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sign;-sufficient, he hopes, has been done to show the general scope and object of this immortal work.

Having treated of Prerogative Instances, it was lord Bacon's design to offer some further helps to Induction; but this part of his work he never finished. Writing to the King upon the publication of the Novum Organum,* (and at this time Bacon was above sixty years of age,) he says, 'the reason why I have published it now, specially being imperfect, is, to speak plainly, because I number my days, and would have it saved. There is another reason of my so doing, which is to try whether I can get help in one intended part of this work, namely, the compiling of a natural and experimental history, which must be the main foundation of a true and active philosophy. One thing,' he adds, "I confess I am ambi

* October 12th, 1620.

tious of, with hope, which is, that after these beginnings, and the wheel once set on going, men shall seek more truth out of christian pens, than hitherto they have done out of heathen :-I say with hope, because I hear my former book of the Advancement of Learning, is well tasted in the universities here, and the English Colleges abroad; and this is the same argument sunk deeper.*'

In collecting materials for a natural and experimental history, Bacon had diligently laboured; designing this work for the third part of his Instauration, which he called Phænomena Universi. The result of his

Bacon's Works, vol. 12, p. 393. In the same letter he says, speaking of the Novum Organum, 'The work, in what colours soever it may be set forth, is no more but a new logic, teaching to invent and judge by induction, as finding syllogism incompetent for sciences of nature; and thereby to make philosophy and sciences both more true and more active.' The Novum Organum was dedicated to King James, who used to say, somewhat irreverently,-'that it was like the peace of God, which passeth all understanding.'

researches appears in the Sylva Sylvarum, which was not published until after his death. To modern readers, this is, perhaps, the least valuable of lord Bacon's works: it is a multifarious collection of particulars on a variety of subjects, and quaintly divided into ten centuries. Many of his own experiments, which he has minutely described, are, however, extremely interesting. 'We desire,', said he, that men should learn and perceive, how severe a thing the true inquisition of nature is; and should accustom themselves, by the light of particulars, to enlarge their minds to the amplitude of the world, and not reduce the world to the narrowness of their minds.'*

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The fourth, fifth, and sixth parts of the Instauration he did not live to complete ; indeed, the splendid structure that he had designed, was one, as he himself foresaw,

Sylva Sylvarum, cent. 3, art. 290.- Works, vol. 4, p. 142

which could not be reared in one age, but must be left to time. What was the nature of those extensive works which his capacious mind had planned, will appear from the following letter to Father Fulgentio, which, although long, is too interesting and characteristic of the illustrious author, not to be given entire:

'Most reverend Father,-I must confess myself to be a letter in your debt; but the excuse which I have, is too, too just. For I was kept from doing you right by a very sore disease, from which I am not yet perfectly delivered.

'I am now desirous to communicate to your fatherhood the designs I have touching those writings which I form in my head and begin; not with hope of bringing them to perfection, but out of desire to make experiment, and because I am a servant to posterity; for these things require some ages for the ripening of them.

'I judged it most convenient to have them

translated in the Latin tongue, and to divide them into certain tomes.

"The first tome consisteth of the books of the Advancement of Learning which, as you understand, are already finished and published; and contain the Partition of Sciences, which is the first part of my Instauration. The Novum Organum should have immediately followed, but I interposed my moral and political writings, because they were more in readiness.

'And for them they are these following:The first is, The History of Henry the Seventh, King of England. Then follows that which you have called in your tongue, “Saggi Morali." But I give a graver name to that book; and it is to go under the title of Sermones Fideles, or Interiora Rerum. Those essays will be increased in their number, and enlarged in the handling of them. Also, that tome will contain the book of the Wisdom of the Ancients; and this tome (as I said,) doth, as it were, interlope, and doth not stand in the order of the Instauration.

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