LORD BACON'S WORKS
SYLVA SYLVARUM;
OR,
A NATURAL HISTORY,
IN TEN CENTURIES.
EDITOR'S PREFACE.
In the spring of 1626, Lord Bacon died. In the same year, Dr.Rawley, "his lordship's first and last chaplain," as he always proudly entitles himself, collected and published the different poems which were written to the memory of his honoured master.[1] In the year 1627, he published the Sylva Sylvarum, with an address to the reader, explaining the intention of Lord Bacon in the compilation of this work, and the probable objections which might be made to the publication; that it was not methodical; and that many of the experiments would be deemed vulgar and trivial.
With respect to the want of method, although, to use the words of Dr. Rawley, "he that looketh attentively into the work, shall find that they have a secret order," yet knowing as he did the charms of symmetry in arrangement and beauty of style, and the necessity of adopting them to insure an immediate and favourable reception of abstruse works, Lord Bacon was never misled by the love of order: he did not worship this idol; but "as Hercules, when he saw the image of Adonis, Venus' minion, in a temple, said in disdain, 'Nil sacri es;' so there are none of Hercules followers in learning, that is, the more severe and laborious sort of inquirers into truth, but will despise those delicacies and affectations, as indeed capable of no divineness."[2]
"No man was, for his own sake, less attached to system or ornament than Lord Bacon. A plain unadorned style in aphorisms, in which the Novnm Organum is written, is, he invariably states, the proper style for philosophy. In the midst of his own arrangement, in the Advancement of Learning, he says: 'The worst and most absurd sort of triflers are those who have pent the whole art into strict methods and narrow systems, which men commonly cry up for the sake of their regularity and style.'"
Again he says: "It is of great consequence to consider whether sciences should be delivered by way of aphorism or of method. Methodical delivery is more fit to win consent or belief; but less fit to point to action; for they carry a show of demonstration in orb or circle, one part illuminating another; and therefore do more satisfy the understanding; but being that actions in common course of life are dispersed, and not orderly digested, they do best agree with dispersed directions. Lastly, aphorisms representing certain portions only, and as it were fragments of sciences, invite others to contribute and add something; whereas methodical delivery carrying show of a total and perfect knowledge, forthwith secureth men as if they went at the furthest."
Again, "Science is much injured by the over early and peremptory reduction of knowledge into
