FRANCIS BACON. 



FIG. 54. STATUE OF FRANCIS BACON IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 



space : "The consideration of these things produced in me a doubt 

 altogether astounding; viz., whether the face of the serene and starry 

 heavens be seen at the instant it really exists, or not till some time 

 later ; and whether there be not, with respect to the heavenly bodies, 

 a true and an apparent time, no less than a true place and an appa- 

 rent place, as astronomers say, on account of parallax. For it seems 

 impossible that the species and rays of the celestial bodies can pass 

 through the immense interval between them and us in an instant, or 

 that they do not even require some considerable portion of time." 

 On the other hand, Bacon strangely rejected the astronomy of Coper- 

 nicus, and despised the magnetic researches of Gilbert ; while his 



