"ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY. 
103 
sectse.” Now the passage here referred to is found in a part of the 
“ Opus Majus” devoted to that general subject, and may be read at 
page 160 of Jebb’s edition. 
In fol. 245 of the MS., speaking of the reception given by a Tartar 
emperor to the monk William, author of a treatise “ De moribus Tarta- 
romm,” he adds, “ de quo superius tactum est in his quae de locis 
mundi dicta sunt.” He here plainly refers to a passage at page 232 
of Jebb’s edition, in the part of the “ Opus Majus” which relates to 
geography. 
Again, in fol. 246, a passage occurs which fixes the date of the trea¬ 
tise. Six hundred and sixty-five of the destined years of the duration 
of Mahometanism are there said to have elapsed, which, by changing 
Arabian lunar years of the era of the Hegira into solar years of the Chris¬ 
tian era, gives us the date 1267. To this statement Bacon adds the words, 
“ sicut superius in mathematicis est notatum.” Now the same chro¬ 
nological statement is found at page 167 of Jebb’s edition, with this 
difference only, that while in Jebb the phrase used is “ nunc est annus 
sexcentesimus sexagesimus quintus,” in the moral treatise the phrase 
is, “ Jam transierunt anni sexcenti sexaginta quinque,” indicating, ap¬ 
parently, that one of these years had closed in the interval between the 
composition of the two passages. 
But if it should be urged that these correspondences, and the use of 
such words as prim and superius , may be explained on the hypothesis 
that the moral treatise is not a part of the “ Opus Majus,” but that, 
according to Jebb’s expression, it was ad ealcem adjunetus , let me refer 
you to a passage in fol. 205, where, after making a statement of the 
prophets and patriarchs having treated divine things not only theologi¬ 
cally, but philosophically, he adds, “ sicut in secunda parte hujus operis 
probatum est.” Now the corresponding passage is found in the second 
part of the “ Opus Majus,” at page 30 of Jebb’s edition. 
It is thus, I think, fully established that the moral treatise of which 
I have been speaking is really the Seventh part of the “ Opus Majus.” 
When I consider the weight of the evidence which has led me to 
this conclusion, the omission of it by Jebb, in his edition, appears to me 
one of the most curious circumstances in literary history. 
And here I cannot refrain from observing that serious injustice has 
been done to Bacon by the suppression of this portion of his work in 
the printed copies. For the cardinal idea which presided over his whole 
construction is thus kept out of view, or at least obscured. This idea 
was, the supremacy of moral science over the rest of the intellectual sys¬ 
tem. The earlier and simpler sciences he regarded as deserving of study, 
chiefly because they are the necessary preparation for Morals, the su¬ 
preme and final science. This view, often put forward throughout the 
book, is nowhere more nobly stated than in the following decisive sen¬ 
tence, which occurs in the Seventh part“ Non quaeruntur scientiae 
caeterae nisi propter istam quae est humanae sapientiae dominatrix.” 
I will now proceed to give a very rapid sketch of the general divi¬ 
sions of the Seventh part. And my object in doing so is to establish 
