'tl'^ ON THE SCOPE AND INFLUENCE OF THE 



in the sequel, that Bacon's works were well known, and their 

 beneficial effects largely acknowledged, in foreign countries, 

 long before the period pointed at in the statements of Mr 

 Stewart. 



In the first place, then, I must observe, generally, that the tes- 

 timony of such of Bacon's contemporaries as allude to his writ- 

 ings, as well as of his earlier Biographers and Editors, stands de- 

 cidedly opposed to the supposition, that his fame was of slow 

 growth upon the Continent. The information which they give 

 upon this point, rather, indeed, supports a contrary conclusion, 

 — that the early celebrity of his writings abroad, contributed 

 to enhance their credit at home. Thus, Osborn tells us, that it 

 was the voice of foreign fame which silenced the cry of atheism, 

 raised against them by some of the School-Divines of his own 

 country *. Mr Stewart dates the full acknowledgment of his 

 philosophical merits in England from the period of the esta- 

 blishment of the Royal Society f. Now, in the account of 

 Bacon's Life, published in 1657 by Dr Rawley, who had 

 been for many years his domestic Chaplain, it is distinctly 

 stated, " that his fame was greater, and sounded louder in fo- 

 ** reign parts than at home ;" and it is added, " that divers of 

 " his works had been translated more than once into other 

 " tongues, both learned and modern, by foreign pens :}:." Dr 

 Rawley had, some years, before, received a strong proof 

 of the early celebrity of his late Patron's writings abroad, in 

 a letter from Isaac Gruter, which contains the following pas- 

 sage : " Lewis Elzevir wrote me lately from Amsterdam, that 



" he 



* Osborn's Miscellany of Essays, Paradoxes and Discourses, Preface. 



■J* Dissertation, p. 158. 



| Life, prefixed to Rawlky's Resuscitatio, first published in 1657. 



