PREFACE 



LOUD BACON can only be said to have earned the three 

 first parts of his Instauratio Magna to any degree of perfec 

 tion. Of these the Sylva Sylvarum is but a dry catalogue 

 of natural phenomena, the collection of which, however 

 necessary it might be, Bacon viewed as a sort of mechanical 

 l.iboi r, and would never have stooped to the task, had not 

 the field been abandoned by the generality of philosophers, 

 as unworthy of them. The two other portions of the 

 Instauratio Magna, which this volume contains, unfold the 

 design of his philosophy, and exhibit all the peculiarities of 

 his extraordinary mind, enshrined in the finest passages of 

 his writings. 



Of the De Any mentis, though one of the greatest books 

 of modern times, only three translations have appeared, 

 and each of these strikingly imperfect. That of Wats, 

 issued while Bacon was living, is singularly disfigured with 

 solecisms, and called forth the just censures of Bacon and hia 

 friends. The version of Eustace Gary is no less unfor 

 tunate, owing to its poverty of diction, and antiquated 

 phraseology. Under the public sense of these failures, ano 

 ther translation was produced about sixty years ago by 

 Dr. Shaw, which might have merited approbation, had not 

 the learned physician been impressed with the idea that ho 

 could improve Bacon by relieving his work of some ol its 

 choicest passages, and entirely altering the arrangement. 

 In the present version, our task has been principally to 

 rectify Shaw s mistakes, by restoring the author s own 



