THE MEDIAEVAL ATTITUDE 



science. His new method has had an enormous influ- 

 ence on thought. It did make an end to the almost 

 purely deductive method of the Greeks and, while 

 modern science does make use of unverifiable hy- 

 potheses of a deductive character, the main empha- 

 sis is now placed on the inductive method. And it is 

 no exaggeration to say that biology and evolution 

 were indirectly advanced to sciences by Bacon be- 

 cause he proposed to treat organic phenomena on a 

 rational basis to the exclusion of the miraculous; he 

 was the chief influence in preparing men to consider 

 life as a rational problem. 



Bacon's work has been the object of extravagant 

 praise and blame, but the most virulent and unjust 

 attack on him is that of Huxley" who, in his Essay 

 on the Progress of Science^ pauses in his laudatory re- 

 view of our acquisition of knowledge to hold the great 

 Chancellor up to scorn. He despises him as one who 

 sold his birth-right for a mess of pottage of Court 

 favour, although the retort is ready to hand that 

 Huxley is discussing the intellectual achievements of 

 men of genius and not analysing their characters, nor 

 does he consider the contemporaneous state of so- 

 ciety which did not forbid a Judge to receive gifts 

 unless it could be proved that they had affected his 

 judgements. Huxley also ridicules him because he 

 instructed others how to become men of science and 

 did not himself add anything of value to the acquisi- 



11 Collected Essays, vol. I, p. 42. 



C >o7 ] 



