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ferment throughout the nation. The open manner in which the public purse was pillaged became the subject of common complaint; yet such was the absolute authority of the favourite, that none ventured to remonstrate with him upon this unprincipled application of the public money. Bacon wanted firmness of character, in his high office, to oppose a barrier to these scandalous proceedings. He affixed the Great Seal, however unwillingly, to every grant which Buckingham ordered to be sent to him, for the gratification of his profligate adherents. The Chancellor himself, absorbed by business and study, so entirely neglected his own affairs, that the expenses of his household exceeded the profits of his public station; under these circumstances he not only connived at the peculations committed by his dependents, but consented to receive bribes in the exercise of his judicial functions.

At length, the Parliament, which had been summoned to grant further supplies to the King, absolutely refused them until the abuses were inquired into. Buckingham and the Chancellor were openly charged with these offences; and James perceiving that in order to appease these clamours he must sacrifice one of the two, resolved, at all hazards, to shelter the Duke. He met his Parliament with an open acknowledgment of the gross misconduct of the Lord Chancellor; who, being called upon for his defence, at once acknowledged the crimes laid to his charge, only "entreating that his penitent submission might be his sentence, and the loss of the seals his punishment. By a vote of the Peers, on the 1st of May, 1621, Bacon was committed to the Tower, sentenced to a fine of 40,000l., deprived of all his honours, and rendered incapable of sitting in Parliament, or of holding any office during the remainder of his life. After a short period he obtained his release from the Tower; and, three years after, the King granted him a free pardon of the remainder of his sentence; but he never afterwards held any employment although he was summoned to the first Parlia

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ment of King Charles I., which he was then too infirm to attend.

Though bowed down by so terrible a change of fortune-fallen from the high dignity he had so painfully attained and plunged into a state of poverty from the most sumptuous mode of life--it was a remarkable proof of the strength of his mind, that he could at once resume his philosophical pursuits, and give all his powers to the completion of those works which engaged his thoughts during the whole period of his administration. From the time of his disgrace to that of his death, a space of not more than five years, though greatly broken in health, he accomplished what, with any other man, might well have engaged the whole of a long life. In 1622 he published the life of King Henry VII., written by desire of James I.; and he continued to add much to his great work, already alluded to; which, under the title of the Instauration of the Sciences," was designed to form a complete system of philosophy. Although he lived not to complete his own vast plan, it is truly amazing to behold what he accomplished.

The Instauration of the Sciences is divided into the following parts;

1. On the advancement of learning; in which treatise he classed all the learning then known in due order. 2. Novum Organum; by which he taught the new method of investigation by facts and experiments.

3. A collection of facts and observations on all subjects; being the result of his own laborious inquiries, to form the materials for others to investigate, compare, and carry forward.

4. Scala Intellectus, exemplified by dissertations on various subjects, showing the method by which he proposed men should conduct their inquiries, assisting the understanding by a series of steps to knowledge.

5 A system of philosophy, to be established on the basis of these previous inquiries. This he left to posterity to complete, when, after following out the principles he had laid down, they should possess a the materials requisite for its formation.

Our readers will judge of the stupendous powers of his mind, from a view of this noble plan for the improvement of learning, to which he so largely contributed by his writings on various other subjects.

Although he still enjoyed a pension of 18001. per annum from the King, it was ill paid, and as he had saved nothing from his former princely income, but, on the contrary, was laden with a heavy debt, he became much embarrassed towards the close of his life. He survived his royal master little more than one year, and died at length of a distemper caught by close application to some philosophical experiments, after a week's illness, at the house of the Earl of Arundel, at Highgate, on the 9th of April, 1626, in the 66th year of his age. He was buried in the church of St. Michael, at St. Alban's, where his faithful servant, Sir Thomas Meautys, erected a handsome monument over his remains.

Thus died this extraordinary man, whose fate is as singular as his genius was sublime. That such wisdom and learning should be coupled with such dishonesty and meanness is amazing; but the memory of his defects, is lost in the splendour of his philosophical renown. Humbled in his own opinion, as well as that of his contemporaries, he looked forward, with a prophetic confidence, to the distinguished fame which his labours would ultimately secure to him. His last will has this remarkable sentence:My name and memory I leave to foreign nations, and to mine own countrymen, after some time hath passed over."

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To estimate the astonishing grasp of Bacon's mind, we must consider the period in which he lived. He stood alone in this country, and combated singlehanded a formidable host of long-established errors. Guided by the very imperfect light which science then afforded him, it is amazing to behold the boldness with which he advanced, the extent of his progress, and the anticipations he gave of many of the most important of our modern discoveries.

We have a melancholy pleasure in quoting from the last work of our deceased friend, Professor Play

fair (himself perhaps the most accomplished philosopher of our own time), the high eulogium with which he concludes his masterly examination of the Novum Organum.

"The power and compass of a mind which could form such a plan beforehand, and trace, not merely the outline, but many of the most minute branches of sciences which did not yet exist, must be an object of admiration to all succeeding ages. As he had no rival in the times which are past, so he is likely to have none in those which are to come. Before any parallel to him can be found, not only must a man of the same talents be produced, but he must be placed under the same circumstances. If a second Bacon is ever to arise, he must be ignorant of the first."

To this high testimony we will only add that of the celebrated French philosopher, d'Alembert, who says of Bacon," When one considers the sound and enlarged views of that great man, the multitude of the objects to which his mind was turned, and the boldness of his style, which unites the most sublime images with the most rigorous precision, one is disposed to regard him as the greatest, the most universal, and the most eloquent of philosophers."

L.

SIR ISAAC NEWTON.

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THE names of the great philosophers of this nation are familiar to most of our readers. Few have not heard of Newton, and Boyle, and Locke, and Bacon. Yet if a "Plain Englishman were to turn upon us unexpectedly with the question, What am I the better for these learned men?" There might be some little embarrasment in making an immediate reply.

Sir Isaac Newton's astonishing powers of mind were chiefly directed to investigations, which, at first sight, may not appear to an unlearned man to affect his welfare. Some people, for this reason, are dis

posed to look with great indifference upon speculations in which they seem to have no concern; more especially when, on examining their profound pages, they find them far above their comprehension. Yet, when it is explained that all the comforts and accomodations we possess arose from the laborious investigation of first principles, in every branch of human knowledge, although many may feel incapable of following these illustrious men through their deep researches, they will be disposed to regard them with cordial gratitude and reverence, as the founders of that various knowledge which has so largely benefited mankind. Considerable advances in education are necessary to comprehend the connexion of philosophy with the common affairs of life, but its value must not be slighted for want of such intelligence.

How incomprehensible to him who knows nothing beyond the first rules of arithmetic are the higher branches of geometry, which are so largely indebted to the theory of fluxions invented by Sir Isaac Newton! It would not perhaps be difficult to explain to a very simple man the uses of the reflecting telescope, but how impracticable to show him the connexion of this invention with Sir Isaac Newton's inquiries into the refrangibility of light, conducted by a series of experiments which beautifully illustrated the theory of colours. How surprising to him who lifts his untutored eye to survey the heavenly bodies rolling above his head, the first tidings of a science by which the size, the weight, the distance, the velocity of each planet, may be measured with the nicest accuracy. The daring genius of Newton, soaring above the earth, from thence plunged into the unfathomable depths of creation, and revolving in silence the various movements of the planetary world, discovered the great law of gravitation, by which every part of the universe is preserved in the exactest order; and brought down to the understanding of ordinary men, the knowledge which none before him had ever attained.

These are among the most celebrated of Sir Isaac Newton's discoveries, and are mentioned for the pur

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