VI PREFACE. 



a work of Lord Bacon s, in which his religious senti 

 ments may not be discovered. Amongst his minor 

 productions, they maybe seen ; in the &quot; Meditationes 

 Sacra? :&quot;(/) in the &quot; Wisdom of the Ancients ;&quot;(&) in the 

 &quot; Fables of Pan,(/) of Prometheus,(m) of Pentheus,(rc) and 

 of Cupid :(o) in various parts of the Essays,but particu 

 larly in the Essay on Atheism ( and Goodness of Na 

 ture/ (jo) in the &quot;New Atlantis/ ^) an imaginary college 

 amongst a Christian people, full of piety and humanity, 

 whose prayer is &quot;Lord God of heaven and earth, thou 

 hast vouchsafed of thy grace, to those of our order, to 

 know thy work of creation, and the secrets of them; and 

 to discern, as far as appertaineth to the generations 

 of men, between divine miracles, works of nature, 

 works of art, and impostures and illusions of all 

 sorts. I do here acknowledge and testify before 

 this people, that the thing which we now see before 

 our eyes, is thy finger, and a true miracle ; and for 

 asmuch as we learn in our books, that thou never 

 workest miracles, but to a divine and excellent end, 

 for the laws of nature are thine own laws, and thou 

 exceedest them not but upon great cause, we most 

 humbly beseech thee to prosper this great sign, and 

 to give us the interpretation and use of it in mercy ; 

 which thou dost in some part secretly promise by 



(0 See Vol I. p. 203, and preface to Vol. I. xxiii. 

 (ft) Vol. III. p. 1, and preface, p. 2. (/) Vol. III. p. 11. 

 (o) Vol. III. p. 43. (n) Vol. III. p. 29. 



(w) Vol. III. p. 68. (p) Vol. 1. p. 40. 



(9) Vol II. p. 336, ( x ) Vol I. p. 53. 



