88 PREFACE TO 



remarked by those who have spoken of his philosophy ; probably 

 because what he himself regarded as a sort of exoteric doctrine, 

 namely the views of science contained in the first book of the 

 Novum Organum, have received much more attention than the 

 method itself, which is nevertheless the cardinal point of his 

 whole system. Bacon is to be regarded, not as the founder of 

 a new philosophy, but as the discoverer of a new method ; at 

 least we must remember that this was his own view of himself 

 and of his writings. 



'J proceed to give some account of the structure of the Novum 

 Ojrganum and of the parts into which it may be most con- 

 eniently divided. 



After the preface, in which Bacon professes that it is not his 

 intention to destroy the received philosophy, but rather that 

 from henceforth there should be two coexisting and allied 

 systems, the one sufficient for the ordinary purposes of life, 

 and such as would satisfy those who are content with probable 

 opinions and commonly received notions; the Bother for the 

 sons of science, who desire to attain to certainty and to an 

 insight into the hidden things of Nature, we come to the 

 Novum Organum itself; which commences with some weighty 

 sentences concerning the relation of Man to Nature. The first 

 aphorism, perhaps the most often quoted sentence in the Novum 

 Organum, occurs twice in the fragments published by Gruter ; 

 namely in the Aphorismi et Consilia de Auxiliis Mentis, and 

 again in a less perfect form in the De Interpretatione Natures 

 Sententia XII., both which fragments are included [by M. 

 Bouillet] * under the title Temporis Partus Masculus, though 

 they are clearly of different dates. The wording of the aphorism 

 in the former is almost precisely the same as in the Novum Or- 

 ganum. In all three places man is styled " nature minister 

 et interpres." He is naturae interpres, because in every object 

 which is presented to him there are two things to be considered, 

 or rather two aspects of the same thing, one the phenomenon 

 which Nature presents to the senses the other the inward 

 mechanism and action, of which the phenomenon in question is 

 not only the result but also the outward sign. To pass there- 

 fore from the phenomenon to its hidden cause is to interpret the 

 signs which enable us to become acquainted with the operations 



1 Not so included by Gruter. Sec note A. at the end, 3. J. S. 



