374 PREFACE TO 



works, I cannot but think that the difference between what Galileo 

 was doing and what Bacon wanted to be done is not only essential 

 but immense. 



A. 



Nay, if the difference be immense, how comes it to be overlooked ? 

 It is from no want of the wish to claim for Bacon all the credit he 

 deserves in that line. 



B. 



No. Rather perhaps from the wish to claim too much. We are 

 so anxious to give him his due that we must needs ascribe to him 

 all that has been done since his time ; from which it seems to follow 

 that we are practising his precepts, and that the Baconian philosophy 

 has in fact been flourishing among us for the last 200 years. You 

 believe this, don't you ? 



A. 



People tell me so ; and I suppose the only doubt is whether it 

 be exclusively and originally his ; there is no doubt, I fancy, that 

 it is his. 



B. 



Certainly that appears to be the general opinion ; and it may 

 seem an audacious thing in me to say that it is a mistake. But I 

 cannot help it. It is true that a new philosophy is flourishing 

 among us which was born about Bacon's time ; and Bacon's name 

 (as the brightest which presided at the time of its birth) has been 

 inscribed upon it. 



" Hesperus, that led 

 The starry host, rode brightest : " 



not that Hesperus did actually lead the other stars ; he and they 

 were moving under a common force, and they would have moved 

 just as fast if he had been away ; but because he shone brightest, 

 he looked as if he led them. But if I may trust Herschel, I must 

 think that it is the Galilean philosophy that has been flourishing all 

 these years ; and if I may trust my own eyes and power of con- 

 struing Latin, I must think that the Baconian philosophy has yet to 

 come. 



If Bacon were to reappear among us at the next meeting of the 

 Great British Association, or say rather if he had appeared there 

 two or three years ago (for there seems to be something great and 

 new going on now), I think he would have shaken his head. I 

 think he would have said, " Here has been a great deal of very .good 

 diligence used by several persons ; but it has not been used upon a 

 \well-laid plan. These solar systems, and steam-engines, and Daguer- 

 reotypes, and electric telegraphs, are so many more pledges of what 

 might be expected from an instauration of philosophy such as I re- 



