as not to be accounted either the effects of the times or inventions of poets, but as sacred relics or abstracted airs of better times, which by tradition from more ancient nations fell into the trumpets and flutes of the Grecians." Such is the kind of fables which Bacon deals with, with higher wisdom as an interpreter, than the ancients discovered as inventors. It so happens that the longest are the best; and we may refer the reader to the last section in the De Augmentis on Poetry, for " the learning" concerning them. The New Atlantis, which was not published until after the author's death, is the fragment of a philosophical romance, in which he intended to exhibit the model of an institution for the discovery of works, or a college and commonwealth for the interpretation of nature with a view to the arts of life. There is a Robinson Crusoe reality about it. The fiction possesses all the earnestness of a bonâ fide report from some newly-found country, where reason is the ruler, and man is becoming paramount. The author evidently availed himself of the spirit of enterprise that had been so recently excited and gratified, to direct its ardours and its energies into the strange land of probable wonders; and he who was but a prophet speaks like a missionary. This fragment was written in the maturity of his genius; and the fancy of so illustrating his own method shows the depth of his confidence in it, and the height of his expectations from it. We shall not deal so presumptuously with the reader, as to hint at the marvels so gravely described in this beginning of an account of Novus Orbis. These are the Opera Philosophica, which have won such lasting fame for their author, and exerted so powerful an influence on the world. The era of experimental investigation commences with them; and the principles, if not the manual directories, of his method, have been acted upon ever since. It does not derogate from his " titles manifold" to the respect and gratitude of his species, that he was no discoverer himself-that he explained no phenomena, and unfolded no physical law: he did neither; but he was, nevertheless, the master-spirit of those who did. He discovered the law of discovery, and was the first to interpret, after the most comprehensive survey of all existing knowledges, and the most profound inquiry into the condition of all mental achievements, the universal law of interpretation. He delivered the abstract precepts which "shut men up," as it were, to that philosophy of philosophies, of which he was the ablest and the first expounder, and of which the great discoverers are but the verifiers. We should more than exhaust the space allotted to a preface, were we to quote a tithe of the eulogies which have been lavished upon our author on account of these philosophical writings. The encomia of mere single sentences would fill a volume. But while we omit the innumerable extravaganzas, whether of home or foreign manufacture, which have been uttered in ancient or modern tongues, on this prolific theme; we may be allowed to select two poetical compliments which we have seldom seen quoted, and never in juxta-position, the one by his friend Herbert, on receiving the Great Instauration; and the other by Thomson in his celebrated apostrophe to England-each of which is highly characteristic of the period of its composition. "Quis iste tandem? non enim vultu ambulat Duæ Notionum; veritatis Pontifex; Inductionis Dominus, et Verulamii; Rerum Magister unicus, at non Artium : Naturæ Aruspex intimus: Philosophiæ Degentium olim Emancipator: luminis Now for the more modern compliment. "Thine is a Bacon, hapless in his choice, To urge his course: him for the studious shade Plato, the Stagyrite, and Tully joined. The great deliverer he, who from the gloom Of cloistered monks, and jargon-teaching schools, Held in the magic chain of words and forms And definitions void: he led her forth Daughter of heaven! that slow-ascending still, With radiant finger points to heaven again." We have now reviewed, in the most slight and cursory manner, the principal writings of FRANCIS BACON,-the MORALIST, the POLITICIAN, the LAWYER, the ORATOR, the HISTORIAN, the THEOLOGIAN, the POET, and the PHILOSOPHER. In the course of our very brief examination, he has come before us in each of these high characters; distinguished in all, pre-eminent, if not peerless, in the last. All were combined to an unparalleled extent in this single individual; but all were subordinate to the Philosophical character, into which the rest may be resolved. Each of them must, of course, be taken into account in any estimate of such a genius; and after contemplating separately so great a variety and diversity of parts, our admiration is turned into absolute wonder, when we see them forming one. harmonious whole. The imperial genius of philosophy is over all; and each in its turn, kindling under the lustre that radiates from this common centre, receives but to reflect back its splendours. Bacon must doubtless be considered as one of the most extraordinary men which the world has seen. There is scarcely a department of knowledge which he has not visited and improved. There is scarcely a book of solid merit published, in which his name does not occur, and in which his authority is not referred to. Whatever may be the subject, and wherever the literary or scientific labourer may be employed, there comes a light from this author, of illustration and guidance: and yet he was a man of practical pursuits, wending his way through this every-day world, as busy as the busiest with all its cares, and as anxious as the most anxious to discharge the functions of its journeyman. His engagements appear to have been those which demanded an almost undivided attention; and yet while engaged in the most practical of pursuits, he was distinguished beyond all comparison in those which are strictly theoretical. Belonging to a profession the most noble and arduous-in which, from the multiplicity of the subjects which it embraces, and the responsibility of dealing with the emergent cases of daily occurrence, there is necessitated a vision at once contracted and intense; and engaging largely in the politics of the day, which require of their votary as absolute a devotion,-in both of which he had to compete with the first men of his time—with the vast knowledge and subtlety of Coke, with those wily panderers to prerogative and popularity the Cecils, with the crafty and sullen Somerset, with the rapacious and unconscienced Buckingham,-for