aura leni, and, without noise or agitation, it flourishes and is productive; but false science is either barren, or, instead of grapes and olives, produces the thorns and thistles of disputes and altercations."

Of this false science there are two badges, the novelty and strangeness of terms and the strictness of positions.

"Surely, like as many substances in nature, which are solid, do putrify and corrupt into worms; so it is the property of good and sound knowledge, to putrify and dissolve into a number of subtle, idle, unwholesome, and, as I may term them, vermiculate questions; when, as amongst the schoolmen, men out of no great quantity of matter, but with infinite agitation of wit, spin out laborious webs of learning. For the wit and mind of man, if it work upon the matter, which is the contemplation of the creatures of God, worketh according to the stuff, and is limited thereby but if it work upon itself, as the spider worketh his web, then it is endless, and brings forth, indeed, cobwebs of learning, admirable for the fineness of texture, but of little substance or profit. So that the fable and fiction of Scylla seemeth to be a lively image of this kind of philosophy or knowledge, which was transformed into a comely virgin for the upper parts; but then, candida succinctam latrantibus inguina monstris: so the generalities of the schoolmen are for a while good and proportionable: but these when you descend into their distinctions and divisions, instead of a fruitful womb, for the use and benefit of man's life, they end in monstrous altercations, and barking questions."

The causes of the errors of philosophy are then explained, and there are various aphorisms upon the prospect of knowledge being progressive; of which he says, in the conclusion of his survey of human knowledge, in his Advancement of Learning;

Being now at some pause, looking back into that I have passed through, this writing seemeth to me, si nunquam fallit imago, as far as a man can judge of his own work, not much better than that noise or sound which musicians make while they are tuning their instruments, which is nothing pleasant to hear, but yet is a cause why the music is sweeter afterwards. So have I been content to tune the instruments of the muses, that they may play who have better hands. And, surely, when I set before me the condition of these times in which learning hath made her third visitation of circuit: the height of men's wits the excellent monuments of antient writers, which, as so many great lights, shine before us: the art of printing: the traversed bosom of the ocean and of the world: the additions to natural history the leisure wherewith the civilized world abounds, not employing men so generally in civil business, as the states of Græcia did, in respect of their popularity; and the state of Rome, in respect of the greatness of their monarchy: the present disposition of the times to peace, and the inseparable property that attends time itself, which is ever more and more to disclose truth; I cannot but be raised to this

Grecian and Roman learning; only, if men will know their own strength, and their own weakness both; and take one from the other, light of invention and not fire of contradiction; and esteem of the inquisition of truth, as of an enterprise, and not as of a quality or ornament; and employ wit and magnificence to things of worth and excellency, and not to things vulgar and of popular estimation."

Having explained what appears to us to be the proper outline of an introduction to the art of invention, with the rather scanty mode in which it has been filled up by Lord Bacon, we ought to add, that it appears to us to have been his intention to have fully investigated these various important subjects in the same manner, and for the same object, as in the Advancement of Learning, where he says:

"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 it good first to deliver learning from the discredits and disgraces which ignorance hath cast upon it, but ignorance severally disguised; appearing itself sometimes in the zeale of divines, sometimes in the arrogancy of politicians, and sometimes in the errors of learned men themselves."

There does not seem to be much difficulty in explaining why this important work was published in its present imperfect state. Bacon was born in the year 1560. His health was always delicate. In the year 1591, in a letter to Lord Burleigh, he says:

"I wax now somewhat ancient: one and thirty years is a great deal of sand in the hour-glass."

In the year 1617, when he was fifty-seven years of age, the great seals were offered to him. Unmindful of the feebleness of his constitution; unmindful of his love of contemplation; unmindful of his own words, in another letter to the same noble person:

"I ever bore a mind to serve his majesty in some middle place that I could discharge, not as a man born under Sol, that loves honour; nor under Jupiter, that loves business; for the contemplative planet carries me away wholly."

Unmindful of his own words:

"That men in great place are thrice servants: servants of the sovereign in state; servants of fame; and servants of business: so as they have no freedom neither in their persons, nor in their actions, nor in their times. Power they seek, and lose liberty: they seek power over others, and lose power over themselves."

Unmindful of his own advice:

"Accustom your mind to judge of the proportion or value of things, and do that substantially and not superficially; for, if you observe well, you shall find the logical part of some men's minds good, but the mathematical part nothing worth: that is, they can judge well of the mode of attaining the end, but ill of the value of the end itself; and hence some men fall in love with access to princes; others, with popular fame and applause, supposing they are things of great purchase, when, in many cases, they are but matters of envy, peril, and impediment."

Unmindful of his own doctrine, how much

"Worldly pursuits divert and interrupt the prosecution and advancement of knowledge, like unto the golden ball thrown before Atalanta, which, while she goeth aside and stoopeth to take up, the race is hindered.

Declinat cursus, aurumque volubile tollit."

Regardless of these important truths, so deeply impressed upon his mind, he, in an evil hour, accepted the offer. One of the consequences was, the sacrifice of his favorite work, upon which he had been engaged for thirty years, and had twelve times transcribed with his own hand. In his letter to the king, dated 16th October, 1620, and sent with the Novum Organum, he says: "The reason why I have published it now specially, being imperfect, is, to speak plainly, because I number my days and would have it saved." The same sentiment was expressed by him in the year 1607. "But time, in the interim, being on the wing, and the author too much engaged in civil affairs, especially considering the uncertainties of life, he would willingly hasten to secure some part of his design from contingencies.

