be included in the Opuscula (1658), which does contain a few things of the kind, they remain to be accounted for. The unpublished English pieces, of which he announces his intention to bring out a Latin translation (an intention which I cannot learn that he ever fulfilled), may have been only copies of those which were published by Dr. Rawley in 1657. These were afterwards translated into Latin by S. J. Arnold, and included (see Acta Eruditorum, vol. xiii. anno 1694, p. 400.) in an edition of Bacon's Opera Omnia which was published at Leipsic in that year. In 1695 they were reprinted at Amsterdam by H. Wetstenius in a separate volume; with the title Francisci Baconi, &c., Opuscula historico-politica, Anglice olim conscripta, et nuper Latinitate donata à Simone Joanne Arnoldo, Ecclesiæ Sonnenbrugensis Inspectore. J. S. PREFACE TO THE COGITATIONES DE NATURA RERUM. THIS piece was printed by Gruter among the Impetus Philosophici; from which we may probably conclude that it had not been transcribed into the volume of Scripta in Naturali et Universali Philosophiâ': but that is all. There is nothing to determine the date of composition, unless it be the absence of any allusion to the new star in Ophiuchus in the place where the new star in Cassiopeia is mentioned. See note, § x. The value of the argument will be more easily understood by comparing the passage in question with a passage of the same import in a work, obviously later, where both these stars are mentioned together. In both cases the question under discussion is the immutability of the heavens. In the Cogitationes de Naturâ Rerum, of which the date is unknown, we find, "... mutationes in regionibus cœlestibus fieri, ex cometis quibusdam satis liquet ; iis dico qui certam et constantem configurationem cum stellis fixis servarunt; qualis fuit ille qui in Cassiopeâ nostrâ ætate apparuit." This star in Cassiopeia appeared in 1572. But another of the same kind, and no less remarkable, appeared in September 1604. It is said to have been brighter, when first seen, than Jupiter 2; and though its brightness diminished afterwards, it was distinctly visible for more than a year. It attracted so much attention as to be made the subject of three lectures of a popular character, given by Galileo to crowded audiences; and it is difficult to believe either that Bacon did not know of it (he being then 44 years 1 See above, p. 8. 2 Maestlin, quoted in the Life of Galileo, Library of Useful Knowledge, p. 16. |