Not'icei respecting New Books. 1 4 1 



Chap. VIII. 



jige of Science — Philosophy — Bacon, and others. 



" We must now speak of Science : for the period from Eras- 

 mus to Bacon may be called the age of literature ; that from 

 Bacon to Newton, of science and philosophy. And Cambridge 

 feels a pride in ranking both Bacon and Newton among her sons. 



" Bacon has been called the restorer of science, by raising it on 

 a broader basis, and, in contradistinction to the ages which pre- 

 ceded him in this country, by deducing it from exj)erience and 

 observation, rather than uncertain rules and precarious ratioci- 

 nations. He was of Trinity College. He, at length, rose to 

 be lord chancellor of England : but, from his childhood, was 

 so generally conversant in books, and of such comprehensive in- 

 tellect, that queen Elizabeth, to whom he was known through 

 his father, Sir Nicholas Bacon, used to call him, when but seven 

 years of age, her young lord keeper. 



'^ Sir Nicholas is well described by one, who had well studied 

 the characters of queen Elizabeth's ministers, as " an arch piece 

 of wit and wisdom; as a gentleman and a man of law; and of 

 great knowledge therein, whereby, together with his other parts 

 of dexterity and learning, he was promoted to be keeper of the 

 great seal :" such, too, was the literary character, and such the 

 political progress of the son* ; and both were of Cambridge. 



" Lord Bacon's aim was to point the readiest way to universal 

 knowledge ; to shew how what the ancients had" done might 

 be rendered more perfect, and the human mind directed to new 

 discoveriesf. With these views he published, in 1605, his two 

 books on the Advancement of Learning, and dedicated them to 

 James I. But the aim of this extraordinary performance^ is best 

 described in his own language. " I have taken," says he, in a 

 letter to lord treasurer Burleigh, " all knowledge for my pro- 

 vince ; and if I purge it of two sorts of rovers, whereof, the one 

 witli frivolous disputations, confutations, and verbosities, the 

 other with blind experiments, and auricular traditions and itii- 

 postures, hath committed so many spoils, I hope I should bring 

 in industrious observations, grounded conclusions, and profitable 

 inventions and discoveries, the best state of that province." A 

 few years afterwards he sent these letters to Dr. Playfair, Lady 

 Margaret's professor, to be translated into Latin : but herein he 



* Observations on the Life (if Sir Nicholas Bncon and Sir Francis Bacon, ia 

 lloyd's Statesmen and Favourites of England. 1'. 237 and 600. 



t Visum est eniin nohis, eliam in iis ^nx recepta sinit, nonniillam fncere 

 Bioram; co nimiru.-; consilio, ut facilin.-; vrteribus perfeetio, et novis aditiis, 

 delnr. Singiilanun Argumenta ad Aut^in. Scicnt., 



t A neat lllilc edition of this woik was published in 1S08, by Mr. MailaJ, 

 ioimcily ol I'nnity Collt gc. 



