seven come what are called Solitary Instances. These "exhibit the nature under investigation in subjects which have nothing in common with other subjects except that nature;" e.g. suppose we are investigating colour; then prisms, crystals, dews, &c.—which show colours, not only in themselves, but externally on a wall-are Solitary Instances; for these have nothing in common with the colours fixed in flowers, coloured stones, metals, &c., except the colour: "from which we easily gather that colour is nothing more than a modification of the image of light received upon the object, resulting in the former case from the different degrees of incidence, in the latter from the various textures and configurations of the body." In this and many others of the Prerogative Instances Bacon exhibits something of the intuition of a discoverer; and in the selection of the two examples just mentioned he was peculiarly happy; for it was by means of them that Newton afterwards found out the composition of light. But no amount of admiration for the ingenuity of occasional observations and for the keenness of occasional insight can blind us to the fact that they bring us little if at all nearer to the formation of a true conception of Simple Natures, without which the Method of Exclusions will not work, and consequently the Key of Interpretation will unlock nothing. Yet hopeful to the last, the author concludes this small fragment of an immense work with a promise couched in the language of undaunted faith:

"But now I must proceed to the supports and rectifications of Induction; and then to Concretes and Latent Processes and Latent Configurations, and the rest, as set forth in order in the twenty-first Aphorism; that at length (like an honest and faithful guardian) I may hand over to men their fortunes, now that their Understanding is emancipated, and as it were come of age; whence there cannot but follow an improvement in man's estate and an enlargement of his power over nature. For man, by the Fall, fell at the same time from his estate of innocency and from his dominion over creation. Both of these losses however can, even in this life, be in some part repaired; the former by religion and faith, the latter by arts and sciences."

Course or Water (i.e.. the water-clock); (23) of Quantity, or Doses of Nature; (24) of Strife or Predominance; (25) Intimating Instances; (26) Polychrest, or of General Use; (27) Magical Instances.

§ 55 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE THIRD PART OF THE “INSTAURATIO

The Third Part of the Instauratio Magna was to be (see the Distributio Operis, p. 378 above) the Phenomena of the Universe, or History Natural and Experimental, adapted for the foundation of Philosophy. Accordingly in the same year in which Bacon published the unfinished Novum Organum, he also published a short treatise entitled Preparation for a Natural and Experimental History (Parasceue ad Historiam Naturalem et Experimentalem).1 A Preface informs us that his object is to incite others to co-operate with him in the vast work of preparing the materials for the Natural History; this he cannot hope to perform unaided, whereas that which relates to the work of the Understanding itself he may accomplish by his own efforts. Another reason that he gives for busying himself with a task somewhat beneath him is the desire to prescribe the plan of the proposed History, lest his followers should imitate the pattern of the cumbrous useless histories of his predecessors. Without such a History nothing can be effected, no, not even though all the world should convert itself into a University for the study of Philosophy. But with it--if there be added to it such auxiliary and light-giving experiments as, in the very course of Interpretation, will either present themselves or will have to be found out the investigation of nature and of all sciences will be the work of a few years.

Repeating the division used in the Advancement of Learning, he would divide Nature triply into (1) Nature free, in her generations; (2) Nature free, in her errors; (3) Nature in bondage, under art or experiment. The Universe is not to be contracted to suit the prejudices of the Understanding; but the Understanding is so to expand itself as to embrace the spirit of the Universe; that philosophers may no longer skip like fairies in their own little enchanted rings, but move in a circuit wide as the world itself.

In collecting instances from arts, we are to choose those that Spedding, Works, i. 369-414.

1

conduce not to the perfection of arts themselves, but to Axioms; and we are to be guided in our choice by the study of the Prerogatives of Instances. Everything relating both to bodies and virtues in Nature is to be set forth (as far as may be) numbered, weighed, or measured. As to the history of Cardinal Virtues in Nature mentioned in the Distributio Operis, this must be indeed collected before we come to the work of Interpretation; "but I reserve this part for myself, since, until men have come to be a little more familiar with Nature, I cannot venture to rely very much on other people's industry in that matter."

The Parasceue resembles the Novum Organum in ending with an unfulfilled promise and a long list of titles:

"And now we ought to proceed to the delineation of the Particular Histories. But I have at present" (this was 1620, the year before his fall, and he was then Lord Chancellor) so many distracting occupations that I can only find time to subjoin a catalogue of their titles. As soon however as I have leisure, I mean to draw up a set of questions on the several subjects. . . . In other words (according to the practice in civil suits) even so in this great Plea and Suit granted by the divine favour and providence, whereby Mankind seeks to recover its right against Nature, I intend to subject both Nature and the Arts to an examination upon interrogatories."

Here follow one hundred and thirty titles of Histories (beginning with Nature "free in generations "); 1-21 dealing with parts of the elements; 22-25 with the four elements themselves; 26-40 with species; 41-128 with human nature and arts (including even the arts of cooking, dyeing, riding, &c.); 129 and 130 with the history of the natures and powers of numbers and figures.

