THE PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS. 49 



which, however, Bacon intended to contrast it by requiring that 

 the " conditiones entium," which he has doubtless called tran- 

 scendent from their applicability to all classes of objects, should 

 be treated not logically but physically. 1 



But then what are the questions to be resolved in this mode 

 of treating them ? Bacon gives some examples of the discus- 

 sions which ought to occupy this part of philosophy. The first 

 is, why there is so much of one kind of substance, and so little 

 of another why, for instance, so much more iron in the world 

 than gold, &c. This belongs to the inquiry "de multo et 

 parvo." Again, in treating " de simili et diverso," it ought to 

 be explained why between dissimilar species are almost always 

 interposed others which partake of the nature of both, and form, 

 as it were, ambiguous species for instance, bats between birds 

 and quadrupeds, or moss between corruption and plants, &c. 

 The difficulty however which I have already mentioned in 

 speaking of the other part of the philosophia prima recurs with 

 reference to this, namely by what method were the questions 

 here proposed to be answered ? If by induction, by induction on 

 what data ? and if not, by what other way of arriving at truth ? 



The illustrations which Bacon has given, and perhaps his 

 way of looking at the whole subject, connect themselves with 

 what has recently been called palaeaetiology. The questions 

 which Bacon proposes are questions as to how that which 

 actually exists, and which in the present order of things will 

 continue to exist, came into being whether abruptly or by 

 slow transitions, and under what agency. He seems to point, 

 though from a distance, to discussions as to the formation of 

 strata and the succession of species. Yet on the other hand 

 the discussion on Like and Unlike was to include at least one 

 portion of a different character, namely why, in despite of the 

 maxim " similia similibus gaudent," iron does not attract iron 

 but the magnet, nor gold gold, but quicksilver. 



(15.) Another subject, sufficiently interesting to be here 

 mentioned, though less connected with Bacon's general views, 

 is the doctrine which he entertained touching the nature of the 

 soul. He distinguishes in several parts of his writings between 

 the animal soul, common, at least in kind, to man and to the 

 brutes, and the immortal principle infused by the divine favour 



1 De Augmentis iii. 4. 



VOL. i. u 



