more than in tyrannies, because the commandment extendeth more over the wills of men, and not only over their deeds and services. And therefore, when Virgil putteth himself forth to attribute to Augustus Cæsar the best of human honours, he doth it in these words:

victorque volentes

Per populos dat jura viamque affectat Olympo.

But yet the commandment of knowledge is higher than the commandment over the will; for it is a commandment over the reason, belief, and understanding of man, which is the highest part of the mind, and giveth law to the will itself: for there is no power on earth which setteth up a throne, or chair of state, in the spirits and souls of men, and in their cogitations, imaginations, opinions, and beliefs, but knowledge and learning.

In the beginning of the second part, he treats of public institutions relative to the advancement of learning; on which subject he lays down this fundamental position:

Let this ground (says he) be laid, that all works are overcome by amplitude of reward, by soundness

of direction, and by the conjunction of labours. The first multiplieth endeavour, the second preventeth error, and the third supplieth the frailty of man; but the principal of these is direction: for claudus in via antevertit cursorem extra viam; and Solomon excellently setteth it down, "If iron be not sharp, it requireth more strength; but wisdom is that which prevaileth:" signifying, that the invention or election of the mean is more effectual than any inforcement or accumulation of endeavours. This I am induced to speak, for that, not derogating from the noble intention of any that have been deservers towards the state of learning, I do observe nevertheless that their works and acts are rather works of magnificence and memory, than of progression and proficience, and tend rather to augment the mass of learning, in the multitude of learned men, than to rectify or raise the sciences themselves.

*

The last defect which I will note is, that there hath not been any public designation of writers or inquirers concerning such parts of knowledge, as may appear not to have been already sufficiently Jaboured or undertaken: unto which point it is an inducement to enter into a view and examination what parts of learning have been prosecuted, and what omitted; for the opinion of plenty is amongst the causes of want, and the great quantity of books maketh a shew, rather of superfluity than lack; which surcharge, nevertheless, is not to be remedied by making no more books, but by making more good books, which, as the serpent of Moses, might devour the serpents of the enchanters.

The two books of the Advancement of Learning he afterwards enlarged; and divided the whole into eight books, writing now in the Latin language. This book being in re quisition in foreign countries, he caused the part also, which he had originally written in English, to be translated into Latin, by Mr. Herbert and others, carefully revising the whole himself, so as to make it in effect his own work. The book, thus prepared, was translated into English by Dr. Gilbert Watts of Oxford, but in such a manner, that much of the genius and spirit of Lord Bacon had evaporated. Of the Latin editions, the most correct is said to be that in folio, printed at London, 1623.

7. Not long after the time of his appointment to the office of solicitor, or about the year 1607-8, he seems to have digested the plan of the second part of his great work, containing the ground-work of his Novum Organum, an essential part of the Instauration, and communicated his MS. under the title of "Cogitata et Visa," to several of his learned friends, soliciting a critical examination. Among these friends are particularly mentioned bishop Andrews, and sir Thomas Bodley, the last of whom wrote a copious reply, which has been printed, together with the piece itself, among the Latin works of Bacon.

8. There is also a small treatise in English, under the Latin title of Filum Labyrinthi; sive formula inquisitionis ad filios. Pars prima. This was obviously the first sketch of the Cogitata et Visa. The following specimen, taken from the beginning, will give the reader an idea of the views with which it was written.

The

Francis Bacon thought in this manner. knowledge of which the world is now possessed, especially that of nature, extendeth not to magnitude and certainty of works. The physician pronounces many diseases incurable, and faileth oft in the rest. The alchemists wax old, and die in hopes. The magicians perform nothing that is permanent and profitable. The mechanics take small lights from

natural philosophy, and do but spin out their own little threads. Chance sometimes discovereth inventions; but that worketh not in years, but ages. So he saw well, that the inventions known are very imperfect, and that new are not like to be brought to light, but in great length of time; and that those are come not to light by philosophy. He thought also this state of knowledge was the worse, because men strive (against themselves) to save the credit of ignorance, and so satisfy themselves, in this poverty: for the physician, besides the cautels of practice, hath this general cautel of art, that he discharges the weakness of his art upon supposed impossibilities; neither can his art be condemned, when itself judgeth. That philosophy also out of which the knowledge of physic which now is in use is hewed, receiveth certain positions and opinions, which, if they be well weighed, induce this persuasion, that no great works are to be expected from art, and the hand of man: as in particular, that opinion, that the heat of the sun and fire differ in kind; and that other, in composition is the work of man, and mixture is the work of nature, and the like; all tending to the circumscription of man's power, and to artificial despair; killing in men not only the comfort of imagination, but the industry of trial; only upon vain glory to have their art thought perfect, and that all is impossible that is