tion and experiment, and reminded them that the sun "æque palatia et cloacas ingreditur; nec tamen polluitur". We do not, he continues, erect or dedicate to human pride a capitol or a pyramid; we lay the foundations in the mind of man of a holy temple, whereof the exemplar is the universe. Throughout his writings the rejection of systems and authority is coupled with the assertion, that it is beyond all things necessary that the philosopher should be an humble follower of Nature. One of the most remarkable parts of the Novum Organum is the doctrine of Idola. It is an attempt to classify according to their origin the false and ill-defined notions by which the mind is commonly beset. They come, he tells us, from the nature of the human mind in general, from the peculiarities of each man's individual mind, from his intercourse with other men, from the formal teaching of the received philosophies. All these must be renounced and put away, else no man can enter into the kingdom which is to be founded on the knowledge of Nature 71. Of the four kinds of idols Mersenne has spoken in his Vérité des Sciences, published in 1625, as of the four buttresses of the Organum of Verulam. This expression, though certainly inaccurate, serves to show the attention which in Bacon's time was paid to his doctrine of idola 72.

His rejection of syllogistic reasoning, in the proposed process for the establishment of axioms, was not without utility. In the middle ages and at the reform of philosophy the value of the syllogistic method was unduly exalted. Bacon was right in denying that it was possible to establish by a summary process and à priori the first principles of any science, and thence to deduce by syllogism all the propositions which that science could contain; and though he erred in rejecting deductive reasoning altogether, this error could never have exerted any practical influence on the progress of science, while the truth with which it was associated was a truth of which his contemporaries required at least to be reminded. The reason of his error seems to have been that he formed an incorrect idea of the nature of syllogism, regarding it rather as an entirely artificial process than as merely a formal statement of the steps necessarily involved in every act of reasoning. However this may be, it is certain that whenever men attempted to set aside every process for the discovery of truth except induction, they must always have been led to recognise the impossibility of doing so.

Lastly, the tone in which Bacon spoke of the future destiny of mankind fitted him to be a leader of the age in which he lived. It was an age of change and hope. Men went forth to seek in new-found worlds for the land of gold and for the fountain of youth; they were told that yet greater wonders lay within their reach. They had burst the bands of old authority; they were told to go forth from the cave where they had dwelt so long, and look on the light of heaven. It was also for the most part an age of faith; and the new philosophy upset no creed, and pulled down no altar. It did not put the notion of human perfectibility in the place of religion, nor deprive mankind of hopes beyond the grave. On the contrary, it told its followers that the instauration of the sciences was the free gift of the God in whom their fathers had trusted—that it was only another proof of the mercy of him whose mercy is over all his works.

71 Nov. Org. i. 68. The word idolon is used by Bacon in antithesis to idea. He does not mean by it an idol or false object of worship. 72 Compare Gassendi, Inst. Log.

The two Books of Francis Bacon of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning Divine and Human

PREFACE.

BY JAMES SPEDDING.

THE first edition of the Advancement of Learning is dated 1605. In what month it appeared is doubtful; but from certain allusions in a letter sent by Bacon to Tobie Matthew with a presentation copy, I gather (for the letter bears no date) that it was not out before the latter end of October.

Tobie Matthew, eldest son of the Bishop of Durham, was then about 27 years old, and had been intimate with Bacon, certainly for the last three years, and probably for more. Bacon had a high opinion of his abilities and seems to have consulted him about his works. "I have now at last (he says in this letter) taught that child to go, at the swaddling whereof you were. My work touching the Proficiency and Advancement of Learning I have put into two books, whereof the former, which you saw, I account but as a Page to the latter. I have now published them both, whereof I thought it a small adventure to send you a copy, who have more right to it than any man, except Bishop Andrews, who was my Inquisitor 1."

