THE NOVUM ORGANUM. 81 



own wishes. " Quin etiam illis, quibus in contemplationia 

 amorem efFusis frequens apud nos operum mentio asperum 

 quiddam atque ingratum et mechanician sonat, monstrabimus 

 quantum illi desideriis suis propriis adversentur, quum puritas 

 contemplationum atque substructio et inventio operum prorsus 

 eisdem rebus nitantur, ac simul perficiantur." In the Cogitata 

 et Visa, this sentence recurs in a modified and much neater 

 form : "Si quis autem sit cui in contemplationis amorem et 

 venerationem effuso ista operum frequens et cum tanto honore 

 mentio quiddam asperum et ingratum sonet, is pro certo sciat 

 se propriis desideriis adversari ; etenim in natura, opera non 

 tantum vitse beneficia, sed et veritatis pignora esse." On com- 

 paring these two sentences, it is difficult to believe that Bacon 

 would have omitted the antithesis with which the latter ends 

 in order to introduce the somewhat cumbrous expressions which 

 correspond to it in the former, especially as we find this anti- 

 thesis reproduced, though with another context, in the Novum 

 Organum. ff Opera ipsa," it is there said, " pluris facienda 

 sunt quatenus sunt veritatis pignora quam propter vitae com- 

 moda." l 



These instances will probably be thought sufficient to justify 

 us in concluding that the Partis secundce Delineatio, in which 

 no mention is made of the plan of setting forth the new method 

 of induction by means of an example, is of earlier date than 

 the Cogitata et Visa, in which this plan, actually employed in the 

 Novum Organum, is spoken of as that which Bacon had decided 

 on adopting. This question of priority is not without interest; 

 for if the Partis secundce Delineatio is anterior to the Cogitata 

 et Visa, the general plan of the Instauratio must have been 

 formed a considerable . time before 1607, about which time 

 Bacon probably commenced the composition of the Novum 

 Organum. If we could determine the date of Valerius Termi- 

 nus, we should be able to assign limits within which the forma- 

 tion of this plan, so far as relates to the division of the work 

 into six portions, may be supposed to lie. For the first book of 

 Valerius Terminus was to include all that was to precede the 

 exposition of the new method of induction, which was to be 



1 Nov. Org. i. 124. It is well to mention that some of the expressions in this 

 aphorism which do not occur in the Cogitata et Visa will be found in the Partis se- 

 cundcB Delineatio. But it will be observed that I am only comparing passages which 

 occur in all three works. Of the greater general resemblance of the Cogitata et Visa 

 to the Novum Organum there can be no question. 



VOL. I. G 



