The late Mr. Edwin Reed has, in his "Francis Bacon our Shakespeare," page 126, drawn attention to a remarkable circumstance. In 1607 Bacon had written his "Cogitata et Visa," which was the forerunner of his "Novum Organum." It was not published until twenty-seven years after his death, namely, in 1653, by Isaac Gruter, at Leyden. In 1857 Mr. Spedding found a manuscript copy of the "Cogitata" in the library of Queen's College at Oxford. This manuscript had been corrected in Bacon's own handwriting. It contained passages which were omitted from Gruter's print. Spedding did not realise the importance of the omitted passages, but Mr. Edwin Reed has made this manifest. The following extract is specially noteworthy, the portion printed in italics having been omitted by Gruter:-- "... So he thought best, after long considering the subject and weighing it carefully, first of all to prepare _Tabulæ Inveniendi_ or regular forms of inquiry; in other words, a mass of particulars arranged for the understanding, and to serve, as it were, for an example and almost visible representation of the matter. For nothing else can be devised that would place in a clearer light what is true and what is false, or show more plainly that what is presented is more than words, and must be avoided by anyone who either has no confidence in his own scheme or may wish to have his scheme taken for more than it is worth. "_But when these Tabulæ Inveniendi have been put forth and seen, he does not doubt that the more timid wits will shrink almost in despair from imitating them with similar productions with other materials or on other subjects; and they will take so much delight in the specimen given that they will miss the precepts in it. Still, many persons will be led to inquire into the real meaning and highest use of these writings, and to find the key to their interpretation, and thus more ardently desire, in some degree at least, to acquire the new aspect of nature which such a key will reveal. But he intends, yielding neither to his own personal aspirations nor to the wishes of others, but keeping steadily in view the success of his undertaking, having shared these writings with some, to withhold the rest until the treatise intended for the people shall be published._"