564 DE AUGMENT1S SC1ENTIARUM 



men hie moneo, ut hoc fiat distincte, ita ut singulae Philosophias 

 seorsum componantur et continuentur ; non per titulos et 

 fascicules (quod Plutarchus fecit) excipiantur. Quasvis enim 

 Philosophia integra seipsam sustentat, atque dogmata ejus sibi 

 mutuo et lumen et robur adjiciunt ; quod si distrahantur, pere- 

 grinum quiddam et durum sonant. Certe quando apud Taci- 

 turn lego facta Neronis aut Claudii, circumstantiis temporum, 

 personarum, et occasionum vestita, nil video quod a proba- 

 bilitate prorsus abhorreat; cum vero eadem lego in Suetonio 

 Tranquillo, per capita et communes locos, minimeque in serie 

 temporis repraesentata, portenta quaedam videntur et plane 

 incredibilia. Neque absimilis est ratio Philosophise, quando 

 proponitur integra, et quando in frusta concisa et dissecta. 

 Neque vero ex hoc Placitorum Philosophies Kalendario nuperas 

 theorias et dogmata excludo ; sicut illam Theophrasti Paracelsi, 

 eloquenter in corpus quoddam et harmoniam philosophiae re- 

 dactam a Severino Dano ! ; aut Telesii Consentini, qui Parme- 

 nidis philosophiam instaurans arma Peripateticorum in illos 

 ipsos vertit ; aut Patricii Veneti, qui Platonicorum fumos sub- 

 limavit; aut Gilberti popularis nostri, qui Philola'i dogmata 

 reposuit ; aut alterius cujuscunque, si modo dignus sit. Horum 

 vero (quoniam volumina integra extant) summae tantum inde 

 conficiendae, et cum caeteris conjungendae. Atque de Physica 

 cum Appendicibus haec dicta sint. 



Quantum ad Metaphysicam, assignavimus jam ei inquisi- 

 tionem Causarum Formalium et Finalium; quae assignatio, 

 quatenus ad JFormas, incassum facta videatur. Invaluit siqui- 

 dem opinio atque inveteravit Rerum Formas essentiales, seu 

 veras dijferentias, nulla humana inveniri diligentia posse. Quae 

 opinio interim nobis elargitur atque concedit, inventionem For- 



1 Severinus was a Danish physician. He died in the year 1602, leaving several 

 works on medical and philosophical subjects, in which he followed the opinions of 

 Paracelsus. I am only acquainted with his Idea Medicines Philosophies, which there 

 is reason to think Bacon had read. His writings are in point of style much superior 

 to those of Paracelsus, who was however unquestionably a man of far more original 

 genius. 



Telesius's principal work is his De Rerum Natura [the first two books of which 

 were published in 1565, and the whole in 1586]. Bacon derived more ideas from him 

 than from any other of the " novelists," as he has somewhere called the philosophical 

 innovators, and has written a separate treatise on three systems of philosophy, of which 

 his is one. See the third volume of this edition. 



Patricius attempted to amalgamate the Platonic and Aristotelian philosophies. His 

 principal work entitled Nova de Universis Philosophia was published in 1591. It 

 is not of much interest, but I shall have occasion to refer to it in connexion with 

 Bacon's De fluxu et refluxu marts. 



