HKB
| | In thinking of Bacon's philosophy of science | remember the three features in the Latin of | Novum Organum: Schematismus, | Processus, Form. These operations, which | have counterparts in the "case method" of | searching for the implicit unwritten law | behind a series of judge rulings, cannot be | understood from a reading of the Ellis | translation. Nobody who works from that | version can understand, nor do justice to, | Bacon's science. with the Annotations of | Hermes Stella{2} | 2. Franz Trägfer sums up the Harley MSS.6463 | discussion on "Hermes Stella" | and "Valerius Terminus" "Der Titel des | Fragments wurde zweimal entscheidend | interpretiert. Ellis (Vorwort, | 201/2): | | "It is impossible to ascertain | the motive which determined | Bacon to give 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 QAEM in | which when it was once attained | the mind would finally | acquiesce. | | Again the obscurity of the text | was to be in some measure | removed by the annotations of | Stella; not however wholly, for | Bacon in the epitome of the | eighteenth chapter commends the | manner of publishing knowledge | 'whereby it shall not be to the | capacity nor taste of all, but | shall as it were single and | adopt his reader.' Stella was | therefore to throw a kind of | starlight on the subject, | enough to prevent the student's | losing his way, but not much | more." | | Die andere klassische | Interpretation gibt Anderson | (op.cit.16/17): | | "The word 'terminus' probably | indicates the 'limits and end' | to which investigation may | proceed. The ANNOTATIONS, of | which 'none are set down in | this fragments'--to quote a | statement written on the | manuscript by Bacon's hand, are | to throw a light as by a star | (STELLA). Now 'star' is the | symbol used by Bacon in the | GESTA GRAYORUM, the ADVANCEMENT | OF LEARNING, and the DE | AUGMENTIS to represent the | sovereign. And the significance | which he attaches to the word | 'Hermes' is evident from his | address to King James in the | Introduction to the ADVANCEMENT | OF LEARNING. 'There is met in | your Majesty, says Bacon, 'a | rare conjunction as well of | divine and sacred literature as | of profane and human; so as | your Majesty standeth invested | of that triplicity which in | great veneration was ascribed | to the ancient Hermes;