PHILOSOPHICAL WRITINGS OF LORD BACON. —- 883 
Bacon could deliver a wise system of rules for the advance- 
ment.of physics, without having any just notions of the true 
nature of philosophical inquiry. ‘The object to which Bacon 
directed the attention of his followers, was the very object he 
was desirous they should accomplish,—the regeneration of 
philosophy by means of a well-regulated use of observation 
and experiment. The benefits, if any, which accrued to man- 
kind from his. directions, were obtained precisely in the way, 
and were precisely of the kind, which he pointed out and pro- 
mised. Thus, the case of A‘sor’s husbandman is so far from 
furnishing an illustration of Bacon’s connection with the ad- 
vancement of physics, that there is evidently no ground what- 
ever for such a parallel; and the writer who institutes it only 
proves, that he has altogether mistaken the true bearings of the 
question. But, before proceeding to state the proofs ‘of this 
connection, it will be proper to show somewhat more fully, 
that Bacon’s philosophical merit was of the highest kind, om 
that. it was wholly unshared by any other person. 
Bacon’s grand distinction, then, considered as an improver 
of physics, lies in this, that he was the first who clearly and 
fully pointed out the rules and safeguards of right reasoning 
in physical inquiries. Many other philosophers, both an- 
cient and modern, had referred to observation and: experi- 
ment in a cursory way, as furnishing the materials of physi- 
cal knowledge; but no one, before him, had attempted to 
systematize the true method of discovery ; or to prove, that 
the Inductive, is the only method by which the genuine of- 
fice of philosophy can be exercised, and its genuine ends ac- 
complished. It has sometimes been stated, that Ga itro 
was, at least in an equal degree with Bacon, the father of the 
Inductive Logic; but it would be more correct to say, that his 
discoveries 
