mischief; and contrariwife the Ecclefiaftical State fhould ftill continue upon the dregs of time? If it be said that there is a difference between civil causes and ecclefiaftical, they may as well tell me that churches and chapels need no reparations, though caftles and houfes do. (Certain Confiderations touching the better Pacification and Edification of the Church of England.)

1. PROEM OF THE 'GREAT INSTAURATION.

Francis of Verulam reasoned thus with himself, and judged it to be for the intereft of the prefent and future generations that they fhould be made acquainted with his thoughts.

Being convinced that the human intellect makes its own difficulties, not ufing the true helps which are at man's disposal soberly and judiciously; whence follows manifold ignorance of things, and by reason of that ignorance mifchiefs innumerable; he thought all trial should be made, whether that commerce

between the mind of man and the nature of things, which is more precious than anything on earth, might by any means be reftored to its perfect and original condition, or, if this may not be, yet reduced to a better condition than that in which it now is. Now that the errors which have hitherto prevailed, and which will prevail for ever, should (if the mind be left to go its own way) either by the natural force of the underftanding or by help of the aids and inftruments of Logic, one by one correct themselves, was a thing moft to be hoped for because the primary notions of things which the mind readily and pasfively imbibes, ftores up, and accumulates (and it is from them that all the reft flow) are false, confused, and overhaftily abstracted from the facts; nor are the fecondary and fubfequent notions lefs arbitrary and inconftant; whence it follows that the entire fabric of human reason which we employ in the inquifition of Nature is badly put together and built up, and like fome magnificent ftructure without any foundation. For while men are occupied in admiring and applauding the falfe powers of

the mind, they pafs by and throw away those true powers, which, if it be supplied with the proper aids, and can itself be content to wait upon Nature inftead of vainly affecting to overrule her, are within its reach. There was but one course left, therefore,—to try the whole thing anew upon a better plan, and to commence a total reconftruction of sciences, arts, and all human knowledge, raised upon the proper foundations. And this, though in the progrefs and undertaking it may seem a thing infinite and beyond the powers of man, yet when it comes to be dealt with it will be found found and fober, more fo than what has been done hitherto. For of this there is fome iffue; whereas in what is now done in the matter of fcience there is only a whirling round about and perpetual agitation, ending where it began. And although he was well aware how solitary an enterprise it is, and how hard a thing to win faith and credit for, nevertheless he was refolved not to abandon either it or himself; nor to be deterred from trying and entering upon that one path which is alone open to the human mind.

For better it is to make a beginning of that which may lead to fomething than to engage in a perpetual ftruggle and purfuit in courfes which have no exit. And certainly the two ways of contemplation are much like those two ways of action, fo much celebrated, in this,that the one, arduous and difficult in the beginning, leads out at laft into the open country; while the other, feeming at first fight easy and free from obstruction, leads to pathlefs and precipitous places.

Moreover, because he knew not how long it might be before these things would occur to anyone else, judging especially from this, that he has found no man hitherto who has applied his mind to the like, he refolved to publish at once fo much as he has been able to complete. The caufe of which hafte was not ambition for himself, but folicitude for the work; that in case of his death there might remain some outline and project of that which he had conceived, and fome evidence likewife of his honeft mind and inclination towards the benefit of the human race. Certain it is that all other ambition whatsoever seemed poor in his eyes compared with

the work which he had in hand; feeing that the matter at iffue is either nothing, or a thing fo great that it may well be content with its own merit without feeking other recompenfe. (From the Latin.)

2. FROM EPISTLE-DEDICATORY OF THE SAME TO JAMES I. MOST GRACIOUS AND MIGHTY King,

Your Majefty may perhaps accuse me of larceny, having stolen from your affairs fo much time as was required for this work. I know not what to say for myfelf. For of time there can be no reftitution, unless it be that what has been abftracted from your business may perhaps go to the memory of your name and the honour of your age; if these things are indeed worth anything. Certainly they are quite new, totally new in their very kind; and yet they are copied from a very ancient model; even the world itself and the nature of things and of the mind. And to fay truth, I am wont for my own part to regard this work as a child of time rather than of