PHILOSOPHICAL WRITINGS OP LORD BACON. 425 



authority more, that of a celebrated Dutch writer of the same 

 day, himself an eminent improver of science in several of its 

 branches ; and who was placed in a situation, which, in a parti- 

 cular manner, enabled him to collect the general sentiment of 

 Europe, upon any point connected with the history of philoso- 

 phy. I here allude to Boerhaave ; who, in his Discourse de com- 

 parando certo in Physicis, delivered before the University of Ley- 

 den, when he laid down the office of Rector in 1715, pronounced 

 an eulogium upon the merits and services of Bacon, which I 

 am happy to extract as a conclusion, ornament, and sanction, 

 to the foregoing observations. — " Atque hujus quidem Physi- 

 ' ces fortunas laudare licet ex quo magnum Verulamium sum- 

 1 mo suo bono accepit ! Virum cert6 ad omnia, quae sciential 

 ' humana\ comprehendi possunt, indaganda facile principem, 

 1 et de quo dubites utrum consilio, an exemplo, major fuerit 

 4 in instauranda deformatd Physic^. Absque invidia dixero, 

 * quidquid incrementi cepit naturalis historia ab ineunte de- 

 ' cimo sexto seculo in hanc usque horam, omne id acceptum 

 ' debemus monitis et preceptis illius viri ; cujus indelibilem 

 ' memoriam grata colet orbis perpetuitas. Gratari quoque 

 ' oportet aevo nostro, quo exire servitio sectarum licuit, sicque 

 1 ardere puram, castamque, veritatem, ut, posthabita\ figmen- 

 1 torum atque commentorum auctoritate, Naturam solam suas 

 ' dotes revelantem audiamus." 



Vol. VIII. P. II. 3 H XX. 



