About this period the king conferred upon him the valuable farm of the Alienation Office, and he succeeded in obtaining for his residence, York House, the place of his birth, and where his father had lived, when lord keeper in the reign of Elizabeth. officers, by rewarding the virtuous; skilful in pre- Such was the gorgeous splendour, such the cedents, wary in proceeding, and understanding union of action and contemplation in which he in the business of the court; and discountenanc-lived. ing the vicious, sowers of suits, disturbers of jurisdiction, impeders, by tricks and shifts, of the plain and direct course of justice, and bringing it into oblique lines and labyrinths: and the poller and exacter of fees, who justifies the common resemblance of the courts to the bush, whereunto, while the sheep flies for defence in weather, he is sure to lose part of his fleece:-to himself, by counteracting the tendency of his situation to warp his character, and by proper use of times of recreation:-to his profession, by preserving the privileges of his office, and by improvement of the law-and to society, by advancing justice and good feeling, in the suppression of force and detection of fraud; in readiness to hear the complaints of the distressed; in looking with pity upon those who have erred and strayed; in courtesy; in discountenancing contentious suits; in attending to appearances, esse et videri; in encouraging respect for the office; and by resigning in due time." This may be considered the summit of this great man's worldly prosperity. He had been successively solicitor and attorney-general, privy councillor, lord keeper, and lord chancellor, having had conferred upon him the dignities, first of knight, then of Baron of Verulam, and, early in the next year, of Viscount St. Albans; but, above all, he was distinguished through Europe by a much prouder title, as the greatest of English philosophers. At York House, on the 22d of January, 1620, he celebrated his sixtieth birthday, surrounded by his admirers and friends, amongst whom was Ben Jonson, who composed, in honour of the day, a poem founded on the fiction of the poet's surprise In his youth he had exerted himself to improve upon his reaching York House, at the sight of the the gardens of Gray's Inn: in gardens he always genius of the place performing some mystery. delighted, thinking them conducive to the purest Fortune is justly represented insecurely placed of human pleasures, and he now, as chancellor, upon a wheel, whose slightest revolution may had the satisfaction to sign the patent for convert-cause her downfall. It has been said that wailing ing Lincoln's Inn Fields into walks, extending almost to the wall where his faithful friend Ben Jonson had, when a boy, worked as a bricklayer. For relaxation from his arduous occupations he was accustomed to retire to his magnificent and beautiful residence at Gorhambury, the dwellingplace of his ancestors, where, "when his lordship arrived, St. Albans seemed as if the court had been there, so nobly did he live. His servants had liveries with his crest: his watermen were more employed than even the king's." About half a mile from this noble mansion, of sounds were heard, before the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, and at last the rushing of mighty wings when the angel of the sanctuary departed. Had the poet been a prophet, he would have described the good genius of the mansion, not exulting, but dejected, humbled, and about to depart forever. CHAPTER III. TO HIS RETIREMENT FROM ACTIVE LIFE. October, 1620, to June, 1621. which the ruins yet remain, and within the bounds FROM THE PUBLICATION OF THE NOVUM ORGANUM of Old Verulam, the lord chancellor built, at the expense of about £10,000, a most ingeniously contrived house, where, in the society of his philosophical friends, he escaped from the splendour of chancellor, to study and meditation. "Here," says Aubrey, "his lordship much meditated, his servant, Mr. Bushell, attending him with his pen and inkhorn, to set down his present notions. Mr. Thomas Hobbes told me that his lordship would employ him often in this service, whilst he was there, and was better pleased with his minutes, or notes, set down by him, than by others who did not well understand his lordship. He told me that he was employed in translating" Because I number my days, and would have it part of the Essays, viz. three of them, one whereof was that of Greatness of Cities, the other two I have now forgot." GLITTERING in the blaze of worldly splendour, and absorbed in worldly occupations, the chancellor, now sixty years of age, could no longer delude himself with the hope of completing his favourite work, the great object of his life, upon which he had been engaged for thirty years, and had twelve times transcribed with his own nand He resolved at once to abandon it, and publish the small fragment which he had composed. For this act of despair he assigned two reasons: saved;" and "to try whether I can get help in one intended part of this work, namely, the com. piling of a Natural and Experimental History, 1 The art of experimenting is, which must be the foundation of a true and active | more apparent than in his more abstruse works philosophy." Such are the consequences of vain An outline of it is subjoined.1 attempts to unite deep contemplation and unremitting action! Such the consequences of forgetting our limited powers; that we can reach only to our arm's length, and our voice be heard only till the next air is still! 