During the reign of Elizabeth, Bacon published a little book, which he called "Essays, or Counsels Civil and Moral." He uses the word essay in the sense of a testing or weighing of things, so as to prove their real value. These essays were originally ten in number, but were afterwards increased to fifty-eight. They are careful studies of the due value of a number of things belonging to the mind of man and his life in this world-such as "Truth," "Adversity," "Studies," "Friendship," "Travel," "Expence," "Discourse," "Great Place," "Plantations," "Buildings," "Gardens," &c., &c. In these essays of the things of human character and life, Bacon was using the same principle of testing or trying the nature of things, as he was endeavouring to introduce for the purpose of enlarging the knowledge of Nature, and making it serviceable to man. Bacon's plan for teaching his system of philosophy was to write a series of works, all to be comprehended under the name of "Instauratio Magna," or the Great Building-up. There were to be six books:(1) The Advancement of Learning; (2) The "Novum Organum," or the New Instrument for getting Knowledge; (3) "The Experimental History of Nature;" (4) The "Scala Intellectus," or the Arrangement of Experiment into Science; (5) The Anticipations of what Experiment may Teach; (6) "Active Science, or the Application of Science to the Uses of Man." The chief features in Bacon's philosophy were his more correct view of the relation of Nature to man; and his method for enlarging man's knowledge of Nature. The old fear of Nature, as the enemy of man, had given way in some measure before a better knowledge of God; but Bacon now distinctly taught that Nature is a kingdom, given by God to man, rich in treasures for his help and comfort. To enter the kingdom of Nature and subdue it, three things were necessary-first, obedience to its laws; second, to come to Nature as a child to be taught; third, to use experiment in order to find out and test assertions,

before receiving them as truth. This last Bacon called his new organon, or instrument, in distinction from the old organon, or instrument used by Aristotle for proving truth. Aristotle's system accepted certain general statements as facts, and without testing the truth of these, proceeded to draw conclusions from them. If the original propositions were always true, then the knowledge implied in them might be extended to particulars; but it must be first proved that the general statements were universally and at all times correct. Thus we may assert, as a general proposition, "all metals are solid;" then of any particular metal, such as iron, we may reason, "all metals are solid; iron is a metal, therefore iron is solid." Thus we seem to arrive by reasoning at the knowledge that iron is solid, though we may never have seen a piece of iron. Aristotle's method is called deduction, because from a general statement we deduce a particular conclusion.

But Bacon would say: there may be metals in the earth which are not solid; or there may be conditions under which metals, solid at one time, are liquid at another. Experiment must then be used, and different kinds of metals must be procured, and subjected to the test of different conditions. By experimenting on them in this way, we should arrive at the knowledge that at certain degrees of heat, all metals become liquid; and we might also discover that one metal-quicksilver-is liquid, even at a very moderate degree of heat. The knowledge of the effects of heat would be thus enlarged; and out of all the particular instances where we had tried its effects on metals, we make at last the general statement—at certain degrees of heat all metals become liquid. This process is called induction, because, from a number of particular cases, we are led to form a general statement. We must not suppose, however, that Bacon's method does away with Aristotle's. The mistake made before Bacon's time was that general state

ments were assumed, without being proved by experiment. As soon as a general statement has been formed by careful induction, reasoning can again take the place of experiment. Thus, when it is fully established as a general law that "at certain degrees of heat all metals become liquid,” we need not in particular cases make use again of experiment; but we can use Aristotle's method, and say “At certain degrees of heat all metals become liquid; iron is a metal, therefore at a certain degree of heat it will become liquid." Bacon also taught, that as soon as general laws had been established by careful induction, the next process was to discover by reasoning, or deduction, how they could be turned to account in useful inventions for the help and comfort of man.

Bacon's writings on Nature, and the right way of gaining a knowledge of it, roused many persons to a patient, careful study of the world around them. At first the strife of the civil war, and the intense interest of the political struggle for constitutional freedom, so engrossed men's minds, that they could scarcely feel the importance of anything else; but even in the midst of the conflict there were a few persons who began to study Nature on Bacon's method. They met together to compare the results of their experiments; and after the restoration of Charles II. they formed themselves into a society for the pursuit of science, which still exists as the Royal Society.

CHAPTER XII.

JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. (1603-1649).

As we pass from the age of Elizabeth to that of James I. we shall find that the conditions of the new time were in many respects less favourable to the growth of English Literature. But notwithstanding this, some of the old life was active and strong, and there were still many men who saw more clearly than others the true ideal, and who strove to express it in different forms—

"Giving virtue a new birth,

And a life that ne'er grows old."

And indeed some of these forms were higher than any literature, for they were practical efforts to raise human life and the world to the highest ideal, and thus to make reality of the noble dreams of the best men.

We have seen how the drama had been one of the chief glories of the Elizabethan literature. During the first half of James I.'s reign, Shakespeare was writing his best plays, and Ben Jonson was still at work; so also were other play-writers who had grown to manhood and had begun their work before Elizabeth's death. But even before these passed away the play-writers of the Stuart time began to lose sight of the high purpose which the Elizabethan dramatists had kept in view. There was a change also in the audience at the theatres. The Puritans looked on earthly life as opposed to spiritual, and this caused them to strongly object to the drama, which represents human

life more vividly than any other form of literature, and thus a number of truth-loving, right-minded persons of the middle class, who in Elizabeth's days made up a great part of the audience at the theatres, gave up going to plays. At Court, and among those who followed Court fashion, low views of life prevailed, and a corrupt taste had sprung up for stories of evil passions. It was for such an audience that the playwriters of the Stuart time wrote their plays. At the end of the reign of Charles I., when the Puritans were in power, the theatres were closed by Act of Parliament.

Religious controversy was still active, but there was less dispute respecting reforms in the Church. On James's accession he had called a conference of the clergy and the Puritans at Hampton Court, and the objections of the Puritans to the Book of Common Prayer were stated; but it was found that the alterations proposed by the Puritans affected the constitution of the Church itself, and nothing was done. From that time the hope of making the English Church what they wished was given up by the Puritans, and they began more and more to establish congregations outside of the National Church.

The controversies of James's reign are chiefly important on account of their having led to two other lines of workthe new translation of the Bible, and the study of history and antiquities. When James I. came to the throne, two translations of the Bible were in use the Bishops' Bible and the Geneva Bible. The Bishops' Bible was a translation made in Elizabeth's reign under the direction of Archbishop Parker. The translators were fifteen learned men, most of whom were bishops. The Geneva Bible was a translation made by the English Protestants who took refuge at Geneva during the persecutions in Queen Mary's reign. At the Hampton Court Conference the clergy quoted the Bishops' Bible and the Puritans the Geneva, in support of their arguments, and the difference in the two trans