110 NOTES TO PREFACE TO 



idoneos et capaces subintret; confutationum enim nullus est usus, ubi 

 de principiis et ipsis notionibus atque etiam de formis demonstra- 

 tionum dissentimus." 



10. De Augmentis Scientiarum. VI. 2. 



" Sequitur aliud method! discrimen, priori [methodo ad filios, etc.], 

 intentione affine, reipsa fere contrarium. Hoc enim habet utraque 

 methodus commune, ut vulgus auditorum a selectis separet ; illud 

 oppositum, quod prior introducit modum tradendi solito apertiorem ; 

 altera, de qua jam dicemus, occultiorem. Sit igitur discrimen tale, 

 ut altera methodus sit exoterica, altera acroamatica. Etenim quam 

 antiqui adhibuerunt prsecipue in edendis libris differentiam, earn nos 

 transferimus ad ipsum modum tradendi. Quin etiam acroamatica ipsa 

 apud veteres in usu fuit, atque prudenter et cum judicio adhibita. 

 At acroamaticum sive sBnigmaticum istud dicendi genus posterioribus 

 temporibus dehonestatum est a plurimis, qui eo tanquam lumine 

 ambiguo et fallaci abusi sunt ad merces suas adulterinas extrudendas. 

 Intentio autem ejus ea esse videtur, ut traditionis involucris vulgus 

 (profanum scilicet} a secretis scientiarum summoveatur ; atque illi 

 tantum admittantur qui aut per manus magistrorum parabolarum 

 interpretationem nacti sunt, aut proprio ingenii acumine et subtilitate 

 intra velum penetrare possint." 



These are all the passages I have been able to find, in which the 

 advantage of keeping certain parts of knowledge reserved to a select 

 audience is alluded to. And the question is whether the reserve which 

 Bacon contemplated can be justly compared with that practised by 

 the alchemists and others, who concealed their discoveries as " trea- 

 sures of which the value would be decreased if others were allowed to 

 share in it." 



Now I would observe in the first place that though the expression 

 " single and adopt his reader," or its equivalent, occurs in all these 

 passages, and that too in immediate reference to the method of 

 delivery or transmission, yet in many of them the object of so 

 singling and adopting the reader was certainly not to keep the know- 

 ledge secret ; for many, indeed most, of them relate to that part of the 

 subject which Bacon never proposed to reserve, but which was 

 designed " edi in vulgus et per ora volitare." The part which he 

 proposed to reserve is distinctly defined in the fourth extract as 

 " ipsa interpretationis formula et inventa per eandem ; " the part to 

 be published is " ea quae ad ingeniorum correspondentias captandas 

 et mentium areas purgandas pertinent." Now it is unquestionably 

 to this latter part that the second, the eighth, and the ninth extracts 

 refer. " Primo enim," he says, in the Partis secundce Delineatio, 

 "mentis area sequanda et liberanda ab eis quae hactenus recepta sunt." 



