72 PREFACE TO 



which it leads. The fifth is to contain what Bacon had accom- 

 plished in natural philosophy without the aid of his own method, 

 but merely " ex eodem intellectus usu quern alii in inquirendo et 

 inveniendo adhibere consueverunt." It is therefore less important 

 than the rest, and Bacon declares that he will not bind himself 

 to the conclusions it contains. Moreover its value will alto- 

 gether cease when the sixth part can be completed, wherein will 

 be set forth the new philosophy the result of the application 

 of the new method to all the phenomena of the universe. But 

 to complete this, the last part of the Instauratio, Bacon does not 

 hope : he speaks of it as a thing " et supra vires et ultra spes 

 nostras collocata." 



The greater part of the plan traced in the Distributio remained 

 unfulfilled. Not to speak of the last division of the Instauratio, 

 no part of Bacon's writings can properly be referred either to 

 the fourth or fifth, except two prefaces which are found among 

 the fragments published by Gruter. l To the fifth division 

 however M. Bouillet 2 is disposed to refer several of Bacon's 

 philosophical writings ; as, for instance, the tracts entitled De 

 Fluxu et Refluxu Marts, and Thema CcdL But though they 

 correspond with the description which Bacon gives of the con- 

 tents of the fifth part of the Tnstauratio, there is no reason to 

 suppose that they would have been comprised in it. They were 

 written a considerable time before the publication of the Novum 

 Organum ; the Thema Cceli being clearly of the same date as 

 the Descriptio Globi intellectualis, written in 1612 3 , and the 

 De Fluxu et Rejluxu Maris being probably written before Bacon 

 had become acquainted with Galileo's theory of the tides. This 

 theory was published in 1616; and it is reasonable to suppose 

 that Bacon, who speaks of it in the Novum Organum, would 

 have mentioned it in the De Fluxu, if the latter had not been 

 written either before it was published, or but a short time after- 

 wards. 4 These tracts, and the others which M. Bouillet men- 



1 Francisci Baconi de Verulamio Scripta in natural! et universal! Philosophia. Amst. 

 165.3. For a particular account of this volume, see my preface to Part III. J. S. 



2 (Euvres Philosophiques de Bacon, publiees d'apres les textes originaux, avec notice, 

 Bommaires et eclaircissemens, par M. N. Bouillet. Paris, 1834. J. S. 



' See the Preface to the Descriptio Globi intellectualis. J. S. 



4 That the De Fluxu was written before the Thema Cceli is almost proved by the 

 allusion to it in the following passage : " Verum hujusce rei demonstrationes et 

 evidentias in anticipatione nostra de fluxu et reflux u maris plene tractavimus. " I say 

 almost proved, because Bacon in writing a piece which was designed to come after 

 another which was not yet written, would sometimes refer to that other as if it were 

 already done. But it is not likely that he should have done so here; for in any 



