Valerius Terminus: Of the Interpretation of NatureBacon, Francis
Religion
Valerius Terminus: Of the Interpretation of Nature
Bacon, Francis
Science -- Methodology
It is true indeed that the title of that 10th chapter,--namely, "The
Inventory, or an enumeration and view of inventions already
discovered and in use, with a note of the wants and the nature of the
supplies",--has at first sight a considerable resemblance to the
description of the contents of the second book of the ADVANCEMENT OF
LEARNING,--namely, "A general and faithful perambulation of learning,
with an inquiry what parts thereof lie fresh and waste, and not
improved and converted by the industry of Man;... wherein
nevertheless my purpose is at this time to note only omissions and
deficiencies, and not to make any redargutions of errors," and so on.
But an "enumeration of INVENTIONS" is not the same thing as "a
perambulation of LEARNING;" and it will be found upon closer
examination that the "Inventory" spoken of in VALERIUS TERMINUS does
really correspond to one, and one only, of the fiftyone Desiderata
set down at the end of the DE AUGMENTIS; viz. that INVENTARIUM OPUM
HUMANARUM, which was to be an appendix to the MAGIA NATURALIS. See DE
AUG. iii. 5. This will appear clearly by comparing the descriptions
of the two.
In the ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING Bacon tells us that there are two
points of much purpose pertaining to the department of Natural Magic:
the first of which is, "That there be made a calendar resembling an
Inventory of the ESTATE OF MAN, containing ALL THE INVENTIONS, BEING
THE WORKS OR FRUITS OF NATURE OR ART, which are now extant AND OF
WHICH MAN IS ALREADY POSSESSED; out of which doth naturally result a
note what things are yet held impossible or not invented; which
calendar will be the more artificial and serviceable if to every
reputed impossibility you add what thing is extant which cometh the
nearest in degree to that impossibility: to the end that by these
optatives and essentials man's inquiry may be the more awake in
deducing direction of works from the speculation of causes."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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