But the new de facto government was not yet recognized by the outside world, and was suspected by many who spoke authoritatively as the appointed champions of Religion. At this particular time, therefore, there was need of some herald of Philosophy to proclaim the new kingdom, and to summon the world to a solemn coronation of the new sovereign. 'I am but a trumpeter, not a combatant,' writes the author of the De Augmentis; and whatever more he did or failed to do, certainly he succeeded in sounding forth through the civilized world a note of triumph, preparing the way for the welcome of the New Philosophy by men of letters, by men of the world, by prelates, nobles, and kings.

Neither the tone, nor the merits, nor the results of Bacon's philosophical works will be appreciated by any who have not learned to sympathize with the social timidity of the discoverers in the sixteenth, and even in the seventeenth centuries. Fundamental innovations in Natural Philosophy were at that time regarded with something of the fear and hatred inspired by theological heresies. Galileo (1597) writes to Kepler that he had personally adopted the Copernican system some years before, but that he continued to teach in public the Ptolemaic system. Even as late as 1628, not in Italy but in England, and not dealing with Astronomy (which might have seemed a Biblical province) but with the circulation of the blood, Harvey writes: 'So new and unheard of are my discoveries that I not only anticipate some evil from the envy of particular persons, but even dread incurring the enmity of all.'

Hence, in part, may we explain Bacon's anxiety to obtain a peaceable entrance for his philosophy, and his desire to gain the help of kings, nobles, and bishops; hence his various literary experiments, anonymous or otherwise, some attacking the old philosophy, some

recommending the new; some abstruse, some popular; some directly and avowedly philosophical, some (as for example the Wisdom of the Ancients) indirectly suggesting his philosophic tenets or (as in the New Atlantis or the Redargutio Philosophiarum) blending his view with a mixture of attractive fiction. To express his conciliatory purpose, he frequently uses an illustration derived from the peaceable occupation of Italy by the French under Charles VIII. As those invaders had no need to fight, but only to chalk up quarters' for their troops, so he hopes to find chalked up quarters' for the New Philosophy in the hearts of men.

6

The absence of encouragement for scientific work, and the isolation of scientific workers, were other disadvantages against which Bacon had to contend: and hence in the Advancement of Learning we shall find him advocating the endowment of readers in sciences and the provision of expenses for experiments, and by his last will attempting to supply this deficiency. He dislikes the religious controversies of the day, among other reasons because they divert the minds of men from science, and, in his earnest desire for a theological peace, he compares himself to the miller of Huntingdon, who 'prayed for peace among the willows that his water might have the more work.' Gilbert, Napier, Harriot, and in later times Harvey, found it necessary to prosecute their studies abroad. Of English scientific isolation Bacon himself presents a striking and blamable instance; for he appears to have known nothing of the results of Kepler's calculations, nor of Napier's logarithms, nor of Galileo's experiments on falling bodies. Harriot is a still more striking instance of this isolation, not indeed that, like Bacon, he is ignorant, but rather that he is ignored. Not till 1788 was it ascertained from the inspection of his papers that he had been the first to discover the solar spots, and that he

had observed the satellites of Jupiter simultaneously with Galileo. For the leisure necessary for these researches he was indebted to the Earl of Northumberland, who, besides maintaining many other learned men, had settled on him a pension of £300 a year. Concerning this great mathematician Bacon makes a note in his Commentarius Solutus; but it is merely to the effect that he is 'inclined to experiments.' We cannot be surprised if hereafter we find Bacon in his keen realization of the evils arising from the isolation of the laborers in the field of science laying great, and perhaps too great, stress on the advantages to be expected from systematic division of labor and co-operation.

(WELD, History of the Royal Society 1. 57-59, 62–63.)

But it must not be forgotten how much is due to Lord Bacon, who died only thirty-six years before the incorporation of the Royal Society. With a comprehensive and commanding mind, patient in inquiry, subtile in discrimination, neither affecting novelty nor idolizing antiquity, Bacon formed, and in a great measure executed, his great work on the Instauration of the Sciences, which being clearly connected in its main features with the Royal Society, connects itself with our inquiry. The design was divided into six capital divisions. The first proposes a general survey of human knowledge, and is executed in the admirable treatise, The Advancement of Learning. In this Lord Bacon critically examines the state of learning in its various branches at that period, observes and points out defects and errors, and then suggests proper means for supplying omissions and rectifying mistakes.

The second and the most considerable part is the Novum Organum, in which the author, rejecting syllogism as a mere instrument of disputation, and putting no trust in the hypothetical systems of ancient philosophy,

recommends the more slow but more satisfactory_method of induction, which subjects natural objects to the test of observation and experience, and subdues nature by experiment and inquiry. It will be seen how rigidly the early Fellows of the Royal Society followed Bacon's advice.

The third part of the work is the Sylva Sylvarum, or history of nature, which furnishes materials for a natural and experimental history, embracing all the phenomena of the universe.

The fourth part, or Scala Intellectus, sets forth the steps or gradations by which the understanding may regularly ascend in philosophical inquiries, and is evidently intended as a particular application and illustration of the author's method of philosophizing.

The fifth part, or Anticipationes Philosophia Secundæ, was designed to contain philosophical hints and suggestions; but nothing of this remains, except the title and scheme.

The sixth portion was intended to exhibit the universal principles of natural knowledge deduced from experiments, in a regular and complete system; but this the author despaired of being himself able to accomplish. Having laid the foundation of a grand and noble edifice, he left the superstructure to be completed by the labors of future philosophers. . . .

It is, however, in his New Atlantis that we have the plan of such an institution as the Royal Society more distinctly set forth. . . .

Boyle, in his voluminous works, which extend to five large folios, frequently commemorates and honors the name of Bacon. In his treatise on the Mechanical Origin of Heat and Cold he tells us that 'Bacon was the first among the moderns who handled the doctrine of heat like an experimental philosopher'; in his Considerations touching Experimental Essays in General, that he had

made considerable collections, with the view of following up Bacon's plan of a natural history'; in his Experiments and Observations touching Cold he extols Bacon as 'the great ornament and guide of the philosophical historians. of nature'; in his Excellency of Theology he says that Bacon was 'the great restorer of physics, and had traced out the most useful way to make discoveries'; and he writes in his Essay on the Usefulness of Experimental Philosophy, it was owing to the sagacity and freedom of Lord Bacon that men were then pretty well enabled both to make discoveries and to remove the impediments that had hitherto kept physics from being useful.'

Various other writers of this period might be quoted, who pay grateful homage to Bacon for the service he rendered to science, some calling him the 'Patriarch of Experimental Philosophy.' 'If,' says Dr. Whewell, we must select some one philosopher as the hero of the revolution in scientific method, beyond all doubt Francis Bacon must occupy the place of honor.'

(HERSCHEL, Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy, pp. 113-116.)

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 stronger and better. This important task was executed by Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, who will therefore justly be looked upon in all future ages as the great reformer of philosophy, though his own actual contributions to the stock of physical truths were small, and his ideas of particular points strongly tinctured with mistakes and errors, which were