2G 



GENERAL PREFACE TO 



itself with the whole spirit of his philosophy. I mention it now 

 because it presents itself in the passage in which Bacon's idea 

 of the nature of science is most distinctly stated. " Super 

 datum corpus novam naturam, sive novas naturas, generare et 

 superinducere, opus et intentio est humanse potentiae. Datae 

 autem naturae formam, sive differentiam veram, sive naturam 

 naturantem, sive fontem emanationis, (ista enim vocabula 

 habemus quae ad indicationem rei proxime accedunt) invenire, 

 opus et intentio est humanae scientiae." This passage, with which 

 the second book of the Novum Organum commences, requires 

 to be considered in detail. 



In the first place it is to be remarked, that natura signifies 

 6 f abstract quality," it is used by Bacon in antithesis with 

 corpus or " concrete body." Thus the passage we have quoted 

 amounts to this, that the scope and end of human power is to 

 give new qualities to bodies, while the scope and end of human 

 knowledge is to ascertain the formal cause of all the qualities of 

 which bodies are possessed. 



Throughout Bacon's philosophy, the necessity of making 

 abstract qualities (naturae) the principal object of our inquiries 

 is frequently insisted on. He who studies the concrete and 

 neglects the abstract cannot be called an interpreter of nature. 

 Such was Bacon's judgment when, apparently at an early period 

 of his life, he wrote the Temporis Partus Masculus 1 ; and in the 

 Novum Organum he has expressed an equivalent opinion : " quod 

 iste modus operandi, (qui naturas intuetur simplices licet in 

 corpore concreto) procedat ex iis quae in natura sunt constantia 

 et aeterna et catholica, et latas praebeat potentiae humane 

 vias." 2 Quite in accordance with this passage is a longer one 

 in the Advancement of Learning, which I shall quote in extenso, 

 as it is exceedingly important. " The forms of substances, I 

 say, as they are now by compounding and transplanting mul- 

 tiplied, are so perplexed as they are not to be inquired ; no more 

 than it were either possible or to purpose to seek in gross the 

 forms of those sounds which make words, which by compo- 

 sition and transposition of letters are infinite. But on the other 

 side to inquire the form of those sounds or voices which make 



1 Mr. Ellis alludes, I think, to the De Interpretatione Natures Sententias XII., which 

 M. BouilJet prints as part of the Temporis Partus Masculus. My reasons for differing 

 with M. Bouillet on this point, and placing it by itself, and assigning it a later date, 

 will be found in a nrte to Mr. Ellis's Preface to the Novum Organum. /. 



2 Nov. Org. ii. 5. 



