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of his opinions upon this important subject. The sentiments and the very words are similar. In the Meditation, he says, "This I dare affirm in knowledge of nature, that a little natural philosophy, and the first entrance into it, doth dispose the opinion to atheism; but on the other side, much natural philosophy and wading deep into it will bring about men's minds to religion; wherefore atheism every way seems to be joined and combined with folly and ignorance, seeing nothing can be more justly allotted to be the saying of fools, than this, 'There is no God.""

In the Advancement of Learning, he says, "It is an assured truth, and a conclusion of experience, that a little or superficial knowledge of philosophy may incline the mind of man to atheism, but a further proceeding therein doth bring the mind back again to religion; for in the entrance of philosophy, when the second causes, which are next unto the senses, do offer themselves to the mind of man, if it dwell and stay there, it may induce some oblivion of the highest cause; but when a man passeth on farther, and seeth the dependence of causes, and the works of Providence, then, according to the allegory of the poets, he will easily believe that the highest link of nature's chain must needs be tied to the foot of Jupiter's chair."

$ 3.

THE COLOURS OF GOOD AND EVIL.

2

This tract was published by Lord Bacon in 1597,1 and has been repeatedly published by different editors. It was incorporated in the treatise on rhetoric, in the Advancement of Learning, and more extensively in the treatise "De Augmentis." The dedication, of which there is a MS.3 in the British Museum, to the Lord Mountjoye, is copied from "The Remains," published by Stephens.*

§ 4.

PRAISE OF KNOWLEDGE.

This tract "In Praise of Knowledge," of which there is a MSS. in the British Museum,5 is a rudiment both of the "Advancement of Learning," and of the "Novum Organum." This will appear from the following extracts:

PRAISE OF KNOWLEDGE, page 79 OF THIS VOL.

"The truth of being, and the truth of knowing, is all one: and the pleasures of the affections greater than the pleasures of the senses. And are not the pleasures of the intellect greater than the pleasures of the affections? Is it not a true and only natural pleasure, whereof there is no satiety? Is it not knowledge that doth alone clear the mind of all perturbations?"

ADVANCEMENT of learning, page 183 OF THIS VOL.

"The pleasure and delight of knowledge and learning far surpasseth all other in nature; for, shall the pleasures of the affections so exceed the senses, as much as the obtaining of desire or victory exceedeth a song or a dinner; and must not, of consequence, the pleasures of the intellect or understanding exceed the pleasures of the affections? We see in all other pleasures there is a satiety, and after they be used, their verdure departeth; which sheweth well they be but deceits of pleasure, and not pleasures; and that it was the novelty which pleased, and not the quality: and therefore we see that voluptuous men turn friars, and ambitious princes turn melancholy. But of knowledge there is no satiety, but satisfaction and appetite are perpetually interchangeable."

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PRAISE OF KNOWLEDGE, PAGE 80 OF THIS VOL.

Printing, a gross invention; artillery, a thing that lay not far out of the way; the needle, a thing partly known before: what a change have these three things made in the world in these times; the one in state of learning, the other in state of the war, the third in the state of treasure, commodities, and navigation?"

NOVUM ORGANUM, PART I. APH. 129.

"Rursus, vim et virtutem et consequentias Rerum inventarum notare juvat: quæ non in aliis manifestius occurrunt, quam in illis tribus, quæ Antiquis incognitæ, et quarum primordia, licet recentia, obscura et ingloria sunt: Artis nimirum Imprimendi, Pulveris Tormentarii, et Acus Nau

"Of the Coulours of good and evill a fragment. 1597." At the end, and after the word" Finis," in this old edition is, "Printed at London by John Windet for Humfrey Hooper. 1597." See page 217.

Harleian 6797, and there is a page or two of the work itself.

• But I do not find it prefixed to the work.

Harleian MSS. 6797.

ticæ. Hæc enim tria, rerum faciem et statum in Orbe terrarum mutaverunt: primum, in Re Literaria; secundum, in Re Bellica: tertium, in Navigationibus: Unde innumeræ rerum mutationes sequutæ sunt, ut non imperium aliquod, non Secta, non Stella majorem efficaciam et quasi influxum super res humanas exercuisse videatur, quam ista Mechanica exercuerunt."1

§ 5.

VALERIUS TERMINUS.

This too is clearly a rudiment of the "Advancement of Learning," as may be perceived almost in every page: for instance, by comparing, of this volume,

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It is also a rudiment of the "Novum Organum." In page 89 of this volume, he says, "Let the effect to be produced be whiteness; let the first direction be, that if air and water be intermingled, or broken in small portions together, whiteness will ensue, as in snow, in the breaking of the waves* of the sea, and rivers, and the like."

In the "Novum Organum," under the head of travelling instances, he says, "To give an example of a travelling instance; suppose the nature inquired after were whiteness, an instance advancing to generation is glass, whole, and in powder; 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."

