82 PREFACE TO 



the subject of the second ; that is, it was to comprehend, along 

 with the first part of the Instauratio *, the general reflexions 

 and precepts which form the subject of the first book of the 

 Novum Organum. Nor does it appear that Valerius Terminus 

 was to contain anything corresponding to the last four parts of 

 the Instauratio 2 ; it was a work, as its title 3 shows, on the Inter- 

 pretation of Nature ; that is, it was to be a statement of Bacon's 

 method, without professing either to give the collection of facts 

 to which the method was to be applied, or the results thereby 

 obtained. Unfortunately, there appears to be no evidence 

 tending to enable us to assign the time at which (or not long 

 after it) Valerius Terminus was written. That it is earlier 

 than the Advancement of Learning seems to follow from the 

 circumstance that Bacon, when he wrote it, designed to include 

 in a single chapter the general survey of human knowledge 

 which in the Advancement is developed into two books. 4 

 Bacon has on all occasions condemned epitomes, and it is there- 

 fore altogether improbable that after writing the Advancement 

 of Learning he would have endeavoured to compress its con- 

 tents, or even those of the second book, within the limits pro- 

 posed in Valerius Terminus. On the other hand, we may 

 suppose that before writing the Advancement he had not seen 

 how much he had to say on the subject to which it relates. 

 We may conclude therefore, on these and other grounds, that 

 Valerius Terminus was written some time before 1605: how 

 much before cannot be known; but as by comparing the 

 Partis secundce Delineatio and the Cogitata et Visa with the 

 Novum Organum we have seen reason to conclude that the 

 general plan of the Instauratio was formed before Bacon had 

 decided on propounding his method by means of an example, so 

 by comparing the first-named of these three works with Valerius 

 Terminus, we perceive that the idea of the work on the Inter- 

 pretation of Nature, that is, on the new method of induction, 

 was anterior in Bacon's mind to that of the Instauratio. 



And this conclusion is confirmed by all we know of Bacon's 

 early writings. In the earliest of all, (if we assume that the 



1 Query. See Note A. at the end, 1. J. S. 



2 Query. See Note A. at the end, 2. /. S. 



3 " Valerius Terminus of the Interpretation of Nature ; with the Annotations of 

 Hermes Stella. A few fragments of the first book, viz.," &c. 



4 Query. See Note A. at the end, 1. J. S. 



