146 Notices respecting New Books. 
racteristical feature in its philosophy, which even the imagia- 
tion of Bacon was unable to foresce. 
* It would be endless to particularize the origina} suggestions 
thrown out by Bacon on topics connected with the science of 
mind. The few passages of this sort already quoted, are pro- 
duced merely as a specimen of the rest. They are by no means 
selected as the most important in his writings; but, as they 
happened to be those which had left the strongest impression on 
my memory, L thought them as likely as any other, to invite 
the curiosity of my readers to a careful examination of the rich 
mine from which they are extracted. 
“ The ethical disquisitions of Bacon are almost entirely of 2 
practical nature. Of the two theoretical questions so much 
agitated, in both parts of this island, during the eighteenth cen- 
tury, concerning the principle and the olject of moral approba- 
tion, he has said nothing; but he has opened some new and in- 
teresting views with respect to the influence of custom and the for- 
mation of falits;—a most important article of moral philoso- 
phy, om which he has enlarged more ably and more usefully than 
any writer since Aristotle. Under the same head of Ethics may 
be mentioned the small volume to which ke has given the title 
ef Essays; the best kuown and the most popular of all his works. 
It is also one of those where the superiority of his genius appears 
to the greatest advantage ; the novelty and depth of his re- 
flections often receiving a strong relief from the triteness of his 
subject. It may be read from beginning to end in a few hours, 
—and yet, after the twentieth perusal, one seldom fails to re- 
mark in it something overlocked before. This, indeed, is a 
characteristic of all Bacon’s writings, and is only to be accounted. 
for by the inexhaustible aliment they furnish to our own thoughts, 
and the sympathetic activity they impart to our torpid faculties. 
“The suggestions of Bacon for the improvement of political 
philosophy, exhibit as strong a contrast to the narrow systems 
of contemporary statesmen, as the induetive logic to that of the. 
schools. How profound and comprehensive are ‘the views opened 
in the following passages, when compared with the scope of the 
celebrated treatise De Jure Belli ef Pacis! a work whieh was- 
first published about a year before Bacon’s death, and which 
continued, for a hundred and fifty years afterwards, to be regarded 
in all the protestant universities of Europe as an inexhaustible 
treasure of moral and jurisprudential wisdom ! 
‘© «The ultimate object which legislators ought to have in 
view, and to which all their enactments and sanctions ought to 
be subservient, is, that the ctiizens may live happily. For this 
purpose, it is necessary that they should receive a religious and 
pious education; that they should be trained to good morals; 
that 
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