may be set down as good which is certain in meaning, just in precept, convenient in execution, agreeable to the form of government, and productive of virtue in those that live under it.'

Bacon's contributions to 'human philosophy do not rank in importance with his reforming work in natural philosophy; and his influence on the moral sciences was later in making itself felt, though it was similar in character to his influence on natural science. He often appealed for help in carrying out his new philosophy; but, neither in natural science, nor in moral science, nor in philosophy generally, did he found a school. Harvey's unfavourable judgment has been already quoted. Hobbes, who acted for a time as his secretary, does not seem to have been influenced by him in any important manner. And yet it is the leading thinkers -men such as Leibniz and Hume and Kant-who acknowledge most fully the greatness of Bacon. His real contribution to intellectual progress does not consist in scientific discoveries or in philosophical system; nor does it depend on the value of all the details of his method. But he had the insight to discover, the varied learning to illustrate and the eloquence to enforce, certain principles, regulative of the mind's attitude to the world, which, once grasped, became a permanent possession. He did more than anyone else to help to free the intellect from preconceived notions and to direct it to the unbiassed study of facts, whether of nature, of mind, or of society; he vindicated an independent position for the positive sciences; and to this, in the main, he owes his position in the history of modern thought.

While Bacon was engaged upon his plan for the renewal of the sciences, his younger contemporary Edward Herbert was at work upon a similar problem. But the two men had little in common except their vaunted independence of tradition and their interest in the question of method. And their thinking diverged in result. Bacon is claimed as the father of empirical or realistic philosophy; Herbert influenced, and, to some extent, anticipated, the characteristic doctrines of the rationalist or intellectualist school of thought.

Edward Herbert, the representative of a branch of the noble Welsh family of that name, and elder brother of George Herbert the poet, was born at Eyton in Shropshire on 3 March 1583, matriculated at University college, Oxford, in 1595, married in 1599 and continued to reside at Oxford till about 1600, when he removed to London. He was made a knight of the Bath soon

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after the accession of king James. From 1608 to 1618, he spent most of his time on the continent, as a soldier of fortune; seeking, occasionally, the society of scholars, in the intervals of the campaign, the chase, or the duel. In 1619, he was appointed ambassador at Paris; after his recall, in 1624, king James rewarded him with an Irish peerage. He was created an English peer as baron Herbert of Cherbury in 1629. The civil war found him unprepared for decision; but he ultimately saved his property by siding with the parliament. He died in London on 20 August 1648.

His works were historical, literary and philosophical. His account of the duke of Buckingham's expedition to Rhé and his history of Henry VIII were written with a view to royal favour. The latter was published in 1649; a Latin version of the former appeared in 1658, the English original not till 1860. His literary works-poems and autobiography-are of much higher merit. The former were published by his son in 1665; the latter was first printed by Horace Walpole in 1764. His philosophical works give him a distinct and interesting place in the history of thought. His greatest work, De Veritate, was, he tells us, begun in England and 'formed there in all its principal parts.' Hugo Grotius, to whom he submitted the manuscript, advised its publication; but it was not till this advice had been sanctioned (as he thought) by a sign from heaven that he had the work printed (Paris, 1624). To the third edition (London, 1645) he added a short treatise De Causis Errorum, a dissertation entitled Religio Laici and an Appendix ad Sacerdotes. In 1663 appeared his De Religione Gentiliuma treatise on what is now called comparative religion. A popular account of his views on religion was published in 1768 under the title A Dialogue between a Tutor and his Pupil, by Edward Lord Herbert of Chirbury; and, although the external evidence is incomplete, it may have been from his pen.

Herbert does not stand in the front rank of speculative thinkers; but his claims as a philosopher are worthy of note. In the first place, he attempted a far deeper investigation of the nature of truth than Bacon had given; for he based it on an enquiry into the conditions of knowledge. Here, his fundamental thought is that of a harmony between faculty and object. Mind corresponds with things not only in their general nature but in all their differences of kind. The root of all error is in confusion-in the inappropriate connection of faculty and object. Underlying all experience and belonging to the nature of intelligence itself are certain common notions. In the second place, Herbert's

