On being taken mainly from Pliny, Aristotle, and Acosta. windmills Bacon appears to write from his own experiments; and his remarks reveal that looseness of mind which he occasionally evinces when he descends to detail. Finding that, by increasing the number of vanes, the effect of the wind is increased, he ascribed the motion of the vanes, not to the direct action of the wind, but to a lateral reaction of the air compressed between the vanes; forgetting that, while increasing the vanes, he had also increased the surface exposed to the wind, and that, according to his theory, a windmill with one sail only ought to remain stationary. On the other hand he suggests several observations which, if they could have been set on foot throughout Europe, might by this time have issued in results of great practical value.1 Next to the History of Winds comes the History of Life and Death, taken by Bacon out of proper place, " because in a matter of so great importance the least delay is costly." His theory is to this effect: In living bodies two kinds of spirits exist: 1st, a crude, mortuary spirit, such as is present also in inorganic bodies, a spirit imponderable, intangible, and discernible in its operations only; 2nd, an animal or vital spirit, which gives rise to the phenomena of life. This vital spirit tends to slip out of the body, and also, like a slow fire, to consume the body; and it acts (1) by attenuating moisture; (2) by escaping through the pores; (3) by causing the contraction of the grosser parts of the body, as is apparent immediately after the emission of the spirit in death. We ought therefore to inquire about the Nature of durable and non-durable bodies (stones and vegetables, as well as animals) and to neutralize the destructive action of the mortuary and the vital spirits by diet and medicine. Whatever may be said about Bacon's theory, the manner in which it has been set forth and the remarks by which it is accompanied "have been much commended," says Mr. Ellis "by one of the greatest of medical writers (Haller)." 2 The New Alphabet has not yet been described; yet it deserves description as showing Bacon's fondness for subdivisions and lengthy titles, and his confidence, to the last, that Nature can be conquered by mere accumulation of facts classified in mechanical arrangements. Spedding, Works, ii. 19-78. 2 Ibid. ii. 91-228. "Greater Masses. Sixty-seventh Inquiry, or that concerning the Earth; denoted by 77 7.1 Greater Masses. Sixty-eighth Inquiry, or that concerning Water; denoted by u, v, v.1 Greater Masses. Sixty-ninth Inquiry, or that concerning Air; denoted by 4, 4, 4.”1 After three more of these titles of the "Greater Masses," he comes to "Conditions of Beings": "We must institute an inquiry concerning Existence and Non-Existence, which comes seventy-third in order, and is marked by a a a a. "Conditions of Beings; or concerning Existence and Non-Existence; denoted by a ɑ ɑ ɑ. "Possibility and Impossibility are nothing else than Potentiality or NonPotentiality of Being. Let the seventy-fourth inquiry be on this subject, and be marked ßßß ß. "Conditions of Beings. Concerning Possibility and Impossibility; denoted by ßß ß ß. "Much and Little, Rare and Common, are the Potentialities of Being in Quantity. Let the seventy-fifth inquiry be concerning them, and be marked by γ γγγ "Conditions of Being (sic). Concerning Much and Little; denoted by yyyy." 2 With the same tedious prolixity follow three more titles— Concerning the Durable and the Transitory; the Natural and the Monstrous; the Natural and the Artificial. The treatise terminates with the same prayer as that which introduces the Phenomena. "Such then is the rule and plan of the Alphabet. May God the Maker, the Preserver, the Renewer ("Instaurator") of the Universe (of His love and compassion to man) protect and guide this work, both in its ascent to His glory, and its descent to the good of man, through His only Son, God with us." As we peruse these unnecessary repetitions of merely mechanical signs, who can escape the impression that the Author takes a pleasure in lingering over the mere appearance of order and accomplishment in his unfinished system, and that he is, unconsciously, glad of any pretext by which he can find scope for his restless activity, and at the same time deceive himself into the belief that he is making progress, while shutting his eyes to unforeseen obstacles which have made progress impossible ! 1 The Greek letters denote respectively 67, 68, and 69. In the same year (1623) was written (though not published till 1658) the History of Density and Rarity, principally noteworthy because Bacon appears from it to have been ignorant of the method of calculating specific gravities published by Ghetaldus twenty years before and substantially in use now. He gives, instead, a method of his own which has not commended itself to modern science.1 A short paper entitled Topics of Inquiry concerning Light and Luminous Matter would be interesting if it could be shown that it was written this year, as exhibiting an arrangement different from that of the other treatises in the Phenomena, and more similar to that in the Novum Organum, with its Tables of Presence, of Absence in Proximity, and of Degrees. But the absence of all mention of the telescope, to which Bacon refers in the year 1612, indicates that this fragment was written before that year.2 § 56 "DE AUGMENTIS "; 3 "SYLVA SYLVARUM " + In 1623 was published the De Augmentis et Dignitate Scientiae, a greatly amplified Latin Translation of the Advancement of Learning. It will be remembered that the Advancement of Learning consisted of two books, one on the Dignity of Learning, the other on the Divisions of Learning, and that on the titlepage of the Novum Organum in 1620, occur these words: "The First Part of the Instauration, which embraces the Divisions of Learning, is wanting; but these Divisions may be in some measure obtained from the Second Book of the Advancement of Learning." The Latin Translation accordingly amplifies the "Divisions" contained in the Second Book of the Advancement into eight books. The First Book of the Advancement, though retained in the Translation, is treated as a mere Introduction on the Dignity of Science, and is not even mentioned in the Introductory Table of the Divisions of Learning. 