1. Systematic. 1. Production. 2. Inversion. 3. Variation. (1. Simple. 4. Translation. < 1. Invention. 2. Judgment. 3. Memory. 4. Tradition. Under the head of Invention he says, "The invention of sciences, I purpose, if God give me leave hereafter to propound, having digested it into two parts; whereof the one I term experientia literata, and the other interpretatio naturæ: the former being but a degree and rudiment of the latter. But I will not dwell too long, nor speak too great upon a promise." This promise, he, however, lived partly to realize. In the year 1623, he completed his tract upon Literate Experience, in which, after having explained that our inventions, instead of resulting from reason and foresight, have ever originated in accident; that "we are more beholden to a wild goat for surgery: to a nightingale for modulations of music to the ibis for some part of physic: to a pot-lid that flew open for artillery: in a word, to chance rather than to logic: so that it is no marvel that the Egyptians had their temples full of the idols of brutes; but almost empty of the idols of men:" he divides this art of Discovery into two parts: "For either the indication is made from experiments to experiments, or from experiments to axioms, which may likewise design new experiments; whereof the former we will term Experientia Literata; the latter, Interpretatio Naturæ, or Novum Organum: as a man may go on his way after a threefold manner, either when himself feels out his way in the dark; or, being weak-sighted, is led by the hand of another; or else when he directs his footing by a light. So when a man essays all kind of experiments without sequence or method, that is a mere palpation; but when he proceeds by direction and order in experiments, it is as if he were led by the hand; and this is it which we understand by Literate Experience; for the light itself, which is the third way, is to be derived from the interpretation of nature, or the New Organ." He then proceeds to explain his doctrine of "Literate Experience," or the science of making experiments. The hunting of Pan. In this interesting inquiry the miraculous vigilance of this extraordinary man may possibly be 1. By repetition (1. From nature. 2. From art. 1. To a different art. 2. To a part of the same art. 3. From experiment to experi nient. A few moments consideration of each of these subjects will not be lost. PRODUCTION is experimenting upon the result of the expe riment, and is either, 1st, by Repetition, continuing the experiment upon the result of the experiment; as Newton, who, after having separated light into seven rays, proceeded to separate each distinct pencil of rays; or, 2dly, by Extension, or urging the experiment to a greater subtlety, as in the memory being helped by images and pictures of persons: may it not also be helped by imaging their gestures and habits? or, 3dly, by Compulsion, or trying an experiment till its virtue is annihilated: not merely hunting the game, but killing it; as burning or macerating a loadstone, or dissolving iron till the attraction between the iron and the loadstone is gone. INVERSION is trying the contrary to that which is manifested by the experiment: as in heating the end of a small bar of iron, and placing the heated end downwards, and your hand on the top, it will presently burn the hand. Invert the iron, and place the hand on the ground, to ascertain whether heat is produced as rapidly by descent as by ascent. VARIATION is either of the matter, as the trying to make paper of woollen, as well as of linen; or of the efficient, as by trying if amber and jet, which when rubbed, will attract straw, will have the same effect if warmed at the fire, or of the quantity, like Æsop's housewife, who thought that by doubling her measure of barley, her hen would daily lay her two eggs. translating the force of gravity upon the earth to the celestial bodies; or from nature to art, as the manner of distilling might be taken from showers or dew, or from that homely experiment of drops adhering to covers put upon pots of boiling water; or from art to a different art, as by transferring the invention of spectacles, to help a weak sight, to an instrument fastened to the ear, to help the deaf; or to a different part of the same art: as, if opiates repress the spirits in diseases, may they not retard the consumption of the