a

“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 theinselves to the “ mind of man, if it dwell and stay there, it may in“ duce some oblivion of the highest cause; but when

a man passeth on farther, and seeth the depend“ence 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.

This tract was published by Lord Bacon in 1597,* and has been repeatedly published by different editors. It was incorporated in the treatise on rhetoric, in the advancement of learning,t and inore extensively in the treatise “ De Augmentis.” The dedication, of which there is a MS. 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, * 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 251 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 85 OF VOL. II.

“ 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 vic

tory exceedeth a song or a dinner ; and must not, “of consequence, the pleasures of the intellect or

understanding exceed the pleasures of the affec“ tions? 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 plea“sure, and not pleasures; and that it was the no"velty which pleased, and not the quality : and

Harleian MSS. 6797.

“ 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.” PRAISE OF KNOWLEDGE, PAGE 255 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 1. APH. 129. “ Rursus, vim et virtutem et consequentias Re“rum inventarum notare juvat : quæ non in aliis “ manifestius occurrunt, quam in illis tribus, quæ

Antiquis incognitæ, et quarum primordia, licet re“ centia, obscura et ingloria sunt: Artis nimirum

Imprimendi, Pulveris Tormentarii, et Acus Nau“ 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 muta“ tiones sequutæ sunt, ut non imperium aliquod,

non Secta, non Stella majorem efficaciam et quasi “ influxum super res humanas exercuisse videatur,

Page

$ 5. VALERIUS TERMINUS. This too is clearly a rudiment of the “ Advance. “ment of Learning," as may be perceived almost in every page: for instance, by comparing, Of this Volume.

Of Volume II. - - 261 with Page

2. Page 271 with Page 45. 51. Page --- 272 with Page

48. It is also a rudiment of the “ Novum Organum." In page 285 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 in

quired after were whiteness, an instance advancing " to generation is glass, whole, and in powder ;

“ 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 com"pass, 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 number“ less vicissitudes of things have ensued, insomuch that no em“pire, 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.

“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.

The tract entitled “ Filum Labyrinthi,”* of which there is a MSS. in the British Museum,

t 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

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