Valerius Terminus | Page 7

by name, and in all Bacon's later writings the
confutation of them holds a very prominent place.
To me the most probable explanation of the fact is this. I have already
shown that between the composition and the transcription of these
fragments the design of the work appears to have undergone a

considerable change; the order of the chapters being entirely altered.
We have only to suppose therefore that they were composed before the
ADVANCEMENT and transcribed after, and that in preparing them for
the transcriber Bacon made the same kind of alterations in the originals
which he afterwards made upon the transcript, and the difficulty
disappears. Nothing would be easier than to correct "three" into "four,"
and insert "the Idols of the Theatre" at the end of the sentence.
And this reminds me (since I shall have so much to do with these
questions of date) to suggest a general caution with regard to them all;
namely, that in the case of fragments like these, the comparison of
isolated passages can hardly ever be relied upon for evidence of the
date or order of composition, or of the progressive developement of the
writer's views; and for this simple reason,--we can never be sure that
the passages as they now stand formed part of the original writing. The
copy of the fragment which we have may be (as there is reason to
believe this was) a transcript from several loose papers, written at
different periods and containing alterations or additions made from
time to time. We may know perhaps that when Bacon published the
ADVANCEMCNT OF LEARNING he was ignorant of some fact with
which he afterwards became acquainted; we may find in one of these
fragments,--say the TEMPORIS PARTUS MASCULUS,--a passage
implying acquaintance with that fact. Does it follow that the
TEMPORIS PARTUS MASCULUS was written after the
ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING? No; for in looking over the
manuscript long after it was written, he may have observed and
corrected the error. And we cannot conclude that he at the same time
altered the whole composition so as to bring it into accordance with the
views he then held; for that might be too long a work. He may have
inserted a particular correction, but meant to rewrite the whole; and if
so, in spite of the later date indicated by that particular passage, the
body of the work would still represent a stage in his opinions anterior
to the ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.
I have felt some doubt whether in printing this fragment, I should
follow the example of Stephens, who gave it exactly as he found it; or
that of later editors, who have altered the order of the chapters so as to

make it agree with the numbers. The latter plan will perhaps, upon the
whole, be the more convenient. There can he little doubt that the
numbers of the chapters indicate the order in which Bacon meant them
to be read; and if any one wishes to compare it with the order in which
they seem to have been written, he has only to look at Bacon's table of
contents, which was made with reference to the transcript, and which I
give unaltered, except as to the spelling.
of the Interpretation of Nature with the Annotations of a few fragments
of the first book, viz.
1. The first chapter entire. {Of the ends and limits of knowledge.}
2. A portion of the 11th chapter. {Of the scale.}
3. A small portion of the 9th chapter {being an Inducement to the
Inventory.}
4. A small portion of the 10th chapter {being the preface to the
Inventory.}
5. A small portion of the 16th chapter {being a preface to the inward
elenches of the mind.}
6. A small portion of the 4th chapter. {Of the impediments of
knowledge in general.}
7. A small portion of the 5th chapter. {Of the diversion of wits.}
8. The 6th chapter entire. {Of}
9. A portion of the 7th chapter.
10. The 8th chapter entire.
11. Another portion of the 9th chapter.
12. The Abridgment of the 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 21. 22. 25.
26th chapters of the first book.

13. The first chapter of {the} a book of the same argument written in
Latin and destined {for} to be {traditionary} separate and not public.
None of the Annotations of Stella are set down in these fragments.
[The title] is written in the transcriber's hand: all that follows in Bacon's.
The words between brackets have a line drawn through them. For an
exact facsimile of the whole [see Contents pages 1 and 2].
[13.] refers to the first chapter of the TEMPORIS PARTUS
MASCULUS; which follows in the manuscript volume, but not here. It
is important as bearing upon the date of