PREFACE 



LORD BACON can only be said to have carried the first 

 three parts of his &quot;Instauratio Magna&quot; to any degree of 

 perfection. Of these the &quot;Sylva Sylvarum&quot; is but a dry 

 catalogue of natural phenomena, the collection of which, 

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

 mechanical labor, 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 por 

 tions of the &quot;Instauratio Magna,&quot; which these volumes con 

 tain, 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 &quot;De Augmentis,&quot; though one of the greatest 

 books of modern times, only three translations have ap 

 peared, and each of these strikingly imperfect. That of 

 Wats, issued while Bacon was living, is singularly dis 

 figured with solecisms, and called forth the just censures 

 of Bacon and his friends. The version of Eustace Gary is 

 no less unfortunate, owing to its poverty of diction, and 

 antiquated phraseology. Under the public sense of these 

 failures, another translation was produced about sixty years 

 ago by Dr. Shaw, which might have merited approbation, 



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