876 ON THE SCOPE AND INFLUENCE OF THE 
quiry ; and both consider his writings as fixing a new and 
important era in the history of Modern Science. The obser- 
vations made by the former upon these points, have been exa- 
mined at considerable length in an able article of the Journal 
referred to; and the following passage contains the sum of 
what is there advanced in regard to the general scope and cha- 
racter of Bacon’s Philosophy. “ The topic on which Mr 
“ Srewarr chiefly dwells, while panegyrizing the Philosophy 
“ of Bacon, is the respect which it pays to the limits, the laws, 
“ and resources of the human understanding ; and this is sure- 
“ ly the most extraordinary topic of any which he has select- 
“ ed. There is scarcely a page in the Novum Organum, that 
“ does not furnish a contradiction to it.—So little, indeed, 
“ can Bacon be considered as having risen in any great de- 
“ gree above the age in which -he lived, with respect to his 
“ views as to the proper aim of philosophy, or the proper 
“ limits of the human understanding, that he even goes 
“ so far as to give us formal receipts for the making of 
“ gold, and performing other prodigies, which he tells us he 
“ judges very possible. With the exception of the disciples of 
“ Raymonp Lutty and Jorpano Bruno, the extravagant spe- 
“ culations in which Bacon wished to embark philosophy, had 
“ been long abandoned by sober inquirers *.” 
It 
* Quarterly Review, No. xxxiii. p. 50.—The writer of this article seems to have 
been anxious to find some great names to countenance what he has advanced in 
regard to the very inferior merits of Bacon’s philosophical writings. What his 
success has been in this endeavour, the following extract will shew. 
« IT remember, said Sir Josuva Reynoxps, that Mr Burke, speaking of Ba- 
eon’s Essays, said, he thought them the best of his works. Dr Jounson was 
of opinion, that their excellence and their value consisted in their being obser- 
vations of a strong mind operating upon life; and in consequence you find 
there 
