24 
and discredit to science on its own account,— leaving the ques- 
tion of revelation altogether out of consideration. 
I have alluded to Halley, Laplace, and other atheists, infidels 
or unbelievers, who, as individuals, have no doubt been glad 
to find what they considered to be scientific contradictions of 
God's Revealed Word. But that is not all. Not merely have 
some pursued science in that spirit; but others have been 
found who have boldly put forth the opinion that the inductive 
philosophy of Bacon is necessarily atheistic in its principle and 
foundation ; and they have even claimed Bacon himself as an 
atheist, and accused him of being a mere hypocrite in his reli- 
gious professions ! Not only have the atheists themselves put 
this forth as a boast, but ’ the same accusations have been 
strangely re-echoed by others in their over zeal for faith and 
religion ! Thus has Bacon been libelled and his philosophy 
misrepresented, by ungrateful and unfaithful followers on the 
one hand, and by the avowed enemies of all scientific inves- 
tigation on the other. . 
But the real truth is, that science has become, m our day, 
materialistic and wildly speculative, entirely through a disre- 
gard of Lord Bacon's principles, and in spite of his actual 
warnings. Moreover, certain branches only of human know- 
ledge have been cultivated by too many professed followers of 
Bacon, and the higher and connecting finks of general philo- 
sophy have been too much neglected. “ Hitherto (he says) 
the industry of man has been great and curious in noting the 
variety of things, and in explaining the accurate differences 
of animals, vegetables, and minerals, many, of which are 
rather the sport of nature than of any real utility to science. 
Things of this sort are amusing, and, sometimes, not without 
practical use, but they contribute little, or nothing towards the 
investigation of nature." (Nov. Org., ii., 27.) And elsewhere : 
“ By means of these we have a minute knowledge of things, 
but scanty and often unprofitable information with respect to 
science. Yet these are the things of which common . natural 
history makes a boast." (Descrip. Globi Intellect., c. iii.) -In 
reading these passages, one almost might imagine he had been 
describing by anticipation the so-called natural science of the 
present day. True, we have speculations enough, and theories 
in addition, but they are rash and ill-considered, because the 
sciences have been too much separated, and the great majority 
have devoted their minds to the details of some narrow 
speciality. But what says Bacon ? — 
“Let no one expect great progress in the sciences (especially their operative 
part) unless natural philosophy he applied to particular sciences, and they 
