Nine Books on the Dignity and Advancement of Learning

to have it translated into Latin: because he had learned that Foreigners wished passionately to see it; and because he used to say: That books composed in a modern language would soon go bankrupt. And it is this Version, made by very skillful men and reviewed and corrected by himself, that he now presents. As for the first book, very little has been changed; but the other eight, which teach the divisions of the Sciences and which were previously contained under a single one, now appear and manifest themselves as a new Work. Now, the main reason that moved his Greatness to retract it and to extend it with so much content was that, in his Great Establishment original: "Grand Establissement", referring to the "Instauratio Magna", which he had printed long after, he placed the Divisions of the Sciences as the first part; the New Organon original: "Organe Nouueau" was to follow; Natural History original: "Histoire naturelle" after that, and so on consecutively. This is why, having found this part of the division of the Sciences already done, though not following the merit of the subject, he judged that it would be very good to recast it and reduce it into an entire and finished Work. And it is by this means that he intends to discharge himself of what he promised concerning the first part of the Establishment. As for this labor, it is not for me, who has no capacity, to speak of it; I believe, however, that one cannot give it praises more proper than those that Demosthenes used to publish sometimes in favor of the generous actions of the ancient Athenians: That