THE NOVUM ORGANUM. 103 



NOTES. 



NOTE A. 



I THOUGHT it better not to interrupt the reader with notes during 

 the progress of the foregoing argument, but as some points are as- 

 sumed in it upon which I shall have to express a different opinion 

 hereafter, it may be well to notice them here ; the rather because I 

 fully concur in the conclusion notwithstanding. 



1. It is assumed that the first book of Valerius Terminus was de- 

 signed to comprehend a general survey of knowledge, such as forms the 

 subject of the second book of the Advancement of Learning and of 

 the last eight books of the De Augmentis Scientiarum, as well as the 

 general reflexions and precepts, which form the subject of the first 

 book of the Novum Organum; to comprehend in short the whole 

 first part of the Instauratio, together with the introductory portion 

 of the second. 



This is inferred from the description of the " Inventary " which 

 was to be contained in the tenth chapter of Valerius Terminus, as 

 compared with the contents of the second book of the Advancement 

 of Learning. 



Now my impression is that this Inventary would have cor- 

 responded, not to the second book of the Advancement, but only to a 

 certain Inventarium opum humanarum which is there, and also in 

 the De Augmentis (iii. 5), set down as a desideratum ; and which 

 was to be, not a general survey of all the departments of knowledge, 

 but merely an appendix to one particular department ; that, namely, 

 which is called in the Advancement Naturalis Magia, sive Physica 

 operativa major 1 ; and in the Catalogus Desideratorum at the end 

 of the De Augmentis, Magia Naturalis, sive Deductio formarum ad 

 opera. 



The grounds of this conclusion will be explained fully in their pro- 

 per place. 2 It is enough at present to mark the point as disputable ; 

 and to observe that if this argument fails, there seems to be no reason 



1 See margin. It is to be observed that in Montagu's edition of the Advancement 

 the titles in the margin are by some strange negligence omitted ; so that the corre- 

 spondence between the two Inventaries was the more easily overlooked. 



2 See-my note at the end of Mr. Ellis's preface to Valerius Ttr minus. 



H 4 



