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haps, however, he took it from Giordano Bruno, by whom the windlessness of the summit of Olympus is mentioned in the Cene di Cenere.

Acosta, who was provincial of the Jesuits in Peru, published in 1589 his De Naturâ novi Orbis which contains an account of the climatology of America, and especially of Peru. In the following year he published a larger work, entitled "Historia Natural y Moral de las India's," of which the first two books are a translation of the De Naturâ novi Orbis. This second work seems to have become very popular it was translated into Latin, French, Italian, and German.2 Most of the statements which Bacon derives from Acosta may be found in the De Naturâ novi Orbis, but there are some which show that he used the Historia Natural y Moral either in the original or in some translation.

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Acosta's account of the climate of Peru is very favourable, and he speaks largely of the winds by which the heat of the sun is so pleasantly tempered that, as he affirms, the climate is more agreeable than that of Spain. He mentions the fine mist by which the want of rain is supplied, but does not seem to have been aware of its cause.

Both in the following work, and in the De Fluxu et Refluxu Maris, Bacon cites Acosta by name in most of the places in which he takes anything from him.

There are several passages in the Historia Vento

1 The French translation by Regnier was published in 1600. It is singular that it is not mentioned by Antonio Biblioth. Hisp., who enumerates the other translations.

2 There is also an English translation by E. G. published in 1604. 1 S.

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rum which show that Bacon had read William Gilbert's Physiologia Nova, which was not published until 16511653. The history of this remarkable book is obscure. It was prepared for publication by the author's brother, who was also called William Gilbert, and he prefixed to it a dedication to Prince Henry. It would seem therefore that it was ready for publication in 1612, in which year the Prince died. Probably his death was the cause of its remaining unpublished, and it is possible that not long afterwards it came into Bacon's hands. Two copies of it, both imperfect, were among the papers which Sir William Boswell, sometime English minister in Holland, gave to Isaac Gruter; and from them the work was published in 1651. Gruter says nothing of the way in which Boswell had become possessed of them, but in his preface to the tracts and fragments of Bacon's which he published two years afterwards, and which he had also received from Boswell, he mentions that these had been bequeathed to the latter by Bacon himself. It is not improbable that the copies of Gilbert's work were included in this bequest or gift, which consisted of a fragmentary and miscellaneous collection of papers. However this may be, Gruter remarks in the preface to the Physiologia Nova, that it is clear that certain eminent men had had access to it while it was yet unpublished plainly alluding to Bacon, to whose Historia Ventorum he has once

.

or twice given marginal references. The way in

which the remark is made seems to intimate that
Gruter thought the use which Bacon has made of
Gilbert's unpublished work was more or less unfair.
It is therefore well to point out that in the Novum

Organum Bacon cites Gilbert by name, commending an opinion which is expressed in the Physiologia Nova, and which cannot be found in the De Magnete; whence it appears that his not mentioning Gilbert's name in connexion with what he takes from him in the Historia Ventorum is only the result of his common habit of omitting to cite his authorities, and not of a wish to conceal the fact of his having access to Gilbert's unpublished writings.

A comparison of the Historia Ventorum. with the Physiologia Nova enables us to correct, in more than one case, the received readings.

Gruter remarks that he is unable to decide whether the Physiologia was written before or after the treatise De Magnete, published in 1600. It was apparently written before 1604, as the new star of 1572 is mentioned by itself, whereas later writers, as Bacon and Galileo, always couple it with the star in Ophiuchus first seen in 1604. I should be inclined to conjecture that it was written between 1600 and 1604, principally on the authority of Bacon's remark, "Gilbertus postquam in contemplationibus magnetis se laboriosissime exercuisset, confinxit statim philosophiam consentaneam rei apud ipsum præpollenti; which is not however altogether conclusive.

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The description of a first-rate man of war is one of the most curious parts of the following treatise.2 I am inclined to believe that Bacon takes a portion

1 Nov. Org. i. 54.

2 For an illustration of which see the frontispiece to this volume; which represents a first-rate of Henry the Eighth's time, and agrees with Bacon's description in everything except the construction of the bolt-sprit. It is a reduced copy of an engraving said to be after an original by Holbein.J. S.

of what he says of naval matters from some Italian writers, but cannot refer to any particular work. What is said of windmills seems to be derived from Bacon's own observation and experiments; it cannot be said that it is of much value. Between the vanes, according to Bacon, the air is compressed, and therefore reacts laterally. It did not occur to him to try whether a windmill with one sail only instead of four would remain stationary, as on his theory it plainly ought to do. On the other hand, he increased the number of vanes, thereby decreasing the intervals. between them, and finding that this change increased the action of the wind, ascribed the difference to the increase of compression caused by the narrower space through which the air had to pass. That the whole amount of surface exposed to the wind was increased seems to have been forgotten.

FRANCISCI

BARONIS DE VERVLAMIO,

VICE-COMITIS SANCTI ALBANI,

HISTORIA NATVRALIS ET

EXPERIMENTALIS

AD CONDENDAM PHILOSOPHIAM:

SIVE

PHÆNOMENA VNIVERSI:

QUE EST INSTAURATIONIS MAGNÆ PARS TERTIA.

LONDINI:

IN OFFICINA IO. HAVILAND, IMPENSIS MATTHÆI LOWNES ET GULIELMI

BARRET.
1622.

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