BACON. 



369 



This severe sentence was doubtless just; yet it must 

 IK- allowed, that he was actuated neither by avarice 

 nor corruption of heart, but that his errors are rather 

 to be attributed to a weakness of character, which 

 was abused by others. Traits of generosity and inde- 

 pendence, which his life also displays, show clearly 

 that he knew and valued virtue. He was unfaithful 

 to it because he had not sufficient firmness to refuse 

 the unjust demands of others. His sentence was not 

 rigorously executed ; he was soon released from the 

 Tower, and the rest of his punishment was, by 

 degrees, remitted entirely. He survived his fall only 

 a lew years, and died in 1626. 



All the studies and efforts of this great man aimed 

 jit a reform in the system of human knowledge. He 

 examined the whole circle of the sciences, investigat- 

 ed their relations, and attempted to arrange them ac- 

 cording to tne different faculties of the human mind, 

 to which each belongs. In this, however he could 

 not succeed, for want of a well-founded and natural 

 division of the powers of the mind ; for he divided 

 the sciences into those of the memory, of the under- 

 standing, and of the imagination. This he explains 

 in his Instauratio Magna, under the head De Dignitate 

 ct Augmeritis Scientiarum, He further perceived 

 that, in all the branches of natural science, the only 

 way to truth is by the observation of nature. How 

 this observation is to be directed, and how nature is 

 to be examined, is illustrated in several places. He 

 explained his ideas on this subject in the above men- 

 tioned treatise (De Dignitate, c.), and in the Novum 

 Organum Scientiarum. His universal genius had at- 

 tended to all the sciences ; he perceived to what 

 point each of them had advanced, what false direc- 

 tions they had taken, and how they were to be 

 brought back to truth. As a metaphysician, he dis- 

 plays no less penetration than profoundness in his 

 views of the operations of the mind, of the association 

 of ideas, and of the prejudices which surround us 

 from our cradle, and prevent the free exercise of rea- 

 son. As a natural philosopher, he brought forward 

 very ingenious views, and was on the route to several 

 important discoveries. He invented a kind of pneu- 

 matic machine, by his experiments with which he 

 was led to suspect the elasticity and gravity of the 

 air, which Galileo and Torricelli afterwards discover- 

 ed. He clearly indicated the attraction of gravita- 

 tion, which Newton afterwards proved. He want- 

 ed only experiments in order to demonstrate the 

 principles of this power. He treated also of natural 

 history, but only in an abridged manner, in his work 

 Sylva Sylvarum, &c. He wrote several treatises on 

 medicine; among others, one on life and death. 

 But physiology and chemistry were then so imper- 

 fectly understood, that he could not avoid falling into 

 great errors. The science of law he treatea not 

 merely as a lawyer, but as a legislator and philoso- 

 pher. His aphorisms are not less remarkable for 

 profound views than for vigour and precision of ex- 

 pression. Morals are the subject of one of his finest 

 works, entitled Essays, or Sermones Fideles a trea- 

 sure of the most profound knowledge of man and of 

 human relations, delivered in an eloquent and vigo- 

 rous style. As an historian he is less distinguished ; 

 he wrote a history of Henry VII. Of his knowledge 

 of antiquity, his work On the Wisdom of the Ancients 

 bears witness, in which he explains the ancient fables 

 by ingenious allegories. He possessed a less pro- 

 found knowledge of mathematics, and to this it is to 

 be ascribed, that he who so generally discovered the 

 errors of the human mind, and pointed out the truth, 

 opposed the Copernican system. In this point alone 

 he remained behind some enlightened men of his 

 time. In other departments of human investigation, 

 he soared to such a height, that his contemporaries 



could not fully estimate the extent of his genius, the 

 justness of his views, and the importance of his la- 

 bours. He himself was his only judge, and, with a 

 just pride, he says, in his will, My name and me- 

 mory I bequeath to foreign nations and to my own 

 countrymen, after some time be passed over." Goethe 

 says of B., " He drew a sponge over the table of 

 human knowledge." The best edition of all his 

 works appeared in London, in 1765, in 5 vols. quarto. 

 They are partly in English, partly in Latin. The 

 Library of Useful Knowledge contains a popular 

 treatise on the Novttm Organum. 



BACON, John, a celebrated English sculptor, was 

 born in Southwark, in 1740. Having been appren- 

 ticed, at the age of fourteen, to Mr Crispe of Bow- 

 church-yard, and employed in modelling and painting 

 small porcelain ornaments for chimney pieces, his 

 ambition was awakened by beholding the models sent 

 by sculptors of eminence to be baked in his master's 

 pottery-furnaces at Lambeth. He, therefore, set 

 himself about producing some works of art of a 

 similar class, and such was his diligence, and so 

 great his success, that he obtained not fewer than 

 nine premiums from the society for the encourage- 

 ment of arts. While yet an apprentice, he formed 

 a project for making statues of artificial stone, which 

 was afterwards perfected, and is still carried on in a 

 manufactory in the New Road. About 1763, he 

 began to work in marble ; and shortly afterwards 

 seeing the imperfection of the method then in use, 

 he invented a new instrument for transferring the 

 form of the model to the marble (technically called, 

 getting out the points), which instrument has been 

 adopted since by other sculptors. And, indeed, 

 when Canova came to London and saw it, he ex- 

 pressed his admiration of it, and regretted he had 

 not known it at an earlier period of his life* In 

 1769, Bacon obtained from the Royal Academy the 

 first gold medal given by that society, and the fol- 

 lowing year he was chosen an associate. Having 

 produced and exhibited a statue of Mars, Dr Mark- 

 ham (afterwards archbishop of York) employed him 

 to produce a bust of his Majesty, for Christ church 

 college, Oxford. When employed in modelling this 

 work, the king asked him whether he had ever been 

 abroad, and on Bacon answering in the negative, his 

 majesty said that " he was glad to hear it, as he 

 would then reflect the greater honour on his native 

 land." Having obtained the royal patronage by 

 this bust, he was employed to make a duplicate of 

 it for the university of Gottingen. In 1777, he was 

 commissioned to prepare the model of a monument 

 in honour of Mr Guy, the founder of Guy's Hospital, 

 which afterwards procured him the honour of exe- 

 cuting that of lord Chatham, in Guildhall. The 

 year following, he was chosen into the Royal Aca- 

 demy, and completed a beautiful monument to the 

 memory of Mrs Draper, in Bristol cathedral. His 

 other works are too numerous to be specified here, 

 but the principal of them are two groupes for the 

 interior of Somerset House, the statue of judge 

 Blackstone, for All Souls college, Oxford; another 

 of Henry VI. for Eton college ; the monument of 

 lord Chatham in Westminster Abbey, and the statues 

 of Dr Johnson and Mr Howard, in St Paul's cathe- 

 dral. Mr Bacon died, August 7, 1799, leaving two 

 sons and three daughters, by his first, and three sons, 

 by his second wife. His second son, John, who suc- 

 ceeded to a considerable part of the property, is also 

 a distinguished artist, and lias performed several great 

 national works. 



BACON, Roger ; an English monk, who, by the 

 power of his genius, raised himself above his time, 

 made astonishing discoveries in several sciences, and 

 contributed much to the extension of real know- 



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