THE WORKS

OF

FRANCIS BACON.

-,།

THE

WORKS

OF

FRANCIS BACON,

BARON OF VERULAM, VISCOUNT ST. ALBANS, AND

LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND.

Collected and Edited

BY

JAMES SPEDDING, M. A.

OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE;

ROBERT LESLIE ELLIS, M. A.

LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE;

AND

DOUGLAS DENON HEATH,

*

BARRISTER-AT-LAW; LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE:

STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY

PREFACE.*

WITH regard to the translations which occupy the first half of this volume (as far as p. 271.), I have nothing to add to what I have said (Vol. I. p. xiv.) in my general account of the edition.

With regard to the rest, I then intended merely to submit my suggestions to the translator, leaving it to him to make such alterations as he thought desirable; and about half of the fifth volume (which it was found convenient to print before the fourth) had been carried through on that plan, when an engagement on the Continent made it impossible for him to superintend the printing further: upon which he left his manuscript with me, to be dealt with as I thought fit. The consequence is that for the ultimate state of the whole of this volume,

* [The references in this preface apply to the English edition. To adapt them to this edition it will be necessary, for "the first half of this volume (as far as p. 271.)," to read this volume as far as p. 381, and, for " Vol. I. p. xiv.," to read Vol. I. p. xx. The words "about half of the fifth volume" describe all in this edition from p. 191 of volume nine through the translation of the Historia Vitæ et Mortis in volume ten; while the words "the whole of this volume, and the latter half of the next" apply to volume eight, volume nine through p. 190, and the remaining portion of volume ten.]

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