LALLA PLEA LLL A INE: 
PHILOSOPHICAL WRITINGS OF LORD BACON. 418 
“ he was designed to begin shortly, an edition in quarto, of all 
“ the works of Lord Bacon ; and he desired my advice, and 
* any assistance I eould give him; to the end that, as far as 
“ possible, these works might come abroad with advantage, 
which have been long received with the kindest eulogies, and 
“ with the most attested applause of the learned world*.” ‘This 
letter was written in 1652, only twenty-six years after Bacon’s 
death ; and the important statement which it contains, in re- 
gard to the early impression made by his writings in foreign 
countries, will be found fully corroborated by a more particu- 
lar examination of their literary records. 
With respect to France, the only direct authority to which 
Mr Srewarr refers, when he states it as “ an unquestionable 
“ fact,” that Bacon’s writings were little known in that coun- 
try till after the publication of the Encyclopedie, is that of 
Montvucra. After quoting a short passage to that effect from 
the preface to this writer’s History of Mathematics, he farther 
remarks, in a Note, that “ Bayrz has devoted to Bacon only 
« twelve lines of his Dictionary +.” But, surely,no weight what- 
ever can be attached to this circumstance, when it is recollect- 
ed, that Bayie has not devoted even one line of that work, 
in the shape of a separate article, either to Gatmro or Des- 
cartes. I must, besides, observe, that his notice of Ba- 
con, scanty as it is, yet contains enough to show, that 
Monructa’s observation is not well founded. The article 
mentions, generally, that Bacon’s writings “ had been favour- 
“ ably 
“cc 
* Tennison’s Baconiana, p. 229.—Dr Wars, in the Dedication prefixed to his 
translation of the De dugmentis Scientiarum, published in 1674, speaks of Bacon 
“as an author well known in the European world.”—Dr Suaw, in the Preface to 
his edition of Bacon’s works, published in 1733, says, that “ foreigners appear 
to have extolled him in a superlative manner.” 
+ Dissertation, p. 58. 
