58 GENERAL PREFACE TO 



other hand it is certain that we can in nowise affect the causes 

 by which these phenomena are produced. But on the earth 

 beneath, and in the waters under the earth, Nature is perpe- 

 tually working in ways which it is conceivable that we may be 

 able to imitate, and in which the beneficence of the Creator, 

 wherein His glory is to us chiefly visible, is everywhere to be 

 traced. Wherever we turn, we see the same spectacle of un- 

 ceasing and benevolent activity. From the seed of corn Nature 

 developes the stalk, the blade, and the ear, and superinduces on 

 the yet immature produce the qualities which make it fit for 

 the sustenance of man. And so, too, animal life is developed 

 from its first rudiments to all the perfection which it is capable 

 of attaining. And though this perfection is necessarily tran- 

 sitory, yet Nature, though she cannot perpetuate the individual, 

 yet continues the species by unceasing reproduction. 



But the contemplation of God's works, glorious as they are, is 

 not the whole of man's business here on earth. For in losing 

 his first estate he lost the dominion over the creatures which 

 was its highest privilege, and ever since has worn out few and 

 evil days, exposed to want, sickness, and death. His works 

 have all been vanity and vexation of spirit, his labour nearly 

 profitless, his knowledge for the most part useless. Is his 

 condition altogether hopeless, or may it not be possible to soften, 

 though not to set aside, the effects of the primal curse? To 

 this question Bacon unhesitatingly made answer, that of His 

 great mercy God would bless our humble endeavours to restore 

 to suffering humanity some part at least of what it had lost ; 

 and thus he has more than once described the instauration of the 

 sciences as an attempt to regain, so far as may be, that of which 

 the Fall deprived us. 



A deep sense of the misery of mankind is visible throughout 

 his writings. The principal speaker in the Redargutio Philo- 

 sophiarum, and the son [father] of Solomon's House in the New 

 Atlantis, both express Bacon's idea of what the philosopher 

 ought to be ; and of both it is said that their countenance was 

 as the countenance of one who pities men. Herein we see the 

 reason why Bacon has often been called an utilitarian; not 

 because he loved truth less than others, but because he loved 

 men more, 



The philosopher is therefore not merely to contemplate the 

 works of the Creator, but also to employ the knowledge thus 



