FRANCIS BACON AND THE UNIVERSITY 323 



be felt by comparing the strange and antiquated terms in the outline 

 of Books III. and IV. of the Advancement, where Bacon catalogues 

 the sciences, with the list of departments of study in some great uni- 

 versity of to-day. The sciences of which Bacon knew have been ad- 

 vanced to a place far beyond the highest imaginings of even his great 

 mind in that time ; and new regions of knowledge have been opened of 

 which he could not dream. Even more significant is the fact that we 

 have given up believing in even the possibility of a finished science; 

 all are unfinished, and therefore it is the duty of every devotee to labor 

 for advance. The universities, after centuries of inertia, have at last 

 waked, or rather been somewhat vigorously aroused, to their duty to be 

 creators as well as conservators of the store of knowledge. 



Thus when the sixteenth century had barely closed, Bacon pointed 

 out these six ways in which higher education and research needed to 

 advance: a more liberal curriculum, more generous financial support, 

 better and more abundant apparatus for experiment and investigation, 

 a rational organization of the course of study, sympathy and coopera- 

 tion between all colleges and universities, and the prosecution of the 

 ' unfinished sciences.' History has wonderfully justified his verdict, 

 and we may well pronounce him the prophet of the modern university. 



