TEMPORIS PARTUS MASCULUS. 23 



agitant. 1 Nos interim miseros, qui inter tarn odiosas 

 ineptias degimus ! Principiorum autem triadem, 2 com- 

 mentum baud ita prorsus inutile et rebus aliqua ex 

 parte nnitimum, quam importune inculcat homo im- 

 posture peritissimus ? Audi adhuc crimina graviora. 

 Tu divina naturalibus, sacris profana, fabulis haereses 

 miscendo, veritatem (sacrilege impostor) turn humanam 

 turn religiosam polluisti. Tu lumen naturae (cujus 

 sanctissimum nomen toties impure ore usurpas) non 

 abscondisti, ut Sophistae, sed exstinxisti. Illi experien- 

 tise desertores, tu proditor. Tu evidentiam rernm cru- 

 dam et personatam contemplationi ex praescripto subji- 

 ciens, et substantiarum Proteos pro motuum calculis 

 quaerens, scientiaa fontes corrumpere et humanam men- 

 tern exuere conatus es ; et ambages et taedia experi- 

 mentorum, quibus Sophistae adversi, Empirici impares 

 sunt, novis et adscititiis auxisti ; tantum abest ut expe- 

 rientiae reprsesentativam secutus sis, aut noveris. Nee 

 non Magorum hiatus ubique pro viribus amplificasti, 

 importunissimas cogitationes spe, spem promissis pre- 

 mens, imposturae turn artifex turn opus. Invideo tibi 

 (Paracelse) e sectatoribus tuis unum Petrum Severi- 

 num, 3 virum non dignum qui istis ineptiis immoriatur. 



1 The meaning is that Galen seeking to explain the qualities of bodies 

 by means of the qualities of the elements of which the bodies are com- 

 posed, lost sight of or neglected all which cannot be thus explained ; 

 whereas Paracelsus, by referring them to the specific and peculiar nature 

 of the body, made it impossible to arrive at any general conclusion re- 

 specting them, since the qualities of each body were to him ultimate facts. 



- Xum.-ly salt, sulphur, and mercury. . 



8 Peter Severinus was born in 1542 at Ripen in Denmark, and died in 

 1602. Neither Haller nor Sprengel speak of him as favourably as Bacon ; 

 nor does he seem to have had any great share of reputation ; at least he is 

 not mentioned in the common biographical dictionaries. His only known 

 work is the Idea JA'AV/'w/< Philosophical, to which Bacon here refers. Hu 

 is not to be confounded with M. A. Severinus. 