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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,"s 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 165 with the following sentence in page 97 of this volume, "He thought also, that knowledge is almost generally sought either for delight and satisfaction, or for gain or profession, or for credit and ornament, 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 98 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 redargution, it is enough to make him thought a person 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 new motion or remove."

In the Novum Organum he says, (Aph. 90,) “Again in the customs and institutions of schools, universities, 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 use a liberty of judging, he can only impose the task upon himself, without obtaining 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 a 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

[Shaw's translation:

"Again, it may not be improper to observe the power, the efficacy, and the consequences of inventions, which appear no where plainer, than in those three particulars, unknown to the ancients, and whose origins, though modern, are obscure and inglorious, viz. the art of printing, gunpowder, and the compass, which have altered the state of the world, and given it a new face; 1. With regard to learning; 2. With regard to war; and, 3. With regard to navigation. Whence numberless vicissitudes of things have ensued, insomuch that no empire, no sect, no celestial body, could seem to have a greater efficacy, and, as it were, influence over human affairs than these three mechanical inventions have had."

I have ventured in this preface to substitute "waves" for ways.

"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.

should be like mines, resounding on all sides with new works, and farther progress. And thus it ought to be, according to right reason; but the case, in fact, is quite otherwise. For the abovementioned 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 they learn nothing but to believe: first, to believe 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 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.”1

§ 7.

DE CALORE ET FRIGORE.

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

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HELPS FOR INTELLECTUAL POWERS.

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

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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 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, "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 best Edition) were (what he saith also of his Essays) but as the Recreations of his other Studies. They were dictated one morning, out of his memory; and if they seem to any, a birth too inconsiderable for the brain of so great a man; they may think with themselves how little a time he went with it, and from thence make some allowance. Besides, his lordship hath received much injury by late editions,5 of which some have much enlarged, but not at all enriched the collection; stuffing it with tales and sayings, too infacetious for a ploughman's chimney-corner. And particularly, in the collection not long since published, and

1 See his New Atlantis.

See the original in Latin, with the translation from which this extract is copied in the Baconiana, 239, 240, and note he was right in this supposition.

Apoth. printed in Oct. Lon. 1625. The title page of this edition is "Apophthegmes, New and Old, collated by the Right Honorable Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount St. Alban.-London: printed for Hanna Barret and Richard Whittaker, and are to be sold at the King's Head in Paul's Church, 1625."

See his Epistle to Bishop Andrews. ⚫ Even by that added (but not by Dr. Rawley) to the Resuscitatio.-Baconiana.

In Octavo. Lon. 1669.

VOL. I.-2

call'd The Apothegms of King James, King Charles, the Marquess of Worcester, the Lord Bacon, and Sir Thomas Moor; his Lordship is dealt with very rudely. For besides the addition of insipid tales, there are some put in which are beastly and immoral:1 such as were fitter to be joyned to Aretine, or Aloysia, than to have polluted the chaste labours of the Baron of Verulam.”

And Stephens, in the preface to the Memoirs, published in 1734, when speaking of Blackburn's edition of Bacon, says,

"Would any one, that had consulted the reputation of the Lord Bacon, or indeed his own, have published several Apophthegmes under his Lordship's Name, which he himself, as well as Dr. Tenison, allowed to be scandalous and spurious? Those which his Lordship compiled as an amusement, during his indisposition in the year 1625, were printed in the same year, amounting to the number of two hundred and eighty: And were not reprinted by Doctor Rawley in the first edition of the Resuscitatio in 1657: but, upon the republishing that work, with a dedication to King Charles the Second, the Bookseller contrived to insert them with some alteration and additions; which, instead of increasing, diminished the value of the whole."

This volume contains a copy of the first edition of 1625,3 with an appendix containing the Apophthegmes, published by Archbishop Tenison in his Baconia. I have, to use Bacon's own words, fanned the collection published under his name, and rejected the spurious additions. They are inserted in a note.1

The use which Lord Bacon made of these "Mucrones Verborum," may be seen by comparing Apophthegme 251, with the same anecdote as incorporated in the Advancement of Learning.

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THE ORNAMENTA RATIONALIA, &c.

Are inserted from the Baconiana. The short notes, of which there is a MS. in the British Museum, are taken from the Remains published in 1645.-The Essay on Death, of which there is a Manuscript in the British Museum," is inserted from the Remains.

I know not by what authority this fragment is ascribed to Lord Bacon. It appears not to be in his style; and, excepting the following passages, I do not find any similarity in this Essay with his general sentiments upon death;

PAGE 133 OF THIS VOLUME.

"There is nothing more awakens our resolve and readiness to die, than the quieted conscience, strengthened with opinion that we shall be well spoken of upon earth by those that are just and of the family of virtue; the opposite whereof is a fury to man, and makes even life unsweet.

"Therefore, what is more heavy than evil fame deserved? Or, likewise, who can see worse days, than he that yet living doth follow at the funerals of his own reputation.”

PAGE 12 OF THIS VOLUME.

“A mind fixed and bent upon somewhat that is good, doth avert the dolours of death; but, above all, believe it, the sweetest canticle is, Nunc dimittis,' when a man hath obtained worthy ends and expectations."

