"and again, simple water, and water beat into "froth; for whole glass, and simple water, are

transparent bodies, not white; but powdered glass, "and the froth of water, are white, not transparent."

§ 6.

FILUM LABYRINTHI.

The tract entitled " Filum Labyrinthi,"* of which there is a MSS. in the British Museum,† seems to have been the rudiment of the tract in Latin in Gruter's collection, entitled " Cogitata et Visa," the three first sections containing the same sentiments in almost the same words.

That it is a rudiment of the "Advancement of "Learning" is manifest, as will appear by comparing the beautiful passage in page 16 of vol. ii. with the following sentence in page 313 of this volume," He thought also, that knowledge is almost

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generally sought either for delight and satisfaction,

or for gain or profession, or for credit and orna"ment, and that every of these are as Atalanta's "balls, which hinder the race of invention.”

It is also a rudiment of the Novum Organum. Speaking of universities, he says, in page 319 of this volume, "In universities and colleges men's studies "are almost confined to certain authors, from which "if any dissenteth or propoundeth matter of redar"gution, it is enough to make him thought a person

"Scala Intellectus, sive Filum Labyrinthi," is the title of the fourth part of the "Instauratio."

↑ Catalogue Harleian, vol. iii. page 397. Art. 6797. ↑ These will be explained hereafter.

"turbulent; whereas if it be well advised, there is a great difference to be made between matters contemplative and active. For in government change "is suspected, though the better; but it is natural "to arts to be in perpetual agitation and growth. "Neither is the danger alike of new light, and of 66 new motion or remove."

In the Novum Organum he says, (Aph. 90,) "Again "in the customs and institutions of schools, univer"sities, colleges, and the like conventions, destined "for the seats of learned men, and the promotion of "knowledge, all things are found opposite to the "advancement of the sciences; for the readings and "exercises are here so managed, that it cannot. easily come into any one's mind to think of things "out of the common road. Or if here and there one "should venture to use a liberty of judging, he can

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only impose the task upon himself, without ob

taining assistance from his fellows; and if he "could dispense with this, he will still find his "industry and resolution a great hindrance to the "raising of his fortune. For the studies of men in "such places are confined, and pinned down to the "writings of certain authors; from which, if any "man happens to differ, he is presently reprehended "as a disturber and innovator. But there is surely great difference between arts and civil affairs; "for the danger is not the same from new light, as, "from new commotions. In civil affairs, it is true, a change even for the better is suspected, through. "fear of disturbance; because these affairs depend

upon authority, consent, reputation, and opinion, "and not upon demonstrations: but arts and sciences "should be like mines, resounding on all sides with new works, and farther progress. And thus it

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ought to be, according to right reason; but the "case, in fact, is quite otherwise. For the above"mentioned administration and policy of schools "and universities, generally opposes and greatly "prevents the improvement of the sciences."

It is not the correctness of these opinions respecting universities, which is now attempted to be investigated. The only object is to explain the similarity of the sentiments in this tract, entitled "Valerius Terminus," and the "Novum Organum;" but it seems not undeserving observation that this opinion must have been entertained by him very early in life, probably when resident in Cambridge, which he quitted soon after he was sixteen years of age, when the torpor of university pursuits would ill accord with his active mind, anxious only to invent and advance. At this early period, he, without considering whether universities are not formed rather for diffusing the knowledge of our predecessors, than for the discovery of unexplored truths; without considering the evil of youthful attempts not to believe first what others know, would naturally feel" that in the universities of Europe

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they learn nothing but to believe: first, to be"lieve that others know that which they know not;

"and after, themselves know that which they know

"not."* He would naturally enough say, "They are "like a becalmed ship; they never move but by the "wind of other men's breath, and have no oars of "their own to steer withal." But this opinion thus early impressed upon his mind seems to have been regulated in the year 1605, when he published the Advancement of Learning, and where, in his tract upon universities, after having enumerated many of their defects, he says, "The last defect which I will "note is, that there hath not been, or very rarely

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been, any public designation of writers or inquirers "concerning such parts of knowledge as may appear "not to have been already sufficiently laboured or "undertaken."+

$ 7.

DE CALORE ET FRIGORE.

This is obviously the rudiment of the Affirmative Table in the Novum Organum.

$ 8.

HELPS FOR INTELLECTUAL POWERS.

The tract entitled "Helps for the Intellectual Powers," was published by Rawley in his Resuscitatio, in 1657.

In a letter from Gruter to Dr. Rawley, dated July 1, 1659, and thanking him for a present of Lord Bacon's Posthumous Works, in Latin, (probably Opuscula cum Vita, published in 1658,) he says, "one paper I wonder I saw not amongst them, " The

* See page 254.

+ See page 96, Vol. II. See also his New Atlantis, ante Vol. II.

Epistle of the Lord Bacon to Sir Henry Savil, about the Helps of the Intellectual Powers," spoken of long ago in your letters under that, or some such title, if my memory does not deceive me. If it was not forgotten and remains among your private papers, I should be glad to see a copy of it, in the use of which, my faithfulness shall not be wanting. But, perhaps, it is written in the English tongue, and is a part of that greater volume, which contains only his English works."*

$ 9.

THE APOPHTHEGMES.

In the Advancement of Learning,† Bacon divides the Appendices to History into-1. Memorials. 2. Epistles. 3. Apophthegmes. And, after lamenting the loss of Cæsar's book of Apophthegmes, he says,

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as for those which are collected by others, either I "have no taste in such matters, or else their choice "hath not been happy:" but yet it seems that he had stored his mind with a collection of these "Mucrones Verborum," as, for his recreation in his sickness in the year preceding his death, he fanned the old, and dictated what he thought worth preservation.

Archbishop Tenison, in his Baconiana, page 47, says,

"The Apophthegmes (of which the first is the

* See the original in Latin, with the translation from which this extract is copied in the Baconiana, 239-40, and note he was right in this supposition.

+ See page 118, vol. ii.

↑ Apoth. printed in Oct. Lon. 1625. The title page of this