PREFACE. THIS Volume contains the TRANSLATIONS; 1st, of the "In- :- The contents may be exhibited as follows:- BOOK II. NOVUM ORGANUM. 241 301 303 303 304 309 424 428 431 Editions in The first edition of this work was published in folio, in An edition was published in 1779; "Wirceburgi, Apud published in Holland in 1645, 1650, and 1660. b Parts of the Novum Organum have, at different periods, been translated. In Watts's translation, in 1640, of the Treatise De Augmentis, there is a translation of the Introductory Tract prefixed to the Novum Organum. In the third edition of the Resuscitatio, published in 1671, there are three translated tracts from the Novum Organum, viz. 1. The Natural and Experimental History of the Form of Hot Things. 2. Of the several kinds of Motion, or of the Active Virtue. 3. A Translation of the Parasceve, which is the beginning of the third part of the Instauration, but is annexed to the Novum Organum in the first edition. This translation of the Parasceve is by a well wisher to his Lordship's writings. In the tenth edition of the Sylva Sylvarum, there is an abridged translation of the Novum Organum. The following is a copy of the title-page: The Novum Organum of Sir Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Albans Epitomiz'd: for a clearer understanding of his Natural History. Translated and taken out of the Latine by M. D. B. D. London: Printed for Thomas Lee, at the Turks-head in Fleet Street, 1676. As this tenth edition of the Sylva was published 1671, and Dr. Rawley died 1667, it must not, from any document now known, be ascribed to him. It is not noticed in the Baconiana published in 1679. In 1733, Peter Shaw, M.D. published a translation of the Novum Organum. Dr. Shaw, who was a great admirer of Lord Bacon, seems to have laboured under a diseased love of arrangement, by which he was induced to deviate from the order of the publications by Lord Bacon, and to adopt his own method. This may be seen in almost every part of his edition, but particularly in his edition of the Essays, and of the Novum Organum, which is divided and subdivided into sections, with a perplexing alteration, without an explanation of the numbers of the Aphorisms; this will appear at the conclusion of his first section, where he passes from section thirty seven to section one. His own account of his translation is as follows:-" The design of these volumes is to give a methodical English edition of his Philosophical works, fitted for a commodious and ready perusal; somewhat in the same manner as the Philosophical works of Mr. Boyle were, a few years since, fitted, in three quarto volumes. "All the author's pieces, that were originally written in Latin, or by himself translated into Latin, are here new done from those originals; with care all along to collate his own English with the Latin, where the pieces were extant in both languages. "The method observed in thus rendering them into English, is not that of a direct translation (which might have left them more obscure than they are; and no way suited this design); but a kind of open version, which endeavours to express, in modern English, the sense of the author, clear, full, and strong; though without deviating from him, and, if possible, without losing of his spirit, force, or energy. And though this attempt may seem vain, or bold, it was doubtless better to have had the view, than willingly to have aimed at second prizes. "The liberty sometimes taken, not of abridging (for just and perfect writings are incapable of abridgement), but of dropping, or leaving out, some parts of the author's writings, may require greater excuse. But this was done in order to shorten the works, whose length has proved one discouragement to their being read. And regard has been had to omit none of the philosophical matter; but only certain personal addresses, compliments, exordiums, and the like; for as the reasons and ends, for which these were originally made, subsist no longer, it was thought superfluous to continue such particularities, in a work of this general nature." In the year 1810 the Novum Organum was translated into Italian. The following is a copy of the title-page: Nuovo Organo Delle Scienze di Francesco Bacone, Di Verulamio, Traduzione in Italiano del can. Antonio Pellizzari, Edizione seconda arricchita di un Indice e di Annotazioni. Bassano, Tipografia Remondiniana, 1810. For the translation of the Novum Organum contained in this volume, I am indebted to my friend William Wood: excepting the translation of the Catalogue of Particular Histories, for which I am indebted to my friend and pupil William G. Glen. BOOK III. NATURAL AND EXPERIMENTAL HISTORY. THE HISTORY OF THE WINDS. The translation was published in 1671, in the third edition of the Resuscitatio. It is "translated into English by R. G. Gentleman." Of this tract Archbishop Tennison, says, in his Baconiana: "The second section is the History of Winds, written in Latin by the Author, and by R. G. gentleman, turned into English. It was dedicated to King Charles, then Prince, as the first-fruits of his Lordship's Natural History; and as a grain of mustard-seed, which was, by degrees, to grow into a tree of experimental science. This was the birth of the first of those six months, in which he determined (God assisting him) to write six several histories of natural things. To wit, of Dense and Rare Bodies; of Heavy and Light Bodies; of Sympathy and Antipathy; of Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury; of Life and Death; and (which he first perfected) that of Winds, which he calls the Wings, by which men fly on the sea, and the besoms of the air and earth. And he rightly observeth, concerning those postnati (for, as he saith, they are not a part of the six days' works, or primary creatures), that the generation of them has not been well understood, because men have been ignorant of the nature and power of the air, on which the winds attend, as Eolus on Juno. "The English translation of this book of Winds is printed in the second part of the Resuscitatio, as it is called, though improperly enough; for it is rather a collection of books already printed, than a resuscitation of any considerable ones, which before slept in private manuscript." The translations of the Histories of Density and Rarity; of Heavy and Light; of Sympathy and Antipathy; of Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt, are from the third edition of the Resuscitatio, published in 1671; which contains also a translation of the Entrance to the History of Life and Death. The translation of the History of Life and Death is taken from the seventh edition of the Sylva Sylvarum, published in 1658. Of this translation, Archbishop Tennison thus speaks in his Baconiana: "The sixth section is the History of Life and Death, written by his Lordship in Latin, and first turned into English by an injudicious translator, and rendered much better a second time, by an abler pen, made abler still by the advice and assistance of Dr. Rawley. "This work, though ranked last amongst the six monthly designations, yet was set forth in the second place. His Lordship (as he saith) inverting the order, in respect of the prime use of this argument, in which the least loss of time was by him esteemed very precious. The subject of this book (which Sir Henry Wotton calleth none of the least of his Lordship's works), and the argument of which some had before undertaken, but to much less purpose, is the first of |