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SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY. 



WORCESTER LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTION. 



A Survey of the Life, Character, and Writings of the great Lord 

 Bacon, was the subject of a Lecture delivered by Dr. Maiden, at this 

 Institution, on Monday evening, the 15th of September. 



If the only good this Institution accomplished were the drawing out 

 of intellectual treasures, it would be most worthy of general patronage — 

 but it has other merits : it is an arena in which instruction assumes her 

 most engaging form, and the rugged road to eminence in the arts and 

 sciences is made smooth and attractive to all orders of the community. 

 Here is a theatre in which talent may appear, and pour forth its rich 

 treasures, sure of the reward which genius and learning never fail to 

 command — and here are offered facilities of every description to the 

 acquirement of general knowledge. Who would have ventured to 

 predict ten years ago that a Literary and Scientific Institution, a Natural 

 History Society, and a splendid Exhibition of the Fine Arts, would be 

 the boast and ornament of Worcester ? With the exception of Birming- 

 ham, Liverpool, and Bristol, the population of each of which places 

 exceeds that of Worcester almost sixfold, where shall we meet with such 

 receptacles of learning, science, and taste, or where shall we find them 

 supported by such talent, or marked by such practical utility ? We 

 mean not to disparage other Institutions ; but it should not be forgotten 

 in the history of intellectual improvement in the provinces, that the 

 residents of the county and city of Worcester were the first to prove and 

 maintain by their example the indissoluble alliance of literature, science, 

 and the arts. 



" Suaves filise, triplici junctse nexu." 



From this digression we now revert to the matter from which we have 

 strayed — ** Dr. Maiden's Lecture on the Life, Character, and Writings 

 of the immortal Bacon.'' 



After an exordium, remarkable for its eloquence, the Lecturer entered 

 upon his subject, which he handled with much good taste, sound 

 judgment, and critical acumen. 



His apostrophe to science, which he aptly compared to a sacred 

 river, was well conceived, and delivered with considerable animation 

 and feeling. 



The Lecturer, it should be observed, did not deliver a dry oration 

 on the life and writings of Bacon — but intertwined with them the most 

 interesting portion of the reigns of Elizabeth and James. 



It is a melancholy reflection, but one too well confirmed by time and 

 experience to admit of doubt, that supreme talents, the most brilliant 

 imagination, and the soundest learning, afford no security against the 

 common frailties of human nature. Bacon harboured the sin of ingratitude. 

 His constant and firm friend in all his dif^culties and embarrassments (and 

 he was involved in many) was the generous and noble-minded Lord Essex, 

 who assisted him on every pressing emergency from his private purse, 

 and even gave him an estate, which he ultimately sold for more than 

 eighteen hundred pounds ! The history of Earl Essex's fate is well known 

 — but it is not so extensively known that the pen of Bacon was employed 

 by the Court to extinguish the pity and lull the murmurs of the people, by 

 heaping calumny on the head of a victim basely sacrificed to state policy. 



NO. III. 2f 



