TEMPORIS PARTUS MASCULUS. 13 



of his philosophy has a prominent place. Of these a 

 large proportion are in the nature of queries and points 

 for consideration ; as for instance, what parts of the 

 work to proceed with next, and how ; what persons to 

 seek acquaintance with for assistance and co-operation ; 

 what points to press and what opinions to nourish and 

 work upon, and the like ; all set down promiscuously 

 as they occurred. Among the rest I find the follow- 

 ing : " Discoursing scornfully of the philosophy of the 

 Grecians, with some better respect to the ^Egyptians, 

 Persians, Caldees, and the utmost antiquity, and the 

 mysteries of the poets ; " and again, a little further on, 

 " Taking a greater confidence and authority in discourses 

 of this nature, tanquam sui certus et de alto despiciem" 

 Now putting these two memoranda together, we see 

 the germ of an idea which might easily and naturally 

 lead to the composition, as an experiment, of the second 

 chapter of the Temporis Partus Masculus. Finding 

 that the simple proposition of his views was not win- 

 ning converts, he had a mind to try what effect might 

 be produced by putting them forward in a tone of con- 

 fidence and superiority, and so threw his argument into 

 the form in which we have it here. The idea was not 

 absurd : for it is not less true in speculative than in 

 practical matters that the short way to obtain authority 

 among men is to assume it boldly ; and the text " If a 

 man come in his own name him ye will receive," though 

 applied by Bacon to the Aristotelian philosophy as con- 

 trasted with his own, has in fact been verified not less 

 remarkably in himself. This first experiment however 

 he seems to have regarded as a failure; for he soon 

 after recast the argument in another form, leaving out 

 all that was scornful and offensive towards others, and 



