The works of Francis Bacon, lord chancellor of England.

330 EDITOR'S PREFACE.
"cThe method observed in thus rendering them into English, is not that of a direct translation,
(which might have left them more obscure than they are; and no way suited this design;) but a
kind of open version, which endeavours to express, in modern English, the sense of the author,
clear, full, and strong; though without deviating from him, and, if possible, without losing of his
spirit, force, or energy. And though this attempt may seem vain, or bold, it was doubtless better to
have had the view, than willingly to have aimed at second prizes.
", The liberty sometimes taken, not of abridging, (for just and perfect writings are incapable of
abridgment,) but of dropping, or leaving out, some parts of the author's writings, may require
greater excuse. But this was done in order to shorten the works, whose length has proved one
discouragement to their being read. And regard has been had to omit none of the philosophical
matter; but only certain personal addresses, compliments, exordiums, and the like; for, as the
reasons and ends, for which these were originally made, subsist no longer, it was thought superfluous to continue such particularities, in a work of this general nature."
In the year 1810 the Novum Organum was translated into Italian. The following is a copy of
the title-page: 1Niovo Organo Delle Scienze di Fi'ancesco Bacone, Di Verulcomio, Tradzzione in
Italiano dcl can. ~.ntonio Pellizzcri, Edizione seconda arricchita di ten Indice e di /.nnotazioni.
Bassauzo, Tipografia Remondiniana, 1810.
For the translation of the Novum Organum contained in this volume, I am indebted to my friend
William W~ood: excepting the translation of the Catalogue of Particular Histories, for which I arm
indebted to my friend and pupil, William G. Glen.
BOOK III. NATURAL AND EXPERIMENTAL HISTORY.
THE HISTORY OF THE WINDS.
The translation was published in 1671, in the third edition of the Resuscitatio. It is " translated
into English by R. G., gentleman." Of this tract Archbishop Tennison, says, in his Baconiana:
", The second section is the History of Winds, written in Latin by the author, and by R. G., gentleman, turned into English. It was dedicated to King Charles, then Prince, as the first-fruits of
his lordship's Natural History; and as a grain of mustard-seed, which was, by degrees, to grow into a
tree of experimental science. This was the birth of the first of those six months, in which he determinc;l (God assisting him) to write six several histories of natural things. To wit, of Dense and Rare
Bodies; of Heavy and Light Bodies; of Sympathy and Antipathy; of Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury;
of Life and Death; and (which he first perfected) that of Winds, which he calls the Wings, by
which men fly on the sea, and the besoms of the air and earth. And he rightly observeth, concerning those postnati, (for, as he saith, they are not a part of the six days' work or primary creatures,)
that the generation of them has not been well understood, because men have been ignorant of the
nature and power of the air, on which the winds attend, as ZEolus on Juno.
" The English translation of this book of Winds is printed in the second part of the Resuscitatio, as
it is called, though improperly enough; for it is rather a collection of books already printed, than a
resuscitation of any considerable ones, which before slept in private manuscript."
The translations of the Histories of Density and Rarity; of Heavy and Light; of Sympathy and
Antipathy; of Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt, are from the third edition of the Resuscitatio, published
in 1671; which contains also a translation of the Entrance to the History of Life and Death.
The translation of the History of Life and Death is taken from the seventh edition of the Sylva
Sylvarum, published in 1658. Of this translation, Archbishop Tennison thus speaks in his Baconiana: " The sixth section is the History of Life and Death, written by his lordship in Latin, and
first turned into English by an injudicious translator, and rendered much better a second time, by an
abler pen, made abler still by the advice and assistance of Dr. Rawley.
"6 This work, though ranked last amongst the six monthly designations, yet was set forth in the
second place. His lordship (as he saith) inverting the order, in respect of the prime use of this
argument, in which the least loss of time was by him esteemed very precious. The subject of this
book, (which Sir Henry Wotton calleth none of the least of his lordship's works,) and the argument
of which some had before undertaken, but to much less purpose, is the first of those which he put
in his Catalogue of the Magnalia Naturae. And, doubtless, his lordship undertook both a great and
a most desirable work, of making art short, and life easy and long. And it was his lordship's
wish that the nobler sort of physicians might not employ their times wholly in the sordidness of
cures, neither be honoured for necessity only; but become coadjutors and instruments of the Divine
omnipotence and clemence, in prolonging and renewing the life of man; and in helping Christians,
who pant after the land of promise, so to journey through this world's wilderness, as to have their
shoes and garments (these of their frail bodies) little worn and impaired.' "