(Vol. ii., pp. 218. 350. 295.).
The aphorism, "Antiquitas sæculi juventus mundi," which occurs in the
_Treatise de Augm. Scient._, vol. viii. p. 39., and in the _Advancement of
Learning_, vol. ii. p. 46., ed. Montagne, may be safely attributed to Lord
Bacon himself, though it is printed in both passages in the form of
quotation, between inverted commas.
In the _Novum Organum_, lib. i. aph. 83, the thought appears in this form:
"De antiquitate autem, opinio quam homines di ipsâ fovent. negligens
omnino est, et vix verbo ipsi congrua. _Mundi enim senium et
grandævitas pro antiquitate vere habenda sunt_; quæ temporibus nostris
tribui debent, non juniori ætati mundi, qualis apud antiquos fuit. Illa
enim ætas, respectu nostri, antiqua et major; respectu mundi ipsius,
nova et minor fuit."
The pointed and aphoristic form of the thought is due to Bacon; the thought
itself has, however, been traced by Dr. Whewell to Giordano Bruno.
"It is worthy of remark, that a thought which is often quoted from
Francis Bacon, occurs in Bruno's _Cena di Cenere_, published in 1584; I
mean the notion, that the later times are more aged than the earlier.
In the course of the dialogue, the Pedant, who is one of the
interlocutors, says, 'In antiquity is wisdom;' to which the
philosophical character replies, 'If you knew what you were talking
about, you would see that your principle leads to the opposite result
of that which you wish to infer; I mean, that _we_ are older and have
lived longer than our predecessors.' He then proceeds to apply this, by
tracing the course of astronomy through the earlier astronomers up to
Copernicus."--_Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences_, vol. ii. p. 361.
The _Advancement of Learning_ was published in 1605, twenty-one years after
the Treatise of Bruno. Mr. Hallam (_History of Europe_, vol. iv. p. 92.)
treats the thought as the original property of Bacon; and although the
first trace of it is to be found in Bruno, there is no improbability in
supposing that it occurred independently to Bacon about the same time.