LIBER SECUNDUS. 493 



alia quod curiositatem sapiant, et fructum promittant perexilem ; 

 alia quod nimis ardua existaiit, et fere impossibilia quae ab ho- 

 minibus absolvantur. Ad priora duo quod attinet, res ipsae 

 pro se causam agent. Circa postremum de impossibilitate ita 

 statuo: ea omnia possibilia et praestabilia censenda, quae ab 

 aliquibus perfici possint, licet non a quibusvis ; et quae a multis 

 conjunctim, licet non ab uno ; et quae in successione saeculorum, 

 licet non eodem aevo ; et denique quae publica cura et sumptu, 

 licet non opibus et industria singulorum. Si quis tamen sit, 

 qui malit Salomonis illud usurpare, Dicit piger, Leo est in via l ; 

 quam illud Virgilii, Possunt, quia posse videntur 2 ; satis mihi erit 

 si labores mei inter vota tantum sive optata melioris notae ba- 

 beantur. Sicut enim baud omnino rei imperitum esse oportet, 

 qui quaestionem apposite instituat ; ita nee sensus inops videa- 

 tur, qui haudquaquam absurda optaverit.* 



1 Prov. xxvi. 13. 2 JEn. v. 231. 



8 It may be convenient in this place to warn the reader that although in editing 

 this treatise I have followed the text of the original edition as exactly as I could, and 

 altered no word without notice except in case of errors obviously accidental, I have 

 nevertheless not attempted to preserve the original typographical arrangement ; which 

 is not to be regarded as Bacon's own. The task of carrying the book through the 

 press appears to have been left to Dr. Rawley, whose taste (or that of the printer 

 whom he employed) has betrayed him into so prodigal a use of the limited resources 

 at his disposal for marking emphasis and regulating punctuation, that the marks have 

 lost all their significance. Such is the profusion of commas, colons, and semicolons, 

 that the larger divisions are confounded with the smaller; so many words are empha- 

 sized by italics that all distinctions of emphasis disappear. It is true, no doubt, that 

 the habit of writing with a view to circulation in manuscript (which admits of a much 

 greater variety of modifications and can be made much more expressive to the eye 

 than printing) encouraged in those days a style of composition which depended in 

 some degree for perspicuity on helps of this kind. And if, according to the practice 

 of the best modern writers, who generally contrive that the structure of each sentence 

 shall make the emphasis fall inevitably upon the emphatic word, I had dispensed with 

 italics altogether, the meaning would probably, in some places, have been rendered 

 obscure or even ambiguous. 1 have therefore endeavoured to make a compromise 

 between the former and the present practice, distinguishing many of the words which 

 are italicised in the original only by capital initials, removing the distinction altogether 

 from many others, and reserving the italics for those which seem meant to be con- 

 spicuous ; and for quotations, which are so distinguished in all the writings of that 

 period, whether printed or manuscript. J. S. 



