Francis Bacon 29 



thought. It is in the realisation of this distinction that the ap- 

 parent cluahsm between " general " and " special " method can 

 be solved. 



IV. The Educational Implications of Bacon's Theory 



In addition to the educational implications that have already 

 been suggested in the preceding sections, there are a few addi- 

 tional aspects of the method of knowledge that are significant 

 for educational practice. Bacon's consideration divides itself 

 into two parts in this connection, the former being critical in 

 character and dealing with the proper preparation of text-books, 

 and the latter concerning itself with practical hints regarding the 

 actual process of teaching. Much of what Bacon has written 

 on these closely related subjects is now embodied in practice, 

 but it is significant of the character of his work that he should 

 have been able to foresee so many of the problems that have 

 since occupied literary exegesis and criticism on the one hand, 

 and educational theory and practice on the other hand. 



(a) Critical. In connection with the preservation of knowl- 

 edge and its transmission to future generations, books have been 

 of supreme importance, and the problems connected with this 

 means of widening knowledge are numerous. Among them are 

 the determination of correct readings from manuscripts and 

 faulty texts ; the proper and judicious preparation of annotated 

 editions and commentaries, the interpretation of an author in the 

 light of the times in which he wrote — a canon whose neglect in 

 a later age led even so great a litterateur as Voltaire to con- 

 demn Hamlet as comparable to the " work of a drunken savage," 

 and whose critical significance received due recognition in the 

 work of Taine ; the critical estimation of the writings of an 

 author in such a way as to enable a reader to choose that which 

 is of permanent value ; and finally, some suggestion as to the 

 order in which the works of a writer may most advantageously 

 be read. 



(b) Educational. Brought up in the Elizabethan manner by 

 an educational system whose mainstay was the study of the clas- 

 sics, and at the same time endowed with an intense interest in 

 natural phenomena. Bacon not unnaturally may be expected to 

 assume a middle ground in his educational theory and to ex- 



