PREFACE. THIS volume, which concludes the Latin works of Lord Bacon, consists of the following tracts: Parmenidis, Telesii et Democriti Philosophia (G.) 97 Partis Instaurationis secundæ delineatio et A Catalogue of bodies, attractive, &c. (T.) Historia soni et auditus (R.) De Versionibus, &c. corporum (R.) Meditationes Sacræ In felicem Memoriam Elizabethæ (R.) Imago Civilis Julii Cæsaris (R.) Augusti Cæsaris (R.). 225 Parasceve (N. O.) 405 Redargutio 463 The tracts to which I have annexed the letter G are taken from the publication of posthumous tracts by Gruter. The tract entitled "Partis instaurationis secundæ delineatio et augmentum," is a portion of the tract in Gruter entitled "Indicia vera de Interpretatione naturæ:" The beginning of this tract, from the words "Qui de natura" to the words "judicio suo utetur" is omitted. It is the same as the preface to the Novum Organum, which will be found in page 185, of vol. ix, of this edition. The tracts to which T is annexed are from Archbishop Tenison's Baconiana, published in 1679: and those to which R is annexed are from the Opuscula, published in 1658, by Dr. Rawley. 1 The particulars of the tract " De Sapientia Veterum," which was published by Lord Bacon in the year 1609, are explained in the preface to the third volume of this work: and the tract entitled "Meditationes Sacra," which was published in 1597, is explained folio xxiii, of vol. i. The Parasceve was published by Lord Bacon in the Year 1620, in the conclusion of the "Novum Organum." It ought to have been inserted in the conclusion of volume ix, or at the commencement of vol x. The tract entitled "Redargutio" was first published by Stephens, in 1760, in a volume which also contains the first tract entitled "Temporis Partus Masculus" from " Reperio" to " provoco." The second tract from "Temporis" to "sunt" is from Gruter. From the Latin works of Lord Bacon I have separated the translations by different authors from • Archbishop Tenison, in the Baconiana, says, "Lost, likewise, is a book which he wrote in his youth, he called it Temporis Partus Maximus, the greatest birth of time: or rather, Temporis Partus Masculus, the masculine birth of time. For so Gruter found it called in some of the papers of Sir William Boswel. This was a kind of embryo of the Instauration and if it had been preserved, it might have delighted and profited philosophical readers, who could then have seen the generation of that great work, as it were from the first egg of it." In the Baconiana (200) there is the translation of a letter written in Latin by the Lord Verulam to Father Fulgentio, the Venetian, concerning his writings, and now translated into Englishby the publisher. In this Tract he says, "Our meanness (you see) attempteth great things; placing our hopes only in this, that they seem to proceed from the providence and immense goodness of God." And I am, by two arguments, thus persuaded. First, I think thus from the zeal and constancy of my mind, which has not waxed old in this design, nor after so many years grown cold and indifferent. I remember, that about forty years ago, I composed a juvenile work about these things, which with great confidence, and a pompous title, I called Temporis Partum Maximum, or the most considerable birth of time." As Bacon here says, that this tract Temporis Partus Masculus was published about forty years before his letter to Fulgentio; and as this letter was written after his retirement from office, as it contains the following passages :-The "Novum Organum should have immediately followed:" but I interposed my moral and political writings, because they were more in readiness. his English into Latin, which have appeared in different editions of his works.* I please myself with the hope that, by a separate collection of the translations of the Latin works of Lord Bacon into English, and of such translations of English into Latin as were sanctioned by his Lordship, or were published within a few years of his death, I shall meet with the approbation of the patrons of this work. My only object is, without regard to expense or labour, to assist in submitting to the public a correct edition of the works of Lord Bacon, and to obey his last admonition, "For my name and memory I leave it to men's charitable speeches, and to foreign nations, and the next ages." B. M. And for them they are these following. The first is, "the History of Henry the Seventh, King of England." And as this was published in 1622, and as Lord Bacon died in 1626, it is obvious therefore that the Temporis Partus Masculus was published when he was about twenty. * The tract entitled "Articuli Questionum circa Mineralia" is a translation from English into Latin, as is explained in the Baconiana, 104, where Archbishop Tenison says, "Articles of questions touching minerals; written originally in English by Lord Bacon, yet hitherto not published in that language." |