doubted that the thing might be done if men would but think so, and that it was his mission to make them think so and point out the way. And though many and many a day must have closed without shewing any sensible progress in the work, I suppose not a single day went down in which he did not remember with a sigh, or a resolution, or a prayer, that the work was still undone. On one of these days, his imagination, wandering far into the future, showed him in vision the first instalment ready for publication, and set him upon thinking how he should announce it to the world. The result of this meditation he fortunately confided to a sheet of paper, which being found long after in his cabinet, revealed the secret which it had kept. The original, written in stately Latin, may be seen in the third volume of the Philosophical Works, p. 518, accompanied with a long preface of my own, to which I refer those who care to know what else I had to say about it. For our present purpose, the following translation, though in spirit and effect a poor copy, may serve sufficiently well.

OF THE INTERPRETATION OF NATURE.

Proem.

Believing that I was born for the service of mankind, and regarding the care of the commonwealth as a kind of common property which like the air and the water belongs to everybody, I set myself to consider in what way mankind might be best served, and what service I was myself best fitted by nature to perform.

For

Now among all the benefits that could be conferred upon mankind, I found none so great as the discovery of new arts, endowments, and commodities for the bettering of man's life. I saw that among the rude people in the primitive times the authors of rude inventions and discoveries were consecrated and numbered among the Gods. And it was plain that the good effects wrought by founders of cities, law-givers, fathers of the people, extirpers of tyrants, and heroes of that class, extend but over narrow spaces and last but for short times; whereas the work of the Inventor, though a thing of less pomp and shew, is felt everywhere and lasts for ever. But above all, if a man could succeed, not in striking out some particular invention, however useful, but in kindling a light in nature-a light which should in its very rising touch and illuminate all the border-regions that confine upon the circle of our present knowledge; and so spreading further and further should presently disclose and bring into

sight all that is most hidden and secret in the world, -that man (I thought) would be the benefactor indeed of the human race,the propagator of man's empire over the universe, the champion of liberty, the conqueror and subduer of necessities.

For myself, I found that I was fitted for nothing so well as for the study of Truth; as having a mind nimble and versatile enough to catch the resemblances of things (which is the chief point), and at the same time steady enough to fix and distinguish their subtler differences; as being gifted by nature with desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to reconsider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and as being a man that neither affects what is new nor admires what is old, and that hates every kind of imposture. So I thought my nature had a kind of familiarity and relationship with Truth.

Nevertheless, because my birth and education had seasoned me in business of state; and because opinions (so young as I was) would sometimes stagger me; and because I thought that a man's own country has some special claims upon him more than the rest of the world; and because I hoped that, if I rose to any place of honour in the state, I should have a larger command of industry and ability to help me in my work;—for these reasons I both applied myself to acquire the arts of civil life, and commended my service, so far as in modesty and honesty I might, to the favour of such friends as had any influence. In which also I had another motive: for I felt that those things I have spoken of-be they great or small-reach no further than the condition and culture of this mortal life; and I was not without hope (the condition of Religion being at that time not very prosperous) that if I came to hold office in the state, I might get something done too for the good of men's souls.

When I found however that my zeal was mistaken for ambition, and my life had already reached the turning-point, and my breaking health reminded me how ill I could afford to be so slow, and I reflected moreover that in leaving undone the good that I could do by myself alone, and applying myself to that which could not be done without the help and consent of others, I was by no means discharging the duty that lay upon me,-I put all those thoughts aside, and (in pursuance of my old determination) betook myself wholly to this work. Nor am I discouraged from

it because I see signs in the times of the decline and overthrow of that knowledge and erudition which is now in use. Not that I apprehend any more barbarian invasions (unless possibly the Spanish empire should recover its strength, and having crushed other nations by arms should itself sink under its own weight) : but the civil wars which may be expected, I think, (judging from certain fashions which have come in of late) to spread through many countries,-together with the malignity of sects, and those compendious artifices and devices which have crept into the place of solid erudition-seem to portend for literature and the sciences a tempest not less fatal, and one against which the Printing-office will be no effectual security. And no doubt but that fair-weather learning which is nursed by leisure, blossoms under reward and praise, which cannot withstand the shock of opinion, and is liable to be abused by tricks and quackery, will sink under such impediments as these. Far otherwise is it with that knowledge, whose dignity is maintained by works of utility and power. For the injuries therefore which should proceed from the times, I am not afraid of them; and for the injuries which proceed from men I am not concerned. For if any one charge me with seeking to be wise overmuch, I answer simply that modesty and civil respect are fit for civil inatters; in contemplations nothing is to be respected but Truth. If any one call on me for works, and that presently; I tell him frankly, without any imposture at all, that for me-a man not old, of weak health, my hands full of civil business, entering without guide or light upon an argument of all others the most obscure,-I hold it enough to have constructed the machine, though I may not succeed in setting it on work. Nay with the same candour I profess and declare, that the Interpretation of Nature, rightly conducted, ought in the first steps of the ascent, until a certain stage of Generals be reached, to be kept clear of all application to Works. And this has in fact been the error of all those who have heretofore ventured themselves at all upon the waves of experience that being either too weak of purpose or too eager for display, they have all at the outset sought prematurely for works, as proofs and pledges of their progress, and upon that rock have been wrecked and cast away. If again any one ask me, not indeed for actual works, yet for definite promises and forecasts of the works that are to be, I would have him know

