ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY. 
105 
Now I think it is pretty plain that Bacon’s own programme has not 
been carried out if the treatise, as existing in the manuscript, is to he 
taken as complete. For though that portion of the second general head 
which represents moral philosophy as “ docens leges et jura vivendi 
credi et probari,” may be regarded as sufficiently elaborated, the other 
part, in which it is spoken of as “ docens homines exhortari ad operan- 
dum et vivendum secundum illas leges,” is certainly not forthcoming. 
But the suspicion thus awakened becomes certainty when we exa- 
amine some passages of the “ Opus Tertium,” of which M. Cousin has 
given an account. For, in the Introduction to that work, of which I 
spoke before, in which a prospective view, as you will remember, is 
given of the subsequent portions of the work, the divisions of the moral 
part are enumerated. Of these there are stated to be six. The first 
(I use M. Cousin’s abstract, for he does not quote the original Latin) 
related to the belief and conduct of man with respect to God, to the 
future life, &c.; the second was on public law, on the public worship 
of God, and on the government of states ; the third was on the beauty 
of virtue and the deformity of vice; the fourth, on the different religions 
of the world, for the purpose of proving that one only is true, and ought 
to be universally diffused; the fifth contained exhortations to the perfor¬ 
mance of the duties imposed by the religion whose truth had been estab¬ 
lished ; and the sixth had reference to the organization of tribunals and 
the administration of justice. Now, bearing in mind that the “ Opus 
Tertium” follows the plan of the “ Opus Majus,” we may assume that 
the arrangement adopted in the former was used in the latter work also 
And accordingly, you will observe that the first four divisions just men¬ 
tioned strictly coincide with those which I described as occurring in the 
Seventh part of the “ Opus Majus.” It may, therefore, I conclude, be 
safely announced that the fifth and sixth divisions of the Seventh part 
are wanting in the Dublin manuscript. 
It would, perhaps, be premature to print the Seventh part until the 
necessary researches have first been made to ascertain whether or not 
it can be completed from manuscripts in British or foreign libraries. In 
the meantime, having made considerable progress in the study of the 
portion which the Dublin manuscript comprises, I hope before long to 
lay before the Academy a full account of its contents, extracting every¬ 
thing which appears interesting either from its intrinsic merit, or as 
affording information on the state of learning and philosophical opinion 
in the thirteenth century. 
I cannot conclude without repeating my protest against the continued 
neglect with which the writings of this great man have hitherto been 
treated. Many tracts attributed to him are to be found in our manu¬ 
script collections, which ought now at length to be examined, arranged, 
and published, with the necessary historical and other elucidations. 
From my own observations on the initial sentences of these tracts, 
which are sometimes given in the catalogues, I am convinced that many 
of them are simply extracts from the three great works which he ad ¬ 
dressed to Pope Clement. And I believe that if the “ Opus Majus,” 
