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word would diforder a fyllogifm; and a man needs only make a trial in any part of natural history, as left us by my lord Bacon, to fee how conclufive his induction was like to have been. To fay nothing, that, notwithstanding his blaming the common logics, as being too much spent in words, himself runs into the fault he condemns; for what elfe can we make of his Idola Tribus, Idola Specus, Fori, Theatri; or of his Inftantiæ Solitariæ, Migrantes, Oftenfivæ, Clandestina, Conftitutivæ, &c. but fine words put to express very common and ordinary things?

"After the way of free-thinking had been laid open by my lord Bacon, it was foon after greedily followed; for the understanding affects freedom as well as the will, and men will fue liberty though it ends in confufion."

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There is certainly a great deal of truth in what Mr. Baker fays, with regard to the confequences of lord Verulam's philofophy, and the manner in which it has been profecuted; but furely this ought not to be imputed to him, who, if I understand him at all, was, of all philofophical writers, the least addicted to free-thinking. Of this opinion is the famous Morhof, who bestows the highest praises on the work of which we are now speaking; making no fcruple to declare, that he had found but very little in the books fiuce written by Englishmen, the grounds of which he had not long before met with in Bacon; the extent of whole genius ftruck him with admiration,

as it must do every man who takes the pains to understand him; because, though this new logic of his be very difficult, and requires much study and application to mafter it, yet it leads to the knowledge of things, and not of words.

Mr. Voltaire, in his letters concerning the English nation, remarks, That the beft, and moft fingular, of all his pieces, is that which is most useless and leaft read. "I mean," fays our author, "his Novum Scientiarium Organum. This is the fcaffold with which the new philofophy was raifed; and, when the edifice was built, part of it at least, the fcaffold was no longer of fervice. The lord Bacon was not yet acquainted with nature, but then he knew, and pointed out the feveral paths that led to it. He had defpifed, in his younger years, the thing called philofophy in the universities; and did all that lay in his power to prevent those focieties of men, inftituted to improve human reafon, from depraving it by their quiddities, their horrors of vacuum, their fubftantial forms, and all those impertinent terms, which not only ignorance had rendered venerable, but which had been made facred by there being ridiculously blended with religion."

There cannot be any thing more honourable for the memory of this great perfon, than the teftimony of the writer before-mentioned, who, it is certain, has not fhewn too great a readinefs to praise or commend any body, and much

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lefs the English authors, whom, except Newton, he seems to applaud with reluctance. There is, however, one thing in his judgment of this work, which deferves to be particularly confidered and that is, his comparison of it to a scaffold; which, it cannot be denied, is, at once, very just and very fignificant; but then it is not very eafy to know, what this great critic means by reprefenting it as ufelefs, and affigning that as a reason why this treatife is now fo little read or understood. The very contrary of this feems to be the fact: the new philofophy ftands like a vaft magnificent palace, in fome places half finished, in others the walls carried up to a moderate height; in fome, juft raised above the ground; in others, hardly marked out. What reason, therefore, for taking away the fcaffold? Or, rather, What reason to expect the work should ever be finished, at least thoroughly and regularly, if the scaffold be taken away ?

The truth of the matter is, that feveral who have wrought upon this noble ftructure fince, have erected fcaffolds for their own ufe, of their own contrivance; and, when they have, in fome measure, finished the part they were about, taken them away, and concealed from the eye of the public their manner of working. Others again have attempted to raise scaffolds from the lights received from our author; and, fo far as they have copied them, have done this with great fuccefs.

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But lord Verulam's was a more noble defign: he knew that the life of one man could not fuffice for the finishing, even a small part of this ftately edifice; and therefore he spent fo many years in conftructing this fcaffold, which might have ferved for perfecting and compleating the whole work, if others had been as diligent in purfuing his plan, as he was ftudious and careful, in rendering it every way fit for the ufe which he defigned.

This is the true account, and the only true one, of the Novum Organum; and one may fafely venture to affert, That, if his defign had been purfued with that steadiness which it deferved, the new philofophy had been by this time, not only more perfect than it is, but more perfect than it is ever like to be, unless the learned at last discern their error in this respect, and are content to make use of the helps he has left them; which, the more they are confidered, the more they are tried, will be found more adequate to the great defign of their author, than well can be imagined.

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Lord BACON's Character.

SIR WALTER RALEIGH, that true judge of men and things, of agcs paft and prefent, difcourfing of the great men of his time, faid,

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The earl of Salisbury was an excellent fpeaker, but no good penman; that lord Henry Howard was an excellent penman, but no good fpeaker; Sir Francis Bacon alike eminent in both.

The judicious and penetrating Ben. Johnfon thought, that English eloquence afcended till the time of the vifcount St. Albans, and from thence went backward and declined. He who was not too apt to praise, was profufe in praises of Bacon, clofing them with these admirable reflections:

"My conceit of his perfon was never encreafed toward him by his place or honours; but I have and do reverence him for the greatnefs that was only proper to himself, in that he feemed to me ever, by his works, one of the greatest men, and moft worthy of admiration, that had been in many ages. In his adverfity, I ever prayed that God would give him ftrength, for greatnefs he could not want, neither could I condole in a word or fyllable for him, as knowing no accident could do harm to virtue, but rather help to make it manifeft." Archbishop

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