cxlviii 



LIFE OF BACON. 



Cogitata et l n the midst of arduous affairs of state and professional 

 duties, he went right onward with his great work, con 

 ferring with various scholars and philosophers, from whose 

 communications there was any probability of his deriving 

 advantage. 



In the progress of the Novum Organum he had, at diffe 

 rent periods, even from his youth, arranged his thoughts 

 upon detached parts of the work, and collected them under 

 different titles : &quot; Temporis partus maximus,&quot;() &quot; Filum 

 Labyrinthi/ (&) Cogitata et Visa, &c.&quot;(c) 



He now sent to the Bishop of Ely the &quot; Cogitata et 

 Visa.&quot;(W) He communicated also on the subject with his 

 friend, Mr. Mathew, who, having cautioned him that he 

 might excite the prejudices of the churchmen, spoke freely, 

 yet with approbation of the work, (e) He also sent the 

 tract to Sir Thomas Bodley, who received it with all the 

 attachment of a collegian to Aristotle and the schoolmen 

 and university studies, and, with the freedom of a friend, 

 respectfully imparted to Bacon that his plan was vi 

 sionary. (/) 



Wisdom In the year 1609, as a relaxation from abstruse specula- 

 Ancients t ^ ons &amp;gt; fe) * ie published in Latin his interesting little work, 



(a) See vol. xi. p. 478. 



(ft) See vol. i. p. 311, and vol. x. p. 372. 



(c) See vol. x. p. 462. 



(d) See the letter, vol. xii. p. 93. 



(e) See vol. xii. p. 90 to 94. 

 (/) See vol. xii. p. 83. 



(g) &quot; Le changement d etude est toujours un delasement pour moi.&quot; 



D Aguesseau. 



&quot; What an heaven lives a scholar in, that at once in one close room can 

 daily converse with all the glorious martyrs and fathers ? that can single 

 out at pleasure either sententious Tertullian, or grave Cyprian, or resolute 

 Hierome, or flowing Chrysostome, or divine Ambrose, or devout Bernard, 

 or (who alone is all these) heavenly Augustine, and talk with them, and 

 hear their wise and holy counsels, verdicts, resolutions ; yea (to rise higher), 

 with courtly Esay, with learned Paul, with all their fellow-prophets, 



