subjects have occupied the attention of the master minds and most elegant writers of England, we shall unhesitatingly present the reader with the opinions of these, the most competent judges in each special department.

But first let the philosopher speak for himself.

The end and aim of the writings of Bacon are best described by himself, as these descriptions may be gleaned from his various works. He taught, to use his own language, the means, not of the "amplification of the power of one man over his country, nor of the amplification of the power of that country over other nations; but the amplification of the power and kingdom of mankind over the world1.” “A resti tution of man to the sovereignty of nature2. "The enlarging the bounds of human empire to the effecting of all things possible." From the enlargement of reason, he did not separate the growth of virtue; for he thought that "truth and goodness were one, differing but as the seal and the print; for truth prints goodness1.

The art which Bacon taught has been well said to be "the art of inventing arts."

The great qualities of his mind, as they are exhibited in his works, have been well portrayed by the pen of Sir James Mackintosh. We subjoin the opinion of this elegant writer in his own words.

"It is easy to describe his transcendant merit in general terms of commendation for some of his great qualities lie on the surface of his writings. But that in which he most excelled all other men, was in the range and compass of his intellectual view-the power of contemplating many and distant objects together, without indistinctness or confusion-which he himself has called the discursive or comprehensive understanding. This wide-ranging intellect was illuminated by the brightest Fancy that ever contented itself with the office of only ministering to Reason: and from this singular relation of the two grand faculties of man, it has resulted, that his philosophy, though illustrated still more than adorned by the utmost splendour of imagery, continues still subject to the undivided supremacy of intellect. In the midst of all the prodigality of an imagination which,

had it been independent, would have been poetical, his opinions remained severely rational.

"It is not so easy to conceive, or at least to describe, other equally essential elements of his greatness, and conditions of his success. He is probably a single instance of a mind which, in philosophizing, always reaches the point of elevation whence the whole prospect is commanded, without ever rising to such a distance as to lose a distinct perception of every part of it'."

Mr. Macaulay speaks of the following peculiarity of Bacon's understanding2.

"With great minuteness of observation he had an amplitude of comprehension such as has never yet been vouchsafed to any other human being. The small fine mind of La Bruyère had not a more delicate tact than the large intellect of Bacon. The " Essays " contain abundant proofs that no nice feature of character, no peculiarity in the ordering of a house, a garden, or a court-masque, could escape the notice of one whose mind was capable of taking in the whole world of knowledge. His understanding resembled the tent which the fairy Paribanou gave to prince Ahmed. Fold it, and it seemed a toy for the hand of a lady. Spread it, and the armies of powerful sultans might repose beneath its shade.

"In keenness of observation he has been equalled, though, perhaps, never surpassed. But the largeness of his mind was all his own. The glance with which he surveyed the intellectual universe resembled that which the archangel, from the golden threshold of heaven, darted down into the new creation.

"Round he surveyed and well might, where he stood
So high above the circling canopy

Of night's extended shade from eastern point
Of Libra, to the fleecy star which bears
Andromeda far off Atlantic seas

Beyond the horizon."

Bacon's philosophy is, to use an expression of his own "the servant and interpreter of nature"; he cultivated it in the leisure left him by the assiduous study and practice of the law and by the willing duties of a courtier; it was rather the recreation than the business of his life; "my business," said he, "found rest in my contemplations;" but his very recreations rendered him, according to Leibnitz, the father of experimental philoso

phy and according to all, the originator of all its results, of all later discoveries in chemistry and the arts, in short, of all modern science and its applications.

Mr. Macaulay is of opinion that the two leading principles of his philosophy are utility and progress, that the ethics of his inductive method are to do good, to do more and more good to mankind.

Lord Campbell believes that a most perfect body of ethics might be made out from the writings of Bacon.

The origin of his philosophy was the conviction with which he was impressed of the insufficiency of that of the ancients, or rather of that of Aristotle, which reigned with almost undisputed sway throughout Europe. He reverenced antiquity for its great works, its great men; but not because of its ancientness; he deemed its decrees worthy of reverential consideration, but did not think they admitted of no appeal; he was not a bigot to antiquity or a contemner of modern times. He happily combated that undue and blind submission to the authority of ancient times for the mere reason that they are older than our own, alleging truly that ANTIQUITAS SECULI JUVENTUS MUNDI, that our times are the ancient times, when the world is ancient, and not those which we account ancient ordine retrogrado, by a computation backward from ourselves '.

