OF THIS EDITION. Xiii 



imperfect and irregular efforts which he made to execute it, 

 in the order in which they were made. 



The text has been corrected throughout from the original 

 copies, and no verbal alteration (except in case of obvious 

 errors of the press) has been introduced into it without 

 notice. The spelling in the English works has been altered 

 according to modern usage. I have endeavoured however 

 to distinguish those variations which belong merely to the 

 fashion of orthography from those which appear to involve 

 changes in the forms of words. Thus in such words as 

 president (the invariable spelling in Bacon's time of the 

 substantive which is now invariably written precedent, and 

 valuable as showing that the pronunciation of the word has 

 not changed), prcejudice, fained, mathematiques, chymist, 

 &c., I adopt the modern form ; but I do not substitute lose 

 for leese, politicians for politiques, external for externe, 

 Solomon for Salomon, accommodated for the past participle 

 accommodate ; and so on ; these being changes in the words 

 themselves and not merely in the manner of writing them. 

 In the spelling of Latin words there are but few differences 

 between ancient and modern usage ; but I have thought it 

 better to preserve the original form of all words which in 

 the original are always or almost always spelt in the same 

 way ; asfasliv, author, chymista, chymicus, fyc. 



In the matter of punctuation and typography, though I 

 have followed the example of all modern editors in altering 

 at discretion, I have not attempted to reduce them entirely 

 to the modern form ; which I could not have done without 

 sometimes introducing ambiguities of construction, and some- 

 times deciding questions of construction which admit of 

 doubt. But I have endeavoured to represent the effect of 

 the original arrangement to a modern eye, with as little 

 departure as possible from modern fashions. I say endea- 

 voured ; for I cannot say that I have succeeded in satisfying 

 even myself. But to all matters of this kind I have at- 

 tended personally ; and though I must not suppose that my 

 mind has observed everything that my eyes have looked at, 



