NOTES K M. 



FIFTH DEFECT. There is a want of mutual intelligence between different uni 

 versities. 



SIXTH DEFECT. There is a want of proper rewards for enquiries in new and 

 unlaboured parts of learning. 



The opinion of plenty is amongst the causes of want, and the great quan 

 tity of books maketh a shew rather of superfluity than lack : which surcharge, 

 nevertheless, is not to be remedied by making no more books but by making 

 more good books, which, as the serpent of Moses, might devour the serpents of 

 the enchanters. 



L. Life, p. xi. 



Of the importance of general knowledge and general education, Bacon is 

 constant in his admonitions. In the entrance of philosophy he says, &quot; Because 

 the partition of sciences are not like several lines that meet in one angle ; but 

 rather like branches of trees that meet in one stem, which stem for some dimen 

 sion and space is entire and continued, before it break, and part itself into arms 

 and boughs ; therefore the nature of the subject requires, before we pursue the 

 parts of the former distribution, to erect and constitute one universal science 

 which may be the mother of the rest ; and that in the progress of sciences, a 

 portion, as it were, of the common highway may be kept, before we come where 

 the ways part and divide themselves.&quot; 



The evil which results from want of fixed principles in legislation may be 

 seen in any discussion upon improvement of the law, when it cannot escape 

 notice how few fixed principles pervade society upon important questions in 

 legislation. There is, I may venture to say, scarcely any subject of law, 

 upon the principles of which any two eminent lawyers entertain the same 

 sentiments. Mention, for instance, in a company of lawyers, imprisonment 

 Jor debt, or usury, or capital punishment, and you will instantly discover the 

 want of fixed principles. One will talk of the injured creditor, another of the 

 oppressed debtor ; one of the necessity of this power in creditors for the sake of 

 commerce ; another that the counting-house has no alliance with the jail. So 

 too there has been, for centuries, great conflict of opinion upon the efficacy of 

 severe punishment, as there was, for centuries, upon imprisonment for debt, 

 feo too upon commercial laws ; all proving the truth of Bacon s account of one 

 of the signs of false philosophy, &quot; We must not omit that other sign, namely, the 

 great disagreement among the ancient philosophers and the differences of their 

 schools, which sufficiently shows that their way, from the sense to the understand 

 ing, was not well guarded ; whilst one and the same subject of philosophy, the 

 nature of things, was rent and split into so many and such wild errors : and 

 although at present the dissensions and disagreements of opinions, as to first prin 

 ciples and entire philosophies, are in a manner extinct, yet such innumerable ques 

 tions and controversies still remain among us, as make it plainly appear that there 

 ?s nothing fixed and stable, either in our present philosophy or the manner of our 

 demonstrations.&quot; 



M. Life, p. xiii. 



Extract from Lord Bacon s will. And because I conceive there will be 

 upon the moneys raised by sale of my lands, leases, goods and chattels, a good 

 round surplusage, over and above that which may serve to satisfy my debts 

 and legacies, and perform my will ; I do devise and declare, that my exe 

 cutors shall employ the said surplusage in manner and form following ; that 

 is to say, that they purchase therewith so much land of inheritance, as may 

 erect and endow two lectures in either the universities, one of which lectures 

 shall be of natural philosophy ; and the science in general thereunto belonging ; 

 hoping that the stipends or salaries of the lecturers may amount to two hundred 

 pounds a year for either of them ; and for the ordering of the said lectures, and 

 the election of the lecturers from time to time, I leave it to the care of my 

 executors, to be established by the advice of the lords bishops of Lincoln and 



