TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. My chief object in translating Dr. Fischer's excellent work on Bacon and the realistic philosophy, was to lay before English readers a brief but complete digest of two books, which, allimportant as they are in the history of science, are most assuredly commended much oftener than they are read. Whatever veneration Whatever veneration may be paid in England to the treatise "De Augmentis Scientiarum" and to the "Novum Organum," few indeed are the students who would elaborate for themselves so perfect a summary of the doctrines contained in those celebrated productions as is presented by Dr. Fischer within the space of a few brief chapters. Whether his estimate of the English philosopher merits approval or not, the value of the descriptive part of his book |