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The Philosophical Works of Francis Bacon Routledge Revivals The Philosophical Works of Francis Bacon First published in 1905, this reissued edition of The Philosophical Works of Francis Bacon is an edited collection based upon the definitive seven volume edition of 1857, translated and prefaced by Robert Leslie Ellis and James Spedding. Of great historical, philosophical and scientific interest, this collection brings together translations of Bacon's most important works, includ­ ing the Novum Organum, the De Augmentis Scientarium, the Parasceve, and the De Principiis atque Originibus, as well as works originally written in English, such as the Valerius Terminus and the Filum Labyrinthi. The reissue offers a comprehensive and provocative collection of the key writings of the man we now consider to be the father of Empiricism who popularised inductive methodologies for scientific inquiry. All works include prefaces by Robert Leslie Ellis and James Spedding, and the collection includes an introductory note from the editor John M. Robertson. The Philosophical Works of Francis Bacon Reprinted from the texts and translations, with the notes and prefaces, of Ellis & Spedding Edited with an Introduction by John M. Robertson ;;.~-.'\ i ~ \) Routledge ~ iii ..j Taylor & Francis Group ~"JV~" First published in 1905 by George Routledge & Sons Limited This edition first published in 20 II by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 7ll Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic! mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Publisher's Note The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent. Disclaimer The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and welcomes correspondence from those they have been unable to contact. A Library of Congress record exists under LC Control Number: 70119952 ISBN 13: 978-0-415-67955-8 (hbk) ISBN 13: 978-0-203-80632-6 (ebk) THE PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS OF FRANCIS BACON THE PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS OF FRANCIS BACON BARON OF VERULAM, VISCOL'NT ST. ALB;\NS, AND LORD HIGH CHANCELl.OR OF ENGLAND REPRINTED FROM THE TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS, WITH THE NOTES AND PREFACES, OF ELLIS AND SPEDDING EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION By JOHN M. ROBERTSON LONDON GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS LIMITED NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & Co. 1905· EDITOR'S PREFACE AN adequate collection of the chief works of Francis Bacon, at a price within the reach of the mass of readers, has long been wanting, and the present reprint, from the magistral edition of Ellis and Spedding (7 vols" 1857), is an attempt to meet the need. It contains far more than has ever before been included in any popular collection, and is believed to give all of Bacon's philosophical writings that are likely to be read by any save a few special students. Such treatises as those collected in the fifth volume of the Ellis-Spedding edition under the title of Natural and Experimental History-the" Histories" of the \Vinds, of Life and Death, of Dense and Rare, and the rest-have now not only no scientific value, but almost no literary or philosophical interest, the subject matter being such as would give small scope to Bacon's style even had they been written in English, whereas, like so much of the more interesting matter in this volume, they were published in Latin. The Sylva Sylvarum, though in Bacon's English, is no less obsolete. Our collection, however, includes translations not only of the Novum Organum and the De Augmentis Seientiarum, but of the Parasceve, the De Principiis atque Originibtts, the Descriptio Globi Intellcctualis, the Thema Coeli, and the De Sapientia Vetcrum, as well as the original English treatises entitled Valerius Terminus, and Filum Labyrinthi--the latter a version by Bacon of his Latin Cogitata et Visa. With the aid of the valuable prefaces by Messrs. Ellis and Spedding, which are in every case retained, the student can gather from this mass of matter a thorough knowledge of Bacon's work, in system and in detail, in its strength and its weakness. Holding that Bacon's didactic works were to be reproduced as far as they had literary value, the editor has included not only the original Advancement of Learning and the classic Essays and New Atlantis, but the Apophthegms, though, like the Wisdom of the Ancients, they strain somewhat on the title of Philosophical Works. The History of Henry VII is omitted as being wholly outside that title, and as being easily accessible in cheap editions; and the legal works are omitted as appealing only to a few even among law students. The large mass of Bacon's work here brought together is presented to