1 Ex. gr. Apotheg. 183, 184.

But note that this edition was published in 1661, during Rawley's life, who died in 1667.

Amongst the Apophthegmes inserted in the note, the following, which, from its internal evidence, I can scarcely think spurious, would have admirably illustrated Bacon's favourite opinion, that all men should be engaged in active life; that, in this theatre of man's life, it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on.

"When his Lordship was newly advanced to the Great Seal, Gondomar came to visit him: My Lord said, 'That he was to thank God and the King for that honour; but yet, so he might be rid of the burthen, he could very willingly forbear the honour. And that he formerly had a desire, and the same continued with him still, to lead a private life." Gondomar answered, that he would tell him a tale, Of an old rat that would needs leave the world: and acquainted the young rats that he would retire into his hole, and spend his days solitary; and would enjoy no more comfort and commended them upon his high displeasure, not to offer to come in unto him. They forbore two or three days; at last, one that was more hardy than the rest, incited some of his fellows to go in with him, and he would venture to see how his father did; for he might be dead. They went in, and found the old rat sitting in the midst of a rich Parmesan cheese.' So he applied the fable after his witty manner."

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See end of Apophthegmes.

• Lansdowne Collection, No. 205, fo. 217.

• Harleian, vol. ii. p. 196.

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I. OF TRUTH.

WHAT is truth? said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer. Certainly there be that delight in giddiness; and count it a bondage to fix a belief; affecting free-will in thinking, as well as in acting. And though the sects of philosophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain certain discoursive wits, which are of the same veins, though there be not so much blood in them

as was in those of the ancients. But it is not only the difficulty and labour which men take in find

king out of truth, nor again,

it imposeth upon men's thoughts, that doth bring lies in favour, but a natural though corrupt

love of the lie itself. One of the later schools of the Grecians examineth the matter, and is at a stand to think what should be in it, that men should love where neither they make for pleasure, as with poets; nor for advantage, as with the merchant, but for the lie's sake. But I cannot tell this same truth is a naked and open that doth not show the masks, and mannerde, and triumphs of the world, half so stately and daintily as candlelights. Truth may perhaps come to the price of a pearl, that showeth best by day, but it will not rise to the price of a diamond

or carbuncle, that showeth best in varied lights

A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure. Doth Jany man doubt, that if there were taken out of men's minds, vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one would, and the like, but it would leave the minds of a number of men, poor shrunken things, full of melancholy and indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves? One of the fathers, in great severity, called poesy Inum dæmonum," because it filleth the ima"vinum gination, and yet it is but with the shadow of a lie. But it is not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the lie that sinketh in, and settleth in it, that doth the hurt, such as we spake of before. But howsoever these things are thus in men's depraved judgments and affections (yet truth, which only doth judge itself, teacheth, that the inquiry of truth, which is the love-making, or wooing of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature The first creature of God, in the works of the days, was the light of the sense: the last was the light of reason; and his Sabbath work ever since, is the illumination of his Spirit. First, he breathed

light upon the face of the matter, or chaos; then

to see a battle, and the adventures thereof be

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he breathed light into the face of man; and still quest
he breatheth and inspireth light into the face of
his chosen. The poet that beautified the sect,
that was otherwise inferior to the rest, saith yet
the shore, and to see ships tossed upon the sea: a
excellently well: "It is a pleasure to stand upon
pleasure to stand in the window of a castle, and
low: but no pleasure is comparable to the stand-
ing upon the vantage ground of truth, (a hill not
to be commanded, and where the air is always
clear and serene,) and to see the errors, and wan-
low:" always that this prospect be with pity,
and not with swelling or pride. Certainly, it is
heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move
in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the
poles of truth.

and mists, and tempests in the

To pass from theological and philosophical truth, to the truth of civil business; it will be acknowledged even by those that practise it not that clean and round dealing is the honour of man's nature, and that mixture of falsehood is like alloy metal work the better, but it embaseth it. For in coin of gold and silver, which may make the these winding and crooked courses are the goings of the serpent; which goeth basely upon the

belly, and not upon the feet. There is no vice that doth so cover a man with shame as to be found false and perfidious; and therefore Montaigne saith prettily, when he inquired the reason, why the word of the lie should be such a disgrace, well weighed, to say that a man lieth, is as much and such an odious charge, saith he, "If it be as to say, that he is brave towards God, and a coward towards men. For a lie faces God, and shrinks from man." ."Surely the wickedness of falsehood and breach of faith cannot possibly be so highly expressed, as in that it shall be the last peal to call the judgments of God upon the genera tions of men: it being foretold, that when "Christ cometh," he shall not "find faith upon the earth."

II. OF DEATH.*

A

MEN fear death, as children fear to go into the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other. Certainly, the contemplation of death, as the wages of sin, and passage to another world, is holy and religious; but the fear of it, as a tribute due unto na* See note A, at the end of the Essays.

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