410 OX THE SCOPE AND INFLUENCE OF THE 



" bert's Preliminary Discourse to the Encyclopedic , is, I be- 

 " lieve, an unquestionable fact ; not that it necessarily follows 

 " from this, that, even in France, no previous effects had been 

 " produced by the labours of Boyle, of Newton, and of the 

 " other English experimentalists, trained in Bacon's schodl." 

 Mr Stewart farther observes, generally, " that the merits of 

 " Bacon failed, for a century and a half, to command the ge- 

 " neral admiration of Europe. Nor was Bacon himself," he 

 continues, " unapprised of the slow growth of his posthumous 

 " fame. No writer seems ever to have felt more deeply, that 

 " he properly belonged to a later, and more enlightened age ; 

 " a sentiment which he has pathetically expressed in that 

 " clause of his testament, where he * bequeaths his name to 

 " ' posterity after some generations shall be past *.' ' 



In making these statements, Mr Stewart seems to have 

 overlooked a crowd of testimonies, which prove in the most 

 satisfactory manner, that Bacon's philosophical fame was early 

 established, not only in France, but in all the other countries Of 

 Europe, where letters were cultivated. I must farther be per- 

 mitted to express some doubt, whether Mr Stewart has rightly 

 interpreted that truly affecting clause of Bacon's Testament to 

 which he so eloquently alludes. There are no contemporary publi- 

 cations which give any countenance to the supposition, that Ba- 

 con 



* Dissertation on the Progress of Metaphysical, Ethical, and Political Philoso- 

 phy p. 58, 85. ; prefixed to the Supplement to the Encyclopadia Britannica. — 

 These statements have been already questioned, in part, in the article of the 

 Edinburgh Review before referred to. The able author of that article contends, 

 that Bacon's fame was early and generally established throughout the Continent ; 

 but he admits, that it was late before any beneficial effects were produced by 

 his philosophy. 



