it is true, not new; and so far as it is new, not true. But this language, however plausible, is not a fair way of putting the case, when we are speaking of merit. Because Bacon exaggerated the novelty and utility of his philosophy, it does not follow that it was not to some extent new, and, to a still greater extent, useful. To have concentrated and vitalized a great multitude of diffused, scarce-recognized, and inert truths, is not a very different work from discovering truth; and this at least Bacon did.

Never before had scientific Induction been so clearly set before the world and so sharply distinguished from the "puerile" enumerative Induction prevalent among the Aristotelians; and although the pretensions of the new method to facility and certainty were raised too high, they cannot be dismissed as altogether false. Again, the cautions against the inherent fallacies of the mind; the inculcation of the study of nature and not books, of things and not words; the subordination of the Syllogism to Induction; the directions. to use, to vary, and to select experiments, illustrated by many experiments of Bacon's own devising, some of which are by high authority deemed valuable as well as original; the erection of a scientific standard for Natural History; the recommendation, practically exemplified, to attend to the small things and unpretending processes of Nature; the great stress laid upon the advantages of the intelligent co-operation of many workers to one end; and, above all perhaps, the hopeful confidence with which the Founder of the New Philosophy urges his disciples to cast away old conceptions and devote themselves anew to the study of Nature in the perfect certainty that her secrets will be so revealed as to make man her Master-all these unquestionable characteristics of Bacon's works produce on his readers an impression which, even now in these days of scientific achievement, cannot be regarded as false, or useless, or antiquated,

It is in the application of his philosophy to special subjects that he appears at his weakest. What the discoverer of the circulation of the blood thought of his writings, so far as they touched on physiology, we have already heard ;1 his astronomical theories would now be deemed monstrosities; 1 See above, p. 176.

and from his works on the Winds, Tides, Density, and Heat, might be collected a long list of errors and inaccuracies. Against these may be set however observations and precepts so intuitively felicitous that they have elicited the approval of Haller and Herschel, the latter of whom declares that some of Bacon's suggested experiments on light might well be supposed to have been borrowed from Newton; and the results at which he arrived, in the investigation of Heat, he sets forth in language not greatly differing from that which in modern times describes Heat as a Mode of Motion. On the whole, however, the balance (so far as concerns special subjects) is decidedly against Bacon; for many of his inaccuracies and errors are due to his own carelessness, and still more to his ignorance of the previous discoveries of his contemporaries. His first treatise on Heat, which must have been written long after the discovery of the principle of the Thermometer, makes no reference to it, and even in the Novum Organum, where he mentions the air thermometer, he still proceeds on the old theory that some things are hot, others (liquids for example) cold: "Experiments with a thermometer would have shown that they were not. But these Bacon did not try" (Ellis). Similarly the want of attention to the discoveries of Galileo made him commit himself to an opposition (the more pronounced as he grew older) against the Copernican theory of astronomy.

Whether the avoidance of these errors would have suggested to him any modification of his whole system, may be doubted; correct views of astronomy,1 it is said, would probably not have helped him to perfect the Novum Organum. But these and other glaring errors have always been blemishes on his reputation. as a philosopher, and have led many to under-rate his industry and scientific intuition. This is perhaps a just retribution. It was not want of industry, but want of leisure, and the desire to do many things, that engendered this habit of inaccuracy and this negligence of the discoveries of others: and for his want of leisure he was himself to blame, because he deliberately preferred the life of a courtier and a politician to the life of a seeker after truth.

Yet, as a popularizer of truth, he gained from his position, of 1 Professor Fowler's Francis Bacon, p. 196.

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 arrange

ments for the proposed College :

"Giving pensions to four, for search to compile the two histories ut supra (i.e. 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.
See above, p. 44.

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.