PREFACE 



IIISTORIA SONI ET AUDITUS. 



THE following fragment was first published by Dr. 

 Rawley in 1688, among the Opuscula Philosophica ; 

 and as he does not mention it among the works com- 

 posed by Bacon during the last five years of his life, 

 we may conclude that it was written before the Sylva 

 Sylvarum. It may have been the commencement of 

 the " Tables de Sono " which, as we learn from the 

 Commentarius Solutus, he was preparing in the summer 

 of 1608. If so, it must have been meant for the sec- 

 ond in the series, viz. Sylva, sive Carta Mater ; 

 whence its second title, " Sylva Soni et auditus ;" and 

 had it been proceeded with, the several tables tabula 

 'ice et prcesentice, tabula absentia in proximo, tabula 

 yraduum, &c. would have followed in order. As 

 far as it goes however, it must be classed among the 

 rough collections, not yet reduced to order for the use 

 of the understanding, and appears to aim at precisely 

 the same object as the investigation concerning Sound 

 which occupies the greater part of the second and third 

 centuries of the Sylva Sylvarum (101 290.) ; being 

 itself in fact one of the Sylvce of which the great Sylva 



