FRANCIS BACON. 127 



Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1573, and we find him at the age of 

 twenty-three speaking in the House of Commons. Soon afterwards 

 he published his " Essays," by which he at once became famous. He 

 was shortly afterwards appointed Queen's Counsel, and at the trial of 

 the unfortunate Earl of Essex, in 1599, Bacon supported the charge of 

 treason with all his ability, in despite of the bonds of friendship and 

 gratitude. He reached the climax of his ambitious political career 

 under James I., by whom he was appointed Lord Chancellor in 1618, 

 and made a peer with the title of Baron Verulam, which was afterwards 

 changed to that of Viscount St. Albans. In 1620 Bacon was accused 

 of corruption in the exercise of his office, and he at once pleaded 

 guilty. He was removed from his office, and declared incapable of 

 sitting in Parliament and of holding any state appointment. Just before 

 his fall the " Nowim Orgamim" was published, and in the period fol- 

 lowing that event his leisure gave opportunity for the exercise of his 

 literary activity in the composition of " A History of England under 

 the Tudors," and in the preparation of a Digest of the Laws of England, 

 a Philosophical Romance, and other works. He occupied himself also 

 with experiments, and it is to an illness contracted in the prosecution 

 of an inquiry on the effects of cold in preventing putrefaction that 

 Bacon's death is ascribed. On a very cold day, early in the spring of 

 1626, he alighted from his coach at Highgate in order to try an ex- 

 periment which had occurred to him. "He went into a cottage, bought 

 a fowl, and with his own hands stuffed it with snow. While thus en- 

 gaged, he felt a sudden chill,' and was so much indisposed that it was 

 impossible for him to return to Gray's Inn. The Earl of Arundel, with 

 whom he was well acquainted, had a house at Highgate : to that house 

 Bacon was carried. The earl was absent, but the servants who were 

 in charge of the place showed great respect and attention to the illus- 

 trious guest. Here, after an illness of about a week, he expired early 

 on the morning of Easter Day, 1626. His mind appears to have re- 

 tained its strength and liveliness to the end. He did not even forget 

 the fowl which caused his death. In the last letter that he ever wrote, 

 with fingers which could not steadily hold the pen, he did not omit to 

 mention that the experiment of the snow had succeeded ' excellently 

 well.' " Thus, as Macaulay remarks, the great apostle of experimental 

 philosophy was destined to be its martyr. It is curious that Bacon's 

 last experiment has, in our own time, borne that fruit of practical utility 

 which he declared should be the great object of science : we allude 

 to the fact that large quantities of meat preserved by cold are now 

 brought across the Atlantic and delivered to the consumers in England 

 in a perfectly fresh condition. 



That Bacon's writings exercised a great influence on the develop- 

 ment of science is generally admitted, but the nature of that influence 

 has often been misunderstood, and by some -its value has been under- 

 estimated. Thus it is an error to suppose that Bacon was the inventor 



