418 ON THE SCOPE AND INFLUENCE OF THE 
Sorsierre, in his famous Voyage en Angleterre, published in 
1664, is probably entitled to more consideration than his 
own name could, of itself, attach to it; tor he had acted for 
some time as the Secretary of one of those associations of Pari- 
sian philosophers in which the Academy of Scicnees had its be- 
ginning *. “ Ce grand homme,” says he, speaking of Bacon, 
“ est sans doute celuy qui a le plus puissamment solicité les in- 
“ terests de la physique, et excité le monde a faire des ex- 
* periences +.” A similar observation is made, and in words 
equally strong, by the Abbé Gators, in one of the numbers 
of the Journal des Savans, published in 1666; a year signalized 
by the establishment of the Academy of Sciences {. Bacon is 
also represented as the father of the inductive or experimental 
method, by Joun Baptiste pu Hamet, the person who first 
held the office of Secretary to that Academy. His treatise De 
Mente Humana, published in 1672, contains seyeral chapters 
of commentary upon Bacon’s Philosophy ||.. We are told by 
FontTENELLE, that Du Hamen was censured by his contempo- 
raries, as not being sufficiently regardful of the merits of Des- 
cartes §. With such views as he seems to have imbibed 
from the writings of Bacon, he must, indeed, have been but 
little disposed to look up to Descartes as the oracle of philo- 
sophy. big 
It 
* Bincn’s History of the Royal Society, vol. i. p. 27. 
+ SorsrerRe, Relation Cun Voyage en Angleterre. 
+ « On peut dire que ce grand Chancelier est un de ceux qui ont Jes plus con. 
tribué 3 3 Pavancement des sciences.”—Journal des Savans, du 2. Mars, 1666. 
\| Lib. i. cap. 3. § 7.5 Lib. iii. cap. 6, 7, 8, 9. 
§ Fonrenzuie, Eloge de Du Hamel. 
