90 DISSERTATION SECOND. [part i. 



was himself a philosopher, and whose suffrage, of conse- 

 quence, is here of more than ordinary weight. „ 



" The great glory of literature," says Hume, " in this 

 island, during the reign of James, was Lord Bacon. If we 

 consider the variety of talents displayed by this man, as 

 a publick speaker, a man of business, a wit, a courtier, a 

 companion, an author, a philosopher, he is justly entitled 

 to great admiration. If we consider him merely as an 

 author and a philosopher, the light in which we view him 

 at present, though very estimable, he was yet inferiour to 

 his contemporary Galileo, perhaps even to Kepler. Ba- 

 con pointed out, at a distance, the road to philosophy ; 

 Galileo both pointed it out to others, and made himself 

 considerable advances in it. The Englishman was igno- 

 rant of geometry ; the Florentine revived that science, ex- 

 celled in it, and was the first who applied it, together with 

 experiment, to natural philosophy. The former reject- 

 ed, with the most positive disdain, the system of Coperni- 

 cus ; the latter fortified it with new proofs, derived both 

 from reason and the senses. Bacon's style is stiff and 

 rigid ; his wit, though often brilliant, is also often unnatu- 

 ral and far-fetched. Galileo is a lively and agreeable, 

 though somewhat a prolix writer." l 



Though it cannot be denied that there is considerable 

 truth in these remarks, yet it seems to me that the com- 

 parison is not made with the justness and discrimination 

 which might have been expected from Hume, who appears 

 studiously to have contrasted what is most excellent in 

 Galileo, with what is most defective in Bacon. It is true 

 that Galileo showed the way in the application of mathema- 

 ticks and of geometry to physical investigation, and that 

 the immediate utility of his performance was greater than 



1 Hist, of England, vol. VI. Appendix. 