1 Spedding, Works, ii. 229-306. 2 Ibid. ii. 313-324. 3 Ibid. i. 414-837. For a summary of the English version, the Advancement of Learning, see Appendix I., pp.9461-475, below. 4 Ibid. ii. 325-686. Writing to a correspondent in Italy two years after the publication of this work, Bacon describes the De Augmentis as the First Part of the Instauration. But although the work acquires additional importance from the definite place thus assigned to it in his system, it does not greatly differ, except in amplitude of detail and illustration, from the Advancement of Learning. Among the more important differences, it is to be noted that, whereas the Advancement divides History into Natural, Civil, Ecclesiastical and Literary, the De Augmentis adopts the dual division into Natural and Civil; Civil History being made to comprise Ecclesiastical and Literary. Again in the Advancement there are three fallacies, in the De Augmentis there are four Idols. Instead of dividing the Operative part of Natural Philosophy into three parts (Experimental, Philosophical, and Magical) the De Augmentis divides it into two (Mechanic and Magic). And generally the passages dealing with Science are amplified, while allusions to England and English History are omitted or subordinated. A work intended to be read in Italy must needs avoid condemnation of Romish errors, and it is interesting to note how many of such condemnations and other references to religion are omitted in the Latin Translation: Bacon himself tells the King 2 that he had this object in view: "I have been mine own Index Expurgatorius that it may be read in all places." The Sylva Sylvarum, published in 1627 after Bacon's death, 1 Spedding, vii. 530-2, letter to Father Fulgentio. 2 Spedding, vii. 436. 3 Professor Fowler (Francis Bacon, p. 182) appears to attribute the theological differences between the Advancement of Learning and the De Augmentis to some change of mind in the Author. "How far Bacon's confidence in the ship of the church was implicit, and without exception, is, I think, somewhat doubtful. For it is a notable fact (which I have not seen elsewhere noticed) that the passage on the nature and attributes of God, including certain statements on the Trinity and the division of the elect or reprobate, which occurs towards the end of the Advancement of Learning, is altogether left out in the De Augmentis, published eighteen years afterwards." But it will be found that the whole of the section on theology in the Advancement of Learning is condensed or modified in the Latin version, so as to give less offence to readers in France or Italy. And the same care to remove anything offensive to foreign readers will be found to have modified the whole of the text of the Latin Translation both of the Advancement and of the Essays. Take for example the following passage (Adv. I. iii. 3): "The Jesuits, of whom, although in regard of their superstition I may say, Quo meliores, eo deteriores, &c."—on which Mr. Aldis Wright remarks, "the whole clause is modified in the De Augmentis to avoid giving offence to Roman Catholics." is supposed to have been written about 1624.1 As a collection of observations was called in Bacon's metaphorical language Sylva (see p. 363, above, Sylva vel Materies) this treatise is naturally called Sylva Sylvarum, being a Collection of Collections. It has been shown by Mr. Ellis that the order of many of these observations, which are the results of Bacon's reading, follows the order of the book from which they happen to have been extracted; so that, for example, it is possible in the Sylva to trace the travels of Sandys from Lemnos to Constantinople and thence to Egypt. This Sylva therefore is not a classified Natural History, but rather a haphazard collection of raw material. Although to modern readers many of the observations may seem to savour too much of the wonderful and occasionally of the absurd, yet as compared with the contemporary standard of Natural History, they are declared by Mr. Ellis to be philosophical and suggestive. Written after the Sylva Sylvarum come two brief papers, one called Scala Intellectus, or Ladder of the Understanding, and the other Prodromi sive Anticipationes Philosophiae Secundae, that is, Forerunners or Anticipations of the Second Philosophy.2 In these-Bacon's last philosophical efforts-we see him still pressing forward on his career of imaginary conquest, leaving behind him half-conquered or unconquered regions for others to occupy. The Scala tells us that: The beginning of the path has been marked out in the Author's second work, the Novum Organum. Entering forthwith upon that path he has treated of the Phenomena of the Universe and their History in a third work, wherein he has penetrated and passed through the dark and tangled Wood of Nature. It now remains to ascend to a more open but a more arduous region, emerging from the Wood to the spurs of the mountain. He therefore proposes to give, as a Ladder of the Understanding, examples of the Legitimate Investigation of which he had set forth the theory in the Organum. Let but the object be indicated, and others with more leisure and fewer obstacles will easily achieve it.* Prodromi, or Forerunners, is the title of the Fifth Part of the Instauration (see p. 378). In the short Preface thus entitled 1 Spedding, Works, ii. 325-686. 2 See above, p. 378, for the place these were to fill in the Magna Instauratio. Note the play on "Wood" or "Sylva"; and see "Sylva Sylvarum” above. 4 Spedding, Works, ii. 687-689. |