100 PREFACE TO THE COGITATA ET VISA. 



however for this uncertainty, we need not scruple to 

 place it here. It covers most of the ground occupied 

 by the first book of the Novum Organum, and was in- 

 tended to be followed by an example of a true induc- 

 tive investigation, with all its apparatus of tables, &c., 

 as applied to one or two particular subjects; which 

 would have covered the same ground which the second 

 book of the Novum Organum was meant to occupy. 



For the text, there are only two authorities that I 

 know of; namely the copy printed by Gruter, and a 

 manuscript in the library of Queen's College, Ox- 

 ford ; l a very beautiful manuscript, carefully corrected 

 throughout in Bacon's own hand, and perfect but for 

 the loss of a leaf in the middle. The differences be- 

 tween the two, though not otherwise material, are suffi- 

 cient to prove that neither can have been taken from 

 the other; and as the manuscript is fuller in some 

 places, and the printed copy in others, it is difficult to 

 say which was the later. The manuscript however is 

 certainly the more accurate ; and has certainly been 

 revised by Bacon himself, a fact which we cannot be 

 so sure of with regard to the other. I have therefore, 

 by permission of the Provost of Queen's College, 

 printed the text from it ; giving in the notes the read- 

 ings of Gruter's copy, where there is any difference 

 between them. 



The notes which do not relate to these variations 

 are Mr. Ellis's. 



J. S. 



i CCLXXX. fo. 205. 



