loco diverticulorum aut tabernaculorum in via præbitorum ad solatium et levamentum esse queant; atque interim humanas fortunas aliqua ex parte juvare, et mentes cogitationibus quæ paulo arctiorem cognationem habeant cum natura perfundere. Id vero ex facultate aliqua nostra, aut ejus fiducia, minime ominamur. Verum nobis dubium non est, si quis mediocris licet ingenii, sed tamen animi maturus, idola mentis suæ deponere atque inquisitionem de integro sibi decernere atque inter vera historiæ naturalis atque ejus calculos attente et diligenter et libere versari velit et possit; quin ille ipse, quisquis sit, longe altius in naturam penetraturus sit ex sese, et propriis et genuinis mentis viribus, denique ex meris Anticipationibus suis, quam per omnigenam authorum lectionem, aut meditationem abstractam infinitam, aut disputationes assiduas et repetitas; etsi machinas non admoverit, nec interpretandi formam secutus fuerit. Quare et simile quippiam nobis usu venire posse non diffidimus; præsertim cum accedat interpretandi experimentum et exercitatio, quam ipsum habitum mentis corrigere et mutare probabile est. Neque tamen hæc in eam partem accipi volumus, ac si fidem quam antiquorum placitis denegavimus nostris adhiberi postulemus. Quin contra testamur et profitemur, nos ipsos istis quæ jam proponemus, qualiacunque ea sint, teneri minime velle, ut omnia Philosophiæ nostræ Secundæ et Inductivæ tamquam integra serventur. Cogitata autem ipsa spargere, non methodo revincire, visum est. Hæc enim forma pubescentibus tamquam a stirpe de integro scientiis debetur; atque ejus est, qui non artem constituere ex connexis, sed inquisitionem liberam instituere in singulis, in præsentia tantum velit. PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS. PART II. WORKS ON SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH THE INSTAURATIO MAGNA, BUT NOT MEANT TO BE INCLUDED IN IT; ARRANGED ACCORDING TO THE ORDER IN WHICH THEY WERE WRITTEN. Ista enim nos tanquam in limine Historia Naturalis stantes prospicimus, quæ quanto magis quis se immerserit in Historiam Naturalem tanto fortasse probabit magis. Attamen testamur iterum nos hic teneri nolle. In his enim, ut in aliis, certi viæ nostræ sumus, certi sedis nostræ non sumus.- Thema Cali, 1612. PREFACE. ALL the works except one which belong to this part, and several of the most interesting among those which follow in the next, were published by Isaac Gruter in 1653; and since in explaining the arrangement which I have adopted I shall often have to refer to the volume in which they first apppeared, it will be well to give a particular account of it at once. Bacon, in his last will, after bequeathing his collection of speeches and letters to Bishop Williams and Sir Humphrey May, as being privy councillors, — commended the rest of his papers to the care of Sir John Constable and Mr. Bosvile. "Also I desire my executors, especially my brother Constable, and also Mr. Bosvile, presently after my decease, to take into their hands all my papers whatsoever, which are either in cabinets, boxes, or presses, and them to seal up till they may at their leisure peruse them." What care, or whether any, was presently taken of these papers, I cannot learn. But it is probable that for fourteen months after Bacon's death, they remained locked up; - for so long it was before any one had authority to act; the executors named in the will refusing or delaying to assume their office, and letters of administration being granted on the 13th of July, -- 1627, to Sir Robert Rich and Mr. Thomas Meautys, two of the creditors; and that then, or not long after, they were placed in the hands of Mr. Bosvile. This Mr. Bosvile, better known as Sir William Boswell, was sent, soon after Bacon's death, to the Hague; where he resided for several years as agent with the States of the United Provinces. He was knighted on the 18th of May, 1633, and died I believe in 1647. Whether all Bacon's remaining manuscripts were sent to him, or only a portion of them, is not known. What we know is that, among those which were sent, there were many philosophical pieces written in Latin; that he consulted Isaac Gruter about them; and that the result was a 12mo volume printed by Elzevir at Amsterdam in the year 1653, entitled Francisci Baconi de Verulamio Scripta in Naturali et Universali Philosophia, and containing these pieces following: 1. A Prayer, headed Temporis Partus Masculus, sive Instauratio magna imperii humani in universum. The same in substance, and almost the same in expression, as the prayer which is introduced towards the end of the Preface to the Instauratio (Vol. I. p. 208.): placed here by itself on the blank side of the title-leaf, as if it were a motto to the volume-an office for which the heading makes it altogether inappropriate. 2. Cogitata et Visa; to which is added a Latin translation of Sir Thomas Bodley's letter to Bacon concerning that work. (p. 62.) 3. Descriptio Globi Intellectualis. (p. 75.) 4. Thema Coli. (p. 154.) |