INQUISITIO LEGITIMA DE MOTU. 149 



intricacy of the phenomena did not daunt him ; for the 

 true method was as the clue of the Labyrinth, which 

 patiently and faithfully followed out must inevitably 

 lead at last to the central principle which explains and 

 reconciles them all. How far he proceeded in the en- 

 terprise, we may partly learn from the Commentarius So- 

 lutus, which contains the commencement of an elaborate 

 and methodical investigation into the nature of motion ; 

 with what success, we may partly infer from the second 

 book of the Novum Organum, in which the description 

 of the different kinds of motion is introduced merely as 

 a part of the doctrine of the prerogatives of instances : 

 the fact probably being that he had despaired of arriv- 

 ing by the .Filum Labyrinthi at any tangible result 

 within any assignable time. 



The investigation, as set down in the Commentarius 

 on the 26th and 27th of July, 1608, is carried out a 

 little further than in this fragment ; and as it belongs 

 naturally to this place, and will throw some additional 

 light upon the nature of the process as Bacon at this 

 time conceived it, as well as upon the names by which 

 some of its stages are distinguished, I cannot better con- 

 clude this preface than by quoting it in extenso. 



J. S. 



IXQUISITIO LEGITIMA. 

 Sectio Nov. j_ e Carta electionis et pra3ontionis. 



ordinis. op. 



2. Sylva, sive Carta Mater. 



3. Meta posita, sive Carta terminans. 



4. Loci, sive Carta Articulorum. 



5. Vena exterior, sive Carta divisionis 



primae. 



