XXX PREFACE. 



&quot; basis is physick ; the stage next the vertical point 

 61 is metaphysick : as for the cone and vertical point 

 &quot; itself ( opus quod operatur Deus a principio 

 u usque ad finem ; the summary law of nature) 

 &quot; we do justly doubt, whether man s enquiry 

 &quot; can attain unto it. But these three be the true 

 &quot; stages of sciences ; and are, to men swelled up 

 &quot; with their own knowledge, and a daring insolence 

 &quot; to invade heaven, like the three hills of the giants.&quot; 



&quot; Ter sunt conati imponere Pelion Ossae, 



&amp;lt;( Scilicet atque Ossse frondosum involvere Olympum.&quot; 



Of this work there have been many editions : 

 and there is an edition in Latin* published in Holland 

 in 1648f and 1661 ;J and at Frankfort in 1665. 



There are some observations upon the Sylva 

 Sylvarum in Archbishop Tennison s work|| which 



* I do not find this in any of the editions of Bacon s Works 

 published in England. 



f (12mo.) I have a copy, which is not scarce. 



I (12mo.) There is a copy in the British Museum. 



Opera omnia, &c. Folio. Fran. 1665. 



|| &amp;lt; The seventh and greatest branch of the Third Part of 

 &quot; the Instauration, is his Sylva Sylvarum, or Natural History ; 

 &quot; which containeth many materials for the building of philo- 

 &quot; sophy, as the Organum doth directions for the work. It 

 &quot; is an history not only of nature freely moving in her course, 

 &quot; (as in the production of meteors, plants, minerals;) but also 

 &quot; of nature in constraint, and vexed and tortured by human 

 &quot; art and experiment. And it is not an history of such things 

 &quot; orderly ranged; but thrown into a heap. For his lordship, 

 &quot; that he might not discourage other collectors, did not cast 

 &quot; this book into exact method; for which reason it hath the 

 &quot; less ornament, but not much the less use. 



