OF THIS EDITION. xi 



Bacon had no confidence in the permanent vitality of Eng- , 

 lish as a classical language. " These modern languages," 

 he said, " will at one time or other play the bankrupts with 

 hooks." Those of his works therefore which he wished to 

 live and which were not originally written in Latin, he trans- 

 lated or caused to be translated into that language "the 

 universal language," as he called it. This, for his own time, 

 was no doubt a judicious precaution. Appearances however 

 have greatly changed since ; and though it is not to be feared 

 that Latin will ever become obsolete, it is certain that Eng- 

 lish has been rapidly gaining ground upon it, and that of the 

 audience whom Bacon would in these days have especially 

 desired to gather about him, a far greater number would be 

 excluded by the Latin dress than admitted. Considering also 

 the universal disuse of Latin as a medium of oral communi- 

 cation, and the almost universal disuse of it as a medium of 

 communication in writing, even among learned men, and the 

 rapid spreading of English over both hemispheres, it is easy 

 to predict which of the two languages is likely to play the 

 bankrupt first. At any rate the present edition is for the 

 English market. To those who are not masters of English 

 it offers few attractions ; while of those who are, not one 

 I suppose in a hundred would care to read a translation 

 even in Baconian Latin, when he had the choice of reading 

 the original in Baconian English. And since the translations 

 in question would increase the bulk of this work by four or 

 five hundred pages and the cost in proportion, it has been 

 thought better to leave them out. 



In one respect, it is true, they have a value independent 

 of the English originals. Having been made later and 

 made under Bacon's own eye, the differences, where they 

 are greater than can be naturally accounted for by the dif- 

 ferent idiom and construction of the languages, must be con- 

 sidered as corrections ; besides which, when the meaning of 

 the original is obscure or the reading doubtful, they serve 

 sometimes as a glossary to decide it. This being an ad- 

 vantage which we cannot afford to sacrifice, I have thought 



