PHILOSOPHICAL WRITINGS OF LOUD BACON. 409 



that Bacon's fame was wholly owing to the false notions of phi- 

 losophy then entertained, and that it could not fail to fade 

 with the recurrence of sounder views. " The Lord Bacon," 

 says he, " is like great piles ; when the sun is not high, they 

 " cast an extraordinary shadow over the earth, which lessen- 

 " eth as the sun grows vertical *." How vain the prophecy 

 involved in this uncouth simile ! The fame of Bacon has 

 brightened as Science has advanced, every new discovery bring- 

 ing a fresh proof of that transcendent sagacity which enabled 

 him so unerringly to plan and predict the indefinite enlarge- 

 ment of her Empire. 



The preceding illustrations of the influence of Bacon's wri- 

 tings, are confined to the effects which they produced in Eng- 

 land. It remains to be inquired, Whether they were produc- 

 tive, in any degree, of any similar effects, in the other coun- 

 tries of Europe ? It is the opinion of some, who are far from 

 being otherwise sceptical as to their influence, that these writ- 

 ings were, for a long period, but little known upon the Conti- 

 nent ; and consequently, that all their effects, of a direct kind, 

 were limited to England. This opinion has been lately avow- 

 ed by one of the most enlightened and ardent of Bacon's ad- 

 mirers ; one whose extensive knowledge in regard to the his- 

 tory of learning, I shall hardly, I trust, be suspected of any in- 

 tention to bring into doubt, by dissenting from his statements 

 on this particular question. 



" That the works of Bacon," says Mr Stewart, " were but 

 " little read in France till after the publication of D'Alem- 



Vol. VIII. P. II. 3 F 



u 



BERT S 



Stubbb's Legends no Histories, p. 28. 



