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and Remains of the Lord Chancellor Bacon; collected by Robert Stephens, Esq., late Historiographer Royal;' or, as the title runs in the second edition, published in 1736, Letters, Memoirs, Parliamentary Affairs, State Papers, &c., with some curious pieces in Law and Philosophy; published from the Originals of the Lord Chancellor Bacon.' This is commonly called Stephens's second collection; his first, published in 1702, being entitled Letters of Sir Francis Bacon, &c., now collected, with an Historical Introduction; or, in the second edition, published in 1736, Original Letters and Memoirs, written by the Lord Chancellor Bacon during the reign of King James I. . . . . collected and published, with remarks, by Robert Stephens, Esq., late Historiographer Royal: to which is prefixed a large Historical Introduction.'

SECTION I.

PROLEGOMENA TO THE INSTAURATIO MAGNA.

THE Novum Organum,' or Second Part of the Instauratio, when first published in 1620, was accompanied, as has been stated above, by certain preliminary announcements, which, however, were evidently intended to be introductory to the entire Instauratio Magna. They are four in number, and are eminently deserving of our attention before entering upon the perusal of the work which they precede and usher in.

First there presents itself a brief but solemn and striking proclamation of the general design of the work, headed, 'Franciscus de Verulamio sic cogitavit, talemque apud se rationem instituit; quam viventibus et posteris notam fieri ipsorum interesse putavit' (Francis of Verulam thus thought, and proceeded in considering things in his own mind after this manner; which he deemed that it concerned both his contemporaries and posterity that they should be made acquainted with). It commences thus, to adopt a translation slightly modified from the old one by Gilbert Wats, which, although disfigured by some affectation or pedantry, is both closer to the original and more expressive than that of Dr. Shaw :—“ Seeing it was manifest to him that the human understanding creates itself much trouble, nor makes an apt and sober use of such aids as are within the command of man; from whence infinite ignorance of things, and from the ignorance of things innumerable disadvantages; his opinion was, that with all our industry we should endeavour, if haply that same commerce of the mind and of things (than which a greater blessing can hardly be found upon earth, at least among earthly felicities) might by any means be entirely

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restored, or at least brought to terms of nearer correspondence." This, then, we are to keep in remembrance, is the great purpose of the author :-to restore, or rather to establish that "commercium mentis et rerum,' -that direct intercourse between the mind and things-by which alone he conceives we can ever rightly understand and turn to proper account the natural forces and capabilities by which we are surrounded.

He goes on to observe that he had no hope at all that the prevailing errors would rectify themselves, either by the inherent power of the understanding or by the aid of dialectic, or fogic; because the primary notions which the mind was wont almost passively and supinely to drink in, and from which all others spring, were unsound, confused, and rashly abstracted from the realities to which they relate; while there was the like luxuriant variety and inconstancy in the second and sequent notions; so that it came to pass that the whole system of reasoning which men employed in the inquisition of nature was not well put together and built up, but was merely a showy pile without any sound foundation. For, whilst men admired and celebrated the imaginary powers of the mind, her true faculties, such as they might be made, if due aids were made use of by her, and she were to carry herself complyingly towards things instead of insulting over them, were passed over and allowed to lie unused.

"This one way, therefore," he concludes, "remaineth, that the whole business be attempted anew with better preparations, or defences against error; and that there be a universal INSTAURATION, or re-construction, of the arts and sciences, and of all human learning, upon a due basis." That is the meaning of the word Instauratio: it was used by the Romans for the repetition of anything; and generally with a special view to correctness or completeness of performance; as, for instance, of games or sacrifices of which the first performance had been unsatisfactory. It is properly a building up, and is nearly the same thing with a restoration.

Of what remains of this preliminary intimation of the

design of the Instauratio the following are the most remarkable passages:- "It does not escape him how untrodden and solitary is the way of this experiment, and how hard it may be for him to win belief in its practicability. Nevertheless, he thought that he ought not to desert either the undertaking or himself, but should at least make trial of entering upon the road which alone is pervious and penetrable to the mind of man.

And being uncertain when these things might hereafter come into any other mind, led principally by this consideration that he had heard of no one hitherto who had applied himself to such cogitations, he determined to publish by themselves such portions of his design as he had been enabled first to finish. Assuredly he

esteemed any other ambition whatsoever as inferior to what he had thus taken in hand; for this which is here treated of either is nothing, or is so great that he may well be contented with the merit of that alone and seek for nought beyond it."

Then follows a Dedication to the King, James I. This address can in strictness be understood as referring only to the Novum Organum, which alone accompanied it when it first appeared; but it is sufficiently applicable also to the whole of the Instauratio Magna. What Bacon proposed as his new method, although recommended and illustrated in other parts of the Instauratio, is only formally propounded or explained in the Novum Organum. It is there that what he conceives to be the novelty of his general views or principles is chiefly to be found. In any circumstances, therefore, his preparatory observations on his main design would have had a special reference to that part of the work.

What he offers, he tells his majesty, is at least altogether new; new in its very kind; yet copied, he adds, from a very ancient original, namely, from the world itself and the nature of things and of the human mind. He has himself been accustomed to esteem the work as the offspring rather of time than of wit; for the only thing wonderful in it is, that the first conception of the truths it contains, and such strong suspicions respecting

the opinions which have hitherto prevailed, should come into any one's head; after that, the rest followed naturally. Afterwards he expressly describes his work as a new torch kindled amid the darkness of philosophy to be a light to all coming time, and as a regeneration and instauration of the sciences. What he has put into men's hands, however, he remarks in conclusion, is the organ or instrument; the materials on which it is to be employed must be sought from things themselves.

Next we have a Preface of considerable length, headed "On the State of the Sciences, that it is not prosperous nor greatly advanced; and that another way altogether than what hath been heretofore known must be opened to the human understanding, and other helps obtained, in order that the mind may be able to exercise its right over the nature of things.'

"It seems to us," he begins, "that men neither properly understand what acquisitions they have made, nor what powers they are endowed with; the former they overrate, the latter they underrate. And so it comes to pass, that, either holding such arts as are generally known and practised in an immoderate estimation, they seek nothing more; or, undervaluing themselves beyond what in equity they ought, they waste their powers upon things of lighter significance, and refrain from making trial of them in such a way as might be really to the purpose." It is, as usual, impossible to abridge what follows; the compactness of the statement sets any such attempt at defiance; all that can be done is to extract a few of the leading remarks, omitting the connexion, or leaving the reader to make it out for himself. Here then are the passages, not which are the most ingenious or brilliant, but which are most material for the understanding of the author's design, and of his own conception of what he had accomplished in the work the principal portion of which he now laid before the world:-"As for the utility or profitableness of existing knowledge, we must speak out plainly, and declare that our philosophy, which we have derived principally from the Greeks, seems to be but a childhood of knowledge, and

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