Having completed in the Parasceue, or Preparation, his sketch of that part of the third portion of the Instauratio Magna (Phenomena of the Universe, or History Natural and Experimental) which his followers might be trusted to execute, Bacon proceeded, two years afterwards (1622), to execute that part which he had "reserved for himself"-the History of the Cardinal Virtues. This was published in parts under the title, Natural and Experimental History for the Foundation of Philosophy, or Phenomena of the Universe, being the Third Part of the "Instauratio Magna." At this time (the year after his fall) Bacon had bound

1 Spedding, Works, ii. 3-228.

himself "as by a vow" to complete and set forth, every month, one or more parts of the Natural History; and this treatise contains titles for the labours of six months: viz. the Histories of (1) the Winds; (2) Dense and Rare, or the Contraction and Expansion of Matter in Space; (3) Heavy and Light; (4) the Sympathy and Antipathy of Things; (5) Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt; (6) Life and Death.

But, like the Novum Organum and the Parasceue, this treatise also promises more than was performed. Of several of these Histories nothing but the Introduction was completed. That Bacon still retained his confidence in his scheme of a Natural History, appears from the language in which he dedicates the Phenomena to the Prince of Wales: "A thing like a grain of mustard-seed, very small in itself, yet a pledge of those things which, by the grace of God, will come hereafter. . . . . For a small and well-ordered Natural History is the Key of all knowledge and operation." There is no trace of any disappointment at his inability to perfect the Novum Organum, nor any vestige of suspicion that the Novum Organum might possibly prove unworkable. He admits indeed that not a few things, "and these amongst the most important," remain to be completed in the Organum; but he advisedly passes them over for the present, his design being, so he informs his readers, rather to advance the universal work of the Instauration in many things than to perfect it in a few; for even if the Organum were completed, and men willing to use it, they could make little progress without the Natural History, "whereas the Natural History without the Organum, would advance it not a little." The Introduction to the Phenomena concludes with a prayer that God will protect and direct the work. But all this devotion and pathetic confidence cannot conceal the fact that his trust in the New Natural History appears to increase in proportion to his distrust of the New Induction and it is startling indeed to find the term "Key" now transferred from the latter to the former; which he now ventures to call " the Key of all knowledge and operation."

To come however to the plan of the work. It will be remembered that the conclusion of the Novum Organum contains a promise to proceed "to the supports and rectifications of

Induction, and next, to Concretes, and Latent Processes, and Latent Configurations." The plan of the Phenomena (Norma Historiae Praesentis) exhibits Bacon apparently attempting to carry out this resolution.

Although, he says, we have previously sketched our plan of History in the Parasceue, we will now give a more detailed scheme of it. To the Titles included in the Catalogue of the Parasceue, "which pertain to Concretes, we superadd titles concerning Abstract Natures,1 whereof, in the same work, we made mention, as being a History reserved for our own efforts. These are (1) Diverse Configurations of Matter, or Forms of the First Class; (2) Simple Motions; (3) Sums of Motion" (see Summae Motuum, or Compound Motions, De Augmentis, iii. 4); "(4) Measures of Motions; some others. Of these I have completed a New Alphabet and placed it at the end of this volume."

Under each title, after an Introduction, particular Topics or Articles of Inquiry, will be propounded, to throw light on present, and to stimulate future, investigations. Histories and Experiments will occupy the first place, but, where they are wanting, there will be-injunctions for Experiments, forming a kind of "Designed History"; and there will be indications of the method of experimenting, and cautions against fallacies. There will also be the Author's Observations on the History and Experiments, and speculations or rudimentary Interpretations concerning causes (Commentationes et tanquam rudimenta quaedam Interpretationis de Causis) sparingly interspersed. There will also be Provisional Rules or Imperfect Axioms (Canones Mobiles, sive Axiomata Inchoata); Reminders concerning Practice; and a list of Works Impossible, or Undiscovered.

The Plan concludes thus:

"It is evident, from what has been said above, that the present History not only supplies the place of the Third Part of the Instauration " (Phaenomena Universi, see p. 378), "but is no mean preparation for (1) the Fourth Part" [i.e. Scala Intellectus, the Ladder of the Understanding, which was to contain examples of the New Method and of the Topics of Inquiry]; "and it is also a preparation for (2) the Sixth Part Secunda Philosophia" [the Second Philosophy or Active Science, which was to contain the results of the application of the New Philosophy to all phenomena] "by reason of the Major Observations, the Speculations, and the Provisional Rules." 3

First in the Histories comes the History of the Winds, in which the Designed History, or sketch of proposed Experiments or Inquiries, far exceeds in length the actual History; the latter

1 i.e. the Cardinal Virtues of Nature, see p. 399.

2 An apparent recognition of the use of Working Hypotheses.

3 Spedding, Works, ii. 17, 18.

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