Histories must also be written of Pure Mathematics; though they are rather observations than experiments

The fragment containing this catalogue (Parasceve—Day of Preparation) was added to Bacon's work on method, The New Logic (Novum Organum), 1620. Besides completing his survey and classification of the sciences (De Augmentis Scientiarum), 1623, he published a few separate writings on topics in the catalogue—Winds, Life and Death, Tides, etc. In 1627, a year after his death, appeared his much misunderstood work, Sylva Sylvarum. He had found that the Latin word sylva meant stuff or raw material, as well as a wood, and called this final work Sylva Sylvarum, which I would translate, "Jungle of Raw Material." He himself referred to it as "an undigested heap of particulars"; yet he was willing it should be published because "he preferred the good of men to anything that might have relation to himself." In it, following his catalogue, he fulfilled the promise made in 1620, of putting nature and the arts to question. Some of the problems suggested for investigation are: congealing of air, turning air into water, the secret nature of flame, motion of gravity, production of cold, nourishing of young creatures in the egg or womb, prolongation of life, the media of sound, infectious diseases, accelerating and preventing putrefaction, accelerating and staying growth, producing fruit without core or seed, production of composts and helps for ground, flying in the air.

In the New Atlantis, a work of imagination, Bacon had represented as already achieved for mankind some of the benefits he wished for: artificial metals, various cements, excellent dyes, animals for vivisection and medical experiment, instruments which generate heat solely by motion, artificial precious stones, conveyance of sound for great distances and in tortuous lines, new explosives. "We imitate," says the guide in the Utopian land, "also flights of birds; we have some degree of flying in the air; we have ships and boats for going under water." Bacon believed in honoring the great discoverers and inventors, and advocated maintaining a calendar of inventions.

He was a fertile and stimulating thinker, and much of his great influence arose from the comprehensiveness that led to his celebrated classification of the sciences.