PHILOSOPHICAL WRITINGS OF LORD BACON. 417 



Gassendi was one of the earliest disciples of Bacon in 

 France ; and he was also one of the earliest and most strenu- 

 ous opponents of Descartes's Philosophy. He has characte- 

 rized the principles of philosophizing, which these two re- 

 formers respectively professed, in a very clear and able man- 

 ner, in the tenth and eleventh chapters of his treatise De Logicce 

 origine, et varietote*. The reformation attempted by Bacon, is 

 there pronounced a truly great and heroical undertaking. In 

 another work, his excellent account of the life of his celebrat- 

 ed friend Peiresc, there is a passage, in which Bacon is 

 mentioned in a way particularly deserving of notice in the 

 present discussion. " No man," says Gassendi, speaking of 

 his friend, " made more observations, or caused more to be 

 " made ; to the end, that at last some notions of natural 

 u things, more sound and pure than those commonly received, 

 " might be collected ; for which reason, he admired the ge- 

 " nius, and approved the design of that great Chancellor of 

 " England, Sir Francis Bacon f." Now, Peiresc died in 

 1637, only eleven years after Bacon. But this is not all. He 

 was the first man in France, according to Bailly, who deserved 

 the name of an astronomer ^ ; and he, as well as Gassendi, 

 who was also distinguished as an astronomer, — was a correspon- 

 dent, friend, and admirer of Galileo ; yet we see, that Bacon 

 was considered by both, as the great leader of reform in Natu- 

 ral Philosophy. 



There are many other testimonies, of a similar purport, 

 in the writings of those who were conversant with the 

 French experimentalists. One of these, that furnished by 



Vol. VIII. P. II. 3 G Sorbierre, 



* Gassendi, Opera, torn. i. 



•f- Gassendi's Life of Peiresc, Book vi. p. 207. of the English translation. 



\ Histoire de I' Astronomic Modernc, liv. iii. § 20. 



