Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/362

 Bacon ;' (6) 'Philosophia Secunda, or Active Science.'

The second part, or the proper method of interpreting nature, was evidently the one (if we except the sixth, which was to be the crown of the whole design and the gradual work of posterity) to which Bacon attached the greatest importance. It is mainly represented in the 'Novum Organum,' though preliminary drafts of portions of this work, often curiously differing from it in detail, are to be found in parts of the 'Valerius Terminus,' and in the 'Partis Secundæ Delineatio,' the 'Cogitata et Visa,' the 'Temporis Partus Masculus,' and the 'Filum Labynnthi sive Inquisitio Legitima de Motu,' to say nothing of smaller pieces. The composition of the 'Novum Organum' appears to have been begun about 1608. For the first edition appeared in 1620, and Dr. Rawley (in the life of Bacon prefixed to the 'Resuscitatio') tells us that he had himself seen at least twelve copies of the work 'revised year by year, one after another; and every year altered and amended in the frame thereof.'

The 'Novum Organum,' in the shape in which its author left it, is only a fragment of the larger work which Bacon contemplated under that title, as adequately representing the second part of the 'Great Instauration.' Nevertheless, though only a fragment, the 'Novum Organum,' and especially the first book, is the most carefully written of all Bacon's philosophical works. Moreover, as describing the new method of which the renovation of knowledge was to be the result, it is the keystone of the entire system.

The third part of the 'Great Instrauration,' the 'Phænomena Universi,' was to contain a collection of arranged and sifted materials on which the method of induction was to work. Of this part, even according to Bacon's limited conception of the extent and variety of nature, we have only a very small portion, and, according to a juster estimate of the boundless extent of the 'Phænenomena Universi,' that portion might almost be described as infinitesimal. Such as it is, however, it is contained mainly in the 'Historia Ventorum,' the 'Historia Vitæ et Mortis,' the 'Historia Densi et Rari,' and the 'Sylva Syharum.' The first of these works, an attempt to collect and digest various facts in connection with the winds, was publislied in November 1622, in a volume entitled 'Historia Naturalis et Experimentalis ad condendam Philosophiam; sive Phænenomena Universi; quæ est Instaurationis Magnæ Pars tertia (Historia Ventorum).' The 'Historia Vitæ et Mortis' was published about the end of January 1622-3, The 'Historia Densi et Rari' did not appear during Bacon's lifetime, and was first published in Dr. Rawley's 'Opuscula Varia Posthuma,' in 1658.

The last work on which Bacon was engaged was the 'Sylva Sylvarum' (meaning probably a collection of collections), a miscellaneous collection of observations and experiments in natural history. It was published by Dr. Rawley in 1627, the year after Bacon's death, but the preface was written by Rawley during his lifetime. It was repeatedly reissued, reaching a tenth edition in 1676. This book has furnished Bacon's critics, especially Lasson and Liebig, with some of their most telling shafts. It treats seriously of such conceits as that 'the blood-stone is good for them that bleed at the nose;' as the 'report' of 'the writers of natural magic' that 'the heart of an ape worn near the heart, comforteth the heart and increaseth audacity;' as the notion that water is congealed into crystals, and so forth. But, defective and often ridiculous as this book is from our point of view, it is, if we refer it to its place in the history of science, far from being contemptible. It is probably the best and most complete single collection of the kind that, up to that time, had been published.

Appended to the 'Sylva Sylvarum' in Rawley's edition is the 'Nev Atlantis.' This, as observed in the above life (p. 344), was written before 1617. It is deservedly one of the most popular of Bacon's works; it bears the stamp of his genius as much, perhaps, as anything which he wrote: and, lastly, it is credited with having, to a large extent, suggested the foundation and programme of our own Royal Society, as well as of several scientific associations abroad.

To the fourth and fifth parts of the 'Instauratio' we possess the prefaces. Whether anything more relating to those parts is extant seems doubtful. Though Bacon hoped himself fittingly to inaugurate the work of setting forth his 'second philosophy,' we search in vain amongst his writings for any special treatise which can be referred to the sixth part.

Of Bacon's literary, as distinct from his philosophical and professional, works, far the most popular and important are the 'Essays.' These, in their earliest shape, formed part of a very small octavo volume, published in 1597, and were only ten in number. They were reprinted in 1598, 1604, and 1606. In 1612 a new edition was brought out, with many alterations and additions. The editions of 1597 and 1612 are reprinted in Spedding's edition of the works (voI. vi.). This edition contained thirty-eight essays. Finally, the book in its present form, and containing