Notes and Queries, Number 25, April 20, 1850

We have again been called upon to reprint our first Four Numbers; that is to say, to print a Third Edition of them. No stronger evidence could be afforded that our endeavour to do good service to the cause of sound learning, by affording to Men of Letters a medium of intercommunication, has met with the sympathy and encouragement of those for whose sake we made the trial. We thank them heartily for their generous support, and trust we shall not be disappointed in our hope and expectation that they will find their reward in the growing utility of NOTES AND QUERIES, which, thanks to the readiness with which able correspondents pour out their stores of learning, may be said to place the judicious inquirer in the condition of Posthumus, and
Puts to him all the learnings that this time
Could make him the receiver of.
And here we may be permitted to avail ourselves of this opportunity, as, indeed, we feel compelled to do, to impress upon our correspondents generally, the necessity of confining their communications within the narrowest possible limits consistent with a satisfactory explanation of the immediate objects of them. He that questioneth much, says Bacon, shall learn much, and content much; but especially if he apply his Questions to the skill of the Persons whom he asketh. For he shall give them occasion to please themselves in speaking, and himself shall continually gather knowledge. But let his Questions not be troublesome, for that is fit for a Poser; and let him be sure to leave other Men their turn to speak . What Bacon has said so wisely and so well, OF DISCOURSE, we would apply to our little Journal; and beg our kind friends to remember, that our space is necessarily limited, and that, therefore, in our eyes, Brevity will be as much the Soul of a communication as it is said to be that of Wit.
The Opus Tertium contains the author's last revision, in the form of an abridgment and improvement, of the Opus Majus ; and was drawn up at the command of Pope Clement IV., and so called from being the third of three copies forwarded to his holiness; the third copy being not a fac-simile of the others, but containing many most important additions, particularly with regard to the reformation of the calendar. It also throws much light on Bacon's own literary history and studies, and the difficulties and persecutions he had to surmount from the jealousies and suspicions of his less-enlightened contemporaries and rivals. The Opus Tertium , according to the sketch given of its contents by Bacon himself, is not complete either in the Douay MS. or in that in the British Museum, several subjects being left out; and, among others, that of Moral Philosophy. This deficiency may arise, either from Bacon not having completed his original design, or from no complete MS. of this portion of his writings having yet been discovered. M. Cousin says, that the Opus Tertium , as well as the Opus Minus , is still inedited; and is only known by what Jebb has said of it in his preface to the Opus Majus . Jebb quotes it from a copy in the Cottonian Library, now in the British Museum; and it was not known that there was a copy in France, till M. Cousin was led to the discovery of one, by observing in the Catalogue of the public library of Douay, a small MS. in 4to. with the following title, Rog. Baconis Grammatica Græca . Accustomed to suspect the accuracy of such titles to MSS., M. Cousin caused a strict examination of the MS. to be made, when the discovery was communicated to him that only the first part of the MS. consisted of a Greek grammar, and that the remaining portion, which the compiler of the Catalogue had not taken the trouble to examine, consisted of many fragments of other works of Bacon, and a copy of the Opus Tertium . This copy of the Opus Tertium is imperfect, but fortunately the deficiencies are made up by the British Museum copy, which M. Cousin examined, and which also contains a valuable addition to Chapter I., and a number of good readings.