a great person in the Court, some advantages which may be thought to compensate for the disadvantages to which he subjected himself, as a worker in the field of Science. The study of things instead of words, and the practice of the Art of Experimentation-which had been degraded by its association with the Alchemists-received dignity when they were recommended by the precept and example of a Lord Chancellor. "There can be little doubt" says Professor Fowler,1 "that the foundation of the Royal Society in England (and possibly the same origin may be assigned to some similar societies on the continent) was due to the impulse given by Bacon to the study of experimental science and the plans which he had devised for its prosecution." These words point to a vague, indefinite kind of influence, by no means such as Bacon himself would have preferred. Although in one or two famous passages he describes himself as a mere "bell-ringer" to "call the other wits together," he elsewhere states his claims for himself, or rather for his work, in a far higher tone. But, after all, we may recognize in the result a certain fitness of things. If, according to Harvey's sneer, he wrote about philosophy like a Lord Chancellor, at all events it may be retorted that he also popularized philosophy like a Lord Chancellor. If his influence is vague and indefinite, it will probably on that very account be all the more lasting. Few men now read the works of Copernicus or Kepler. Their great discoveries are transferred to the works of later authors. But no English-speaking author can ever hope to transfer to himself the Baconian charm. By a strange irony of Providence, the great depreciator of words and the professed despiser of "terrestrial hope" seems destined to derive an immortal memory from the rich variety of his style and the vastness of his too sanguine expectations. 1 Francis Bacon, p. 196. LITERARY WORKS $ 58 THE "NEW ATLANTIS; "HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII." 2 As early as 1608 we find Bacon in the Commentarius Solutus (see p. 154) seriously considering the possibility of securing some College for combined research subject to his direction; "laying for a place to command wits and pens; Westminster, Eton, Winchester, Trinity or St. John's at Cambridge, Magdalene College, Oxford." He even enters into details of the arrangements for the proposed College: Giving pensions to four, for search to compile the two histories ut supra (ie. the History of Marvels and the History of Mechanical Arts). Foundation of a college for Inventors. Two galleries with statuas for Inventors past, and spaces, or bases, for Inventors to come. And a Library and an Inginary. Query, of the order and discipline, to be mixed with some points popular to invite many to contribute and join. Query, of the rules and prescripts of their studies and inquiries. Allowance for travelling. Allowance for experiments. Intelligence and correspondence with the Universities abroad. Query, of the manner and prescripts touching secrecy, tradition, and publication. Query, of removes and expulsions in case, within a time, some invention worthy be not produced. And likewise query of the honours and rewards for inventions. Vaults, furnaces, terraces for insulation, workhouses of all sorts." Going further back, to 1594, we find Bacon, in the Gesta Grayorum, suggesting as a work fit for a mighty Prince, the creation of a great Palace of Invention, with "a most perfect and general library," "a spacious, wonderful garden," "a goodly huge cabinet or museum," and "such a still-house, so furnished with mills, instruments, furnaces, and vessels, as may be a palace fit for a philosopher's stone." It seems probable that soon after the death of Cecil in 1612, when Bacon aspired to be the King's chief counsellor as well as the founder of a new philosophy, 1 Spedding, Works, iii. 119-166. 3 Spedding, iv. 66. 2 Ibid. vi. 1-264. and when the distractions of political and legal business prevented him from doing any serious work at philosophy, he sat down to amuse himself, and perhaps to excite the co-operation of others, by painting a bright picture of an ideal Palace of Invention in an ideal State. To this fragment he gave the name of the New Atlantis.1 It was published by Dr. Rawley, Bacon's Chaplain, in 1627, at the end of the volume containing the Sylva Sylvarum, with a Preface in which the editor informs us that the object of the work was not only to sketch the model of "Salomon's House" -the name given to the imaginary College instituted for the interpretation of nature-but also to describe the laws and constitution of an ideal commonwealth. "This fable my Lord devised to the end that he might exhibit therein a model or description of a college instituted for the interpreting of nature and the producing of great and marvellous works for the benefit of men, under the name of Salomon's House, or the college of the Six Days' Works. And even so far his Lordship hath proceeded, as to finish that part. Certainly the model is more vast and high than can possibly be imitated in all things, notwithstanding most things therein are within men's power to effect. His Lordship thought also in this present fable to have composed a frame of Laws, or of the best state or mould of a Commonwealth; but foreseeing it would be a long work, his desire of collecting the Natural History diverted him, which he preferred many degrees before it." The earlier part of the fragment, describing the landing of certain voyagers on the before unknown island called New Atlantis and their first impressions of the natives, dwells in a very interesting way on the qualities which Bacon appears to have rated highest in every nation and perhaps to have regretted most as being absent from his own. The main characteristic of the Atlantic citizens is orderliness. They are orderly and seemly alike in their pleasures and in their tasks; their enjoyments are sober, their splendour is tasteful; a due division of labour and of the results of labour diffuses universal contentment; they are humane, courteous, and systematically 1 "The New Atlantis has hitherto been ascribed to a later period in Bacon's life, but... is twice mentioned by him in an unpublished paper (Harleian Charters, iii. D. 14), the date of which lies between the dissolution of Parliament in 1614 and Bacon's appointment as Lord Keeper in 1617."