the reader in the most accurate texts and the most accurate translations in existence -those of the complete edition of Ellis and Spedding. On the English texts of that edition Mr. Spedding lavished a care which can be partially appreciated from his notes in the following pages. The bulk of the translations, which were marie originally by Mr. Francis Heacllam, was thoroughly revised by l\1r. Spedding, and part of that of the Novum Orga'lluln by Mr. Ellis also. The present editor will not venture to say that they are absolutely faultless; but after making a number of comparisons he is satisfied that they are quite the most trustworthy that have been published. In addition to the boon of accurate versions, and the skilled guidance given in the sectional prefaces, the reader of t.he present edition has the help of the multitude of learned notes appended by Mr. Ellis to the Latin Nnvtt1n Organum and De Augmentis, as well as those added by Mr. Sped ding to these works, and his annotations and various readings to the English works. \Vith the help of the latter, which note changes made in the translations as well as the variants of the earlier editions, Bacon's thought can be followed with critical closeness. Mr. Ellis's notes, in so far as they were not philological, and applicable only to the originals, have been transferred to the corresponding passages in the V vi EDITOR'S PREFACE translations in this reprint. A small number of notes, some of them borrowed from other editions, have been added, always in brackets, by the present editor; but beyond adding a few instances to those singled out by Mr. Ellis, he has not attempted either to add to the specification of Bacon's mistakes in physics or to note the advances made in science since Mr. Ellis wrote. The Novum Organum and De Attgmentis are now read not for scientific information, bnt as·the ex­ position of a great writer's conception of the needs and the methods of the sciences, some three centuries ago. As Mr. Spedding indicated in his first preface to the seven-volume edition, no chronological or other" order" of Bacon's works has ever been agreed upon, and that followed in the present volume is a compromise on his. After Rawley's "Life" and Mr. Ellis's General Preface, the original Advancement of Learning, in two books, is placed first, as the simplest and most attractive, as well as the earli­ est, of Bacon's fuller expositions of his aims; the pregnant fragments entitled Valerius Terminus and Filum Labyrinthi coming next. Then follow the transla­ tions of the Novum Organum, the Parasceve, of which the original appeared in the same volume with the Organum in 1620; the De Augmentis Scientiarum, which appeared in Latin in 1()23 (reproducing Book I of the Advancement, ex­ panding and modifying Book II, and adding seven books more); the De Principiis, which is also late; and the Descriptio Globi Intellectualis and Thema Caeli, which, though of earlier date (1612), are rather appendices than preparatives to the main scheme of the "Great Instanration". As to the projection and the imperfect fulfilment of that scheme, full information is given in Mr. Ellis' preface to the Navum Organum, Mr. Spedding's notes to that preface, and his own prefaces. The other works in the present collection are not placed in order of date, but merely grouped apart from the more strictly philosophical works,' the New Atlantis coming first because of its relation to these. In the somewhat anxious task of reading the proofs of this volume, as before in his edition of Buckle in the same series, the editor has had the invaluable assistance of Mr. Ernest Newman. He may therefore hope that this reprint fro111 a standard edition is not less accurate than that-of which, indeed, he has been able to correct some typographical errors. EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION I THE manifold debate which has circled round the name of Bacon for over two hundred yeaJ;S, but especially in the past century, may be divided under two heads-that of his character, and that of his intellectual merit. For many students, happily, the first issue is settled, and the second is perhaps near settlement. But for the general reading public each problem is still somewhat confused by the influence of Macaulay's famous Essay, which seriously mishandled both. Logically considered, the two questions are quite independent: that is to say, a decision on either leaves the other still open. But for anyone in doubt on the first, it must be nearly impossible to read a page of Bacon (who so con­ stantly passes moral judgments) without having the critical faculty either primed or puzzled by the reflection that this moralist is charged by a series of eminent writers with being as base in conduct as he was brilliant in thought and speech.
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