DEEST PARS PRIMA INSTAURATIONIS, QUE COMPLECTITUR PARTITIONES SCIENTIARUM. Illæ tamen ex Secundo Libro de Progressibus faciendis in Doctrina Divina et Humana, nonnulla ex parte peti possunt. SEQUITUR SECUNDA PARS INSTAURATIONIS, QUÆ ARTEM IPSAM Interpretandi Naturam, et verioris adoperationis Intellectus exhibet: neque eam ipsam tamen in Corpore tractatus justi, sed tantum digestam per summas, in Aphorismos.2 And 'This is omitted in the common editions of Bacon's collected works (in all, 1 believe, except Montagu's); the De Augmentis Scientiarum, with the title "Instaurationis Magna pars prima" prefixed on a separate leaf, being substituted for it. it is true that Bacon did afterwards decide upon supplying this deficiency by a translation of the Advancement of Learning enlarged; that he produced the De Augmentis Scientiarum with that intention and understanding; and that though the original edition does not bear “Instaurationis Magnæ pars prima" on the titlepage, yet in Dr. Rawley's reprint of it in 1638 those words were inserted. Nevertheless this notice is of importance, as showing that when Bacon published the Novum Organum he did not look to a mere enlargement of the Advancement of Learning as satisfying the intention of the pars prima; for if he had, he would have referred to the work itself, not to the second book only. He meant, no doubt, to reproduce the substance of it in a different form. And my own impression is that the Descriptio Globi Intellectualis was originally designed for this place, and that he had not yet abandoned the hope of completing it; but that soon after,- fortune gone, health shaken, assistance not to be commanded, and things of more importance remaining to be done, he found he had not time to finish it on so large a scale, and therefore resolved to enlarge the old house instead of building a new one. -J. S. 2 This explains a certain discrepancy between the design of the second part, as set forth in the Distributio Operis, and the execution of it in the Novum Organum. The Distributio, like the Delineatio, was probably written when Bacon intended to work it out in a regular and consecutive treatise, and repesents the idea of the work more perfectly than the work itself. See note on Distr. Op. p. 139.-J. S. |