gacity of a modern genius had found out much better meanings for the antients than ever were meant by them.

In his introduction to this book, he gives a large and very clear account of the reasons which induced him to believe, that, notwithftanding the feeming abfurdities in the fabulous hiftories of the antients, there was, however, fomething at the bottom which deferved to be examined into and enquired after. Thefe obfervations, which are full of very curious learning, he concludes thus:

"But the argument of moft weight with me is this; that many of thefe fables by no means appear to have been invented by the perfons who relate and divulge them; whether Homer, Hefiod, or others: for, if I were affured they first flowed from those latter times, and authors that tranfmit them to us, I fhould never expect any thing fingularly great or noble from fuch an origin. But whoever attentively confiders the thing, will find that these fables are delivered down and related by thofe writers, not as matters then first invented and propofed, but as things received and embraced in earlier ages: befides, as they are differently related by writers nearly of the fame ages, 'tis eafly perceived, that the relators drew from the common stock of antient tradition, and varied but in point of embellifhment; which is their own; and this principally raifes my efteem of these fables; which I receive not as the product of the age, or invention of the VOL. V. poets;

I

poets; but as facred relicks, gentle whispers, and the breath of better times, that, from the traditions of more antient 1ations, came at length into the flutes and trumpets of the Greeks. But if any one fhall, notwithstanding this, contend that allegories are always adventitious, or impofed upon the antient fables, and no way native, or genuinely contained in them, we might here leave him undisturbed in that gravity of judgment he affects, though we cannot help accounting it fomewhat dull and phlegmetic; and, if it were worth the trouble, to proceed to another kind of argument.

"Men have proposed to answer two different and contrary ends by the use of parable; for parables ferve as well to inftruct and illuftrate, as to wrap up and envelope; fo that, though, for the prefent, we drop the concealed ufe, and fuppofe the antient fables to be vague, undeterminate things, formed for amufement, ftill the other ufe must remain and can never be given up: and every man of any learning muft readily allow, that this method of inftructing is grave, fober, and exceedingly useful, and fometimes neceffary in the fciences, as it opens an eafy and familiar paffage to the human understanding in all new discoveries, that are abftruse, and are out of the road of vulgar opinions.

Hence, in the firft ages, when fuch inventions and conclufions of the human reafon, as are not trite and common, were new and lit

tle

tle known, all things abounded with fables, parables, fimilies, comparisons, and allufions, which were not intended to conceal, but to inform and teach, whilst the minds of men continued rude and unpractised in matters of fubtilty or fpeculation, or even impatient, or in a manner uncapable of receiving fuch things as did not directly fall under and strike the fenfes for, as hieroglyphics were in ufe before writing, fo were parables in ufe before. arguments; and, even to this day, if any man would let new light in upon the human underftanding, and conquer prejudice, without raifing contefts, animofities, oppofition, or disturbance, he muft ftill go in the fame path, and have recourse to the like method of allegory, metaphor, and allufion.

To conclude, the knowledge of the early ages was either great or happy; great, if they by defign made this ufe of trope and figure; happy, if, whilft they had other views, they afforded matter and occafion to fuch noble contemplations. Let either be the cafe, our pains, perhaps, will not be misemployed, whether we illuftrate antiquity, or the things themselves. The like, indeed, has been attempted by others; but, to speak ingenuously, their great and voluminous labours have almost deftroyed the energy, the efficacy, and grace of the thing; whilft, being unfkilled in nature, and their learning no more than that of common-place, they have applied the fenfe of I 2

the

the parables to certain general and vulgar matters, without reaching to their real purport, genuine interpretation, and full depth.

"For myfelf, therefore, I expect to appear new in these common things, becaufe, leaving untouched fuch as are fufficiently plain and open, I fhall drive only at thofe that are either deep or rich."

In this admirable work, our author has laid open, with great fagacity and penetration, the fecret meaning of the phyfical, moral, and political fables of antiquity; in doing which, he very wifely and prudently took occasion to throw out many obfervations of his own; for which he could not have found otherways fo fit and favourable an opportunity.

He published this treatife in Latin; in which language he feems to have wrote it; and dedicated it to his coufin, the lord-treafurer Salisbury, and the university of Cambridge. This work has been very often reprinted fince, and, except his effays, is, of all his writings, the moft generally known and efteemed. Sir Arthur Gorges rendered the whole into English, which is usually added to the author's effays; and it is to this book the great poet, as well as traveller, Mr. George Sandys, doth, in his learned notes on his verfion of Ovid's Metamorphoses, acknowledge himself to be much indebted, ftiling my lord St. Albans the crown of all modern authors.

V. In

V. In 1620, he prefented to king James I. his Novum Organum; which, of all his philofophical works, he the most highly valued.

In order to give the reader a juft idea of the value and importance of this work, we will firft defcribe the nature of it, and then mention the judgment paffed thereon by fome of the greatest ornaments of the republic of letters. The defign of the Novum Organum was, to execute the fecond part of the Inftauration, by advancing a more perfect method of ufing the rational faculty than men were before acquainted with; in order to raise and improve the human understanding, as far as its prefent imperfect ftate admits; and enable it to conquer and interpret the difficulties and obfcuties of nature. With this view it undertakes the care and conduct of the underflanding, and draws out and defcribes the ap-... paratus and inftruments of reafoning; whence it appears to endeavour at a new kind of logic,. though greatly fuperior to the common; which, through the abufes crept into it, ap-pears fitter to corrupt than ftrengthen and improve the mind; for the fcope and ufe of this new logic is not to difcover arguments and probable reafons, but arts and works.

It is divided into two principal parts: viz. into a preparatory part, and one that is fcien-tifical and inftructive. The first part tends to prepare and purge the mind, and fit it to receive and ufe the inftructions and inftruments laid down in the fecond; the mind, like a