The following fragments of a great work on the Interpretation of
Nature were first published in Stephens's Letters and Remains [1734].
They consist partly of detached passages, and partly of an epitome
of twelve chapters of the first book of the proposed work. The
detached passages contain the first, sixth, and eighth chapters, and
portions of the fourth, fifth, seventh, ninth, tenth, eleventh, and
sixteenth. The epitome contains an account of the contents of all
the chapters from the twelfth to the twenty-sixth inclusive, omitting
the twentieth, twentythird, and twenty-fourth. Thus the sixteenth
chapter is mentioned both in the epitome and among the detached
passages, and we are thus enabled to see that the two portions of the
following tract belong to the same work, as it appears from both that
the sixteenth chapter was to treat of the doctrine of idola.
It is impossible to ascertain the motive which determined Bacon to
give to the supposed author the name of Valerius Terminus, or to his
commentator, of whose annotations we have no remains, that of Hermes
Stella. It may be conjectured that by the name Terminus he intended
to intimate that the new philosophy would put an end to the wandering
of mankind in search of truth, that it would be the TERMINUS AD QUEM
in which when it was once attained the mind would finally acquiesce.
Again, the obscurity of the text was to be in some measure removed by
the annotations of Stella; not however wholly, for Bacon in the
epitome of the eighteenth chapter commends the manner of publishing
knowledge "whereby it shall not be to the capacity nor taste of all,
but shall as it were single and adopt his reader." Stella was
therefore to throw a kind of starlight on the subject, enough to
prevent the student's losing his way, but not much more.
However this may be, the tract is undoubtedly obscure, partly from
the style in which it is written, and partly from its being only a
fragment. It is at the same time full of interest, inasmuch as it is
the earliest type of the INSTAURATIO...
Note to Preface by James Spedding:
The manuscript from which Robert Stephens printed these fragments was
found among some loose papers placed in his hands by the Earl of
Oxford, and is now in the British Museum; Harl. manuscripts 6462. It
is a thin paper volume of the quarto size, written in the hand of one
of Bacon's servants, with corrections, erasures, and interlineations
in his own.
The chapters of which it consists are both imperfect in themselves
(all but three),--some breaking off abruptly, others being little
more than tables of contents,--and imperfect in their connexion with
each other; so much so as to suggest the idea of a number of separate
papers loosely put together. But it was not so (and the fact is
important) that the volume itself was actually made up. However they
came together, they are here fairly and consecutively copied out.
Though it be a collection of fragments therefore, it is such a
collection as Bacon thought worthy not only of being preserved, but
of being transcribed into a volume; and a particular account of it
will not be out of place.
The contents of the manuscript before Bacon touched it may be thus
described.
1. A titlepage, on which is written "VALERIUS TERMINUS of the
Interpretation of Nature, with the annotations of HERMES STELLA."
2. "Chapter I. Of the limits and end of knowledge;" with a running
title, "Of the Interpretation of Nature."
3. "The chapter immediately following the Inventory; being the 11th
in order."
4. "A part of the 9th chapter, immediately precedent to the Inventory,
and inducing the same."
5. "The Inventory, or an enumeration and view of inventions already
discovered and in use, together with a note of the wants and the
nature of the supplies; being the 10th chapter, and this a fragment
only of the same."
6. Part of a chapter, not numbered, "Of the internal and profound
errors and superstitions in the nature of the mind, and of the four
sorts of Idols or fictions which offer themselves to the
understanding in the inquisition of knowledge."
7. "Of the impediments of knowledge; being the third chapter, the
preface only of it."
8. "Of the impediments which have been in the times and in diversion
of wits; being the fourth chapter."
9. "Of the impediments of knowledge for want of a true succession of
wits, and that hitherto the length of one man's life hath been the
greatest measure of knowledge; being the fifth chapter."
10. "That the pretended succession of wits hath been evil placed,
forasmuch as after variety of sects and opinions the most popular and
not the truest prevaileth and weareth out the rest; being the sixth
chapter."
