Having come by 1590 to the conviction that problems of knowledge were a proper part of a statesman's concerns, Bacon soon made substantial elaborations upon this general principle. In 1592 and 1595, he argued not just for the consideration by statesmen of knowledge per se but specifically that a ‘properly’ reformed and organised natural philosophy could transform the commonweal of England.

It would be pleasant indeed to know precisely when it was that Bacon first came to the particular convictions he expressed at this time, but such specific information is beyond our recovery. Nonetheless, we can recover considerable information about Bacon's activities in the early 1590s, and it is sufficient to answer a related and pressing question. Why was it that Bacon chose to make these declarations about natural philosophy when he did? In other words, what local concerns prompted him to write? Since amid the documents of these years are Bacon's earliest surviving statements about natural philosophy, we need to address these queries if we are to understand what Bacon was saying.