_Bacon's Advancement in Learning_ (Vol. ii., p. 396.).--The writer in
"NOTES AND QUERIES" speaks of the English text as being original, and the
Latin a version of Lord Bacon's _Instauratio Magna_; is he not mistaken? In
reality there were two originals of that work, as we learn from Mallet's
account prefixed to the folio edition of Bacon's works in 4 vols. London,
1740, p. xvii. et seq. (vol. first). The first edition was in English,
London, 1605, and is to be found in the Bodleian. The Latin, published in
1623, is said by Mallet to be the work of Bacon himself, with the
assistance of some friends, after he had enlarged and corrected the
original; it is from this that Wats' version is made, which is very exact
and faithful to its original. The title-page is engraved on copper by
Marshall, with this inscription:
"INSTAVR. MAG. P. I. OF THE ADVANCEMENT AND PROFICIENCE OF LEARNING or
the PARTITIONS OF SCIENCES, I[=X] Bookes, Written in Latin by the Most
Eminent, Illustrious, and Famous LORD FRANCIS BACON, Baron of Verulam,
Vicont St. Alban, Counsilour of Estate, and Lord Chancellor of England,
Interpreted by GILBERT WATS, OXFORD: Printed by Leon. Lichfield,
Printer to the Vniversity, for Rob. Young and Ed. Forrell,
CI[C*]I[C*]CXL."
The passage referred to is at p. 36.:
"Indeed, to speak truly, _Antiquitas seculi juventus mundi_, certainly
our times are the ancient times, when the world is now ancient, and not
those which we count ancient, _ordine retrogrado_, by a computation
backward from our own times."
Now this agrees exactly with Bacon's original Latin in Mallet's edition,
vol. i. p. 43., except that ordine retrogrado is not in Italics; but in
Bacon's English text (Mallet's edition, vol ii. p. 431.), the coincidence
in all respects is complete:
"And to speak truly, Antiquitas sacculi, (_sic_) juventus mundi. These
times are the ancient times when the world is ancient, and not those
which we account ancient _ordine retrogrado_, by a computation backward
from ourselves."
Wats' version is the more exact of the two.