11. "Of the impediments of knowledge in handling it by parts, and in
slipping off particular sciences from the root and stock of universal
knowledge; being the seventh chapter."
12. "That the end and scope of knowledge hath been generally mistaken,
and that men were never well advised what it was they sought" (part
of a chapter not numbered).
13. "An abridgment of divers chapters of the first book;" namely, the
l2th, 13th, and 14th, (over which is a running title "Of active
knowledge;") and (without any running title) the 15th, 16th, 17th,
18th], 19th, 21st, 22nd, 25th, and 26th. These abridgments have no
headings; and at the end is written, "The end of the Abridgment of
the first book of the Interpretation of Nature."
Such was the arrangement of the manuscript as the transcriber left it;
which I have thought worth preserving, because I seem to see traces
in it of two separate stages in the developement of the work; the
order of the chapters as they are transcribed being probably the same
in which Bacon wrote them; and the numbers inserted at the end of the
headings indicating the order in which, when he placed them in the
transcriber's hands, it was his intention to arrange them; and
because it proves at any rate that at that time the design of the
whole book was clearly laid out in his mind.
There is nothing, unfortunately, to fix the DATE of the transcript,
unless it be implied in certain astronomical or astrological symbols
written on the blank outside of the volume; in which the figures 1603
occur. This may possibly be the transcriber's note of the time when
he finished his work; for which (but for one circumstance which I
shall mention presently) I should think the year 1603 is likely a
date as any; for we know from a letter of Bacon's, dated 3rd July
1603, that he had at that time resolved "to meddle as little as
possible in the King's causes," and to "put his ambition wholly upon
his pen;" and we know from the ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING that in 1605
he was engaged upon a work entitled "The Interpretation of Nature:"
to which I may add that there is in the Lambeth Library a copy of a
letter from Bacon to Lord Kinlosse, dated 25th March, 1603, and
written in the same hand as this manuscript.
Bacon's corrections, if I may judge from the character of the
handwriting, were inserted a little later; for it is a fact that
about the beginning of James's reign his writing underwent a
remarkable change, from the hurried Saxon hand full of large sweeping
curves and with letters imperfectly formed and connected, which he
wrote in Elizabeth's time, to a small, neat, light, and compact one,
formed more upon the Italian model which was then coming into fashion;
and when these corrections were made it is evident that this new
character had become natural to him and easy. It is of course
impossible to fix the precise date of such a change,--the more so
because his autographs of this period are very scarce,--but whenever
it was that he corrected this manuscript, it is evident that he then
considered it worthy of careful revision. He has not merely inserted
a sentence here and there, altered the numbers of the chapters, and
added words to the headings in order to make the description more
exact; but he has taken the trouble to add the running title wherever
it was wanting, thus writing the words "of the Interpretation of
Nature" at full lengths not less than eighteen times over; and upon
the blank space of the titlepage he has written out a complete table
of contents. In short, if he had been preparing the manuscript for
the press or for a fresh transcript, he could not have done it more
completely or carefully,--only that he has given no directions for
altering the order of the chapters so as to make it correspond with
the numbers. And hence I infer that up to the time when he made
these corrections, this was the form of the great work on which he
was engaged: it was a work concerning the Interpretation of Nature;
which was to begin where the NOVUM ORGANUM begins; and of which the
first book was to include all the preliminary considerations
preparatory to the exposition of the formula.
I place this fragment here in deference to Mr. Ellis's decided
opinion that it was written before the ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. The
positive ground indeed which he alleges in support of that conclusion
I am obliged to set aside, as founded, I think, upon a
misapprehension; and the supposition that no part of it was written
later involves a difficulty which I cannot yet get over to my own
satisfaction. But that the body of it was written earlier I see no
reason to doubt; and if so, this is its proper place.
The particular point on which I venture to disagree with Mr. Ellis I
have stated in a note upon his preface to the NOVUM ORGANUM,
promising at the same time a fuller explanation of the grounds of my
own conclusion, which I will now give.
