5

Such were his imaginations of the tranquillity | knowledge a couch whereupon to rest a searchand occupations in our universities.

ing and restless spirit; or a terrace for a waine: He could not long have resided in Cambridge ing and variable mind to walk up and down, uith before he must have discovered his erroneous no- a fair prospect; or a tower of state for a pavid tions of the mighty living, and of the pursuits in mind to raise itself upon; or a fort or comn: ardiwhich they were engaged. Instead of students ing ground for strife and contention; or a shop

a ready at all times to acquire any sort of know- for profit and sale; and not a rich storehouse for ledge, he found himself “amidst men of sharp the glory of the Creator and the relief of mur's and strong wits, and abundance of leisure, and estate.”

small variety of reading, their wits being shut It was not likely that, with such sentiments, he ! up in the cells of a few authors, chiefly Aristotle would meet with much sympathy in the univera

their dictator, as their persons were shut up in sity. It was still less probable that the anti thy the cells of monasteries and colleges; and know- by which he was opposed would check the arious ing little history, either of nature or time, did, of his powerful mind. He went right onward in out of no great quantity of matter, and infinite his course, unmoved by the disapprobation of agitation of wit, spin cobwebs of learning, admi- men who turned from inquiries which they mi rable for the fineness of thread and work, but of ther encouraged nor understood: and, sting „ no substance or profit."1

through the mists, by a light refracted from bra Instead of the university being formed for the low the horizon, that knowledge must be risi discovery of truths, he saw that its object was on other foundations, and built with other matr. merely to preserve and diffuse the knowledge of rials than had been used through a long tract if our predecessors: instead of general inquiry, he many centuries, he continued his inquiries into found that all studies were confined to Aristotle, the laws of nature,5 and planned his immortal who was considered infallible in philosophy, a work upon which he laboured during the greau'r dictator to command, not a consul to advise;" part of his life, and ultimately published when the lectures both in private in the colleges, and he was chancellor, saying, “I have held up a in public in the schools, being but expositions of light in the obscurity of philosophy; which will his text, and comments upon his opinions, held be seen centuries after I am dead.”6 as authentic as if they had been given under the After two years residence he quitted the uniseal of the pope.3 Their infallibility, however, versity with the conviction not only that these he was not disposed to acknowledge. Whilst in the seminaries of learning were stagnant, but that university he formed his dislike of the philosophy they were opposed to the advancement of kpore of Aristotle, not for the worthlessness of the au- ledge. “In the universities,” he says, “ they thor, to whose gigantic intellect he ever ascribed learn nothing but to believe: first to believe that all high attributes, but for the unfruitfulness of others know that which they know not; and alter, his method, being a philosophy, as he was wont themselves know that which they know not. to say, strong for disputations and contentions, They are like a becalmed ship; they never mr ve but barren for the production of works for the but by the wind of other men's breath, and have benefit and use of man; which, according to Ba- no oars of their own to steer withal :"7 and in his con's opinion, is the only test of the purity of our Novum Organum, which he published when he motives for acquiring knowledge and of the value was chancellor, he repeats what he had said when of knowledge when acquired; “ Men,” he says, a boy. “In the universities, all things are tvu iu " have entered into a desire of knowledge some opposite to the advancement of the sciences; fir times from a natural curiosity and inquisitive ap- the readings and exercises are here so mamo u petite; sometimes to entertain their minds with that it cannot easily come into any one's mind !, variety and delight; sometimes for ornament and think of things out of the common road: er reputation; sometimes to enable them to victory here and there, one should venture to use a liberty of wit and contradiction, and most times for lucre of judging, he can only impose the task upon and profession; and seldom sincerely to give a himself without obtaining assistance fron: bois true account of their gift of reason, for the benefit fellows; and if he could dispense with this, he and use of man:-as if there were sought in will still find his industry and resolution a great

: See the Advancement of Learning, under Contentious hinderance to his fortune. For the studies of men Leaming. See Gibbon's Memoirs. See vol. viii. London in such places are confined, and pinned down to

a

a

if,

66

the writings of certain authors; from which, if These warnings seem to have been disregardany man happens to differ, he is presently repre-ed, and the art of governing, not a ship, which hended as a disturber and innovator.”'1

would not be attempted without a knowledge of Whether the intellectual gladiatorship by which navigation, but the ship of the state, is intrusted, students in the universities of England are now not to a knowledge of the principles of human stimulated, then prevailed, does not appear, but nature, but to the knowledge of Latin and Greek his dislike of this motive he early and always and verbal criticisms upon the dead languages." avowed. “It is,” he says, “an unavoidable de- And what has been the result? During the cree with us ever to retain our native candour and last two centuries one class of statesmen has resimplicity, and not attempt a passage to truth sisted all improvement, and their opponents have under the conduct of vanity; for, seeking real been hurried into intemperate alterations: whilst nature with all her fruits about her, we should philosophy, lamenting these contentions, has, inthink it a betraying of our trust to infect such a stead of advancing the science of government, subject either with an ambitious, an ignorant, or been occupied in counteracting laws founded upon any other faulty manner of treating it."'2 erroneous principles; erroneous commercial laws;

