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 Bacon  to science would be held to indirectly damaging to his charachter, and that writer after writer would regard his claim to be a prophet of scientific knowledge so super-eminent as to consign to oblivion his equally great claim as a prophet of political knowledge. As his contribution to science rests on his perception of the greatness and variety of nature, so his contribution to politics rests upon his perception of the complexity of human society. In politics, as well as in science, he found himself too much in advance of the times to secure a following. Some men would have grown misanthropical, and would have abandoned the thankless task in despair. It was alike the strength and weakness of Bacon's character which prevented him from doing this. He must stride against such a disaster, must seek help wherever it could be 'found, must speak fair words to those who had it in their power to assist him, must be patient beyond all ordinary patience, content if he could get but a little done of the great things which he designed, sometimes content if he could have the vaguest hope of being some day able to accomplish a little. As far as science was concerned, all this brought nothing dishonourable. In politics it was otherwise. Power to do good in polItics was, according to the possibility of his day, inseparably connected with high place and the good things of the world, to the advantages of which Bacon was by no means insensible. If Bacon never lost sight of the higher object in the pursuit of the lower, if James was to him the only possible reconciler of sectional ambitions, as well as the dispenser of coronets and offices, it was not to be expected that those who watched his progress should be charitable enough to acknowledge these points in his favour. Bacon was too great a man to play other than a second-rate part in the age in which he lived, and he struggled hard, to the detriment of his own character as well as of his fame, to avoid the inevitable consequence.

[In all things relating to Bacon Mr. Spedding's Letters and Life is so universally acknowledged as the one authority on matters of fact, that it has been unnecessary to encumber these pages with references to a book to which every reader who wishes for further information will turn. Those who wish to find the view of Bacon's character which is here treated as insufficient, set forth with that knowledge and thought fulness which is singularly wanting in Macaulay's well-known essay on Bacon, may be referred to Dean Church's 'Life of Bacon' in the Men of Letters Series.]

 may be divided into three classes, the philosophical, which form far the largest portion, the literary, and the professional works. Many of these are mere fragments or short essays, afterwards thrown aside and replaced by other essays, also unfinished, or by the larger and more complete works as known to the general reader. All that remains of Bacon's writings, however brief or fragmentary, has been collected in the edition by J. Spedding, R. L. Ellis, and D. D. Heath (7 vols., London. 1854-59). The principal and best known of the philosophical works are (1) the 'Advancement of Learning,' which was published in English in 1605, as 'The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning Divine and Humane:' (2) the 'Novum Organum,' published in Latin in 1620 under the general title, 'Francisci de Verulamio. . . Instauratio Magna,' with a second title (after the preface) 'Pars secunda operis, quæ dicitur Novum Organum sive indicia vera de interpretatione naturæ:' and (3) the 'De Augmentis,' published in Latin in 1623 with the title, 'Opera F. Baconis de Verulamio. . . Tomus primus, qui continet de Dignitate et Augmentis Scientiarum libros ix.' The last of these works may be regarded as a much enlarged edition of the first, though the first has a certain advantage over its larger and more pretentious rival from being presented in a more compendious form and in the noble and flowing periods of the author's English instead of in a foreign tongue or a translation.

When Bacon wrote the 'Advancement of Learning,' he does not seem to have had any idea of constituting it a part of the 'Great Instauration,' but, as time went on, he appears to have thought that the attempt to build up a new philosophy might fittingly be preceded by a review of the present state of knowledge. Hence, in the 'Distributio Operis,' which is prefixed to the 'Novum Organum,' the first place in the 'Great Instauration' is assigned to what he calls 'partitiones scientiarum,' or 'a summary or general description of the knowledge which the human race at present possesses,' including, however, 'not only things already invented and known, but likewise things omitted which ought to be there.'

The remaining parts of the 'Great Instauration,' as enumerated in the 'Distributio Operis, or Plan of the Work,' are: (2) the 'Novum Organum, or Indications concerning the Interpretation of Nature;' (3) 'Phænormena Universi, or a Natural and Experimental History for the Construction of Philosophy;' (4) 'Scala Intellectus, the Ladder of the Intellect;' (5) 'Prodromi, the Forerunners, or Anticipations of the New 