rd BACON,
embracing, as we learn from SPEDDING'S preface (which has the rare
defect of being much too brief), a biography, which in minute detail and
careful finish, and facts hitherto unpublished, will far surpass any
before written. Yet, to stay the appetite of the reader, anxious to
revive the main points of BACON'S life, he gives in this first volume
the short biography by Dr. WILLIAM RAWLEY. In addition to these
introductions, we are gratified by a general preface to BACON'S
Philosophical Works, by ROBERT LESLIE HARRIS, one to the _Parasceve_ by
JAMES SPEDDING, and a third to the _De Augmentis Scientiarum_, in which
BACON'S claims to be the creator of what is popularly and generally
understood as the Inductive Philosophy are most fairly examined; not in
the spirit of the common biographer who always canonizes his subject
through thick and thin, but in that of an impartial seeker for truth,
resolved to naught extenuate and set down naught in malice. It is
believed by many that BACON was simply so fortunate as to have his
picture stand as the frontispiece of the new Philosophy, when in truth
other contemporaries, who made great discoveries by following precisely
his method, as, for instance, GALILEO, were quite as much entitled to
the glory. But examination of BACON'S works proves that though the
great work of proof never was completed by him, that which he embraced,
foresaw, and projected, was of that vast comprehensiveness which fully
entitles him to be regarded, not merely as the most proper of _names_
whereby to indicate the author of Induction (since the world must always
have a name), but in reality the one of all others who best understood
what form the development of science must assume to become perfect. The
treatment of this question by the editors is truly interesting, and
worthy their great undertaking.

The two volumes before us, in addition to the prefaces and biography,
embrace the _Novum Organum_, 'the _Parasceve_,' and the work _De
Augmentis Scientiarum_. It is to be regretted that the English versions,
corrected by BACON himself, were omitted, but those who would
read the translations are mostly capable of reading 'Baconian Latin.' As
they are, they will be most gratefully accepted by thousands. The
forthcoming volumes will embrace the English works. We would here wish
that the editor had not, as he informs us he has done, modernized the
spelling,--but here the majority of readers will perhaps be th