114 NOTES TO PREFACE TO 



Bacon purposed that it should be when he wrote the Parrtis secundce 

 Delineatio." 



That the argument is set forth in the Novum Organum less sys- 

 tematically than Bacon originally intended, is no doubt true; for 

 when he wrote the " Partis secundae Delineatio et Argumentum" he 

 meant to handle the subject regularly and completely, or (as he would 

 himself have expressed it) "in Corpore tractatus justi;" and this in 

 the entrance of the Novum Organum, which is the "Pars secunda" 

 itself, we are expressly warned not to expect. " Sequitur secunda 

 pars Instaurationis, quae artem ipsam interpretandi Naturam et ve- 

 rioris adoperationis Intellectus exhibet : neque earn ipsam tamen in 

 Corpore tractatus justi ; sed tantum digestam per summas, in Apho- 

 rismos" A succession of aphorisms, not formally connected with 

 each other, was probably the most convenient form for setting forth 

 all that was most important in those parts of his work which he had 

 ready ; for without binding him to exhibit them in regular and appa- 

 rent connexion, it left him at liberty to make the connexion as per- 

 fect and apparent as he pleased. But it has one disadvantage : the 

 divisions between aphorism and aphorism tend to conceal from the 

 eye the larger divisions between subject and subject. And hence 

 arises the appearance (for I think it is only an appearance) of a de- 

 viation from the plan originally marked out for the treatment of the 

 pars destruens. Between the publication of the Advancement of 

 Learning and the composition of the Novum Organum, the doctrine 

 of Idols underwent one considerable modification ; but not, I think, 

 the one here supposed. That modification was introduced before the 

 Partis secundce Delineatio was drawn up ; and after that I cannot 

 find evidence of any substantial change. 



I will first exhibit the successive aspects which the doctrine as- 

 sumes, and then give what I suppose to be the true history of them. 



In the Advancement of Learning, the Idols, native and adventi- 

 tious, of the human mind are distributed into three kinds ; not distin- 

 guished as yet by names, but corresponding respectively to those of 

 the Tribe, the Cave, and the Market-place. In Valerius Terminus, 

 they are distributed into four kinds ; the Tribe, the Palace (cor- 

 responding with the Market-place), the Cave, and the Theatre. In 

 the Partis secundce Delineatio they are distributed again into three, 

 but classified quite differently. The two great divisions of Adven- 

 titious and Native are retained : " aut adscititia sunt . . . nimirum quae 

 immigrarunt in mentem, &c., aut ea quae menti ipsi et substantiae 

 ejus inhaerentia sunt et innata ;*' but the subdivisions are entirely 

 changed; the Adventitious being here divided into two kinds, 

 neither of which is recognised at all in the Advancement ; the Na- 

 tive, which are divided into two kinds in the Advancement, not being 