The question is, whether the "Inventory" in the 10th chapter of
VALERIUS TERMINUS was to have exhibited a general survey of the state
of knowledge corresponding with that which fills the second book of
the ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. I think not.
It is true indeed that the title of that 10th chapter,--namely, "The
Inventory, or an enumeration and view of inventions already
discovered and in use, with a note of the wants and the nature of the
supplies",--has at first sight a considerable resemblance to the
description of the contents of the second book of the ADVANCEMENT OF
LEARNING,--namely, "A general and faithful perambulation of learning,
with an inquiry what parts thereof lie fresh and waste, and not
improved and converted by the industry of Man;... wherein
nevertheless my purpose is at this time to note only omissions and
deficiencies, and not to make any redargutions of errors," and so on.
But an "enumeration of INVENTIONS" is not the same thing as "a
perambulation of LEARNING;" and it will be found upon closer
examination that the "Inventory" spoken of in VALERIUS TERMINUS does
really correspond to one, and one only, of the fiftyone Desiderata
set down at the end of the DE AUGMENTIS; viz. that INVENTARIUM OPUM
HUMANARUM, which was to be an appendix to the MAGIA NATURALIS. See DE
AUG. iii. 5. This will appear clearly by comparing the descriptions
of the two.
In the ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING Bacon tells us that there are two
points of much purpose pertaining to the department of Natural Magic:
the first of which is, "That there be made a calendar resembling an
Inventory of the ESTATE OF MAN, containing ALL THE INVENTIONS, BEING
THE WORKS OR FRUITS OF NATURE OR ART, which are now extant AND OF
WHICH MAN IS ALREADY POSSESSED; out of which doth naturally result a
note what things are yet held impossible or not invented; which
calendar will be the more artificial and serviceable if to every
reputed impossibility you add what thing is extant which cometh the
nearest in degree to that impossibility: to the end that by these
optatives and essentials man's inquiry may be the more awake in
deducing direction of works from the speculation of causes."
The Inventory which was to have been inserted in the 10th chapter of
VALERIUS TERMINUS is thus introduced:--"The plainest method and most
directly pertinent to this intention will be to make distribution of
SCIENCES, ARTS, INVENTIONS, WORKS, and their portions, ACCORDING TO
THE USE AND TRIBUTE WHICH THEY YIELD AND RENDER TO THE CONDITION OF
MAN'S LIFE; and under those several uses, being as several offices of
provisions, to charge and tax what may be reasonably exacted or
demanded,... and then upon those charges and taxations to distinguish
and present as it were in several columns what is extant and already
found, and what is DEFECTIVE AND FURTHER TO BE PROVIDED. Of which
provisions because in many of them, after the manner of slothful and
faulty accomptants, it will be returned by way of excuse that no such
are to be had, it will be fit to give some light OF THE NATURE OF THE
SUPPLIES; whereby it will evidently appear that they are to be
compassed and procured." And that the calendar was to deal, not with
knowledge in general, but only with arts and sciences of invention in
its more restricted sense--the PARS OPERATIVA DE NATURA (DE AUG. iii.
5.)--appears no less clearly from the opening of the 11th chapter,
which was designed immediately to follow the "Inventory." "It
appeareth then what is now in proposition, not by general
circumlocution but by particular note. No former philosophy," etc.
etc. "but the revealing and discovering of NEW INVENTIONS AND
OPERATIONS,... the nature and kinds of which inventions HAVE BEEN
DESCRIBED as they could be discovered," etc. If further evidence were
required of the exact resemblance between the Inventory of VALERIUS
TERMINUS and the Inventarium of the ADVANCEMENT and the DE AUGMENTIS,
I might quote the end of the 9th chapter, where the particular
expressions correspond, if possible, more closely still. But I
presume that the passages which I have given are enough; and that the
opinion which I have elsewhere expressed as to the origin of the
ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING,--namely, that the writing of it was a
by-thought and no part of the work on the Interpretation of Nature as
originally designed,--will not be considered inconsistent with the
evidence afforded by these fragments.
