THE WORKS OF FRANCIS BACON, BARON OF VERULAM, VISCOUNT ST. ALBANS, AND Collected and Edited BY JAMES SPEDDING, M. A. OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; ROBERT LESLIE ELLIS, M. A. LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; AND DOUGLAS DENON HEATH, BARRISTER-AT-LAW; LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. VOLUME IX. BEING TRANSLATIONS OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS, VOL. II. BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY TAGGARD AND THOMPSON. M DCCC LXIV. 1 PREFACE.* THE history of these translations has been already told; but as it is somewhat complicated, and appears in some points not to be clearly understood, it may be convenient that I should repeat it here. The works to be translated were selected by Mr. Ellis, and were meant to include everything which is requisite to give an English reader a complete view of Bacon's philosophy. The selection does, in fact, include all the Latin works belonging to the first and second parts, and as many of those belonging to the third as are not to be found in a more perfect form in the others. And though the Editors' prefaces and notes are not reprinted along * [This preface, prepared for volume five of the English edition, which begins with the translation of the seventh book of the De Augmentis Scientiarum, is placed here in order not to interrupt the continuity of that work. For "the three former volumes," and "the first three volumes," read the seven former volumes, and the first seven volumes; for "preface to the fourth volume" read preface to the eighth volume; for "the first 320 pages of this volume," and "from the beginning to the three hundred and twentieth page of this volume," read from p. 191 of this volume to p. 155 of the next. "The third volume" of the English edition corresponds to volumes five (from p. 185), six, and seven of this edition.] |