VI PREFACE. 



Parts of the Novum Organum have, at different periods, 

 been translated. 



In Watts s translation, in 1640, of the Treatise De 

 Augmentis, there is a translation of the Introductory Tract 

 prefixed to the Novum Organum. 



In the third edition of the Resuscitatio, published in 

 1671, there are three translated tracts from the Novum 

 Organum, viz. 1. The Natural and Experimental History 

 of the Form of Hot Things. 2. Of the several kinds of 

 Motion, or of the Active Virtue. 3. A Translation of the 

 Parasceve, which is the beginning of the third part of the 

 Instauration, but is annexed to the Novum Organum in 

 the first edition. This translation of the Parasceve is by 

 a well wisher to his Lordship s writings. 



In the tenth edition of the Sylva Sylvarum, there is -an 

 abridged translation of the Novum Organum. The follow 

 ing is a copy of the title-page : The Novum Organum of 

 Sir Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Albans 

 Epitomiz d: for a clearer understanding of his Natural 

 History. Translated and taken out of the Latine by 

 M. D. B. D. London : Printed for Thomas Lee, at the 

 Turks-head in Fleet Street, 1676. As this tenth edition of 

 the Sylva was published 1671, and Dr. Rawley died 1667, 

 it must not, from any document now known, be ascribed to 

 him. It is not noticed in the Baconiana published in 1679. 



In 1733, Peter Shaw, M.D. published a translation of 

 the Novum Organum. 



Dr. Shaw, who was a great admirer of Lord Bacon, seems 

 to have laboured under a diseased love of arrangement, by 

 which he was induced to deviate from the order of the pub 

 lications by Lord Bacon, and to adopt his own method. 

 This may be seen in almost every part of his edition, but 

 particularly in his edition of the Essays, and of the Novum 

 Organum, which is divided and subdivided into sections, 

 with a perplexing alteration, without an explanation of the 

 numbers of the Aphorisms ; this will appear at the conclu 

 sion of his first section, where he passes from section thirty- 

 seven to section one. 



His own account of his translation is as follows : &quot; The 

 design of these volumes is to give a methodical English 

 edition of his Philosophical works, fitted for a commo 

 dious and ready perusal ; somewhat &amp;gt;in the same manner 

 as the Philosophical works of Mr. Boyle were, a few years 

 since, fitted, in three quarto volumes. 



&quot; All the author s pieces, that were originally written in 



