NOTF. Jl I , 15. 



Tracts relating to Novum Organum. 



In the British Museum there are the following tracts relating to the Novum 

 frganum. 



1. MS. Sloane, No. 432. fo. 131. Consideratio Novi Organi Ve&quot;rulamii 



institutu olim a David Mylio. 



2. MS. Sloane, No. 432. fol. 38. Consideratio considerationis Mylianae. 



Nature of the Work. 



Miscellaneous. 



The intention of Lord Bacon with respect to the Novum Organum, he has 

 himself explained in Aph. 22. part 2 ; where he says : We therefore propose to 

 treat, 



1. jOf prerogative instances. 



2. *Of the helps of induction. 



3. Of the rectification of induction. 



4. Of the method of varying inquiries according to the nature of the 



subject. 



5. Of prerogative natures for inquiry, or what subjects are to be inquired 



into first, what second. 



6. Of the limits of inquiry, or an inventory of all the natures in the 



universe. 



7. Of reducing inquiries to practice, or making them subservient to human 



uses. 



8. Of the preliminaries to inquiries. 



9. And lastly, of the ascending and descending scale of axioms. 



Of these nine parts, the first, or prerogative instances, was alone completed. 

 &quot; But time, in the interim, being on the wing, and the author too much 

 engaged in civil affairs, especially considering the uncertainties of life, he 

 would willingly hasten to secure some part of his design from contingencies ; 

 and after much close thought, and a deliberate consideration, he determined, 

 that to prevent so useful a thing from disaster, the best course was to propose 

 and lay down certain tables of invention, or forms of genuine inquiry, that is, 

 the digested matter of particulars, designed for the work of the understanding, 

 and this in some determinate subjects, by way of example, or a palpable model 

 of the whole. And hence, though we should not ourselves complete the under 

 taking, yet men of a solid and sublime genius, being thus admonished by what 

 we have offered, may, without any greater assistance, expect the rest from 

 themselves and finish it. For, as to the matter in hand, we are almost of his 

 opinion, who said, this is enough for the wise ; but for the unwise, more would 

 not be serviceable.&quot; 



Annexed to the Novum Organum in the first edition is, Parasceve ad Histo 

 rian Naturalem et Experimentalem, which is in fact the beginning of the third 

 part of the Instauration. It is translated in the third edition of Ilesuscitatio. 



NOTE CCC. 



The Wisdom of the Ancients. 



The first edition was published in 1609. In February 27, 1610, Lord Bacon 

 wrote to Mr. Matthew, upon sending his book De Sapientia Veterum. 



&quot; Mr. Matthew, I do very heartily thank you for your letter of the 24th of 

 August from Salamanca ; and in recompence therefore 1 send you a little work 

 of mine that hath begun to pass the world. They tell me ray Latin is turned 

 into silver, and become current : had you been here, you should have been my 

 inquisitor before it came forth ; but, I think, the greatest inquisitor in Spain 

 will allow it. But one thing you must pardon me if I make no haste to believe, 

 that the world should be grown to such an ecstasy ;is to reject truth in phi- 



