like the Instauratio. On the contrary, in the De Interpretatione Naturæ Proœmium he proposes to communicate his peculiar method and the results to which it was to lead, only to chosen followers; giving to the world merely an exoteric doctrine, namely the general views of science which afterwards formed the substance of the Cogitata et Visa and ultimately of the first book of the Novum Organum.2

From what has been said it follows that we should form an inadequate conception of the Novum Organum if we were to regard it merely as a portion of the Instauratio. For it contains the central ideas of Bacon's system, of which the whole of the Instauratio is only the developement. In his early youth Bacon formed the notion of a new method of induction, and from that time forth this notion determined the character of all his speculations. Later in life he laid the plan of a great work, within the limits of which the materials to which his method was to be applied and the results thereby to be obtained might be stored up, together with a statement of the method itself. But of this great plan the interpretation of Nature was, so to speak, the soul, -the formative and vivifying principle; not only because Bacon conceived that the new method only could lead to the attainment of the great ends which he had in view, but also because it was the possession of this method which had suggested to him the hopes which he entertained. There seems some reason to believe that his confidence in his peculiar method of induction did not increase as he grew older; that is to say, he admits in the Novum Organum that the interpretation of Nature is not so much an

Say rather," the several tracts collected by M. Bouillet under the title Temporis Partus Masculus." See Note A. at the end, § 3. — J. S. 2 See Note A. at the end, § 4.-J. S.

In Note A. at the end

I quite agree in this, but not quite on the same grounds. of this preface, the reader will find a statement, too long for a foot-note, of such points in the foregoing argument as I consider disputable. It was the more necessary to point them out, because the arrangement of the pieces in this edition, for which I am responsible, will otherwise create a difficulty; being in some respects inconsistent with the opinions here expressed.-J. S.

X

artificial process as the way in which the mind would naturally work if the obstacles whereby it is hindered in the pursuit of truth were once set aside.1 So that his precepts are, he says, not of absolute necessity: "necessitatem ei (arti interpretationis scilicet) ac si absque eâ nil agi possit, aut etiam perfectionem non attribuimus,”—an admission not altogether in the spirit of the earlier writings in which the art of interpretation is spoken of as a secret of too much value to be lightly revealed.2

If it be asked why Bacon determined on propounding his method by means of an example, the answer is to be sought for in the last paragraphs of the Cogitata et Visa. He seems to have thought that it would thus obtain a favourable reception, because its value would be to a certain extent made manifest by the example itself. Likewise he hoped in this way to avoid all occasion of dispute and controversy, and thought that an example would be enough to make his meaning understood by all who were capable of understanding it. "Fere enim se in eâ esse opinione, nempe (quod quispiam dixit) prudentibus hæc satis fore, imprudentibus autem ne plura quidem.”

His expectations have not been fulfilled, for very few of those who have spoken of Bacon have understood his method, or have even attempted to explain its distinguishing characteristics, namely the certainty of its results, and its power of reducing all men to one common level.

Another reason for the course which he followed may not improbably have been that he was more or less conscious that he could not demonstrate the validity, or at least the practicability, of that which he proposed. The fundamental principle in virtue of which alone a method of exclusions can necessarily lead to a positive result, namely that the subject matter to which it is applied consists of a finite number of elements, each of which the mind can recognise and distinguish from the rest,

1 Nov. Org. i. 130. "Est enim Interpretatio verum et naturale opus mentis, demptis iis quæ obstant." But compare the following passage in Valerius Terminus, c. 22. "that it is true that interpretation is the very natural and direct intention, action, and progression of the understanding, delivered from impediments. And that all anticipation is but a reflexion or declination by accident. So that if we may infer from the passage in the Novum Organum that his confidence had abated, we must suppose that when he wrote the Valerius Terminus it had not risen to its height. But for my own part I doubt whether his opinion on this point ever changed.-J. S.

* Not, I think, as a secret of too much value to be revealed, but as an argument too abstruse to be made popular. See Note B. at the end, where I have endeavoured to bring together all the evidence upon which the presumption in the text is founded, and to show that it proves either too much or too little.-J. S.

cannot, it is manifest, be for any particular case demonstrated à priori. Bacon's method in effect assumes that substances can always be resolved into an aggregation of a certain number of abstract qualities, and that their essence is adequately represented by the result of this analysis. Now this assumption or postulate cannot be made the subject of a direct demonstration, and probably Bacon came gradually to perceive more or less the difficulties which it involves. But these difficulties are less obvious in special cases than when the question is considered generally, and on this account Bacon may have decided to give instead of a demonstration of his method an example of its use. He admits at the close of the example that the operation of the method is imperfect, saying that at first it could not but be so, and implying that its defects would be removed when the process of induction had been applied to rectify our notions of simple natures. He thus seems to be aware of the inherent defect of his method, namely that it gives no assistance in the formation of conceptions, and at the same time to hope that this would be corrected by some modification of the inductive process. But of what nature this modification is to be he has nowhere stated; and it is to be remarked that in his earliest writings the difficulty here recognised is not even mentioned. In Valerius Terminus nothing is said of the necessity of forming correct notions of simple natures, -the method of exclusions then doubtless appearing to contain all that is necessary for the investigation of Nature.

Bacon may also have been influenced by other considerations. We have seen that he was at first unwilling that his peculiar method should become generally known. In the De Interpretatione Nature Proæmium he speaks of its being a thing not to be published, but to be communicated orally to certain përsons. In Valerius Terminus his doctrine was to be veiled in an abrupt and obscure style2, such as, to use his own expression, would choose its reader,—that is, would remain unread except by worthy recipients of its hidden meaning. This affected obscurity appears also in the Temporis Partus Masculus. In this

1 See Note B. at the end, extract 4th, and the concluding remarks in which I have explained my own view of the kind of reserve which Bacon at this time meditated. -J. S.

2 See the same note, extract 1st. I cannot think it was by "abruptness and obscurity" that he proposed to effect the desired separation of readers either in Valerius Terminus or in the Temporis Partus Masculus, —J. S.