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blindfold. Voltaire and the Encyclopaedists having declared 

 Bacon was the founder of the experimental method, they endorse 

 this view, and praise Bacon as being the father of the inductive 

 system — and they make it their business to propagate the myth 

 without the least suspicion of its being groundless. These 

 popular exponents of Bacon's greatness as a natural philosopher 

 to whom the scientific progress since his time is due, are 

 Whewell, Ellis, Spedding, Lewis, Buckley, Macaulay, Lecky, 

 Church, and Abbott. Dr. Abbott's verdict of Bacon's scientific 

 greatness is the only summary we need examine. According fo 

 Dr. Abbott — "Bacon's gigantic soul, conscious of gigantic 

 purposes such as the regeneration and improvement of mankind ; 

 conscious that he was born for the service of humanity ; and 

 sure that he had found the infallible key to absolute success, 

 became blind to all else to insure his purpose ; sacrificed every- 

 thing to become rich and powerful, because riches and power 

 alone could insure his scheme of scientific renovation." 



" Regeneration of mankind ! " Would it not seem that Dr. 

 Abbott had never heard of the Renaissance and the Reformation ; 

 or that these two unparalleled intellectual revolutions were the 

 work of Bacon ? We are told that Bacon at the age of fifteen had 

 conceived a dislike to Aristotle, and thus early planned a scheme 

 of scientific and philosophical reform. But what are the facts. 

 At fifteen he went to Paris as a junior "attache " to the British 

 Embassy. In Paris he followed the course of lectures of the 

 Ramists, who thundered against Aristotelian philosophy. This 

 was his first inspiration. Then he studied the works and views 

 of the Anti-Aristotelians of the time — the works and views of 

 Basso, Taurellus, Severinus, Patrizis, and Telesio — all directed 

 against Greek philosophy, all advocating the study of nature and 

 the pursuit of experiments. This was the source of his second 

 inspiration. Three centuries before, Roger Bacon had founded 

 the experimental school and preached inductive philosophy — and 

 a century before Francis Bacon was born, Leonardo da Vinci had 

 expounded the principles of experimental research — and we have 

 evidence that Francis Bacon studied the works of those two 

 great reformers. Lastly Luther, long before Bacon, had opened 

 the era of free inquiry and contempt of authority. From those 

 various sources it was that Francis Bacon drew his materials and 

 principles. He was one of a numerous phalanx — a phalanx 

 headed by great men. He received the scheme, the plan of 

 scientific reform ready made. He was merely a straw floating on 

 the stream. We are told that he destroyed scholastic philosophy > 



