IN THE LAST HALF-CENTURY. 9 



while the literary skill and biting wit of 

 Galileo had made the great scientific ques- 

 tions of the day not only intelligible, but 

 attractive, to the general public. 



In our own country, Francis Bacon Francis 



r> Bacon. 



had essayed to sum up the past of physi- 

 cal science, and to indicate the path which 

 it must follow if its great destinies were 

 to be fulfilled. And though the attempt 

 was just such a magnificent failure as 

 might have been expected from a man of 

 great endowments, who was so singularly 

 devoid of scientific insight that he could 

 not understand the value of the work al- 

 ready achieved by the true instaurators of 

 physical science ; yet the majestic elo- 

 quence and the fervid vaticinations of one 

 who was conspicuous alike by the great- 

 ness of his rise and the depth of his fall, 

 drew the attention of all the world to the 

 'new birth of Time.' 



But it is not easy to discover satisfac- The 

 tory evidence that the ' Novum Organum ' f his 



method. 