treatment of these common notions made him the precursor of the philosophy of common sense afterwards elaborated by Reid and the Scottish school. Some of his tests of common notions are logical: knowledge of particulars depends upon them. But others of them are psychological: they are prior in time, and all sane minds possess them. And it is this last test-that of universalitythat he uses most frequently. 'What is in all men's ears,' he says, 'that we accept as true'; and he adds that this universal consent is the highest philosophy and theology. In the third place, the common notions which he discovered in all minds determined the scope and character of English Deism. He attempted no complete account of them, except in the sphere of religion. These common notions of religion are: (1) that there is a supreme Deity; (2) that this Deity ought to be worshipped; (3) that virtue combined with piety is the chief part of divine worship; (4) that men should repent of their sins and turn from them; (5) that reward and punishment follow from the goodness and justice of God, both in this life and after it. These five articles contain the whole doctrine of the true catholic church, that is to say, of the religion of reason. They also formed the primitive religion before the people gave ear to the covetous and crafty sacerdotal order.' In the fourth place, Herbert was one of the first-if not the first-to make a systematic effort after a comparative study of religions; but he had no idea of the historical development of belief, and he looked upon all actual religions-in so far as they went beyond his five articles-as simply 'corruptions of the pure and primitive rational worship.

CHAPTER XV

EARLY WRITINGS ON POLITICS AND ECONOMICS

THE political and economic life of England has had an enormous effect on the whole modern world; her constitutional monarchy and her parliamentary government have been consciously imitated by one nation after another, since the time when Montesquieu held them up to admiration. The political ideas which have had such far-reaching influence were taking definite shape in our own country in the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. They have left their mark on our literature in many ways; but, in attempting to survey these early writings on politics and economics, and to group them conveniently, it is important to remember that the views they embodied were finding their fullest expression in political action and fiery debate, rather than in graceful literary form. The first essays in English political and economic literature can be best appreciated when they are viewed in connection with contemporary struggles and experience.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, England was really anticipating the movement which occurred in many continental countries at a subsequent time; she was taking the lead in the rise of nationalities, and her literature, at that era, illustrates the various phases of conscious life which this revolution seems to involve wherever it occurs. In the first place, there was an intense patriotic sentiment, and a keen interest in national history and traditional custom. Secondly, with the aim of advocating increased opportunity for popular self-government, reflection was directed to the basis on which existing authority rested and the limits within which it should be exercised. Lastly, much consideration was given to the material means of gratifying national ambitions for such political objects as the maintaining of English independence and the expansion of English influence.

Taking these three divisions, we may say that the literary expression of patriotic sentiment and the discussions as to natural

resources and the means of developing them were intensely, though not exclusively, insular; while the discussions on the power of the prince and the nature of sovereignty were much more easily applicable to the circumstances of other countries, and were relatively cosmopolitan. England was working out her own destiny; and the form of democratic doctrine which was eventually popularised in this country attracted attention both in the old world and in the new. But history has repeated itself in regard to the other elements of national consciousness. Similar patriotic sentiment, which may be stigmatised as narrow, and jealous care for material resources, have been developed, in one country after another, among the rising nationalities. The special importance of our literature lies in the fact that it not only reflects the first emergence of this modern type of community, but that this early example had a complexity of its own: Great Britain was the scene of the simultaneous rise of two nationalities. Throughout the seventeenth century, with the exception of the years of the protectorate, this island was governed as a dual monarchy. England and Scotland were each prepared in turn to expand and to assimilate her neighbour, and each has exercised an important influence on the political development of the other. The reaction of these two nationalities upon one another, during the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, is a political feature that can be best brought into full light by the study of the literature of the day.

It might seem to follow that this political and economic writing, as a direct expression of actual political experience, would be little affected by foreign influence; but this is only true with considerable qualifications. Even as regards the expression of patriotic sentiment, the influence of foreign models may be seen in the form that was adopted, as in the case of the Debate Betwene the Heraldes. Further, England was a backward country, both commercially and industrially, in Tudor times; and the economic literature of the day is full of suggestions for copying expedients that had been devised in Holland or in France. It is also noticeable that the reflection on the problem of sovereignty, though the forms in which it was raised were dictated by English experience, was yet concerned with issues that had been defined by Jesuits and Calvinists in France. Still, when all this is admitted, it is true to say that English thought seems to have been but little affected by the writers who were chiefly making their mark in Italy and France. Bodin's great work had, indeed, been translated