96 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



8. 

 Bacon and 

 Newton 

 compared. 



knowledge and research by the co-operation of many was 

 more thoroughly realised in the old French Academy 

 than in the Eoyal Society of London : his desire to unite 

 all knowledge in a collective work underlies the great 

 productions of Bayle, and still more those of the Ency- 

 clopaedists. The many problems contained in Newton's 

 ' Principia ' were first treated singly by Clairault and 

 Maupertuis ; a general knowledge of his view of the 

 universe was introduced into popular literature by Vol- 

 taire/ who made use of it as a powerful weapon wherewith 

 to combat error and superstition, or, as he termed it, " pour 

 ecraser I'infame " ; but for a full announcement of its 

 scientific value and its hidden resources we are indebted 

 to Laplace, whose ' Mecanique celeste ' was the first 

 comprehensive elaboration of Newton's ideas, and whose 

 ' Systeme du Monde ' became the scientific gospel of a 

 whole generation of Continental thinkers. 



We may look upon Lord Bacon as one who inspects a 

 large and newly discovered land,^ laying plans for the 



' 1 believe Voltaire was the author 

 of the term Neivtonianisme. The 

 modesty and truly scientific spirit 

 of Newton would not have allowed 

 him to apply such a term to his 

 work, and it is doubtful whether 

 Voltaire did not extract from 

 Newton's ' Philosophia Naturalis ' a 

 general philosophy which was not 

 conceived in his spirit. 



^ Cowley in his Ode to the Royal 



Society : 



" Bacon at last, a mighty man, arose, . . . 

 And boldly undertook the injur'd pupil's 

 cause. 



. . . led us forth at last, 

 The barren wilderness he past ; 



Did on the very border stand 



Of the blest promis'd land ; 

 And, from the mountain's top of his ex- 

 alted wit, 



Saw it himself, and shew'd us it." 



On this Mr Ellis remarks (Bacon's 

 Works, vol. i. p. 63) : '" Bacon has 

 been likened to the prophet who, 

 from Mount Pisgah, surveyed the 

 Promised Land, but left it for others 

 to take possession of. Of this happy 

 image, perhaps part of the felicity 

 was not perceived by its author. 

 For though Pisgah was a place of 

 large prospect, yet still the Prom- 

 ised Land was a land of definite 

 extent and known boundaries, and, 

 moreover, it was certain that after 

 no long time the chosen people 

 would be in possession of it all. 

 And this agrees with what Bacon 

 promised to himself and to man- 

 kind from the instauration of the 

 sciences. ... In this respect, as in 

 others, the hopes of Francis Bacon 