Now Matthew had been abroad since April, 1605; and as he had seen the first book only, it is probable that the second was not then written; a circumstance which may be very naturally accounted for, if I am right in supposing that the Advancement of Learning was begun immediately after the accession of James I. From the death of Elizabeth, 24th March, 1602-3, to the meeting of James's first Parliament, 19th March, 1603-4, Bacon had very little to do. He held indeed the same place among the Learned Counsel which he had held under Elizabeth, but his services were little if at all used. On the 3rd of July, 1603, we find him writing to Lord Cecil :-" For my purpose or course, I desire to meddle as little as I can in the King's causes, his Majesty now abounding in counsel. . . . My ambition now I shall only put upon my pen, whereby I shall be able to maintain memory and merit of the times succeeding." And in the trial of Sir Walter Raleigh at Winchester the following November (though it was a complicated case involving many persons and requiring a great number of examinations) he does not appear to have been employed at all. But from the meeting of Parliament in March till the end of 1604 he was incessantly employed; first during the session (which lasted till the 7th of July) in the business of the House of Commons; then during the vacation, in preparation for the Commission of the Union 2 which was to meet in October; and from that time to the beginning of December in the business of the Commission itself;-all matters of extreme urgency and importance, and the "labour whereof, for men of his profession, rested most upon his hand " 3.

1 Sir Tobie Matthew's collection of English letters, p. xi. Andrews was made a Bishop on the 3rd of November, 1605.

2 See "Certain Articles or Considerations touching the union of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland; collected and dispersed for His Majesty's better service". 3 Letter to the King, touching the Solicitor's place.

On the 4th of December the Commissioners signed their report; and on the 24th the next meeting of Parliament, which had been fixed for February, was postponed till October. This prorogation secured Bacon another interval of leisure; an interval longer perhaps, considering the nature of the public services which had now fallen upon him, than he was likely soon again to enjoy; and which it was the more important therefore to use in finishing the great literary work which he had begun. The same consideration may have determined him to be content with a less perfect treatment of the subject than he had originally designed; for certainly the second book, though so much the more important of the two, is in point of execution much less careful and elaborate than the first, and bears many marks of hasty composition. The presumption that an interval occurred between the writing of the two is further confirmed by the fact that they were not printed at the same time. The first ends with a halfsheet, and the second begins upon a fresh one with a new signature; whence I suppose we may infer that the first had been printed off before the second was ready for the press.

Of the motives which induced Bacon to undertake and hurry forward the Advancement of Learning at that particular time, and of those which afterwards suggested the incorporation of it into his great work on the Interpretation of Nature, I have explained my own view in my preface to the De Augmentis. Upon all matters requiring explanation or illustration the reader is referred to Mr. Ellis's notes upon the corresponding passages in that more finished work; and that the reference may be more easy I have marked the places where the several chapters begin; adding some account, more or less complete, of the principal differences between the two. In many cases these differences are so extensive that no adequate idea of their nature could be given within the limits of a note; and in such cases I have been content with a simple reference to the place. But where the substance of any addition or alteration which seemed to me material could be stated succinctly, especially if it involved any modification of the opinion expressed in the text, I have generally endeavoured to state it; sometimes translating Bacon's words, sometimes giving the effect in my own, as I found most convenient.

For the text, I have treated the edition of 1605 as the only original authority; the corrections introduced by later editors, though often unquestionably_right, being (as far as I can see) merely conjectural. And therefore, though I have adopted all such corrections into the text whenever I was satisfied that they give the true reading, I have always quoted in a note the reading of the original. Only in the typographical arrangement with respect to capitals, italics, etc. (which in the original was probably left to the printer's taste, and is inconsistent in itself, and would be perplexing to modern eyes) and also in the punctuation, which is extremely confused and inaccurate, I have used the full liberty of my own judgment; altering as much as I pleased, and endeavouring only to make the sense clear to an eye accustomed to modern books, without encumbering the page with any notice of such alterations.

There is one innovation however which I have ventured to introduce and which it is necessary to explain. The Advancement of Learning was written for readers who were familiar with Latin, and abounds with Latin quotations. In these days it may be read with profit by many persons of both sexes to whom such quotations are a very perplexing obstruction. Forming as they generally do a part of the context, so that the sentence is not complete without them, those who cannot read Latin are in many cases unable to follow the sense of the English. To give such readers the means of understanding them seemed therefore no less than necessary; and I thought the true effect of them would be conveyed to the mind most perfectly and satisfactorily by presenting the interpretations in such a form that they might be read in their places, just as they would have been had they formed part of the original text, and just as they are in those passages where Bacon has himself furnished the interpretation. Following his example therefore as nearly as I could, I have endeavoured to give the effect of each of these Latin quotations in such a form as seemed to suit best the English idiom and to fall best into the English context; not tying myself to

