

PREFACE 



Loud Bacon can only be said to have carried the three 

 first parts of his Insiaurcdio Magna to any degree of perfec- 

 tion. Of these the Sylva Sylvarum is but a dry catalogue 

 of natural phenomena, the collection of which, however 

 necessary it might be, Bacon viewed as a sort of mechanical 

 l.;boi r, and would never have stooped to the task, had not 

 the field been abandoned by the generality of philosophers, 

 as unworthy of them. The two other portions of the 

 iiistauratio Magna, which this volume contains, unfold the 

 design of his philosophy, and exhibit all the peculiarities of 

 his extraordinary mind, enshrined in the finest passages of 

 his writings. 



Of the De Augmentis, though one of the greatest books 

 of modern times, only three translations have appeared, 

 and each of these strikiniiiy imperfect. That of Wats, 

 issued while Bacon was living, is singularly disfigured with 

 solecisms, and called forth the just censures of Bacon and hia 

 friends. The version of Eustace Gary is no less unfor- 

 tunate, owing to its poverty of diction, and antiquated 

 l)hraseology. Under the public sense of these failures, ano- 

 ther translation was j^roduced about sixty years ago by 

 Dr. Shaw, which might have merited approbation, had not 

 the learned physician been impressed with the idea that he 

 could improve Bacon by relieving his work of some of its 

 choicest passages, and entirely altering the arrangement. 

 In the present version, our task has been piincipally to 

 rectify Shaw's mistakes, by restoring the author's own 



W88C820 



