THE NOVUM ORGANUM. 83 



Temporis Partus Masculus, published by Gruter ! , is the same 

 as the Temporis Partus Maximus mentioned by Bacon in his 

 letter to Fulgenzio,) the most prominent notion is that true 

 science consists in the interpretation of Nature a phrase by 

 which Bacon always designates a just method of induction. But 

 nothing is said either there or in any early fragment whereby 

 we are led to suppose that Bacon then thought of producing a 

 great work like the Instauratio. On the contrary, in the De 

 Interpretatione Natures Procemium he proposes to communicate 

 his peculiar method and the results to which it was to lead, only 

 to chosen followers; giving to the world merely an exoteric 

 doctrine, namely the general views of science which afterwards 

 formed the substance of the Cogitate et Visa and ultimately of 

 the first book of the Novum Organum. 2 



From what has been said it follows that we should form an 

 inadequate conception of the Novum Organum if we were to 

 regard it merely as a portion of the Instauratio. For it contains 

 the central ideas of Bacon's system, of which the whole of the 

 Instauratio is only the developement. In his early youth Bacon 

 formed the notion of a new method of induction, and from that 

 time forth this notion determined the character of all his specu- 

 lations. Later in life he laid the plan of a great work, within 

 the limits of which the materials to which his method was to be 

 applied and the results thereby to be obtained might be stored 

 up, together with a statement of the method itself. But of this 

 great plan the interpretation of Nature was, so to speak, the soul, 

 the formative and vivifying principle; not only because Bacon 

 conceived that the new method only could lead to the attainment 

 of the great ends which he had in view, but also because it was 

 the possession of this method which had suggested to him the 

 hopes which he entertained. 3 There seems some reason to believe 

 that his confidence in his peculiar method of induction did not 

 increase as he grew older; that is to say, he admits in the Novum 

 Organum that the interpretation of Nature is not so much an 



1 Say rather, " the several tracts collected by M. Bouillet under the title Temporis 

 Partus Masculus" See Note A. at the end, 3. J. S. 



2 See Note A. at the end, 4. J. S. 



3 I quite agree in this, but not quite on the same grounds. In Note A. at the end 

 of this preface, the reader will find a statement, too long for a foot-note, of such points 

 in the foregoing argument as I consider disputable. It was the more necessary to point 

 them out, because the arrangement of the pieces in this edition, for which J am re- 

 sponsible, will otherwise create a difficulty ; being in some respects inconsistent with 

 the opinions here expressed. 7. S. 



Q 2 



