`OMO, naturæ minister et interpres, tantum facit et intelligit, quantum de ordine naturæ opere vel mente observaverit; nec amplius novit aut potest.1 Manus hominis nuda, quantumvis robusta et constans, ad opera pauca et facile sequentia sufficit: eadem ope instrumentorum, multa et reluctantia vincit. Similis est et mentis ratio. Instrumenta manus, motum aut cient aut regunt: et instrumenta mentis, intellectui aut suggerunt aut cavent.2 Super datam materiæ basim naturam quamvis imponere, intra terminos possibiles 3, intentio est humanæ potentiæ. Similiter dati effectus in quovis subjecto causas nosse, intentio est humanæ scientiæ: quæ intentiones in idem coincidunt. Nam quod in contemplatione instar causa est, in operatione instar medii est." Qui causam alicujus naturæ, veluti albedinis aut caloris, in certis tantum subjectis novit, ejus scientia imperfecta est. Et qui effectum super certam tantum materiam ex iis quæ sunt susceptibiles inducere potest, ejus potentia pariter est imperfecta.5 Qui causas naturæ alicujus in aliquibus subjectis tantum novit, is efficientem aut materiatam causam novit, quæ causæ fluxæ sunt, et nihil aliud quam vehicula, et causæ formam deferentes. Qui autem unitatem naturæ in materiis dissimillimis comprehendit, is formas rerum novit. Qui efficientes et materiatas causas novit, is jampridem inventa componit aut dividit, aut transfert aut producit; etiam ad Nov. Org. i. 1. So in the original. 9 lb. i. 2. Possibilis is the reading in other places where the expression occurs, and probably the true reading here. — J. S. Ib. ii. 1. and i. 3. 5 Ib. ii. 3. to which correspond also the next four aphorisms. nova inventa in materia aliquatenus simili et præparata pertingit: terminos rerum altius fixos non movet. Qui formas novit, is quæ adhuc facta non sunt, qualia nec naturæ vicissitudines nec experimentales industriæ unquan in actum produxissent, neque cogitationem humanam subitura fuissent, detegit et educit. Eadem est veritatis et potestatis via et perfectio: hæc ipsa, ut formæ rerum inveniantur: ex quarum notitia sequitur contemplatio vera et operatio libera. Formarum inventio simplex est et unica, quæ procedit per naturarum exclusionem sive rejectionem. Omnes enim naturæ, quæ aut data natura præsente absunt, aut data natura absente adsunt, ex forma non sunt; atque post rejectionem aut negationem completam, manet forma et affirmatio. Exempli gratia, si caloris formam inquiras, et aquam calentem invenias nec lucidam, rejice lumen: si aërem tenuem invenias, nec calidum, rejice tenuitatem. Hoc breve dictu est; sed longo circuitu ad hoc pervenitur.' Prolatio verborum contemplativa aut operativa re non differunt. Cum enim hoc dicis, Lumen non est ex forma caloris ; idem est ac si dicas, In calore producendo non necesse est ut ctiam lumen producas.3 Reliqua non erant perfecta. Neque hæc numine nostro eunt. Tu, Pater, conversus ad opera quæ fecerunt manus tuæ, vidisti quod omnia essent bona valde homo autem conversus ad opera quæ fecerunt manus suæ, vidit quod omnia essent vanitas et vexatio spiritus. Itaque si in operibus tuis sudabimus, facies nos gratulationis tuæ et sabbati tui participes. Supplices rogamus ut hæc mens nobis constet; atque ut per manus nostras familia humana novis eleemosynis tuis dotetur. Hæc æterno amori tuo commendamus, per Jesum nostrum, Christum tuum, nobiscum Deum.3 Nov. Org. ii. 16. 3 Compare the prayer with which the Distributio Operis concludes. 2 Ib. ii. 17. PREFACE TO THE PHYSIOLOGICAL AND MEDICAL REMAINS. THE following pieces were first published by Tenison in 1679, in a single volume entitled "Baconiana, or certain genuine Remains of Sir Francis Bacon Baron of Verulam and Viscount of St. Alban's; in arguments Civil, Moral, Natural, Medical, Theological, and Bibliographical; now for the first time faithfully published;" with an introduction professing to give an account of all the Lord Bacon's works." 66 Tenison was intimate at college with William Rawley the Doctor's son, and afterwards with John Rawley his executor. Through them he had access to the Bacon manuscripts which had been left in the Doctor's hands, and may therefore be considered as an original authority in the matter. He was not a man of much sagacity or intellectual vigour; and there is reason to believe that he sometimes took leave to alter the text a little, when it contained expressions which he thought undignified. But he was a great venerator of Bacon, and upon the whole a careful, conscientious, and scholar-like editor. He assures us that he has printed nothing as Bacon's which he did not find either written in his own hand or transcribed by Dr. Rawley; and though some of the manuscripts appear to have been in a condition which required more judgment in the decipherer than he could perhaps be trusted for (for he compares his labour in extracting the sense to that of reducing mercury to its proper form after its divers shapes and transmutations), yet, with some little allowance on that account, they may be all accepted as authentic. Those which he has collected under the respective titles of Physiological and Medical Remains (the Abecedarium Naturæ excepted, which has been printed already) may be considered |