That the VALERIUS TERMINUS was composed before the ADVANCEMENT,
though a conclusion not deducible from the Inventory, is nevertheless
probable: but to suppose that it was so composed EXACTLY IN ITS
PRESENT FORM, involves, as I said, a difficulty; which I will now
state. The point is interesting, as bearing directly upon the
developement in Bacon's mind of the doctrine of Idols; concerning
which see preface to NOVUM ORGANUM, note C. But I have to deal with
it here merely as bearing upon the probable date of this fragment.
In treating of the department of Logic in the ADVANCEMENT, Bacon
notices as altogether wanting "the particular elenches or cautions
against three false appearances" or fallacies by which the mind of
man is beset: the "caution" of which, he says, "doth extremely import
the true conduct of human judgment." These false appearances he
describes, though he does not give their names; and they correspond
respectively to what he afterwards called the Idols of the Tribe, the
Cave, and the Forum. But he makes no mention of the fourth; namely,
the Idols of the Theatre. Now in VALERIUS TERMINUS we find two
separate passages in which the Idols are mentioned; and in both all
four are enumerated, and all by name; though what he afterwards
called Idols of the Forum, he there calls Idols of the Palace; and it
seems to me very unlikely that, if when he wrote the ADVANCEMENT he
had already formed that classification he should have omitted all
mention of the Idols of the Theatre; for though it is true that that
was not the place to discuss them, and therefore in the corresponding
passage of the DE AUGMENTIS they are noticed as to be passed by "for
the present," yet they are noticed by name, and in all Bacon's later
writings the confutation of them holds a very prominent place.
To me the most probable explanation of the fact is this. I have
already shown that between the composition and the transcription of
these fragments the design of the work appears to have undergone a
considerable change; the order of the chapters being entirely altered.
We have only to suppose therefore that they were composed before
the ADVANCEMENT and transcribed after, and that in preparing them for
the transcriber Bacon made the same kind of alterations in the
originals which he afterwards made upon the transcript, and the
difficulty disappears. Nothing would be easier than to correct
"three" into "four," and insert "the Idols of the Theatre" at the end
of the sentence.
And this reminds me (since I shall have so much to do with these
questions of date) to suggest a general caution with regard to them
all; namely, that in the case of fragments like these, the comparison
of isolated passages can hardly ever be relied upon for evidence of
the date or order of composition, or of the progressive developement
of the writer's views; and for this simple reason,--we can never be
sure that the passages as they now stand formed part of the original
writing. The copy of the fragment which we have may be (as there is
reason to believe this was) a transcript from several loose papers,
written at different periods and containing alterations or additions
made from time to time. We may know perhaps that when Bacon
published the ADVANCEMCNT OF LEARNING he was ignorant of some fact
with which he afterwards became acquainted; we may find in one of
these fragments,--say the TEMPORIS PARTUS MASCULUS,--a passage
implying acquaintance with that fact. Does it follow that the
TEMPORIS PARTUS MASCULUS was written after the ADVANCEMENT OF
LEARNING? No; for in looking over the manuscript long after it was
written, he may have observed and corrected the error. And we cannot
conclude that he at the same time altered the whole composition so as
to bring it into accordance with the views he then held; for that
might be too long a work. He may have inserted a particular
correction, but meant to rewrite the whole; and if so, in spite of
the later date indicated by that particular passage, the body of the
work would still represent a stage in his opinions anterior to the
ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.
I have felt some doubt whether in printing this fragment, I should
follow the example of Stephens, who gave it exactly as he found it;
or that of later editors, who have altered the order of the chapters
so as to make it agree with the numbers. The latter plan will
perhaps, upon the whole, be the more convenient. There can he little
doubt that the numbers of the chapters indicate the order in which
Bacon meant them to be read; and if any one wishes to compare it with
the order in which they seem to have been written, he has only to
look at Bacon's table of contents, which was made with reference to
the transcript, and which I give unaltered, except as to the spelling.
of the Interpretation of Nature with the Annotations of a few
fragments of the first book, viz.