NOVUM ORGANUM. 



NOTE. 



Mr. Ellis's preface to the Novum Organum was written 

 when he was travelling abroad and had not his books of refer- 

 ence about him. He was at work upon it the night he was 

 taken ill at Mentone, and was not afterwards able either to 

 finish or to revise it. I have added a page or two at the end, 

 by which the analysis of the first book is completed. Of the se- 

 cond book it was not necessary to say anything ; the subject of it 

 being Bacon's method, which has been fully discussed in the Ge- 

 neral Preface. A few bibliographical inaccuracies of little con- 

 sequence in themselves I have corrected, either in notes or by 

 the insertion of words within brackets. These were merely over- 

 sights, hardly avoidable in the first draft of a work written in 

 such circumstances. But there are also a few opinions expressed 

 incidentally in which I cannot altogether concur, though they 

 have evidently been adopted deliberately. With regard to these 

 (Mr. Ellis not being in a condition to enter into a discussion of 

 them) I had no course but to explain the- grounds of my dissent, 

 and leave every man to decide for himself upon the questions at 

 issue. To avoid inconvenient interruptions however, I have 

 thrown my arguments into an appendix, and contented myself 

 in the foot notes with marking the particular expressions which 

 I hold to be questionable. J. 