-Dictionary of National Biography, "Bacon," by S. R. Gardiner, ii. 344. liberal to strangers. Special stress is laid on the incorruptibility of all officials, who accompany their rejection of gifts with the saying that they refuse to be "twice paid." Bacon is always at his best in prayers, prefaces, thanksgivings, and dreamy descriptions of what he is intending to do. Moreover this dream was written, not in Latin, like the Sapientia Veterum and almost all the rest of Bacon's more important works, but in English, and in a very interesting style. An Oriental love of colour pervades the book; Hebrews and Hebrew words and Hebrew customs play a prominent part in it; and no language less dignified than Spanish is tolerated in its pages. Rich, majestic pomp; sage and solemn ceremonies; a recognition of degrees, ranks, and orders in the State as being appointed by God and necessary for the happiness of man; a religion that combines the charity and breadth of the New Testament with something of the more earthly and material thoughts and ritual of the Old; an exaltation of material wealth, comfort, and prosperity, as being the natural results of a devout pursuit of Science in an orderly and religious countrysuch are the salient features of this most interesting fragment. Bacon has put into it perhaps more of his own self, his tastes, his preferences, his ideals, than into any other of his writings and, as it is comparatively unknown, the reader may be glad to see a few specimens of it. The first few lines skilfully transport us far away from home and from all known regions. After a year's sojourn at Peru, certain mariners sail for China and Japan by the South Sea, taking with them victuals for twelve months. A prosperous voyage of five months is succeeded by contrary winds which carry them for more than seven months out of their course, so that their victuals fail. Finding themselves without food "in the midst of the greatest wilderness of waters in the world," they gave themselves up for lost; yet "did they lift up their hearts and voices to God above who showeth His wonders in the deep;" and it came to pass that presently they discerned a land "flat and full of boscage; " but they are prevented from landing by "divers of the people, with bastons in their hands; yet without any cries or fierceness, but only as warning us off by signs that they made." Soon comes one aboard bearing "a E E tipstaff of a yellow cane tipped at both ends with blue," and a scroll of yellow parchment, on which was written "in ancient Hebrew, and in ancient Greek, and in good Latin of the School, and in Spanish," a prohibition to land, but a permission to remain in harbour fourteen days and to have all their wants supplied; "this scroll was signed with a stamp of cherubins' wings, not spread but hanging downwards, and by them a cross."1 Troubled by this prohibition to, land they send a request to be exempted for the sake of their sick. To the servant who takes back their petition, they offer "some reward in pistolets, and a piece of crimson velvet to be presented to the officer; but the servant took them not, nor would scarce look upon them." About three hours afterwards there approaches in a boat a person, as it seemed, of place: "He had on him a gown with wide sleeves, of a kind of water chamolet, of an excellent azure colour, far more glossy than ours; his under-apparel was green; and so was his hat, being in the form of a turban, daintily made, and not so large as the Turkish turbans; and the locks of his hair came down below the brims of it. A reverend man was he to behold. . . . (He) stood up, and with a loud voice, in Spanish, asked 'Are ye Christians?' We answered 'We were'; fearing the less, because of the cross we had seen in the subscription. At which answer the said person lifted up his right hand towards heaven and drew it softly to his mouth (which is the gesture they use when they thank God) and then said: 'If ye will swear (all of you) by the merits of the Saviour that ye are no pirates, nor have shed blood lawfully nor unlawfully within forty days past, you may have licence to come on land."" Soon comes a notary to tender the oath, "holding in his hand a fruit of that country, like an orange, but of colour between orange-tawney and scarlet, which cast a most excellent odour. He used it (as it seemeth) for a preventative against infection." He also refused pistolets with a smile, saying "He must not be twice paid for one labour': meaning (as I take it) that he had salary sufficient of the State for his service. For (as I afterwards learned) they call an officer that taketh rewards twice 1 This combination of the "cherubin" and the "cross "is typical of the combination of the Jewish and the Christian element which may be traced throughout the book. Note, for example, below (as an instance of Hebrew feeling), that even the "lawful" shedding of blood, within forty days, would have precluded the mariners from landing. |