364 PREFACE TO THE DE IXTERPR. NATURAE. 



matic form ; the rather because the allusions to the 

 ordinatce chartarum sequelce, the coordinationes, reordina- 

 tiones, chartce novellce, &c. belong to the days of the 

 Filum LahyrintM, when he was more occupied in per- 

 fecting and explaining his method than in taking steps 

 for collecting a natural history, not having then per- 

 ceived so fully as I think he afterwards did, how much 

 of the Labyrinth must be explored before the clue could 

 be obtained or used. 



Both this piece and the Aphorismi et Consilia which 

 follow have been printed by M. Bouillet as parts of the 

 Temporis Partus Masculus ; which he assumes to be 

 the same work which Bacon says he composed at the 

 age of twenty-four, under the title of Temporis Partus 

 Maximus. My reasons for disagreeing with him on 

 both points have been already stated. 1 



J. S. 



1 See above, p. 7., and Vol. I. p. 179. 



