THE NOVUM ORGANUM. 105 



other and better authority. But I can find no authority whatever 

 for giving it to the other two. If therefore the resemblance of the 

 names be thought a sufficient reason for identifying the Partus Mas- 

 culus with the Partus Maximus, that identity must be understood as 

 belonging to the first and fourth only. The grounds of that opinion 

 and of my own dissent from it will be discussed in the proper place. 

 With regard to the argument now in hand, (viz. whether Bacon, 

 when he wrote the Temporis Partus Masculus, had yet thought of 

 producing a great work like the Instauratio) it is enough perhaps 

 to observe that at whatever period or periods of his life these four 

 pieces were composed, they all belong to the second part of the In- 

 stauratio; not as prefaces or prospectuses, but as portions of the 

 work itself; and that if none of them contain any allusion to the 

 other parts, the same may be said of the first book of the Novum 

 Organum itself; and therefore that we cannot be warranted in con-f 

 eluding from that fact that the plan of the Instauratio had not yet 

 been conceived. 



4. It is assumed that the work which Bacon contemplated when 

 he wrote the De Interpretations Natures Procemium would not have 

 contained the new method and its results (these being, according to 

 his then intention, to be communicated only to chosen followers), 

 but merely the general views of science which form the subject of 

 the first book of the Novum Organum. 



This seems to be gathered from what he says in the Prooemium 

 concerning the manner in which the several parts of the work were 

 to be published : " Publican di autem ista ratio ea est, ut quse ad inge- 

 niorum correspondentias captandas et mentium areas purgandas per- 

 tinent, edantur in vulgus et per ora volitent: reliqua per manus 

 tradantur cum electione etjudicio:" the "reliqua" being, as appears 

 a little further on, " ipsa Interpretationis formula et inventa per 

 eandem :" from which it seems to be inferred that the exposition of 

 the new method was not only not to be published along with the rest 

 of the work, but to be excluded from it altogether ; to be kept as a 

 secret, and transmitted orally. The grounds of this opinion I shall 

 examine more particularly in a subsequent note with reference to 

 another question. The question with which we are now dealing is 

 only whether at that time Bacon can be supposed to have " thought 

 of producing a great work like the Instauratio :" upon which I will 

 only say that as an intention not to publish does not imply an inten- 

 tion not to write, so neither does an intention to write imply an in- 

 tention to publish. And since there is nothing in the Partis se- 

 cundce Delineatio from which we can infer that even then he intended 

 to publish the whole, I do not see how we can infer that the design 

 of composing a great work like the Instauratio had been conceived in 

 the interval between the writing of these two pieces. For as in the 