Some years after Bacon had quitted Cambridge, erroneous laws against civil and religious liberhe published his opinions upon the defects of ty; and erroneous criminal laws.* universities; in which, after having warned the So deeply was Bacon impressed with the mag. community that, as colleges are established for nitude of this evil, that by his will he endowed the communication of the knowledge of our pre- two lectures in either of the universities, by "g decessors, there should be a college appropriated lecturer, whether stranger or English, provided to the discovery of new truths, a living spring to he is not professed in divinity, law, or physic.” inix with the stagnant waters. - Let it,” he The subject of universities, and the importance says, “ be remembered that there is not any col- to the community and to the advancement of scilegiate education of statesmen, and that this has ence, that the spring should not be poisoned or not only a malign influence upon the growth of polluted, was ever present to his mind,and, in sciences, but is prejudicial to states and govern- the decline of his life, he prepared the plan of a ments, and is the reason why princes find a soli- college for the knowledge of the works and cre-tude in regard of able men to serve them in causes ations of God, “ from the cedar of Libanus to the of state." 3

moss that groweth out of the wall;" hut the plan

was framed upon a model so vast, that, without · Ax. 90. lib. i. a See the chapter on Vanity, in the admirable work, the purse of a prince and the assistance of a peo“ Search's Light of Nature :” where the distinction be ple, all attempts to realize it must be vain and tween the love of excelling and the love of excellence, as a motive for acquiring knowledge, is fully explained.

hopeless. Some conception of his gorgeous mind 3 Bacon says, First, therefore, amongst so many great in the formation of this college, may appear even foundations of colleges in Europe, I find strange that they are all dedicated to professions, and none left free to arts

at the entrance. and sciences at large. And this I take to be a great cause, “We have (he says) two very long and fair that hath hindered the progression of learning, because these fundamental knowledges have been studied but in galleries: and in one of these we place patterns

For if you will have a tree bear more fruit than 1 bath used to do, it is not

any thing you can do to the and samples of all manner of the more rare and boughs, but it is the stirring of the earth, and putting new excellent inventions; in the other we place the mould about the roots, that must work it. be forgotten, that this dedicating of foundations and dota- statues of all principal inventors. There we have Lions to professory learning, hatli not only had a malign as, the statue of your Columbus, that discovered the , pect and influence upon the growth of sciences, bui hath 1 Iso been prejudicial to states and governments. For hence West Indies; also the inventor of ships; your it proceedeth that princes find a solitude in regard of able monk that was the inventor of ordnance and of men to serve them in causes of state, because there is no education collegiate which is free, where such as were so gunpowder; the inventor of music; the inventor disposed might give themselves to histories, modern lanpages, books of policy and civil discourse, and other the of letters; the inventor of printing; the inventor like enableinents into service of state. This truth, con- of observations of astronomy; the inventor of tirmed by daily experience, was, tifty years after his death; works in metal; the inventor of glass; the inrepeated by Alilton, who indignanily says, “when young men quit the university for the trade of law, they ground ventor of silk of the worm; the inventor of wine; their purposes, not on the prudent and heavenly contemplation of justice and equity, which was never laught them, the inventor of corn and bread; the inventor of but on the promising and pleasing thoughts of litigious cerins, fat contentions, and flowing fees: and if they quit it sugars; and all these by more certain tradition souls so unprincipled in virtue and true generous breeding, we erect a statue to the inventor, and give him a tör state affairs, they betake themselves to this trust with than you have. Upon every invention of value, that flattery, and court-shists, and tyrannous aphorisms appear to them the highest points of wisdom. After having liberal and honourable reward. These statues prescribed the proper order of education, he adds, The next Lemoval must be to the study of politics; to know the be

xxi

stone; some of cedar and other special woods After having enumerated al, the instruments gilt and adorned; some of iron; some of silver; of knowledge, “such,” he says, “is a relation of some of gold.”

the true state of Solomon's house, the end of Such is the splendour of the portico, or ante- which foundation is the knowledge of causes, room. Passing beyond it, every thing is to be and secret motions of things; and the enlarging found which imagination can conceive or reason of the bounds of human empire, to the effecting suggest.

of all things possible.”

