cepts 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.1

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 valid

1 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.

ity, 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, 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 Natura Proœmium he speaks of its being a thing not to be published, but to be communicated orally to certain persons.1 In Valerius Terminus his doctrine was to be veiled in an abrupt and obscure style,2 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 unwillingness openly to reveal his method Bacon coincided with the common feeling of his own and earlier times. In the middle ages no new discovery was freely published. All the secrets, real or pretended, of the alchemists were concealed in obscure and enigmatic language ; and to mention a well-known instance, the anagram in which Roger Bacon is supposed to have recorded his knowledge of the art of making gunpowder is so obscure, that its meaning is even now more or less doubtful. In Bacon's own time one of the most remarkable discoveries of Galileo that of the phases of Venus was similarly hidden in an anagram,

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.

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though the veil in this case was more easily seen through. This disposition to conceal scientific discoveries and methods is connected with the views which in the middle ages were formed of the nature of science. To know that which had previously been unknown was then regarded as the result not so much of greater industry or acuteness as of some fortunate accident, or of access to some hidden source of information it was like finding a concealed treasure, of which the value would be decreased if others were allowed to share in it. Moreover the love of the marvellous inclined men to believe in the existence of wonderful secrets handed down by tradition from former ages, and any new discovery acquired something of the same mysterious interest by being kept back from the knowledge of the vulgar. Other causes, which need not here be detailed, increased this kind of reserve; such as the dread of the imputation of unlawful knowledge, the facility which it gave to deception and imposture, and the like.

The manner in which Bacon proposed at one time to perpetuate the knowledge of his method is also in accordance with the spirit of the middle ages. In the writings of the alchemists we meet continually with stories of secrets transmitted by their possessor to one or more disciples. Thus Artefius records the conversation wherein his master, Boemund, transmitted to him the first principles of all knowledge; and it is remarkable that in this and similar cases the disciple is called "mi fili" by his instructor-a circumstance which shows from what source Bacon derived the phrase "ad filios," which appears in the titles of several of his early pieces. Even in the De Augmentis

the highest and most effectual form of scientific teaching is called the "methodus ad filios."1

When he wrote the Cogitata et Visa, Bacon seems to have perceived 2 how much of vanity and imposture had always been mixed up with this affectation of concealment and reserve. "Reperit autem," he there says, “homines in rerum scientiâ quam sibi videntur adepti, interdum proferendâ interdum occultandâ, fama

1 Lib. vi. c. 2. I cannot think however that the merit of this method had anything to do with secresy. For the distinctive object of it is stated to be the "continuatio et ulterior progressus" of knowledge; and its distinctive characteristic, the being "solito apertior." Its aim was to transfer knowledge into the mind of the disciple in the same form in which it grew in the teacher's mind, like a plant with its roots on, that it might continue to grow. Its other name is "traditio lampadis," alluding to the Greek torchrace; which was run, as I understand it, not between individuals, but between what we call sides. Each side had a lighted torch; they were so arranged that each bearer, as he began to slacken, handed it to another who was fresh; and the side whose torch first reached the goal, still a-light, was the winner. The term "filii," therefore, alludes, I think, to the successive generations, not who should inherit the secret, but who should carry on the work. Compare the remarks in the Sapientia Veterum (Fab. xxvi. near the end,) upon the torch-races in honour of Prometheus. "Atque continet in se monitum, idque prudentissimum, ut perfectio scientiarum a successione, non ab unius alicujus pernicitate aut facultate, expectetur. . . . . Atque optandum esset ut isti ludi in honorem Promethei, sive humanæ naturæ, instaurarentur, atque res certamen, et æmulationem, et bonam fortunam reciperet; neque ex unius cujuspiam face tremulâ atque agitatâ penderet." To me, I must confess, the explanation above given of Bacon's motives for desiring a select audience seems irreconcilable both with the objects which he certainly had in view and with the spirit in which he appears to have pursued them. "Fit audience, though few," he no doubt desired; and I can easily believe that he wished not only to find the fit, but also to exclude the unfit. But the question is, whether his motive in so selecting and so limiting his audience was unwillingness to part with his treasure, or solicitude for the furtherance of his work. To decide this question I have brought together all the passages in which he speaks of the "singling and adopting" of the "fit and legitimate reader." But the collection, with the remarks which it suggests, being too long for a foot-note, I have placed them at the end of this preface. See Note B. — J. S.

2 See Note B., extract 7th. But observe that in the 1st, 3rd, and 4th, he shows himself quite as sensible of the vanity and imposture which such secresy had been made to subserve. -J. S.