ANTIQUITAS SÆCULI JUVENTUS MUNDI.

(Vol. ii., pp. 218. 350. 295.).

The aphorism, "Antiquitas sæculi juventus mundi," which occurs in the Treatise de Augm. Scient., vol. viii. p. 39., and in the Advancement of Learning, vol. ii. p. 46., ed. Montagne, may be safely attributed to Lord Bacon himself, though it is printed in both passages in the form of quotation, between inverted commas.

In the Novum Organum, lib. i. aph. 83, the thought appears in this form:

"De antiquitate autem, opinio quam homines di ipsâ fovent. negligens omnino est, et vix verbo ipsi congrua. Mundi enim senium et grandævitas pro antiquitate vere habenda sunt; quæ temporibus nostris tribui debent, non juniori ætati mundi, qualis apud antiquos fuit. Illa enim ætas, respectu nostri, antiqua et major; respectu mundi ipsius, nova et minor fuit."

The pointed and aphoristic form of the thought is due to Bacon; the thought itself has, however, been traced by Dr. Whewell to Giordano Bruno.

"It is worthy of remark, that a thought which is often quoted from Francis Bacon, occurs in Bruno's Cena di Cenere, published in 1584; I mean the notion, that the later times are more aged than the earlier. In the course of the dialogue, the Pedant, who is one of the interlocutors, says, 'In antiquity is wisdom;' to which the philosophical character replies, 'If you knew what you were talking about, you would see that your principle leads to the opposite result of that which you wish to infer; I mean, that we are older and have lived longer than our predecessors.' He then proceeds to apply this, by tracing the course of astronomy through the earlier astronomers up to Copernicus."—Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, vol. ii. p. 361.

The Advancement of Learning was published in 1605, twenty-one years after the Treatise of Bruno. Mr. Hallam (History of Europe, vol. iv. p. 92.) treats the thought as the original property of Bacon; and although the first trace of it is to be found in Bruno, there is no improbability in supposing that it occurred independently to Bacon about the same time.

Bacon's Advancement in Learning (Vol. ii., p. 396.).—The writer in "Notes and Queries" speaks of the English text as being original, and the Latin a version of Lord Bacon's Instauratio Magna; is he not mistaken? In reality there were two originals of that work, as we learn from Mallet's account prefixed to the folio edition of Bacon's works in 4 vols. London, 1740, p. xvii. et seq. (vol. first). The first edition was in English, London, 1605, and is to be found in the Bodleian. The Latin, published in 1623, is said by Mallet to be the work of Bacon himself, with the assistance of some friends, after he had enlarged and corrected the original; it is from this that Wats' version is made, which is very exact and faithful to its original. The title-page is engraved on copper by Marshall, with this inscription:

"INSTAVR. MAG. P. I. OF THE ADVANCEMENT AND PROFICIENCE OF LEARNING or the PARTITIONS OF SCIENCES, IX Bookes, Written in Latin by the Most Eminent, Illustrious, and Famous LORD FRANCIS BACON, Baron of Verulam, Vicont St. Alban, Counsilour of Estate, and Lord Chancellor of England, Interpreted by Gilbert Wats, OXFORD: Printed by Leon. Lichfield, Printer to the Vniversity, for Rob. Young and Ed. Forrell, ."

The passage referred to is at p. 36.:

"Indeed, to speak truly, Antiquitas seculi juventus mundi, certainly our times are the ancient times, when the world is now ancient, and not those which we count ancient, ordine retrogrado, by a computation backward from our own times."

Now this agrees exactly with Bacon's original Latin in Mallet's edition, vol. i. p. 43., except that ordine retrogrado is not in Italics; but in Bacon's English text (Mallet's edition, vol ii. p. 431.), the coincidence in all respects is complete:

"And to speak truly, Antiquitas sacculi, (sic) juventus mundi. These times are the ancient times when the world is ancient, and not those which we account ancient ordine retrogrado, by a computation backward from ourselves."

Wats' version is the more exact of the two.