Bøker av Sir Francis Bacon

Valerius Terminus Of the Interpretation of Nature is a great philospical text by Sir Francis Bacon that examines the methodology of science.This classic work of philosophy has the follwing passage: "The following fragments of a great work on the Interpretation of Nature were first published in Stephens's Letters and Remains [1734]. They consist partly of detached passages, and partly of an epitome of twelve chapters of the first book of the proposed work. The detached passages contain the first, sixth, and eighth chapters, and portions of the fourth, fifth, seventh, ninth, tenth, eleventh, and sixteenth. The epitome contains an account of the contents of all the chapters from the twelfth to the twenty-sixth inclusive, omitting the twentieth, twentythird, and twenty-fourth. Thus the sixteenth chapter is mentioned both in the epitome and among the detached passages, and we are thus enabled to see that the two portions of the following tract belong to the same work, as it appears from both that the sixteenth chapter was to treat of the doctrine of idola. It is impossible to ascertain the motive which determined Bacon to give to the supposed author the name of Valerius Terminus, or to his commentator, of whose annotations we have no remains, that of Hermes Stella. It may be conjectured that by the name Terminus he intended to intimate that the new philosophy would put an end to the wandering of mankind in search of truth, that it would be the TERMINUS AD QUEM in which when it was once attained the mind would finally acquiesce."

It is impossible to ascertain the motive which determined Bacon to give to the supposed author the name of "Valerius Terminus-Of the Interpretation of Nature", or to his commentator, of whose annotations we have no remains, that of Hermes Stella. It may be conjectured that by the name Terminus he intended to intimate that the new philosophy would put an end to the wandering of mankind in search of truth, that it would be the TERMINUS AD QUEM in which when it was once attained the mind would finally acquiesce.

The Elements of the Common Laws of England is the general title for a work that is comprised of two different treatises: A Collection of Some Principall Rules and Maximes of the Common Lawes of England and The Use of the Law, Provided for the Preservation of Our Persons, Goods and Good Names. The first contains a set of twenty-five maxims, or regulae. One of the earliest, if not first, collections of maxims on English law, it is remarkable for its stylistic vigor, intellectual rigor, meticulousness and clarity. The second treatise is a review of the history and practical application of criminal law, estate law, personal property law and the law of slander (i.e. "the preservation of our good names from shame and infamy"). The Use of the Law is probably not in fact by Bacon; it was first printed anonymously as Part II of The Lawyers Light (1629) by Sir John Doddridge. Among America's Founding Fathers, Jefferson held Bacon in high esteem. In a 1789 letter to John Trumbull, he said he considered Bacon, Locke and Newton to be "the three greatest men that have ever lived, without any exception." xix, 104, vii, 84 pp.