238 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. X 



fact," he writes, "rarely get as far as fact; and any 

 one who has studied the history of science knows 

 that almost every great step therein has been made 

 by the 'anticipation of nature,' that is, by the in- 

 vention of hypotheses, which, though verifiable, often 

 had very little foundation to start with ; and, not 

 unfrequently, in spite of a long career of usefulness, 

 turned out to be wholly erroneous in the long- 

 run." 



Thus he had been led to a settled disbelief in 

 Bacon's scientific greatness, that reasoned "prejudice" 

 against which Spedding himself was moved to write 

 twice in defence of Bacon. In his first letter he 

 criticised a passage in the lecture touching this 

 question. On the one hand, he remarks, "Bacon 

 would probably have agreed with you as to his pre- 

 tensions as a scientific discoverer (he calls himself a 

 bellman to call other wits together, or a trumpeter, 

 or a maker of bricks for others to build with)." On 

 the other hand, he asks, ought a passage from a 

 fragment the Temporis partus masculus unpublished 

 in Bacon's lifetime, to be treated as one of his re- 

 presentative opinions? 



In his second letter he adduces, on other grounds, 

 his own more favourable impression of Bacon's philo- 

 sophical influence. A peculiar interest of this letter 

 lies in its testimony to the influence of Huxley's 

 writings even on his elder contemporaries. 