In these glorious inventions of one rich mind, This entryte to Bacon's college always forces itself on iny mind when I visit the University Library of Cambridge; may be traced much of what has been effected in in which I see the portrait of Mr. Thomas Nicholson, known science and mechanics, since Bacon's death, and by the name of Maps, the proprietor of a circulating library, a laborious pioneer in literature. Under his feet are some more that will be effected during the next two relies from classic ground, more valuable, perhaps, for their centuries. antiquity than for their beauty. Delightful as is the love of antiquity, this artificial retrospective extension of our After three years' residence in the university, existence, (see Shakspeare's Sonnet, 123,) might it not be his father sent him, at the age of sixteen, to Paadorned, in the present times, by casts from the Elgin marbles, of which the cost does not exceed 2001. By one of the ris, under the care of Sir Amias Paulett, the universities (I think it is of Dublin) these casts have been procured. Let any parent of the mind, who considers the English ambassador at that court: by whom, various modes by which the heart of a nation is formed,

soon after his arrival, he was intrusted with a (which is beautifully described in Ramsden's sermon on the Cessation of Ilostilities,) look in Boydell's Shakspeare, at mission to the queen, requiring both secrecy and Barry's Cordelia, to be found, most probably, in the Fitz: despatch: which he executed with such ability

: magni-
ficent affecting fainting female in the Elgin marbles, and he as to gain the approbation of the queen, and jus-
will see the benefit which would result from the university tify Sir Amias in the choice of his youthful mes-

: We have large and deep caves of several depths: the senger.
deepest are sunk six hundred fathom, and some of them are
digged and made under great hills and mountains: so that From the confidence thus reposed in him, and
if you reckon together the depth of the hill and the depth from the impression made upon all with whom he
of the cave, they are (some of them) above three miles
deep; these caves we call the lower region, and we use conversed ; upon men of letters, with whom he

coagulations,
conservations of bodies. We use them likewise for the contracted lasting friendships; upon grave states-
Imitation of natural mines, and the producing also of new men and learned philosophers, it was manifest
artificial metals, by compositions and materials.

We have high towers, the highest about half a mile in that the promise in his infancy of excellence, whe-
height, and some of them likewise set upon high mountains, ther for active or for contemplative life, seemed
so that the vantage of the bill with the tower is in the high-
est of them three miles at least. And these places we call beyond the most sanguine expectation to be real-
the upper region. We use these towers, according to their ized.s
several heights and situations, for insolation, refrigeration,
conservation, and for the view of divers meteors, as winds, After the appointment of Sir Amias Paulett's
rain, snow, bail, and some of the fiery meteors.
We have great lakes, both salt and fresh; whereof we

successor,

Bacon travelled into the French prohave use for the fish and fowl. We use them also for buri- vinces, and spent some time at Poictiers. He als of some natural bodies: for we find a difference in things buried in earth, or in air below the earth; and things prepared a work upon Ciphers,+ which he afterburied in water. We have also some rocks in the midst of the sea; and some bays upon the shore for some works, where- likewise for dissections and trials, that thereby we may in is required the air and vapour of the sea. We have like- take light what may be wrought upon the body of man. wise violent streams and cataracts, which serve us for We have also particular pools where we make trials upon many motions: and likewise engines for multiplying and fishes, as we have said before of beasts and birds. enforcing of winds, to set also on going divers motions. We have also places for breed and generation of those

4

1

wards published, with an outline of the state of Law and politics were the two roads open beEurope, but the laws of sound and of imagina-fore him; in both his family had attained opulence tion continued to occupy his thoughts." and honour. Law, the dry and thorny study of

Whilst he was engaged in these meditations law, had but little attraction for his discursive and his father died suddenly, on the 20th February, imaginative mind. With the hope, therefore, that, 1579. He instantly returned to England. under the protection of his political friends, and

the queen's remembrance of his father, and notice of him when a child, he might escape from the

mental slavery of delving in this laborious proCHAPTER II.

fession, he made a great effort to secure some small

competence, by applying to Lord Burleigh to reFROM THE DEATH OF HIS FATHER TILL HE ENGAGED commend him to the queen, and interceding with IN ACTIVE LIFE.

