288 PREFACE TO DE 1 EINCIPIIS ATQUE ORIGINIBUS. 



measure influenced by his jural habits of thought, and, 

 tries in all fairness and equity to put a favourable 

 construction on that on which he sits in judgment. 1 

 However this may be, I have certainly found it diffi 

 cult to support all his statements by quotations from 

 his author, and in some cases have noticed at least 

 apparent discrepancies. 



The tract ends abruptly with the discussion of the 

 system of Telesius. A similar discussion of the atomic 

 theory would have been of far greater interest, for 

 Bacon s own opinions are much more closely con 

 nected with those of Democritus than with Telesius s, 

 from whom he derived only isolated doctrines. The 

 most important of these doctrines is that of the dual 

 ity of the soul, of which and of its relation to the or 

 thodox opinion I have elsewhere had occasion to speak. 2 



1 Bacon s own language suggests this impression. &quot; Nos eniin,&quot; he de 

 clares, &quot; in omnium inventis summa cum fide et tanquam faventes versa- 

 mur. 1 And that he does not conceive himself bound to minute accuracy 

 in reproducing the opinions of the philosophers of whom he speaks, appears 

 from several expressions: &quot;Hujusmodi quaedam de diversitate calorum a 

 Telesio dicuntur; &quot; &quot; Hsec, aut iis meliora, cogitabant illi,&quot; &c. 



2 See General Preface, Vol. I. p. 102. T. 8. 



