244 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The application of principles drawn from an accumulation of 

 facts began to produce its effects on almost every walk in life. 

 Medicine became at once an experimental and speculative sci- 

 ence. Sanitary regulations were introduced, and architecture, 

 drainage and ventilation were enlisted in its cause. Political 

 philosopliy became a study. The properties of the atmosphere, 

 the ebb and flow of the sea, the laws of magnetism, the courses 

 of the comets, were all investigated. The constellations were 

 mapped out. Astrology and alchemy became jests. Science 

 became fashionable. " Chemistry, divided for a time with wine 

 and love, with the stage and the gaming-table, with the intrigues 

 of a courtier and the intrigues of a demagogue, the attention of 

 the fickle Buckingham. Rupert has the credit of having in- 

 vented mezzotinto ; and from him is named that curious bubble 

 of glass whicli has long amused children and puzzled philoso- 

 phers. Charles himself had a laboratory at Whitehall, and was 

 far more active and attentive there than at any council board. 

 It was almost necessary to the character of a fine gentleman to 

 have something to say about air-pumps and telescopes ; and even 

 fine ladies, now and then, thought it becoming to affect a taste 

 for science, went in coaches and six to visit the Gresham curi- 

 osities, and broke forth into cries of delight at finding that a 

 magnet really attracted a needle, and that a microscope really 

 made a fly look as large as a sparrow." 



Of the condition of the state when Bacon burned his books, 

 it is necessary to say a word. It was a time when the struggle 

 between the people and despotic power began — when " the op- 

 position which had, during forty years, been silently gathering 

 and husbanding strength, fought its first great battle and won its 

 first victory in the Parliament of England." Property, educa- 

 tion, civil rights, were confined to a few. Labor was subordi- 

 nate and ill-requited. To toil meant to be poor. The luxuries 

 of life were beyond the reach of the great mass of the people — 

 the necessities of life were enjoyed by but few. " The tenant 

 peasantry had no security whatever for their property till after 

 the middle of the 15th century. If the estate was sold by the 

 landlord they were obliged to quit all, giving up even their 

 standing crops without compensation. They were even liable 

 for the debts of the landlord to an amount equal to their whole 

 property, and it was not till after that time that they were held 



