PREFACE 



SCALA INTELLECTUS AND PBODEOII. 



THE two following pieces (which complete the first 

 part of the Philosophical Works) were first published 

 by Gruter in 1653. They are not included in Dr. 

 Rawley s Opuscula (1658), nor mentioned in his list 

 of Bacon s later writings. As to the date of their 

 composition, I can find no grounds even for a guess. 

 Either of them might apparently have been written at 

 any time after the plan of the Instauratio in its six 

 parts had been once conceived. Gruter. places them 

 among what he calls Impetus Philosophici ; which 

 merely means that they came to him as loose sheets 

 without any direction under what title to arrange 

 them. There can be no doubt however that they 

 were intended as prefaces to the fourth and fifth parts 

 of the Instauratio respectively ; nor is there any rea 

 son to suppose that they had been either abandoned 

 or superseded. Being unable therefore to follow the 

 order of composition, I follow the order of matter, 

 and put them here where they were meant ultimately 

 to stand. 



With these prefaces the collection of works pub 

 lished or designed for publication as parts of the In- 