that the knowledge which we now possess will not teach a man even what to wish. Lastly-though this is a matter of less moment-if any of our politicians, who use to make their calculations and conjectures according to persons and precedents, must needs interpose his judgment in a thing of this nature,—I would but remind him how (according to the ancient fable) the lame man keeping the course won the race of the swift man who left it and that there is no thought to be taken about precedents, for the thing is without precedent.

:

Now for my plan of publication-those parts of the work which have it for their object to find out and bring into correspondence such minds as are prepared and disposed for the argument, and to purge the floors of men's understandings, I wish to be published to the world and circulate from mouth to mouth the rest I would have passed from hand to hand, with selection and judgment. Not but I know that it is an old trick of impostors to keep a few of their follies back from the public which are indeed no better than those they put forward: but in this case it is no imposture at all, but a sober foresight, which tells me that the formula itself of interpretation, and the discoveries made by the same, will thrive better if committed to the charge of some fit and selected minds, and kept private. This however is other people's concern. For myself, my heart is not set upon any of those things which depend upon external accidents. I am not hunting for fame: I have no desire to found a sect, after the fashion of heresiarchs; and to look for any private gain from such an undertaking as this, I count both ridiculous and base. Enough for me the consciousness of well-deserving, and those real and effectual results with which Fortune itself cannot interfere.

Such then was the project with which Bacon was all this time labouring in secret; such, and no less, the issues which he believed to be involved in it. But though his faith in the principle never failed, he knew that it could not be fairly tried without the cooperation of many men and of more than one generation; and when he came to sound men's opinions in the matter, he discovered that he had a preliminary difficulty to encounter in finding any who would listen to him.1

1 "Et quos socios habes? Ego certe (inquam) profecto nullos; quin nec quenquam habeo quocum familiariter de hujusmodi rebus colloqui possim, ut me saltem explicem et exacuam."-Philosophical Works, Vol. III. p. 559.

Now if he could get the King to take an interest in it, a great part of this difficulty would be removed; and to bring this about, the best chance would be to produce some practical and notable proof of proficiency in matters of which the King was already qualified to judge. For experimental philosophy James had not as yet shown any taste; and having been trained in the ancient learning, he was not likely to be attracted by a proposal to set aside all received doctrines and begin afresh from the beginning; but a general survey and criticism of the existing stock of knowledge was a work which few men then living were better qualified to appreciate, and in which he was almost sure to take a lively interest; and such a survey being the natural and legitimate foundation of any attempt at a large and general reform, it seems to have occurred to Bacon that this was the thing to begin with, and this the very time for it. Here was a King, still in the prime of life, devoted to peace, sympathizing largely with the interests of mankind, eminent even among learned men in a learned age for proficiency in all kinds of learning, coming out of straits and troubles into a great fortune, his imagination raised, his habits unfixed, his direction not yet taken: why should he not be excited to seek his greatness in a work like this? Accordingly, when Bacon told Cecil, on the 3rd of July, 1603, that he should put his ambition only upon his pen, it seems to me probable that he had newly conceived the design of writing his work on the Proficience and Advancement of Learning.' I say newly, for it was certainly not the same work on which he had been engaged before, nor any part of it: nor was it till some years after that he determined to include it in the general design. If so, the first book,which may be described as a kind of inaugural lecture on the dignity and merit of learning as a work for the kings and potentates of the earth, must apparently have been written during this year;2 and we need seek no further for an account of the way in which his time during the remainder of it was chiefly spent.

4.

It was not, however, his only occupation. Though he had little or nothing to do this year as a member of the King's Learned Counsel, there were one or two subjects of such pressing importance in the political department, that he made bold to offer his opinion upon them.

1 See my preface to the De Augmentis Scientiarum. Philos. Works, Vol. I. p. 416. 2 See my preface to the Advancement of Learning.' Philos. Works, Vol. III.

p. 255.