DELINEATIO ET ARGUMENTUM. 37 



shown in his preface to the Nbvum Organum that it 

 must have been written before the Cogitata et Visa, 

 and as there can be no doubt that it was written after 

 the Advancement of Learning and the Valerius Ter- 

 minus, it may be referred with tolerable confidence to 

 the year 1606 or 1607. 



According to the plan sketched out in it, the work 

 was to begin with an attempt to clear the mind from 

 impressions derived from the philosophical theories 

 then extant and received ; and with this accordingly, 

 the sketch of the plan being completed, the work it- 

 self begins. The Redargutio PJiilosopJiiarum which 

 follows may in fact be considered as the first chapter 

 of the second part of the Instauratio, as it was then 

 designed. I therefore print them together. I would 

 not however be understood to imply thereby that they 

 were composed at the same time. The arguments 

 which convince Mr. Ellis that the Delineatio was writ- 

 ten before the Cogitata et Visa apply to the Delineatio 

 only. The Redargutio, like the second chapter of the 

 Temporis Partus Masculus, may have been composed 

 at a much later period than the work of which it was 

 nevertheless meant to form a part ; and while the in- 

 ternal evidence proves almost conclusively that that 

 second chapter was an earlier form of the Redargutio 

 than this, there is a piece of external evidence which 

 strongly inclines me to think that the idea out of 

 which they both grew occurred to Bacon about the 

 same time. 



In my general preface to the third part of the Phil- 

 osophical works I have spoken of the difficulty which 

 Bacon found or apprehended about this time in ob- 

 taining an audience for his views, and the various 