Throwing off then all allegiance to antiquity, he appealed directly from Aristotle to nature, from reasoning to experiment. But let us invoke the testimony of an eminent philosopher, Sir John Herschel :

"By the discoveries of Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo, the errors of the Aristotelian philosophy were effectually overturned on a plain appeal to the facts of nature; but it remained to show on broad and general principles, how and why Aristotle was in the wrong; to set in evidence the peculiar weakness of his method of philosophizing, and to substitute in its place a strong er and better. This important task was executed by Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, who will therefore justly be looked upon in all future agees as the great reformer of philosophy, though his own actual contrilutions to the stock of physical truths were small, and his ideas of par ticular points strongly tinctured

' Advancement of Learning.

with mistakes and errors, which were the fault rather of the general want of physical information of the age than of any narrowness of view on his own part; of this he was fully aware. It has been attempted by some to lessen the merit of this great achievement, by showing that the inductive method had been practiced in many instances, both ancient and modern, by the mere instinct of mankind; but it is not the introduction of inductive reasoning, as a new and hitherto untried process, which characterizes the Baconian philosophy, but his keen perception, and his broad and spirit-stirring, almost enthusiastic, announcement of its paramount importance, as the alpha and omega of science, as the grand and only chain for the linking together of physical truths, and the eventual key to every discovery and every application. Those who would deny him his just glory on such grounds would refuse to Jenner or to Howard their civic crowns, because a few farmers in a remote province had, time out of mind, been acquainted with vaccination, or philanthropists, in all ages, had occasionally visited the prisoner in his dungeon."

"It is to our immortal countryman Bacon," says he again, "that we owe the broad announcement of this grand and fertile principle; and the development of the idea, that the whole of natural philosophy consists entirely of a series of inductive generalizations, commencing with the most circumstantially stated particulars, and carried up to universal laws, or axioms which comprehend in their statements every subordinate degree of generality and of a corresponding series of inverted reasoning from generals to particulars, by which these axioms are traced back into their remotest consequences, and all particular propositions deduced from them; as well those by whose immediate consideration we rose to their discovery, as those of which we had no previous knowledge.....

"It would seem that a union of two qualities almost opposite to each other-a going forth of the thoughts in two directions and a sudden transfer of ideas from a remote station in one to an equally distant one in the other—is required to start the first idea of applying science. Among the Greeks, this point was attained by Archimedes, but attained too late, on the eve of that great eclipse of science which was destined to continue for nearly eighteen centuries, till Galileo in Italy, and Bacon in England, at once dispelled the darkness; the one, by his inventions and discoveries; the other, by the irresistible force of his arguments and eloquence'."

His style is copious, comprehensive and smooth; it does not flow with the softness of the purling rill, but rather with the

' Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy.

strength, fulness and swelling of a majestic river and the rude harmony of the mountain stream. His images are replete with poetry and thought; they always illustrate his subject. Hallam is of opinion that the modern writer that comes nearest to him is Burke. "He had," said Addison, "the sound, distinct, comprehensive knowledge of Aristotle with all the beautiful lights, graces and embellishments of Cicero. One does not know which to admire most in his writings, the strength of reason, force of style, or brightness of imagination 1."

Bacon improved so much the melody, elegance and force of English prose that we may apply to him what was said of Augustus with regard to Rome : lateritiam invenit, marmoream reliquit, he found it brick and he left it marble. Mr. Hallam's opinion differs somewhat from this, it is as follows :

"The style of Bacon has an idiosyncracy which we might expect from his genius. It can rarely indeed happen, and only in men of secondary talents, that the language they use is not, by its very choice and collocation, as well as its meaning, the representative of an individuality that distinguishes their turn of thought. Bacon is elaborate,' sententious, often witty, often metaphorical; nothing could be spared; his analogies are generally striking and novel; his style is clear, precise, forcible; yet there is some degree of stiffness about it, and in mere language he is inferior to Raleigh"."

It is a most remarkable characteristic of Bacon, and one in which Burke resembled him, that his imagination grew stronger with his increasing years and his style richer and softer. "The fruit came first," says Mr. Macaulay," and remained till the last; the blossoms did not appear till late. In eloquence, in sweetness and variety of expression, and in richness of illustration his later writings are far superior to those of his youth." His earliest Essays have as much truth and cogent reasoning as his latest; but these are far superior in grace and beauty. A most striking illustration of this is afforded by one of the last Essays added a year before Bacon's death, that of Adversity (Essay V) than which naught can be more graceful and beautiful.

1 Tatler, No. 267.

Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the 15th, 16th and 17th Centuries.