392 ON THE SCOPE AND INFLUENCE OF THE 



it farther appears, that the important truths which they disclo- 

 sed did not remain long unperceived, or barren of consequen- 

 ces. " Dr Collins, Provost of King's College, Cambridge, 

 " a man of no vulgar wit, affirmed unto me," says Bacon's 

 Chaplain, Dr Rawley, " that after reading the Advancement of 

 " Learning, he found himself in a case to begin his studies 

 " anew, and that he had lost all the time of his studying be- 

 " fore *." Of his more recondite work, his distinguished con- 

 temporary Ben Johnson speaks as. follows : " The Novum 

 " Organum is not penetrated or understood by superficial men, 

 " who cannot get beyond Nominate, but it really openeth all 

 " defects of knowledge whatsoever ; and is a book 



" Qui longum noto Scriptori proroget aevum *.!" 



Sir Henry Wotton, another of the most eminent men of that 

 day, thus warmly expresses his opinion of its merits : " I have 

 " received," says he, in a letter to Bacon, written from Ger- 

 " many, three copies of that work, wherewith your Lordship 

 " hath done a great and everlasting benefit to all the children of 

 " Nature, and to Nature herself in her utmost extent and lati- 

 " tude,who never before had so true an Interpreter, or so inward 

 " a Secretary of her Cabinet f«" In this letter, Sir Henry gives 

 an interesting account of an accidental meeting which he had 

 lately had with the celebrated Kepler, in Upper Austria ; to 

 whom, he adds, he was about to send one of his copies of the No- 

 vum Organum, for the honour of England. It is not surprising, 

 that a writer who entertained such sentiments in regard to the 



importance 



* Life of Bacon, prefixed to Rawley's Resuscitatio, or bringing to light seve- 

 ral pieces of the Works of Lord Bacon. 



•j- Ben Jonson's Discoveries. — Works, vol. vii. p. 100. Whalley's edition. 

 X Reliquiae. Wottoniana, p. 299. 3d edition. 



