28 GENERAL PREFACE TO 



and of these motions fourteen are mentioned. This list however 

 does not profess to be complete, and accordingly in the Novum 

 Organum (ii. 48.) another list of simple motions is given, in 

 which nineteen species are recognised. 



The view of which we have now been speaking namely, that 

 it is possible to reduce all the phenomena of the universe to 

 combinations of a limited number of simple elements is the 

 central point of Bacon's whole system. It serves, as we shall 

 see, to explain the peculiarities of the method which he proposed.^, 



(8.) In what sense did Bacon use the word " Form "? This is the 

 next question which, in considering the account which he has 

 given of the nature of science, it is necessary to examine. I am, 

 for reasons which will be hereafter mentioned, much disposed 

 to believe that the doctrine of Forms is in some sort an extra- 

 neous part of Bacon's system. His peculiar method may be 

 stated independently of this doctrine, and he has himself so stated 

 it in one of his earlier tracts, namely the Valerius Terminus. 

 It is at any rate certain, that in using the word " Form" he did 

 not intend to adopt the scholastic mode of employing it. He 

 " was much in the habit of giving to words already in use a new 

 signification. " To me," he remarks in the Advancement of 

 Learning, "it seemeth best to keep way with antiquity usque ad 

 aras, and therefore to retain the ancient terms, though I some- 

 times alter the uses and definitions." And thus though he has 

 spoken of the scholastic forms as figments of the human mind *, 

 he was nevertheless willing to employ the word "Form" in a mo- 

 dified sense, <( prsesertim quurn hoc vocabulum invaluerit, et fa- 

 miliariter occurrat." 2 He has however distinctly stated that in 

 speaking of Forms, he is not to be understood to speak of the 

 Forms "quibus hominum contemplationes et cogitationes 

 hactenus assueverunt." 3 



As Bacon uses the word in his own sense, we must en- 

 deavour to interpret the passages in which it occurs by means 

 of what he has himself said of it; and this may I think be satis- 

 factorily accomplished. 



We may begin by remarking that in Bacon's system, as in 

 those of many others, the relation of substance and attribute is 

 virtually the same as the relation of cause and effect. The 

 substance is conceived of as the causa immanens of its attri- 



1 Nov. Org. i. 51. 2 Nov. Org. ii. 2. 3 Nov. Org. ii. 17. 



