NOTE 3 L. 



sometimes upon a natural curiosity and inquisitive appetite ; sometimes to enter 

 tain their minds with variety and delight ; sometimes for ornament and reputa 

 tion ; and sometimes to enable them to victory of wit and contradiction ; and 

 most times for lucre and profession ; and seldom sincerely to give a true account 

 of their gift of reason, to the benefit and use of men : as if there were sought 

 in knowledge a couch, whereupon to rest a searching and restless spirit; or a 

 terras, for a wandering and variable mind to walk up and down with a fair 

 prospect ; or a tower of state, for a proud mind to raise itself upon ; or a fort or 

 commanding ground, for strife and contention ; or a shop, for profit or sale ; 

 and not a rich storehouse, for the glory of the Creator, and the relief of man s 

 estate.&quot; Upon examining this extract, it will appear that the truth is first 

 conveyed, and that the imagery is appended to enforce it by decoration. 



Different parts of his works contain his sentiments upon imagination. In 

 the conclusion of his tract on Poesy, he says, &quot; But it is not good to stay too 

 long in the theatre. Let us now pass on to the judicial place or palace of the 

 mind, which we are to approach and view with more reverence and attention.&quot; 

 And in the preface to the Sylva Sylvarum, Dr. Rawley says, &quot; I will conclude 

 with an usual speech of his lordship s, that this work of his Natural History is 

 the world as God made it, and not as men have made it ; for that it hath 

 nothing of imagination.&quot; 



That his favourite style for philosophy was in Aphorisms, see his treatise on 

 style in the Advancement of Learning, page 203 of vol. ii. of this edition. See 

 also his Novum Organum, vol. ix. page 191, which is entirely in Aphorisms, 

 and his tract on Justitia Universalis, in the Treatise de Auo-mentis, vol. ix. 

 page 83. 



3 L. Life, p. xli. 



In the Meditations, he says, &quot; This I dare affirm in knowledge of nature, 

 that a little natural philosophy, and the first entrance into it, doth dispose the 

 opinion to atheism ; but on the other side, much natural philosophy and wading 

 deep into it will bring about men s minds to religion ; wherefore atheism every 

 way seems to be joined and combined with folly and ignorance, seeing nothing 

 can be more justly allotted to be the saying of fools, than this, There is no 

 God. &quot; 



In the Advancement of Learning, he says, &quot; It is an assured truth, and a 

 conclusion of experience, that a little or superficial knowledge of philosophy 

 may incline the mind of man to atheism, but a further proceeding therein dotli 

 bring the mind back again to religion ; for in the entrance of philosophy, when 

 the second causes, which are next unto the senses, do offer themselves to the 

 wind of man, if it dwell and stay there, it may induce some oblivion of the 

 highest cause ; but when a man passeth on farther, and seeth the dependence 

 of causes, and the works of Providence, then, according to the allegory of the 

 poets, he will easily believe that the highest link of nature s chain must needs 

 be tied to the foot of Jupiter s chair.&quot; 



Upon this subject Lord Bacon s sentiments seemed to have been formed at 

 an early period of his life, and to have continued to his death. In the 

 &quot; Meditationes Sacrae,&quot; a portion of his Meditation on Atheism is as follows: 

 -Of Atheism. &quot; The fool hath said in his heart there is no God.&quot; First, 

 it is to be noted that the scripture saith, &quot; The fool hath said in his heart 

 and not thought in his heart.&quot; It is a fool that hath so said in his heart, 

 which is most true ; not only in respect that he hath no taste in those 

 things which are supernatural and divine, but in respect of human and civil 

 wisdom ; for, first of all, if you mark the wits and dispositions which are 

 inclined to atheism, you shall find them light, scoffing, impudent, and vain ; 

 briefly, of such a constitution as is most contrary to wisdom and moral gravity. 

 Secondly, amongst statesmen and politics those which have been of greatest 

 depths and compass, and of largest and most universal underderstanding, 

 have not only in cunning made their profit in seeming religious to the people, 

 but in truth have been touched with an inward sense of the knowledge of 