spirits so as to prolong life; or from experiment to experiment: as upon flesh putrefying sooner in some cellars than in others, by considering whether this may not assist in finding good or bad air for habitations. TRANSLATION is either from nature to nature, as Newton Such are the modes of experimenting by translation,* open to all men who will awake and perpetually fix their yes, one while on the nature of things, another on the appli cation of them, to the use and service of mankind. COPULATION of experiments is trying the efficacy of united experiments, which, when separate, produce the same effect: as, by pulling off the more early buds when they are newly knotted, or by laying the roots bare until the spring, late roses will be produced. Will not the germination be more delayed by a union of these experiments? CHANCES of an experiment, or the trying a conclusion, not for that any reason, or other experiment, induceth you to it, After his dedication to the king, he, accord- As to the first, or THE DIVISION OF THE ing to his wonted mode, clears the way by a re- SCIENCES, he, in 1605, had exhibited an outline in view of the state of learning, which, he says, is the Advancement of Learning, and lived nearly to neither prosperous nor advanced, but, being barren complete it in the year 1623. In this treatise he in effects, fruitful in questions, slow and languid describes the cultivated parts of the intellectual in its improvement, exhibiting in its generality world and the deserts; not to measure out regions, the counterfeit of perfection, ill filled up in its de-as augurs for divination, but as generals to invade tails, popular in its choice, suspected by its very promoters, and therefore countenanced with artifices, it is necessary that an entirely different way from any known by our predecessors must be opened to the human understanding, and different helps be obtained, in order that the mind may exercise its jurisdiction over the nature of things. 1 Vol. ix. p. 145, 147. Cum autem incertus esset, quando hæc alicui posthac in mentem ventura sint; eo potissimum usus argumento, quod neminem hactenus invenit, qui ad similes cogitationes animum applicuerit; decrevit prima quæque, quæ perficere licuit, in publicum edere. Neque hæc festinatio ambitiosa fuit, sed sollicita; ut si qnid illi humanitus accideret, exstaret tamen designatio quædam, ac destinatio rei quam animo complexus est; utque exstaret simul signum aliquod honestæ suæ et propensa in generis bitionem inferiorem duxit re, quam præ manibus habuit. Aut enim hoc quod agitur nihil est; aut tantum, ut merito ipso contentum esse debeat, nec fructum extra quærere. humani commoda voluntatis. Certe aliam quamcunque am FRANCIS OF VERULAM THOUGHT THUS. Uncertain, however, whether these reflections would ever hereafter suggest themselves to another, and particularly having observed that he has never yet met with any person disposed to apply his mind to similar meditations, he determined to publish whatsoever he had first time to conclude. Nor is this the haste of ambition, but of his anxiety, that if the common lot of mankind should befall him, some sketch and determinaas well as an earnest of his will being honourably bent upon promoting the advantage of mankind. He assuredly looked upon any other ambition as beneath the matter he had un dertaken; for that which is here treated of is either nothing, or it is so great that he ought to be satisfied with its own worth and seek no other return. tion of the matter his mind had embraced might be extant, for conquest. THE NOVUM ORGANUM is a treatise upon the conduct of the understanding in the systematic discovery of truth, or the art of invention by a New Organ: as, in inquiring into any nature, the hydrophobia, for instance, or the attraction of the magnet, the Novum Organum explains a mode of proceeding by which its nature and laws may with certainty be found. It having been Bacon's favourite doctrine, that important truths are often best discovered in small and familiar instances, as the nature of a commonwealth, in a family and the simple conjugations of society, man and wife, parents and children, master and servant, which are in every cot. tage; and as he had early taught that all truths, however divisible as lines and veins, are not separable as sections and separations, but partake of one common essence, which, like the drops of rain, fall separately into the river, mix themselves at once with the stream, and strengthen the general current, it may seem extraordinary that it should not have occurred to him that the mode to discover any truth might, possibly, be seen by the proceedings in a court of justice, where the immediate and dearest interests of men being concerned, and great intellect exerted, it is natural to suppose that the best mode of invention would be adopted. In a well constituted court of justice the judge is without partiality. He hears the evidence on both