LIFE OF BACON. 



After his dedication to the King, (a) he, according to 

 his wonted mode, clears the way by a review of the 

 state of learning, which, he says, is neither prosperous nor 

 advanced, but, being barren in effects, fruitful in questions, 

 slow and languid in its improvement, exhibiting in its 

 generality the counterfeit of perfection, ill filled up in its 

 details, popular in its choice, suspected by its very pro 

 moters, and therefore countenanced with artifices, (6) it is 

 necessary that an entirely different way from any known 

 by our predecessors must be opened to the human under 

 standing, and different helps be obtained, in order that 

 the mind may exercise its jurisdiction over the nature of 

 things. 



The intended work is then separated into six parts: 



humanitus accideret, exstaret tamen designatio quaedam, ac destinatio rei 

 quam animo complexus est; utque exstaret simul sigrram aliquod honestae 

 suae et propensae in generis humani commoda voluntatis. Certe aliam 

 quamcunque ambitionem inferiorem duxit re, quam prae manibus habuit. 

 Aut enim hoc quod agitur nihil est ; aut tantum, ut merito ipso contentum 

 esse debeat, nee fructum extra quaerere. 



FRANCIS OF VERULAM 



THOUGHT THUS. 



Uncertain, however, whether these reflections would ever hereafter 

 suggest themselves to another, and particularly having observed that he 

 has never yet met with any person disposed to apply his mind to similar 

 meditations, he determined to publish whatsoever he had first time to 

 conclude. Nor is this the haste of ambition, but of his anxiety, that if the 

 common lot of mankind should befall him, some sketch and determination 

 of the matter his mind had embraced might be extant, as well as an earnest 

 of his will being honourably bent upon promoting the advantage of man 

 kind. He assuredly looked upon any other ambition as beneath the matter 

 he had undertaken ; for that which is here treated of is either nothing, or it 

 is so great that he ought to be satisfied with its own worth, and seek no 

 other return. 



(a) See vol. ix. p. 150. 



(6) See vol. ix. from p. 5. 



