ophy. This part was meant to give results of reasoning on carefully observed phenomena, without the full use of the New Method; somewhat corresponding to the liberty given in the 'Organum,' under the phrase, "permissio intellectus." The preface to this sufficiently indicates the design. Towards the close we read: "It is clear to us that if any one of average mature powers will resolutely set aside delusions and begin to inquire anew for himself, he will penetrate far deeper into nature by the mere force of his mind and its guesses than by all sorts of reading, or musing, or disputing, even though he does not apply the complete apparatus nor follow the strict rules of interpretation." This part of his system -under which the speculations 'De Fluxu et Refluxu Maris,' the Cogitationes de Rerum Natura,' and the 'Thema Coli,' if not the 'De Principiis,' is, Bacon says, to be regarded as interest given in lieu of the principal, which is

VI. The PHILOSOPHIA SECUNDA SIVE SCIENTIA ACTIVA itself; to which nothing in his writing corresponds, unless we assign to it the half-imaginary, half-prophetic world of the 'De Atlantis.' "To perfect this last part," he himself confesses, "is above our powers and beyond our hopes. We may, as we trust, make no despicable beginnings-the destinies of the human race must complete it; in such a manner, perhaps, as men, looking only at the present, would not readily conceive. For upon this will depend not only a speculative good, but all the fortunes of mankind and all their power."

CHAPTER II.

ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING,' 'DE AUGMENTIS,' ESSAYS.'

THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING' was, with the exception of the first edition of his 'Essays' (1597), Bacon's earliest publication. That he regarded it as a provisional sketch appears in various references-e.g., in his letter to Dr Playfer, Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, requesting him to translate the work into Latin, in which occurs the familiar phrase: "Since I have only taken upon me to ring a bell to call other wits together, it cannot but be consonant to my desire to have that bell heard as far as can be." It is clear that Bacon, already planning his work on a larger scale, published his two popular books to enlist the sympathy of general readers, and especially of the king, in his undertaking. At a later date, as appears from the dedication of his 'Dialogue on a Holy War,' pressed by the urgency of devoting himself to the 'Natural History,' he determined, after the composition in retirement of his 'Henry VII.,' to be satisfied with having rendered into Latin, under his immediate superintendence, what he had already written, as "some preparative or key for the better opening of the 'Instaur

ation,' because it exhibits a mixture of new conceits and old, whereas the 'Instauration' itself gives the new unmixed." "The translation," he continues, "is to have ample1 additions, especially in handling the partition of the Sciences, and so to quit his promise in that part."

The First Book of the Advancement of Learning,' to all intents identical with the first of the 'De Augmentis,' is, next to the Essays,' justly the most familiar of the author's works. There could be no more adequate prelude to the Great Instauration' than this exaltation of the Dignity of Knowledge, in language only rivalled by the advocacy of Freedom of Speech in the 'Areopagitica.' Nowhere does Bacon, in the fore-front of his age, more suggest the thought that, while the morning broke on all statues alike, Memnon alone made music in reply. Nowhere does he assert himself as an orator of science more persuasive, if not greater, than either Leonardo or Galileo: nowhere has he given more conclusive answers to the imputation of narrow if not sordid utilitarianism, preferred against his name. by those who have taken it to their market, without more than a glance at his work. In face of Macaulay's implication that the Baconian Logic can lead us no further than to shun "mince-pies" in view of Hegel's sneer that we may expect from the nation that speaks of Bacon's "philosophy" to hear of "a philos

:

1 Besides expansion to more than twice the length, the 'De Augmentis' differs from the 'Advancement' in the following particulars: History and Natural Philosophy are differently divided; the treatment of science is amplified, that of English history curtailed; all allusions likely to offend Roman Catholics are omitted. Bacon, intending his work for circulation in Italy, says, "I have been mine own Index Expurgatorius."

The True End of Knowledge.

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ophy of cookery," it is worth while, even in our limits, to quote two exculpatory passages; because, no mere flourishes of rhetoric, they are indicative of the author's more or less consistent design and uniform mode of thought. He is speaking in 'The Advancement,' in terms repeated in the 'De Augmentis,' of the errors and misunderstandings that have retarded the progress of really productive thought :

"But the greatest of all the rest is the mistaking or misplacing of the last or furthest end of knowledge. For men have entered into a desire of learning, sometimes upon a natural curiosity and inquisitive appetite, sometimes for ornament and reputation, and sometimes to enable them to victory of wit and contradiction; and most times for lucre and profession; and seldom sincerely to give a true account of their gift of reason to the benefit and use of men,—as if there were sought in knowledge a couch whereupon to rest a searching and restless spirit; or a terrace for a wandering and variable mind to walk up and down with a fair prospect; or a tower of state for a proud mind to raise itself upon; or a fort and commanding ground for strife and contention; or a shop for profit or sale, and not a rich storehouse for the glory of the Creator, and the relief of man's estate."

"I do not take upon me to obtain by any perorations or pleadings of this case touching learning, to reverse the judgment either of Esop's cock that preferred the barleycorn before the gem; or of Midas, that being chosen judge between Apollo, president of the Muses, and Pan, president of sheep, judged for plenty; or of Paris, that judged for pleasure and love against wisdom and power: for these things must continue as they have been, but so will that also continue whereupon learning hath ever relied as on a firm foundation that cannot be shaken—justificata est sapientia a filiis suis.”

Elsewhere, in the same spirit, Bacon declares, “It is a corrupt judgment to think that there are no true differences of things but according to utility." On the other hand, he thus ('Advancement of Learning,' II. xxv., 'De Augmentis,' B. VII.) clenches his divergence from the ancient and medieval schools :

"Pompeius Magnus, being on a commission of purveyance for a famine at Rome, and being dissuaded by his friends not to hazard himself to sea in so rough weather, said only to them, 'necesse est ut eam, non ut vivam.' This decideth the question regarding the preferment of the Contemplative and Active life, and decideth it against Aristotle. For all the reasons which he bringeth for the contemplative are private, and respecting the pleasure and dignity of a man's self: not much unlike to that comparison which Pythagoras made for the gracing and magnifying of philosophy; who, being asked what he was, answered 'that if Hiero were ever at the Olympian games, he knew that some came to try their fortune for the prizes, and some came as merchants to utter their commodities, and some came to look on, and that he was one of them that came to look on.' But men must know that in this theatre of man's life it is reserved only for God and the angels to be lookers-on."

This is Bacon's "Philanthropia," which he supports by reference to the Scriptures, and applies to the whole range of physical as well as mental science, holding, that men are the investigators, that they may become the mimics of nature. His philosophy was half practical, half speculative. On the one side we have his schemes for making gold, his healing-draughts and preservatives, represented in later times by Davy lamps and vaccinations; on the other, his almost abstract