BACON. 



great sagacity and penetration, whence 

 the notion of it sprung 1 , and how weak 

 all pretences to it are. From a perusal 

 of his works, it is evident that Bacon was 

 no stranger to many of the capital disco- 

 veries of the present and past ages. 

 Gunpowder he certainly knew : thunder 

 and lightning, he tells us, may be pro- 

 duced by art : for that sulphur, nitre, and 

 charcoal, which, when separate, have no 

 sensible effect, when mixed together in 

 due proportion, and closely confined and 

 fired, yield a loud report. A more pre- 

 cise description of gunpowder cannot be 

 given in words. He also mentions a sort 

 of unextinguishable fire, prepared by art; 

 which proves that he was not unacquaint- 

 ed with phosphorus ; and that he had a 

 notion of the rarefaction of the air, and 

 the structure of an air-pump, is past con- 

 tradiction. He was the miracle, says Dr. 

 Freind, of the a^e in which he lived, and 

 the greatest genius, perhaps, for mechani- 

 cal knowledge, that ever appeared in the 

 world since Archimedes. He appears 

 likewise to have been a master in the sci- 

 ence of optics : he has accurately de- 

 scribed the uses of reading-glasses, and 

 shewn the way of making "them. Dr. 

 Freind adds, that he also describes the 

 camera obscura, and all sorts of glasses 

 which magnify or diminish any object, or 

 bring it nearer to the eye, or remove it 

 farther off. Bacon says himself, that he 

 had great numbers of burning-glasses : 

 and that there were none ever in use 

 among the Latins, till his friend Peter de 

 Mahara Curia applied himself to the mak- 

 ing of them. That the telescope was not 

 unknown to him, appears from a passage 

 where he says, that he was able to form 

 glasses in such a manner, with respect to 

 our sight and the objects, that the rays 

 shall be refracted and reflected wherever 

 we please, so that we may see athing un- 

 der what angle we think proper, either 

 near or at a distance, and be able to read 

 the smallest letters at an incredible dis- 

 tance, and to count the dust and sand, on 

 account of the greatness of the angle 

 under which we see the objects : and al- 

 so, that we shall scarce see the greatest 

 bodies near us, on account of the small- 

 ness of the angle under which we view 

 them. His skill in astronomy was amaz- 

 ing: he discovered that error which oc- 

 casioned the reformation of the calendar; 

 one of the greatest efforts, according to 

 Dr. Jebb, of human industry : and his 

 plan for correcting it was followed by 

 Pope Gregory the Thirteenth, with this 

 variation, that Bacon would have had the 

 VOL. II. 



correction to begin from the birth of our 

 Saviour, whereas Gregory's amendment 

 reaches no higher than the Nicene coun- 

 cil. 



On the whole, it cannot be doubted that 

 Friar Bacon is justly entitled to ever-tast- 

 ing remembrance, as a philosopher and 

 truly great man. If knowledge, says Dr. 

 Enfield, is now too far advanced for the 

 world to derive much information from 

 his writings, respect must nevertheless be 

 paid to the'memory of the man, who knew 

 more than his contemporaries, and wno, 

 in a dark age, added new lights to the 

 lamp of science. 



BACON (FuAifCTs) in biography, Ba- 

 ron of Verulam, Viscount of St. Albans, 

 and Lord High Chancellor of England 

 under King James I. He was born in 

 1560, being son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, 

 Lord Keeper of the Great Seal in the 

 reign of Queen Elizabeth, by Ann, daugh- 

 ter of sir Anthony Cook, eminent for her 

 skill in the Latin and Greek languages. 

 He gave, even in his infancy, tokens of 

 what he would one day become ; and 

 Queen Elizabeth had many times occasion 

 to admire his wit and talents, and used to 

 call him her young lord keeper. In his 

 thirteenth year he was entered a student 

 at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he 

 studied the philosophy of Aristotle, and 

 made such progress in his studies, that at 

 sixteen years of age he had run through 

 the whole circle of the liberal arts,as they 

 were then taught, and even began to per- 

 ceive those imperfections in the existing 

 philosophy, which he afterwards so effec- 

 tually exposed, and thence not only over- 

 turned the tyranny, which prevented the 

 progress of true knowledge, but laid the 

 foundation of that free and useful philo- 

 sophy, which has since opened a way to 

 so many glorious discoveries. On his 

 leaving the university, his father sent him 

 to France, where, before he was 19 years 

 of age, he wrote a general view of the 

 state of Europe : but Sir Nicholas dying, 

 he was obliged suddenly to return to Eng- 

 land, where he applied himself to the stu- 

 dy of the common law, at Gray's Inn. His 

 merit at length raised him to the highest 

 dignities in his profession, viz. of Attor- 

 ney-General, and Lord High Chancellor. 

 But being of an easy and Jiberal disposi- 

 tion, his servants took advantage of fhat 

 temper and their situation under him, by 

 accepting presents in the line of his pro- 

 fession. Being abandoned by the king, 

 he was tried by the house of lords for 

 bribery and corruption, and by them sen- 

 tenced to pay a fine of 40,000t. and to re- 



P 



