III.  Phenomena of the Universe, or Natural and Experimental History, on which to found Philosophy, (Sylva Sylvarum.) “Our natural history is not designed,” he says, “so much to please by vanity, or benefit by gainful experiments, as to afford light to the discovery of causes, and hold out the breasts of philosophy.”  This includes his patient search for facts—­nature free, as in the history of plants, minerals, animals, etc.—­nature put to the torture, as in the productions of art and human industry.

IV.  Ladder of the Understanding, (Scala Intellectus.) “Not illustrations of rules and precepts, but perfect models, which will exemplify the second part of this work, and represent to the eye the whole progress of the mind, and the continued structure and order of invention, in the most chosen subjects, after the same manner as globes and machines facilitate the more abstruse and subtle demonstrations in mathematics.”

V. Precursors or anticipations of the second philosophy, (Prodromi sive anticipationes philosophiae secundae.) “These will consist of such things as we have invented, experienced, or added by the same common use of the understanding that others employ”—­a sort of scaffolding, only of use till the rest are finished—­a set of suggestive helps to the attainment of this second philosophy, which is the goal and completion of his system.

VI.  Second Philosophy, or Active Science, (Philosophia Secunda.) “To this all the rest are subservient—­to lay down that philosophy which shall flow from the just, pure, and strict inquiry hitherto proposed.”  “To perfect this is beyond both our abilities and our hopes; yet we shall lay the foundations of it, and recommend the superstructure to posterity.”

An examination of this scheme will show a logical procession from the existing knowledge, and from existing defects, by right rules of reason, and the avoidance of deceptions, with a just scale of perfected models, to the second philosophy, or science in useful practical action, diffusing light and comfort throughout the world.

In a philosophic instead of a literary work, these heads would require great expansion in order adequately to illustrate the scheme in its six parts.  This, however, would be entirely out of our province, which is to present a brief outline of the works of a man who occupies a prominent place in the intellectual realm of England, as a profound philosopher, and as a writer of English prose; only as one might introduce a great man in a crowd:  those who wish to know the extent and character of his greatness must study his works.

They were most of them written in Latin, but they have been ably translated and annotated, and are within the ready reach and comprehension of students.  The best edition in English, is that by Spedding, Ellis, and Heath, which has been republished in America.