SCIENCE OP THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 99 



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FIG. 44. AGRICOLA. 



real name of Agricola was LANDMANN, and he was a native of Saxony. 

 He wrote a great treatise in which he fully and systematically describes 

 all matters relating to mining and metallurgy. This work contains 

 many curious and accurate observations of facts, which received their 

 true explanation only at a much later period. 



Many years before the great Lord Chancellor of England declared 

 that science ought to bear fruit by the improvement of arts, one of the 

 most interesting characters of the sixteenth century was illustrating by 

 his labours the practical ends of knowledge, as well as the true method 

 of experiment and observation by which only that knowledge could 

 be acquired. We allude to BERNARD PALISSY, the famous French 

 potter (c. 1500 1588), who, before Bacon was born, was already read- 

 ing in the great book of nature, and advising others to do the same. 

 "Je n'ai point eu" he says "d'autre livre que le ciel et la terre, 

 lequel est connu de tous ; et est donne a tons de connoistre et lire ce 

 beau livre." Although the study of Palissy's life is an extremely in- 

 teresting piece of biography, we must pass over its, incidents and its 

 struggles to give one or two extracts from his writings. The man him- 



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