sides, and the reasoning of the opposite advocates. He then forms his judgment. This is the mode adopted by Bacon in the Novum Organum for the discovery of all truths. He endeavours to make the philosopher in his study proceed as a judge in his court. For this purpose his work is divisible into three parts: 1st. The removal of prejudice. o the de 3dly. By explaining the mode in which the facts presented to the senses ought by certain rules to be examined. As the commander of an army, before he commences an attack, considers the strength and number of his troops, both regular and allies; the spirit by which they are animated, whether they are the lion, or the sheep in the lion's skin; the power of the enemy to which he is opposed: their walled towns, their stored arsenals and armories, their horses and chariots of war, elephants, ordnance and artillery, and their races of men; and then in what mode he shall commence his attack and proceed in the battle: so, before man directs his strength against nature, and endeavours to take her high towers and dismantle her fortified holds, and thus enlarge the borders of his dominion, he ought duly to estimate, With respect to the defects of the senses, he says that things escape their cognisance by seven modes: 1st. From distance; which is remedied by substitutes, as beacons, bells, telegraphs, &c. 2d. By the interception of interposing bodies; 3d. By the unfitness of the body: or, 6th. From the percussion of the body being too powerful for the sense, as in looking at the midday sun; which is remedied by removing the object from the sense; or by diminishing its force by the interposition of a medium, as smoking tobacco through water; or by reflection, as the sun's rays in a mirror or basin of water: and7th. Because the sense is pre-occupied by an other object, as by the use of perfumes. The defects of the judgment he investigates 2d. His different motives for the exercise of in a more laborious inquiry. "There are," he his powers. says, "certain predispositions which beset the 1st. His powers, natural and artificial, for the discovery of truth. 3d. The obstacles to which he is opposed; mind of man; certain idols which are constantly and, 4th. The mode in which he can exert his powers with most efficacy, or the Art of Invention. Of these four requisites, therefore, a perfect work upon the conduct of the understanding ought, as it seems, to consist: but the Novum Organum is not thus treated. To system Bacon was not attached: for " As young men, when they knit and shape perfectly, do seldom grow to a farther stature, so knowledge, while it is in aphorisms and observations, it is in growth; but 'when it once is comprehended in exact methods, it may perchance be farther polished and illustrated, and accommodated for use and practice; but it increaseth no more in bulk and substance. Instead of explaining our different powers, our Senses, our Imagination, our Reason, there are in the Novum Organum only some scattered observations upon the defects of the senses;-upon the ferent causes or idols by which the judgment is always liable to be warped, and some suggestions as to the artificial helps to our natural powers in exploring the truths which are exhibited to the senses. operating upon the mind and warping it from the truth; for the mind of man, drawn over and clouded with the sable pavilion of the body, is so far from being like smooth, equal, and clear glass, which might sincerely take and reflect the beams of things according to their true incidence, that it is rather like an enchanted glass, full of superstitions, apparitions, and impostures; which idols are of such a pernicious nature, that, if they once take root in the mind, they will so possess it that truth can hardly find entrance; and, even should it enter, they will again rise up, choke, and destroy it." These idols are of two sorts: 1st. Common to all men, therefore called Idols of the Tribe, including the defects of words, called Idols of the Market; 2d. Peculiar to peculiar individuals, either from their original conformation, or from their education and pursuits in life, called Idols of the Den, including the errors from particular opinions, called Idols of the Theatre. So that his doctrine of idols may be thus exhibited: 1. Of the Tribe.-Of the Market 2. Of the Den.