xii HISTORY AND PLAN 



it my duty in all instances to compare the translation care- 

 fully with the original, and to quote in foot-notes those pas- 

 sages in which the variation appeared to be material ; and 

 as this is a labour which few readers would take upon them- 

 selves, I conceive that by the course which I have adopted 

 the English student will be a gainer rather than a loser. 



I have also departed from the practice of former editors 

 in not keeping the Latin and English works separate. 

 Such separation is incompatible with the chronological ar- 

 rangement which I hold to be far preferable. I see no 

 inconvenience in the change which is at all material ; and 

 I only mention it here lest any future publisher, out of. re- 

 gard to a superficial symmetry, should go back to the former 

 practice and so destroy the internal coherency of the present 

 plan. 



It may be thought perhaps that in arranging the works 

 which were to form parts of the Great Instauration, I ought 

 to have followed the order laid down in the Distributio Ope- 

 ris, marshaling them according to their place in the scheme 

 rather than the date of composition ; and therefore that the 

 De Augmentis Scientiarum which was meant to stand for 

 the first part, should have been placed before the two books 

 of the Novum Organum, which were meant for the com- 

 mencement of the second. But the truth is that not one of 

 the parts of the Great Instauration was completed according 

 to the original design. All were more or less abortive. In 

 every one of them, the De Augmentis and the Novum Or- 

 ganum itself not excepted, accidental difficulties, and con- 

 siderations arising out of the circumstances of the time, 

 interfered more or less with the first intention and induced 

 alterations either in form or substance or both. They can- 

 not be made to fit their places in the ideal scheme. It was 

 the actual conditions of Bacon's life that really moulded them 

 into what they are ; and therefore the most natural order in 

 which they can be presented is that in which they stand here; 

 first, the Distributio Operis, setting forth the perfect work 

 as he had conceived it in his mind, and then the series of 



