but I interposed my moral and political writings, because they were more in readiness. And for them they are these following. The first is, The History of Henry the 7th, King of England. Then follows that book which you have called in your tongue, "Saggi Morali." But I give a graver name to that book; and it is to go under the title of Sermones Fideles, [faithful sayings], or Interiora Rerum, [the inside of things]. Those Essays will be increased in their number, and enlarged in the handling of them. Also that tome will contain the book of the Wisdom of the Ancients. And this tome (as I said) doth, as it were interlope, and doth not stand in the order of the Instauration. After these shall follow the Organum Novum, to which a second part is yet to be added which I have already comprised and measured in the idea of it. And thus the second part of my Instauration will be finished. As for the third part of the Instauration, that is to say the Natural History, it is plainly a work for a king or a pope, or for some college or order; and cannot be by personal industry performed as it ought. Those portions of it, which have already seen the light, to wit, concerning winds, and touching life and death, they are not pure history, by reason of the axioms and larger observations which are interposed. But they are a kind of mixed writings composed of natural history, and a rude and imperfect instrument, or help, of the understanding. And this is the fourth part of the Instauration. Wherefore that fourth part shall follow, and shall contain many examples of that instrument, more exact, and much more fitted to rules of induction. Fifthly, there shall follow a book to be entitled by us, Prodromus Philosophiæ Secundæ, [the fore-runner of Secondary Philosophy]. This shall contain our inventions about new axioms to be raised from the experiments themselves, that they which were before as pillars lying uselessly along may be raised up. And this we resolve on for the fifth part of our Instauration. Of the Lastly, there is yet behind the Secondary Philosophy itself, which is the sixth part of the Instauration. perfecting this I have cast away all hopes; but in future ages perhaps the design may bud again. Notwithstanding in our Prodromie, [or prefatory works], such I mean only, which touch almost the universals of nature there will be laid no inconsiderable foundations of this matter. Our meanness, you see, attempteth great things; placing our hopes only in this, that they seem to proceed from the providence and immense goodness of God. And I am by two arguments thus persuaded. First, I think thus, from that zeal and constancy of my mind, which has not waxed old in this design, nor after so many years grown cold and indifferent. I remember that about forty years ago I composed a juvenile work about these things, which with great confidence and a pompous title, I called Temporis Partum Maximum* [or the most considerable birth of time]." Secondly, I am thus pursuaded because of its infinite usefulness; for which reason it may be ascribed to divine encouragement. I pray your fatherhood to commend me to that most excellent man, Signior Molines, to whose most delightful and prudent letters I will return answer shortly, if God permit. Farewell, most reverend father. * Your most assured friend, FRANCIS ST. ALBAN. Or, it may be Masculum, as I find it read elsewhere. A Letter of the Lord Bacon's, in French, to the Marquess Fiat, relating to his Essays. Monsieur l'Ambassadeur mon fil, Voyant que vostre excellence faict et traite mariages, non seulement entre les princes d'Angleterre et de France, mais aussi entres les langues (puis que faictes traduire mon livre de l'Advancement des Sciences en François) j'ai bien voulu vous envoyer mon livre dernierement imprimé, que j'avois pourveu pour vous, mais j'estois en doubte, de le vous envoyer, pour ce qu'il estoit escrit en Anglois. Mais a c'est heure pour la raison susdicte je le vous envoye. C'est un recompilement de mes Essayes Morales et Civiles; mais tellement enlargiés et enrichiés, tant de nombre que de poix, que c'est de fait un œuvre nouveau. Je vous baise les mains, et reste, Vostre tres affectionée ami, et tres humble serviteur. The same in English by the Publisher. My Lord Embassador, my son, Seeing that your excellency makes and treats of marriages, not only betwixt the princes of France and England, but also betwixt their languages (for you have caused my book of the Advancement of Learning to be translated into French) I was much inclined to make you a present of the last book which I published, and which I had in readiness for you. I was sometimes in doubt whether I ought to have sent it to you, because it was written in the English tongue. But now, for that very reason I send it to you. It is a recompilement of my Essays, Moral and Civil; but in such manner enlarged and enriched both in number and weight, that it is in effect a new work. I kiss your hands, and remain Your most affectionate and most humble servant, etc. A Letter from the University of Oxford to the Lord Bacon, upon his sending to them his book De Augmentis Scientiarum. Prænobilis, et (quod in Nobilitate pænè miraculum est) Scientissime Vicecomes ! Nihil concinnius tribuere, amplitudo vestra, nihil gratius accipere potuit Academia, quàm scientias. Scientias, quas prius inopes, exiguas, incultas emiserat, accepit tandem nitidas, proceras ingenii tui copiis, quibus unicè augeri potuerant, uberrimè dotatas. Grande ducit munus illud sibi à peregrino, si tamen peregrinus sit, tam propè consanguineus, auctius redire, quod filiolis suis instar patrimonii impendit; et libenter, agnoscit hic nasci musas, alibi tamen quam domi suæ crescere. Creverunt quidem, et sub calamo tuo, qui' tanquam strenuus literarum Alcides, columnas tuas, mundo immobiles, propriâ manu in orbe scientiarum, plus ultrà stataisti. Euge exercitatissimum athletam, qui in aliorum patrocinandis virtutibus occupatissimus, alios; in scriptis propriis, teipsum superâsti. Quippe in illo honorum tuorum fastigio, viros tantùm literatos promovisti, nunc tandem (ô dulce prodigium !) etiam et literas. Onerat clientes beneficii hujus augustior munificentia; cujus in accipiendo honor apud nos manet, in fruendo emolumentum transit usque in posteros. Quin ergo si gratiarum talioni impares sumus, juncto robore alterius sæculi nepotes succurrant, qui reliquum illud, quod tibi non possunt, saltem nomini tuo persolvent. Felices illi, nos tamen quàm longè feliciores, quibus honorificè conscriptam tuâ manu epistolam, quibus oculatissima lectitandi præcepta, et studiorum concordiam, t in fronte voluminis demandâsti. Quasi parum esset musas de tuâ penu locupletare, nisi ostenderes quo modo et ipsæ discerent. Solenniori itaque osculo acerrimum judicii tui depositum excepit frequentissimus purpuratorum senatus ; exceperunt pariter minoris ordinis gentes; et quod omnes in publico librorum thesaurario, in memoriâ singuli deposuerunt. Dominationis vestræ studiosissima E Domo nostrâ congregationis, 20th Decem. 1623. The Superscription was thus: To the Right Honourable Francis, Baron of Verulam, and Viscount of St. Alban, our very good Lord. The same in English by the Publisher. Most Noble, and (-) most learned Viscount. Your honour could have given nothing more agreeable, and the University could have received nothing more acceptable than the sciences. And those sciences which she formerly sent forth poor, of low stature, unpolished, she hath received elegant, tall, and by the supplies of your wit, by which alone they could have been advanced, most rich in dowry. She esteemeth it an extraordinary favour to have a return with usury, made of that by a stranger, if so near a relation may be called a stranger, which she bestows as a patrimony upon her children. And she readily acknowlegeth, that though the muses are born in Oxford they grow elsewhere. Grown they are, and under your pen, who, like some mighty Hercules, in learning have by your own hand further advanced those pillars in the learned world, which by the rest of that world were supposed immovable. We congratulate you, you most accomplished combatant, |