subordinates; and with the mistress of modern Europe and her wayward successor,-for principals, and in those assemblies of his fellow-citizens in both Houses of Parliament, which have tried and tasked the highest powers, without a rival in oratorical and senatorial abilities, --he yet commanded the leisure that is requisite for pursuits of the highest and most beneficial nature, in which he has earned his immortal repute-succeeding beyond all contemporary success in the former avocations, and working out for himself an endless reputation in the latter. The intellect of Bacon was such as to make way through all obstacles to its destiny. It made for itself a solitude in the midst of society, and created for itself a retirement in the very midst of the most bustling, pressing, and exciting crowd of engagements. His delights, in common with those of all the true benefactors of the species, have been realized in the midst of them; and he sighs not for the sounding seashore, or the up-country waterfall, which almost drive man into himself; or the sequestered valley, or the solemn woods, whose stillness leads to reflection, and is therefore, with the most of those that fly to them, a mere place of resort for physical activity; but the habitable portions of the earth, and the children of men, are ever the spheres and the objects of all these delights-thinking in the midst of distraction, accumulating in the midst of privations, and gathering every where the materials of profit and action. This is that mental absorption, which takes in all, and makes uses of all; to which every thing is aliment, by virtue of a vigour that tires not, a charity that fails not, a humility for which nothing is too low, and a comprehension for which, humanly speaking, nothing is too high or too minute. It would comparatively be an easy task, to discriminate between the various powers of this wonderful intellect,―to ascribe to him a reason of the most comprehensive grasp, exercising itself upon multifarious subjects, or an imagination keeping pace with that reason, and as wonderful in all its creations as the reason was wonderful in the premises upon which it dealt; but we must leave these things to the reader, to whom we have been catering throughout our prologue. Bacon was enabled to feel that he lived in a grand juncture of affairs, requiring the union of high genius and wisdom answerably to deal with, and he foresaw it, felt it, and turned it to the best account. He devoted himself to the exigencies not only of his time, but of his race. He was, as we have seen, busy with the one; but the fact of his opinions being valuable now-a-days, shows that he was devoted to the other; and that it was not merely for the times in which he lived that he was living, but for succeeding times as well. He was literally, that man, with whom all men should be acquainted; both by way of encouragement and instruction-by way of failure and example. To act for the moment, and yet act for posterity; to act for a party, and yet act for a people; to be the glory of a faction and also of a nation; to act for a kingdom as a minister, and yet for the human race as their servitor; to be bold before the intellect of all past times, and weak before minions; to serve princes, to discuss with judges, to attend assemblies, and to control legislative gatherings,—and yet to electrify and revivify science; to be Hercules abroad, and to fall before the most trumpery vanity in his own breast;-was FRANCIS BACON. PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS. THE TWO BOOKS OF FRANCIS BACON, OF THE PROFICIENCE AND ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, DIVINE AND HUMAN. THE FIRST BOOK. TO THE KING. THERE were, under the law, excellent king, both of the body are sequestered) again revived and redaily sacrifices, and freewill offerings; the one pro-stored: such a light of nature I have observed in ceeding upon ordinary observance, the other upon a your majesty, and such a readiness to take flame devout cheerfulness: in like manner there belongeth and blaze from the least occasion presented, or the to kings from their servants, both tribute of duty, least spark of another's knowledge delivered. And and presents of affection. In the former of these, I as the Scripture saith of the wisest king, "That his hope I shall not live to be wanting, according to my heart was as the sands of the sea;" which though most humble duty, and the good pleasure of your it be one of the largest bodies, yet it consisteth of majesty's employments: for the latter, I thought it the smallest and finest portions; so hath God given more respective to make choice of some oblation, your majesty a composition of understanding adwhich might rather refer to the propriety and excel- mirable, being able to compass and comprehend the lency of your individual person, than to the business greatest matters, and nevertheless to touch and apof your crown and state. prehend the least; whereas it should seem an impossibility in nature, for the same instrument to make itself fit for great and small-works. your gift of speech, I call to mind what Cornelius Tacitus saith of Augustus Cæsar: "Augusto profluens, et quæ principem deceret, eloquentia fuit.” For, if we note it well, speech that is uttered with labour and difficulty, or speech that savoureth. the affectation of art and precepts, or speech that is framed after the imitation of some pattern of elo And for Wherefore, representing your majesty many times unto my mind, and beholding you not with the inquisitive eye of presumption, to discover that which the Scripture telleth me is inscrutable, but with the observant eye of duty and admiration; leaving aside the other parts of your virtue and fortune, I have been touched, yea, and possessed with an extreme wonder at those your virtues and faculties, which the philosophers call intellectual; the largeness of your capacity, the faithfulness of your memory, the swift-quence, though never so excellent; all this has someness of your apprehension, the penetration of your judgment, and the facility and order of your elocution and I have often thought, that of all the persons living, that I have known, your majesty were the best instance to make a man of Plato's opinion, that all knowledge is but remembrance, and that the mind of man by nature knoweth all things, and hath but her own native and original notions (which by the strangeness and darkness of this tabernacle what servile, and holding of the subject. But your majesty's manner