voured to do in my work of The Reign of King Henry the Seventh. As for my Essays, and some other particulars of that nature, I count them but as the recreations of my other studies, and in that sort purpose to continue them; though I am not ignorant that those kind of writings would, with less pains and embracement (perhaps), yield more lustre and reputation to my name, than those other which I have in hand. But I account the use that a man should seek of the publishing of his own writings before his death, to be but an untimely anticipation of that which is proper to follow a man, and not to go along with him. But revolving with myself my writings, as well those which I have published, as those which I had in hand, methought they went all into the City, and none into the Temple; where, because I have found so great consolation, I desire likewise to make some poor oblation. Therefore I have chosen an argument, mixt of religious and civil considerations; and likewise mixt between contemplative and active. For who can tell whether there may not be an exoriere aliquis? Great matters (especially if they be religious) have (many times) small beginnings and the platform may draw on the building. This work, because I was ever an enemy to flattering dedications, I have dedicated to your Lordship, in respect of our ancient and private acquaintance; and because amongst the men of our times I hold you in especial reverence. Your Lordship's loving friend, 4. It was now a year and a half since the publication of the Novum Organum, and it was beginning to attract the attention of men of science in other countries. One of the first whom it brought into communication with Bacon was Father Redemptus Baranzano; professor of philosophy and mathematics at Anneci, still a young man, but distinguished as the author of several philosophical works. From him Bacon appears to have received a letter about this time, with some questions concerning the principles and practicability of the proposed method; as, how far syllogism was to be interdicted; what was to be done with the metaphysics; and how such a multitude of facts as must be included in a natural history sufficient for 1622.] LETTER TO FATHER BARANZANO. 375 the purposes of induction could be collected and handled. This letter, which would have been interesting, has not been preserved; but Bacon's answer came into the hands of J. P. Niceron, who printed it in his 'Memoirs of Illustrious Men.' It gives us some important intelligence as to the present position and progress of the 'Instauration,' and what he wanted to be done. But Baranzano died, unfortunately, before the end of the year-only 33 years old::-a death which deserves to be reckoned among Bacon's personal misfortunes. For a man of that eminence at that age, taking up the cause in such a spirit, must have proved a very valuable correspondent, and whether as a correcting critic or an efficient fellow-labourer, would doubtless have helped forward the work which he had most at heart. To FATHER REDEMPT. BARANZAN.1 Domine Baranzane, Literas tuas legi libenter, cumque inter veritatis amatores ardor etiam candorem generet, ad ea quæ ingenuè petiisti, ingenuè respondebo. Non est meum abdicare in totum2 syllogismum. Res est syllogismus magis inhabilis ad præcipua, quam inutilis ad plurima. Ad Mathematica quidni adhibeatur? Cum fluxus materiæ & inconstantia corporis physici illud sit, quod inductionem desideret; ut per eam veluti figatur, atque inde eruantur notiones benè terminatæ. De Metaphysicâ ne sis sollicitus. Nulla enim erit post veram Physicam inventam; ultra quam nihil præter divina. In Physicâ prudenter notas, & idem tecum sentio, post notiones primæ classis, et axiomata super ipsas, per inductionem benè eruta et terminata, tuto adhiberi syllogismum, modo inhibeatur saltus ad generalissima, et fiat progressus per scalam convenientem. De multitudine instantiarum, quæ homines deterrere possit, hæc respondeo: Primò, quid opus est dissimulatione? Aut copia instantiarum comparanda, aut negotium deserendum. Aliæ omnes viæ, utcunque blandiantur, imperviæ. Secundò (quod et ipse notas) prærogativæ instantiarum, et 1 Niceron, tom. iii. p. 45. 2 tantum in the printed copy; and Rex. modus experimentandi circa experimenta lucifera (quem aliquando trademus), de multitudine ipsarum plurimum detrahent. Tertiò, quid magni foret, rogo, si in describendis instantiis impleantur volumina, quæ historiam C. Plinii sextuplicent? In quâ tamen ipsâ plurima philologica, fabulosa, antiquitatis, non naturæ. Etenim veram historiam naturalem nihil aliud ingreditur præter instantias, connexiones, observationes, canones. Cogita alterâ ex parte immensa volumina philosophica; facilè perspicies maximè solida esse maximè finita. Postremò, ex nostrâ philosophandi methodo excipietur in viâ plurimorum operum utilium messis, quæ ex speculationibus aut disputationibus sterilis aut nulla est. Historiam naturalem ad condendam philosophiam (ut et tu mones) ante omnia præopto, neque huic rei deero, quantum in me est; utinam habeam et adjutores idoneos. Neque in hâc parte mihi quidpiam accidere possit felicius, quam si tu, talis vir, primitias huic operi præbeas, conscribendo historiam cœlestium, in quâ ipsa tantum phænomena, atque unà instrumenta astronomica, eorumque genera et usum; dein hypotheses præcipuas et maximè illustres, tam antiquas quam modernas, atque simul exactas restitutionum calculationes, et alia hujusmodi sincerè proponas, absque omni dogmate et themate. Quod si huic Cœlestium Historia Historiam Cometarum adjeceris (de quâ conficiendâ ecce tibi articulos quosdam et quasitopica particularia) magnificum prorsus frontispicium historiæ naturali extruxeris, et optimè de scientiarum instauratione merueris, mihique gratissimum feceris. Librum meum de progressu scientiarum traducendum commisi. Illa translatio, volente Deo, sub finem æstatis perficietur: eam ad te mittam. Opera tua, quæ publici juris sunt, inspexi; magnæ certè subtilitatis & diligentiæ in viâ vestrâ. Novatores, quos nominas, Patricium, Telesium, etiam alios, quos prætermittis, legi. Possint esse tales innumeri, veluti etiam antiquis temporibus fuerunt Anaximenes, Anaxagoras, Democritus, Parmenides, et alii (nam Pythagoram ut superstitiosum omitto). Inter istos tam antiquos quam modernos differentiam facultatis agnosco maximam, veritatis perparvam. Summa rei est : Si homines se rebus submittere velint, aliquid confiet; sin minus, ingenia ista redibunt in orbem. 