XXVI PREFACE. 



since set forth a part of my Installation which, 

 is the work, that in mine own judgment, e si nun- 

 quam fallit imago/ I do most esteem ; I think to 

 proceed in some new parts thereof. And although 

 I have received from many parts beyond the seas, 

 testimonies touching that work, such as beyond 

 which I could not expect at the first in so abstruse 

 an argument ; yet nevertheless I have just cause to 

 doubt, that it flies too high over men s heads : (m) 

 have a purpose therefore, though I break the order of 

 time, to draw it down to the sense, by some patterns 

 of a Natural Story and Inquisition. And again, 

 for that my book of Advancement of Learning may 

 be some preparative, or key, for the better opening 

 of the Instauration, because it exhibits a mixture 

 of new conceits and old ; whereas the Instauration 

 gives the new unmixed, otherwise than with some 

 little aspersion of the old for taste s sake : I have 

 thought good to procure a translation of that book 

 into the general language, not without great and 

 ample additions, and enrichment thereof, especially 

 in the second book, which handleth the partition of 



(m) Mr. Chamberlain, in a letter to Sir Dudley Carleton, 

 Ambassador at Holland, dated at London, October 28, 1620, men 

 tions, that Mr. Henry Cuflfe, who had been Secretary to Robert, 

 Earl of Essex, and executed for being concerned in his treasons, 

 having long since perused this work, gave his censure, &quot; that a fool 

 could not have written such a work, and a wise man would not.&quot; 

 And, in another letter, dated February 3, 1620-1, Mr. Chamber 

 lain takes notice, that the King could not forbear sometimes, in 

 reading that book, to say, that it was &quot;like the peace of God, that 

 passeth all understanding-&quot; 



