PHILOSOPHICAL WRITINGS OF LORD BACON. 383 



Bacon could deliver a wise system of rules for the advance- 

 ment of physics, without having any just notions of the true 

 nature of philosophical inquiry. The object to which Bacon 

 directed the attention of his followers, was the very object he 

 was desirous they should accomplish, — the regeneration of 

 philosophy by means of a well-regulated use of observation 

 and experiment. The benefits, if any, which accrued to man- 

 kind from his directions, were obtained precisely in the way, 

 and were precisely of the kind, which he pointed out and pro- 

 mised. Thus, the case of iEsop's husbandman is so far from 

 furnishing an illustration of Bacon's connection with the ad- 

 vancement of physics, that there is evidently no ground what- 

 ever for such a parallel ; and the writer who institutes it only 

 proves, that he has altogether mistaken the true bearings of the 

 question. But, before proceeding to state the proofs of this 

 connection, it will be proper to show somewhat more fully, 

 that Bacon's philosophical merit was of the highest kind, and 

 that it was wholly unshared by any other person. 



Bacon's grand distinction, then, considered as an improver 

 of physics, lies in this, that he was the first who clearly and 

 fully pointed out the rules and safeguards of right reasoning 

 in physical inquiries. Many other philosophers, both an- 

 cient and modern, had referred to observation and experi- 

 ment in a cursory way, as furnishing the materials of physi- 

 cal knowledge ; but no one, before him, had attempted to 

 systematize the true method of discovery ; or to prove, that 

 the Inductive, is the only method by which the genuine of- 

 fice of philosophy can be exercised, and its genuine ends ac- 

 complished. It has sometimes been stated, that Galileo 

 was, at least in an equal degree with Bacon, the father of the 

 Inductive Logic ; but it would be more correct to say, that his 



discoveries 