Another consequence was, the injury to his reputation; a subject upon which, although we hope, at some future time, to be more explicit, we cannot refrain from subjoining a few observations. When the Chancellor first heard of the threatened attack upon him by the very Parliament, convened by his advice for the detection of abuses, he wrote to the House of Lords, requesting to be heard: and he thus wrote to the Marquis of Buckingham:

"Your lordship spoke of purgatory. I am now in it; but my mind is in a calm, for my fortune is not my felicity; I know I have clean hands, and a clean heart; and I hope a clean house for friends or servants. But Job himself, or whosoever was the justest judge, by such hunting for matters against him, as hath been used against me, may, for a time, seem foul, especially in a time when greatness is the mark, and accusation is the game. And if this be to be a chancellor,

I think, if the great seal lay upon Hounslow Heath, nobody would take it up. But the king and your lordship will, I hope, put an end to these my straits one way or other."

By what way the king and his lordship did put an end to these straits, is stated by Bushel in his old age, in the year 1659, thirty-three years after the death of the Chancellor. As the tract is very scarce, we subjoin the statement.

"But before this could be accomplished to his own content, there arose such complaints against his lordship and the then favorite at court, that for some days put the king to this query, whether he should permit the favorite of his affection, or the oracle of his council, to sink in his service; whereupon his lordship was sent for by the king, who, after some discourse, gave him this positive advice, to submit himself to his house of peers, and that (upon his princely word) he would then restore him again, if they (in their honors) should not be sensible of his merits. Now though my lord foresaw his approaching ruin, and told his majesty there was little hopes of mercy in a multitude, when his enemies were to give fire, if he did not plead for himself; yet such was his obedience to Him from whom he had his being, that he resolved his majesty's will should be his only law, and so took leave of him with these words: Those that will strike at your chancellor, it's much to be feared will strike at your crown;' and wished, that as he was then the first, so he might be the last of sacrifices. Soon after (according to his majesty's commands) he wrote a submissive letter to the house, and sent me to my Lord Windsor to know the result, which I was loath, at my return, to acquaint him. with; for, alas! his sovereign's favor was not in so high a measure, but he, like the phoenix, must be sacrificed in flames of his own raising, and so perished, like Icarus, in that his lofty design, the great revenue of his office being lost, and his titles of honor saved but by the bishop's votes; whereto he replied, that he was only bound to thank his clergy; the thunder of which fatal sentence did much perplex my troubled thoughts, as well as others, to see that famous lord, who procured his majesty to call this parliament, must be the first subject of their revengeful wrath; and that so unparalleled a master should be thus brought upon the publick stage for the foolish miscarriages of his own servants, whereof with grief of heart I confess myself to be one. Yet shortly after, the king dissolved the parliament, but never restored that matchless lord to his place, which made him then to wish the many years he had spent in state policy and law study had been solely devoted to true philosophy: for, said he, the one at best doth but comprehend man's frailty in its greatest splendour, but the other the mysterious knowledge of all things created in the six days' work."

That there was a private interview between the chancellor and the king, thus appears from the journals of the House of Lords, 17th April, 1621.

"The lord treasurer signified, that in the interim of this cessation, the lord chancellor was an humble suitor unto his majesty, that he might see his majesty, and speak with him; and although his majesty, in respect of the lord chancellor's person, and of the place he holds, might have given his lordship that favour, yet, for that his lordship is under trial of this house, his majesty would not on the sudden grant it.

That on Sunday last, the king calling all the lords of this house which were of his council before him, it pleased his majesty to shew their lordships, what was desired by the lord chancellor, demanding their lordship's advice therein.

The lords did not presume to advise his majesty; for that his majesty did suddenly propound such a course as all the world could not devise better, which was that his majesty would speak with him. privately.

That yesterday, his majesty admitting the lord chancellor to his. presence, &c.

It was thereupon ordered, That the lord treasurer should signify unto his majesty, that the lords do thankfully acknowledge this his majesty's favour, and hold themselves highly bound unto his majesty for the same."

In the morning of the 24th of April, a few days after this interview, the king was present in the House of Lords, commended the complaint of all public grievances, and protested, that he would prefer no person whomsoever before the public good; and, in the evening of the same day, the Prince of Wales signified to the lords, that the Lord Chancellor had sent a submission.--The sentence was passed. The king remitted all which it was in his power to pardon.

That the time would arrive when it would be proper to investigate the whole nature of these proceedings, Bacon foresaw. In a paper written in November, 1622, in Greek characters, and found amongst his papers, he says,

"Of my offences, far be it from me to say, Dat veniam corvis, vexat censura columbas: but I will say what I have good warrant for, they were not the greatest offenders in Israel, upon whom the wall of Shilo fell :"

And in his will, after desiring to be buried by his mother, he says,

"For my name and memory I leave it to men's charitable speeches, and to foreign nations and the next ages."

It is hoped that documents are now in existence, by which the whole of this transaction may, without impropriety, be elucidated. It seems that, from the intimacy between Archbishop Tenison and Dr. Rawley, the chancellor's chaplain and secretary, all the facts were known to the Archbishop, who published his Baconiana in the year 1679," too near to the heels of truth and to the times of the persons concerned ;" in which he says,