Lady Burleigh to urge his suit with his uncle.

But his application was unsuccessful; the queen 1580 to 1590.

and the lord treasurer, distinguished as they were Discovering, upon his arrival in England, that, for penetration into character, being little disposed by the sudden death of his father, he was left with- • My singular good lord, out a sufficient provision to justify him in devot

My humble duty remembered, and my humble thanks pre

sented for your lordship's favour and countenance, which it ing his life to contemplation,it became necessary pleased your lordship, at my being with you, to vouchsafe for him to select some pursuit for his support, « to me, above my degree and desert: my letter hath no further

errand but to think how to live, instead of living only to think." of my suit, which then I moved unto you; whereof it also

LIFE OF BACON.

66

to encourage him to rely upon others rather than His agreeable occupations, and extensive views upon himself, and to venture on the quicksands of of science, during his residence in Gray's Inn, did politics, instead of the certain profession of the law, not check his professional exertions. In the year in which the queen had, when he was a child, pre- 1586, he applied to the lord treasurer to be called dicted that he would one day be her« lord keeper." within the bar;and in his thirtieth year was

To law, therefore, he was reluctantly obliged sworn queen's counsel learned extraordinary,5 an to devote himself, and as it seems, in the year 1580, honour which, until that time, had never been conhe was admitted a student of Gray's Inn, of which ferred upon any member of the profession. society his father had for many years been an illustrious member. 1

Having engaged in this profession, he, as was to be expected, encountered and subdued the diffi

CHAPTER III. culties and obscurities of the science in which he was doomed to labour, and in which he after- FROM HIS ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE TILL HIS wards was eminently distinguished, not only by

DISAPPOINTMENT AS SOLICITOR. his professional exertions and honours, but by

1590 to 1596. his valuable works upon different practical parts of the law, and upon the improvement of the sci

He thus entered on public life, submitting, as a ence, by exploring the principles of universal jus

lawyer and a statesman, to worldly occupations tice the laws of law.

(being then but twenty-eight years of age) the honourable so

ciety of Gray's Inn chose him for their lent reader. Orig. p. 295. Extensive as were his legal researches, and great In the time of Lord Bacon there was a distinction between as was his legal knowledge, law was, however, it will appear that he applied to the lord treasurer that he

outer and inner barristers. By the following letter in 1556, but an accessory, not a principal study. It was might be called within bars.

To the right honourable the lord treasurer.* not to be expected that his mind should confine

My very good lord, its researches within the narrow and perplexed I take it as an undoubted sign of your lordship's favour study of precedents and authorities. He contracted rather of good advice than of evil opinion thereby. And if

unto me that, being hardly informed of ine, you took occasion his sight, when necessary, to the study of the law, your lordship had grounded only upon the said information

of theirs, I might and would truly have upholden that few but he dilated it to the whole circle of science, and of the matters were justly objected; as the very circumcontinued his meditations upon his immortal work, did misaffect me, and, besides, were to give colour to their

stances do induce, in that they were delivered by men that which he had projected when in the university. own doings. But because your lordship did mingle there. This course of legal and philosophical research you had otherwise heard, I know it to be my duty (and so do

with both a late motion of mine own, and somewhat which was accompanied with such sweetness and affa- i stand affected) rather to prove your lordship's admonition

effectual in my doings hereafter, than causeless by excusing bility of deportment, that he gained the affections what is past. And yet (with your lordslip's pardon humbly of the whole society, and the kindness he expe- asked) it may please you to remember, that I did endeavour to

set forth that said motion in such sort as it might breed 110 rienced was not lost upon him. He assisted in their harder effect than a denial. And I protest simply before God, festivities ; he beautified their spacious garden,

that I sought therein an ease in coming within bars, and not

any extraordinary or singular note of favour. And for ihat your and raised an elegant structure, known for many lordship may otherwise have heard of me it shall make me years after his death, as • The Lord Bacon's Lodg- find in my simple observation, that they whicti live as it were

more wary and circumspect in carriage of myself; indeed I ings,” ," in which at intervals he resided till his death. in umbra and not in public or frequent action, how mode

rately and modestly soever they behave themselves, yet laWhen he was only twenty-six years of age, he borant invidia ; I find also that such persons as are of nature was promoted to the bench ; in his twenty-eighth bashful

, (as myself is, whereby they want that plausible

familiarity whích others have, are often mistaken for proud. year he was elected lent reader;s and the 42d of But once I know well, and I most humbly beseech your lordElizabeth he was appointed double reader.