THE FIRST PART OF THE INSTAURATION,
WHICH COMPRISES THE DIVISIONS OF THE SCIENCES,
IS WANTING.
But some account of them will be found in the Second Book of the “Proficience and Advancement of Learning, Divine and Human.” 1
Next comes
THE SECOND PART OF THE INSTAURATION,
WHICH EXHIBITS THE ART ITSELF OF INTERPRETING NATURE, AND OF THE TRUER EXERCISE OF THE INTELLECT;
Not however in the form of a regular Treatise, but only a Summary digested into Aphorisms. 2
[Notes by Mr. Spedding to the titles of the Latin originals.]
1 This is omitted in the common editions of Bacon's collected works (in all, I believe, except Montagu's); the De Augmentis Scientiarum, with the title “Instaurationis Magnæ pars prima” prefixed on a separate leaf, being substituted for it. And it is true that Bacon did afterwards decide upon supplying this deficiency by a translation of the Advancement of Learning enlarged; that he produced the De Augmentis Scientiarum with that intention and understanding; and that though the original edition does not bear “Instaurationis Magnæ pars prima” on the titlepage, yet in Dr. Rawley's reprint of it in 1638 those words were inserted. Nevertheless this notice is of importance, as showing that when Bacon published the Novum Organum he did not look to a mere enlargement of the Advancement of Learning as satisfying the intention of the pars prima; for if he had, he would have referred to the work itself, not to the second book only. He meant, no doubt, to reproduce the substance of it in a different form. And my own impression is that the Descriptio Globi Intellectualis was originally designed for this place, and that he had not yet abandoned the hope of completing it; but that soon after, —fortune gone, health shaken, assistance not to be commanded, and things of more importance remaining to be done,—he found he had not time to finish it on so large a scale, and therefore resolved to enlarge the old house instead of building a new one.— J. S.
2 This explains a certain discrepancy between the design of the second part, as set forth in the Distributio Operis, and the execution of it in the Novum Organum. The Distributio, like the Delineatio, was probably written when Bacon intended to work it out in a regular and consecutive treatise, and represents the idea of the work more perfectly than the work itself.—J. S.