BACON. 
g* rt Opus Majus:’’ London, 1733, in folio, 
published by Dr. Jebb. 3. “ Thesaurus 
Chemicus:” Francf. 1603 and 1620. These 
printed works of Bacon contain a consider- 
able number of essays; but there remain 
also in different libraries several manuscripts 
not yet published. 
His other physical writings shew no less 
genius and force of mind. In his treatise 
“ Of the Secret Works of Art and Nature,” 
he shews that a person perfectly acquainted 
with the manner observed by nature in her 
operations would be able to rival her. In 
another piece, “ Of the Nullity of Magic,” he 
points out, with great sagacity and penetra- 
tion, whence the notion of it sprung, and 
how weak all pretences to it are. From a 
perusal of his works, it is evident that Bacon 
was no stranger to many of the capital dis- 
coveries of the present and past ages. Gun- 
powder he certainly knew: thunder and 
lightning, be tells us, may be produced by 
art: for that sulphur, nitre, and charcoal, 
which when separate have no sensible effect, 
when mixed together in due proportion, 
and closely confined, and fired, yield a loud 
report. A more precise description of gun- 
powder cannot be given in words. He 
also mentions a sort of unextinguishable fire 
prepared by art : which proves that he was 
not unacquainted with phosphorus : and that 
he had a notion of the rarefaction of the air, 
and the structure of an air-pump, is past 
contradiction. He was the miracle, says Dr. 
Freind, of the age in which he lived, and the 
greatest genius, perhaps, for mechanical 
knowledge, that ever appeared in the world 
since Archimedes. He appears likewise to 
have been a master in the science of optics : 
he has accurately described the uses of 
reading-glasses, and shewn the way of mak- 
ing them. Dr. Freind adds, that he also 
describes the camera obscura, and all sorts 
of glasses which magnify or diminish any 
object, or bring it nearer to tire eye, or re- 
move it farther off Bacon says himself, 
that he had great numbers of burning-glas- 
ses : and that there were none ever in use 
among the Latins, till his friend Peter de 
Mahara Curia applied himself to the making 
of them. That the telescope was qot un- 
known to him, appears from a passage 
where he says, that he was able to form 
glasses in such a manner, with respect to our 
sight and the objects, that the rays shall be 
refracted and reflected wherever we please, 
so that we may see a thing under what angle 
we think proper, either near or at a distance, 
and be able to read the smallest letters at 
an incredible distance, and to count the dust 
and sand, on account of the greatness of the 
angle under which we see the objects : and al- 
so that we shall scarce see the greatest bodies 
near us, on account of the smallness of the 
angle under which we view them . His skill in 
astronomy was amazing : he discovered that 
error which occasioned the reformation of the 
calendar ; one of the greatest efforts, ac- 
cording to Dr. Jebb, of human industry : 
and his plan for correcting it was followed 
by Pope Gregory the Thirteenth, with this 
variation, that Bacon would have had the 
correction to begin from the birth of our Sa- 
viour, whereas Gregory’s amendment reaches 
no higher than the Nicene council. 
On the whole, it cannot be doubted that 
Friar Bacon is justly entitled to everlasting 
remembrance, as a philosopher and truly 
great man. If knowledge, says Dr. Enfield, is 
now too far advanced for the world to de- 
rive much information from his writings, re- 
spect must nevertheless be paid to the me- 
mory of the man who knew more than his 
contemporaries, and who in a dark age add- 
ed new lights to the lamp of science. 
Bacon (Francis), in biography, Baron 
of Verulam, Viscount of St. Albans, and 
Lord High Chancellor of England under 
King James I. He was born in 1560, being 
son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of 
the Great Seal in the reign of Queen Eliza- 
beth, by Ann daughter of Sir Anthony Cook, 
eminent for her skill in the Latin and Greek 
languages. He gave even in his infancy 
tokens of what he would one day become ; 
and Queen Elizabeth had many times occa- 
sion to admire his wit and talents, and used 
to call him her young lord keeper. In his 
thirteenth year he was entered a student at 
Trinity College, Cambridge, where he 
studied the philosophy of Aristotle, and 
made such progress in his studies, that at 
sixteen years of age he had run through the 
whole circle of the liberal arts as they were 
then taught, and even began to perceive 
those imperfections in the existing philoso- 
phy, which he afterwards so effectually ex- 
posed, and thence not only overturned the 
tyranny which prevented the progress of 
true knowledge, but laid the foundation of 
that free and useful philosophy which has 
since opened a way to so many glorious 
discoveries. On his leaving the university, 
his father sent him to France ; where, before 
he was 19 years of age, he wrote a general 
view of the state of Europe : but Sir Nicholas 
dying, he was obliged suddenly to return to 
England, where he applied himself to the 
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