46 THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE n 



associations for the investigation of nature, the 

 models of all subsequent academies and scientific 

 societies, had been founded; while the literary 

 skill and biting wit of Galileo had made the great 

 scientific questions of the day not only intelligible, 

 but attractive, to the general public. 



In our own country, Francis Bacon had essayed 

 to sum up the past of physical 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 already achieved by the true 

 instaurators of physical science ; yet the majestic 

 eloquence and the fervid vaticinations of one who 

 was conspicuous alike by the greatness 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 satisfactory 

 evidence that the " Novum Organum " had any 

 direct beneficial influence on the advancement of 

 natural knowledge. No delusion is greater than 

 the notion that method and industry can make up 

 for lack of motherwit, either in science or in 

 practical life ; and it is strange that, with his 

 knowledge of mankind, Bacon should have 

 dn amed that his, or any other, " via inveniendi 

 scientias " would "level men's wits" and leave 





