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 authority; 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 fathers had trusted that it was only another proof of the mercy of Him whose mercy is over all his works. 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 Mentone, 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 necessary to say anything; the subject of it being Bacon's method, which has been fully discussed in the General Preface. A few bibliographical inaccuracies of little consequence in themselves I have corrected, either in notes or by the insertion of words within brackets. These were merely oversights, hardly avoidable in the first draft of a work written in such circumstances. But there are also a few opinions expressed incidentally in which I cannot altogether concur, though they have evidently been adopted deliberately. With regard to these (Mr. Ellis not being in a condition to enter into a discussion of them) I had no course but to explain the grounds of my dissent, and leave every man to decide for himself upon the questions at issue. To avoid inconvenient interruptions however, I have thrown my arguments into an appendix, and contented myself in the foot notes with marking the particular expressions which I hold to be questionable.-J. S. PREFACE TO THE NOVUM ORGANUM. BY ROBERT LESLIE ELLIS. THE Novum Organum was published in 1620. Certain prolegomena to the whole of the Instauratio were prefixed to it, namely a Prooemium beginning "Franciscus de Verulamio sic cogitavit," a dedication to King James, a general preface, and an account, entitled Distributio Operis, of the parts of which the Instauratio was to consist. Of these the Novum Organum is the second; the De Augmentis, which was not then pub-lished, occupying the place of the first. Accordingly in most editions of Bacon's works the prolegomena are prefixed, not to the Novum Organum, but to the De Augmentis; and this is doubtless their natural place. Nevertheless as Bacon's general design was not completed, it seems better to allow them to remain in their original position, especially as in the Prooemium Bacon explains why he publishes one portion of the Instauratio apart from the rest." Decrevit," he there says, speaking of himself, "prima quæque quæ perficere licuit in publicum edere. Neque hæc festinatio ambitiosa fuit, sed sollicita, ut si quid illi humanitus accideret, exstaret tamen designatio quædam ac destinatio rei quam animo complexus est," &c. After the Prooemium and the dedication we come to |