literal translation, but rather preferring to vary the expression, especially where I could by that means give it such a turn as to throw the emphasis more distinctly upon that part of the quotation which was more particularly in point. Thus it will be found, I think, that those who understand the Latin may still read the English without feeling it to be a mere repetition, while those who do not will in reading the English alone find the sense always complete. It was evident however that translations of this kind could not be read in this way conveniently if inserted in notes at the bottom of the page; and therefore, there being no room in the margin, I have ventured to insert them in the text; from which however, that they may not be mistaken for a part of it, I have always taken care to distinguish them by brackets. In a few cases where a Latin quotation occurs, not followed by a translation within brackets, it is to be understood that it is introduced merely as a voucher for what has just been said in the English, or for the purpose of suggesting a classical allusion which a translation would not suggest except to a classical reader, and that the sense is complete without it. In a few other cases where a quotation is followed by a translation not included within brackets, it is to be understood that it is Bacon's own translation and forms part of the original text.

For all the notes except those signed R. L. E., which are Mr. Ellis's, I am responsible.

J. S.

THE FIRST BOOK

TO THE KING.

THERE were under the Law (excellent King) both daily sacrifices and freewill offerings; the one proceeding upon ordinary observance, the other upon a devout cheerfulness. In like manner there belongeth to kings from their servants both tribute of duty and presents of affection. In the former of these I hope I shall not live to be wanting, according to my most humble duty, and the good pleasure of your Majesty's employments: for the later, I thought it more respective to make choice of some oblation which might rather refer to the propriety and excellency of your individual person, than to the business of your crown and state.

1

Wherefore representing your Majesty many times unto my mind, and beholding you not with the inquisitive eye of presumption to discover that which the Scripture telleth me is inscrutable, but with the observant eye of duty and admiration; leaving aside the other parts of your virtue and fortune, I have been touched, yea and possessed, with an extreme wonder at those your virtues and faculties which the philosophers call intellectual; the largeness of your capacity, the faithfulness of your memory, the swiftness of your apprehension, the penetration of your judgment, and the facility and order of your elocution: and I have often thought that of all the persons living that I have known, your Majesty were the best instance to make a man of Plato's opinion, that all knowledge is but remembrance,* and that the mind of man by nature knoweth all things, and hath but her own native and original notions 1 (which by the strangeness and darkness of this tabernacle of the body are sequestered) again revived and restored: such a light of nature I have observed in your Majesty, and such a readiness to take flame and blaze from the least occasion presented, or the least spark of another's knowledge delivered. And as the Scripture saith of the wisest king, That his heart was as the sands of the sea; which though it be one of the largest bodies yet it consisteth of the smallest and finest portions; so hath God given your Majesty a composition of understanding admirable, being able to compass and comprehend the greatest matters, and nevertheless to touch and apprehend the least; whereas it should seem an impossibility in nature for the same instrument to make itself fit for great and small works. And for your gift of speech, I call to mind what Cornelius Tacitus saith of Augustus Cæsar; Augusto profluens, et quæ principem deceret, eloquentia fuit; [that his style of speech was flowing and prince-like 2:] for if we note it well, speech that is uttered with labour and difficulty, or speech that savoureth of the affectation of art and precepts, or speech that is framed after the imitation of some pattern of eloquence, though never so excellent, all this has somewhat servile, and holding of the subject. But your Majesty's manner of speech is indeed princelike, flowing as from a fountain, and yet streaming and branching itself into nature's order, full of facility and felicity, imitating none, and inimitable by any. And as in your civil estate there appeareth to be an emulation and contention of your Majesty's virtue with your fortune; a virtuous disposition with a fortunate regiment; a virtuous expectation (when time was) of your greater fortune, with a prosperous possession thereof in the due time; a virtuous observation of the laws of marriage; a virtuous and most Christian desire of peace [* Phado, p. 75; Meno, ad. init. Cf. Aristot. Anal. Pri. ii. 21.]

1 So edd. 1629 and 1633. Ed. 1605 has motions.

2 Observe that the translations within brackets are not in the original, but inserted by myself. My reasons for adopting this plan, and the principle upon which I have proceeded in translating, are explained in the preface.-J.S.