of speech is indeed prince-like, flowing as from a fountain, and yet streaming and branching itself into nature's order, full of facility and felicity, imitating none, and inimitable by any. And as in your civil estate there appeareth to be an emulation and contention of your majesty's virtue with your fortune; a virtuous disposition with a fortunate regiment; a virtuous expectation, when time was, of your greater fortune, with a prosperous possession thereof in the due time; a virtuous observ-| ation of the laws of marriage, with most blessed and happy fruit of marriage; a virtuous and most christian desire of peace, with a fortunate inclination in your neighbour princes thereunto: so likewise in these intellectual matters, there seemeth to be no less contention between the excellency of your majesty's gifts of nature, and the universality and perfection of your learning. For I am well assured, that this which I shall say is no amplification at all, but a positive and measured truth; which is, that there hath not been since Christ's time any king, or temporal monarch, which hath been so learned in all literature and erudition, divine and human. For let a man seriously and diligently revolve and peruse the succession of the emperors of Rome; of which Cæsar the dictator, who lived some years before Christ, and Marcus Antoninus, were the best learned: and so descend to the emperors of Græcia, or of the West; and then to the lines of France, Spain, England, Scotland, and the rest, and he shall find this judgment is truly made. For it seemeth much in a king, if, by the compendious extractions of other men's wits and labours, he can take hold of any superficial ornaments and shows of learning, or if he countenance and prefer learning and learned men ; but to drink indeed of the true fountains of learning, nay, to have such a fountain of learning in himself, in a king, and in a king born, is almost a miracle. And the more, because there is met in your majesty 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; the power and fortune of a king, the knowledge and illumination of a priest, and the learning and universality of a philosopher. This propriety, inherent and individual attribute in your majesty, deserveth to be expressed, not only in the fame and admiration of the present time, nor in the history or tradition of the ages succeeding; but also in some solid work, fixed memorial, and immortal monument, bearing a character or signature, both of the power of a king, and the difference and perfection of such a king. Therefore I did conclude with myself, that I could not make unto your majesty a better oblation, than of some treatise tending to that end, whereof the sum will consist of these two parts; the former concerning the excellency of learning and knowledge, and the excellency of the merit and true glory in the augmentation and propagation thereof; the latter, what the particular acts and works are, which have been embraced and undertaken for the advancement of learning; and again, what defects and undervalues I find in such particular acts: to the end, that though I cannot positively or affirmatively advise your majesty, or propound unto you framed particulars; yet I may excite your princely cogitations to visit the excellent treasure of your own mind, and thence to extract particulars for this purpose, agreeable to your magnanimity and wisdom. In the entrance to the former of these, to clear the way, and, as it were, to make silence, to have the true testimonies concerning the dignity of learning to be better heard, without the interruption of tacit objections; I think good to deliver it from the discredits and disgraces which it hath received, all from ignorance, but ignorance severally disguised; appearing sometimes in the zeal and jealousy of divines, sometimes in the severity and arrogancy of politicians, and sometimes in the errors and imperfections of learned men themselves. sure, I hear the former sort say, that knowledge is of those things which are to be accepted of with great limitation and caution; that the aspiring to overmuch knowledge, was the original temptation and sin, whereupon ensued the fall of man; that knowledge hath in it somewhat of the serpent, and therefore where it entereth into a man it makes him swell; Scientia inflat: that Solomon gives a cen"That there is no end of making books, and that much reading is a weariness of the flesh;" and again in another place, "That in spacious knowledge there is much contristation, and that he that increaseth knowledge increaseth anxiety;" that St. Paul gives a caveat, "That we be not spoiled through vain philosophy;" that experience demonstrates how learned men have been arch-heretics, how learned times have been inclined to atheism, and how the contemplation of second causes doth derogate from our dependence upon God, who is the first cause. To discover then the ignorance and error of this opinion, and the misunderstanding in the grounds thereof, it may well appear these men do not observe or consider, that it was not the pure knowledge of nature and universality, a knowledge by the light whereof man did give names unto other creatures in paradise, as they were brought before him, according unto their proprieties, which gave the occasion to the fall; but it was the proud knowledge of good and evil, with an intent in man to give law unto himself, and to depend no more upon God's commandments, which was the form of the temptation. Neither is it any quantity of knowledge, how great soever, that can make the mind of man to swell; for nothing can fill, much less extend the soul of man, but God, and the contemplation of God; and therefore Solomon, speaking of the two principal senses of inquisition, the eye and the car, affirmeth that the eye is never satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing; and if there be no fulness, then is the continent greater than the content; so of knowledge itself, and the mind of man, whereto the senses are but reporters, he defineth likewise in these words, placed after that calendar or ephemerides, which he maketh of the diversities of times and seasons for all actions and purposes; and concludeth thus: "God hath made all things beautiful, or decent, in the true return of their seasons: Also he hath placed the world in man's heart, yet cannot man find out the work which God worketh from the beginning to the end:" declaring, not obscurely, that God hath framed the mind of man as a mirror, or glass, capable of the image of the uni |