-Of the Theatre. The Idols of the Tribe, or warps to the judgment, Idols of the Theatre, or depraved theories, are, of course, infinite and inveterate; appearing in that numerous litter of strange, senseless, absurd opinions, which crawl about the world to the disgrace of reason, and the wretchedness of mankind. by which all mankind swerve from the truth, are | ticians, &c., to their respective sciences, are glar. of two classes: 1st. When man is under the in- ing instances. fluence of a passion more powerful than the love of truth, as worldly interest, crying "Great is Diana of the Ephesians:" or, 2dly, When,under the influence of the love of truth, he, like every lover, is hurried without due and cautious inquiry by the hope of possessing the object of his affections: which manifests itself either in hasty assent, or hasty generalization, the parents of credulity-in tenacity in retaining opinions, the parent of prejudice-in abandoning universality, the parent of feeble inquiry-or in indulging in subtleties and refinements and endless inquiry, the parent of vain speculations, spinning out of itself cobwebs of learning, admirable for their fineness of texture, but of no substance or profit. As men associate by discourse, and words are imposed according to the capacity of the vulgar, a false and improper imposition of words unavoidably possesses the understanding, leading men away to idle controversies and subtleties, irremediable by definitions, which, consisting of words, shoot back, like the Tartar's bow, upon the judgment from whence they came. Upon the destruction of these idols, Bacon is unceasing in his exhortations. "They must," he says, "by the lover of truth be solemnly and forever renounced, that the understanding may be purged and cleansed; for the kingdom of man, which is founded in the sciences, can scarce be entered otherwise than the Kingdom of God, that is, in the condition of little children :" and, with an earnestness not often found in his works, he adds, "If we have any humility towards the Creator; if we have any reverence and esteem of his works; if we have any charity towards men, or any desire of relieving their miseries and necessities; if we have any love for natural truths; any aversion to darkness, any desire of purifying the understanding, we must destroy these idols, which have led experience captive, and childishly These defects of words, or Idols of the Market, triumphed over the works of God; and now at are either names of non-existences, as the primum length condescend, with due submission and vemobile, the element of fire, &c.; or confused names neration, to approach and peruse the volume of of existences, as beauty, virtue, &c.; which, from the creation; dwell some time upon it, and bringthe subtlety of nature being infinite, and of words ing to the work a mind well purged of opinions, finite, must always exist. Words tell the mi-idols, and false notions, converse familiarly therenutes, but not the seconds. When we attempt to in. This volume is the language which has gone reach heaven, we are stopped by the confusion of out to all the ends of the earth, unaffected by the languages. confusion of Babel; this is the language that men should thoroughly learn, and not disdain to have its alphabet perpetually in their hands; and in the interpretation of this language they should spare no pains, but strenuously proceed, persevere, and dwell upon it to the last." The Idols of the Den, or attachment by particular individuals to particular opinions, he thus explains: "We every one of us have our particular den or cavern, which refracts and corrupts the light of nature; either because every man has his respective temper, education, acquaintance, course Such is a faint outline of Bacon's celebrated of reading, and authorities; or from the difference doctrine of idols, which has sometimes been supof impressions, as they happen in a mind preju-posed to be the most important of all his works, diced or prepossessed, or in one that is calm and and to expose the cause of all the errors by which equal. Of which defects Plato's cave is an ex- man is misled. cellent emblem: for, certainly, if a man were continued from his childhood to mature age in a grotto or dark and subterraneous cave, and then should come suddenly abroad, and should behold the stately canopy of heaven and the furniture of the world, without doubt he would have many strange and absurd imaginations come into his mind and people his brain. So in like manner we live in the view of heaven, yet our spirits are enclosed in the caves of our bodies, complexions, and customs, which must needs minister unto us infinite images of error and vain opinions, if they do seldom and for so short a time appear above ground out of their holes, and do not continually live under the contemplation of nature, as in the open air." Of these Idols of the Den, the attachment of professional men, divines, lawyers, poli Upon the motives by which the lover of truth, seeking nature with all her fruits abcut her, can alone be actuated, and which he has explained in other parts of his works, he, in the Novum Or ganum, contents himself with saying, “We would in general admonish all to consider the true ends of knowledge, and not to seek it for the gra tification of their minds, or for disputation, or that they may despise others, or for emolument, or fame, or power, or such low objects, but for its intrinsic merit and the purposes of life." The obstacles to the are: 1. Want of time, 2. Want of means. acquisition of knowledge 1. Worldly occupation |