1622.1 QUESTIONS CONCERNING THE INSTAURATION. 377 Stabilita jam sit inter nos notitia; meque ut cœpisti, maxime autem veritatem ama. Vale. Tui amantissimus, S. ALBANS.1 Apud Ædes meas Londini, Junii ultimo, 1622. 1 "I have read your letter with pleasure; and since between lovers of truth ardour begets candour, I will return to your ingenuous questions an ingenuous reply. "I do not propose to give up syllogism altogether. Syllogism is incompetent for the principal things rather than useless for the generality. "In the Mathematics there is no reason why it should not be employed. It is the flux of matter and the inconstancy of the physical body which requires Induction; that thereby it may be fixed, as it were, and allow the formation of notions well defined. "Be not troubled about the Metaphysics. When true Physics have been discovered, there will be no Metaphysics. Beyond the true Physics is divinity only. “In Physics, you wisely note, and therein I agree with you, that after the Notions of the first class and the Axioms concerning them have been by Induction well made out and defined, Syllogism may be applied safely; only it must be restrained from leaping at once to the most general notions; and progress must be made through a fit succession of steps. "With regard to the multitude of the Instances by which men may be deterred from the attempt; this is my answer, "First, what need to dissemble? Either store of Instances must be procured or the business must be given up. All other ways, however enticing, are impassable. "Secondly (as you yourself also observe), the Prerogatives of Instances, and the mode of experimenting upon experiments of Light (which I shall hereafter explain), will diminish the multitude of them very much. Thirdly, what matter, I ask, if the description of the Instances should fill six times as many volumes as Pliny's history? which includes nevertheless a great many things belonging to philology, to fable, to antiquity,--and not to Nature. For the true Natural History is to take in nothing except Instances, Connexions, Observations, and Canons. Think on the other hand of the immense volumes of philosophy, and you will easily see that the most solid things are the most within compass. "Lastly, from my method of philosophising there will be gathered by the way an abundant crop of useful works; of which speculations and disputations yield few or none. "A Natural History out of which philosophy may be built is (as you also observe) what I desire before anything else; nor shall I be wanting to the work, so far as in me lies. I wish I may have fit assistants. Nor can anything in this department fall out more happily than that you, being what you are, should contribute the first-fruits of the work, by composing a history of the Heavens, in which only the phenomena themselves, and the different astronomical instruments, with their uses, and then the principal and most celebrated hypotheses, both ancient and modern, and at the same time the exact calculations of the periodic returns, and other things of that kind, shall be set forth plainly and simply, without any doctrine or theory whatever. And if to this history of the Heavens you would add a history of Comets (concerning the composition of which I send herewith certain articles and as it were particular topics), you will have erected a truly magnificent frontispiece for Natural History, and done the greatest service to the Instauration of the Sciences, and a very great favour to myself. "I am getting a translation made of my book of the Advancement of Learning. It will be finished, please God, by the end of this summer; and I will send you a copy. "I have seen those of your works that are published: works, certainly, of great 5. About a quarter of a century ago, when all England was frightened from her propriety by the announcement that the Pope was going to "parcel out" the country into Roman Catholic dioceses—that is, to confer on certain persons the title of Bishop and assign to each a district within which he should have a Bishop's authority over the members of his own communion-I do not know whether it was remembered that such a measure had been under consideration as long ago as the summer of 1622; when the Roman Catholics in England were a much more formidable body, and the nearest approach to toleration of a heretical religion which anybody thought justifiable was connivance at the secret practice of it. Bacon heard of it from Toby Matthew on the 4th of August, and immediately forwarded the intelligence to Buckingham in the following letter. I give the date on the authority of Stephens's catalogue; for in this manuscript no date is now visible. But it seems that it was visible once, or else that there was another copy; for the following description of a letter addressed to Buckingham can hardly have referred to any other. (Date), 4 August 1622. (Beginning), "I thought it appertained." (Subject), An account of a design for sending Popish Bishops for England. TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.1 My very good Lord, I thought it appertained to my duty both as a subject and as he that took once the oath of a counsellor, to make known to your Lordship an advertisement which came to me this morning. A gentleman, a dear friend of mine whom your Lordship cannot but imagine though I name him not, told me thus much, That some English priests, that negotiated at Rome to facilitate the subtlety and diligence in your way. The novellists whom you name, Patricius, Telesius, besides others whom you do not mention, I have read. There may be any number of the kind, as were also in ancient times Anaximenes, Anaxagoras, Democritus, Parmenides, and others (for I omit Pythagoras, as superstitious). Between these, as well ancient as modern, I observe great difference in point of faculty; in point of truth, very little. The sum of the matter is this—if men will submit themselves to things, something will be done; if not, those wits will come round again in the circle. "Let our acquaintance be now established. Love me as you have begun, but love Truth most. Farewell. "Your most loving, "S. ALBAN." 1 Gibson Papers, vol. viii. f. 256. Draught in Bacon's hand. Docketed, "My letter to my Lord Marquis touching the business of estate advertised by Mr Matthew." And at the bottom, also in Bacon's hand, "Præs. use." |