369 



PREFACE. 



AMONG the eight subjects which were to have been handled 

 in the remaining books of the Novum Organum (see ii. 21.), the 

 last but one is entitled De parascevis ad inquisitionem 3 under 

 which head Bacon intended (as appears by the introduction to 

 the following treatise) to set forth the character of the Natural 

 and Experimental History) which was to form the third part of 

 t r ie Instauratio. 



What may have been the logical connexion between these 

 eight subjects which determined him to reserve this for the 

 penultimate place, it seems impossible, by the help of the titles 

 alone, to divine. But whatever the order in which he thought 

 advisable to approach it, there can be no doubt that this 

 Natural and Experimental History was always regarded by 

 him as a part of his system both fundamental and indispens- 

 able. So earnestly indeed and so frequently does he insist 

 on the importance of it, that I once believed it to be the one 

 real novelty which distinguished his philosophy from those 

 of his contemporaries and immediate predecessors. And even 

 now, though Mr. Ellis's analysis of the Baconian Induction 

 has given me much new light and considerably modified my 

 opinion in that matter, I am still inclined to think that Bacon 

 himself regarded it not only as a novelty, but as the novelty 

 from which the most important results were to be expected; 

 and however experience may have proved that his expectations 

 were in great part vain and his scheme impracticable, I can- 

 not help suspecting that more of it is practicable than has yet 

 been attempted, and that the greatest results of science are still 

 to be looked for from a further proceeding in this direction. 



The grounds of this opinion will be explained most con- 

 veniently in connexion with the following treatise ; a treatise 

 published by Bacon (on account of the exceeding importance of 

 the subject) out of its proper place and incomplete; and to 



VOL, I. B B 



