BEGINS HIS PHILOSOPHY.--Retired in disgrace from his places at court, the rest of his life was spent in developing his _Instauratio Magna_, that revolution in the very principles and institutes of science--that philosophy which, in the words of Macaulay, "began in observations, and ended in arts." A few words will suffice to close his personal history. While riding in his coach, he was struck with the idea that snow would arrest animal putrefaction. He alighted, bought a fowl, and stuffed it with snow, with his own hands. He caught cold, stopped at the Earl of Arundel's mansion, and slept in damp sheets; fever intervened, and on Easter Day, 1626, he died, leaving his great work unfinished, but in such condition that the plan has been sketched for the use of the philosophers who came after him.
He is said to have made the first sketch of the _Instauratio_ when he was twenty-six years old, but it was much modified in later years. He fondly called it also _Temporis Partus Maximus_, the greatest birth of Time. After that he wrote his _Advancement of Learning in 1605_, which was to appear in his developed scheme, under the title _De Augmentis Scientiarum_, written in 1623. His work advanced with and was modified by his investigations.
In 1620 he wrote the _Novum Organum_, which, when it first appeared, called forth from James I. the profane _bon mot_ that it was like the peace of God, "because it passeth all understanding." Thus he was preparing the component parts, and fitting them into his system, which has at length become quite intelligible. A clear notion of what he proposed to himself and what he accomplished, may be found in the subjoined meagre sketch, only designed to indicate the outline of that system, which it will require long and patient study to master thoroughly.
THE GREAT RESTORATION, (MAGNA INSTAURATIO.)--He divided it into six parts, bearing a logical relation to each other, and arranged in the proper order of study.
I. Survey and extension of the sciences, (_De Augmentis Scientiarum_.) "Gives the substance or general description of the knowledge which mankind _at present possesses_." That is, let it be observed, not according to the received system and divisions, but according to his own. It is a new presentation of the existent state of knowledge, comprehending "not only the things already invented and known, but also those omitted and wanted," for he says the intellectual globe, as well as the terrestrial, has its broils and deceits.