PROCEEDINGS OF THE MEETING. 
25 
is detailed in f A speech, touching the recovering of drowned 
mineral works, prepared for the parliament by the Viscount of 
St. Albans, then Lord High Chancellor of England.’ For 
that end he would have proposed, by legislative enactment , 4 to 
bring those deserted mineral riches into use by the assiduous 
labours of felons and the industry of converted penitents, whose 
wretched carcasses the impartial laws have dedicated, or shall 
dedicate, as untimely feasts to the worms of the earth.’ 4 By 
this unchargeable way, my Lords, have I proposed to erect the 
item numquid ea consentiunt cum iis quae de illis veteres Astronomi scripserunt, 
quave in re differant, (nequeenim dubito quin stellae situm inter se suum aliquan- 
tulum mutent quamvis fixse habeantur) hisque subjiceret observationes Come¬ 
tarum, tabellam conficiens de uniuscunque motu, quemadmodum Tycho de 
tribus aut quatuor a se observatis fecit, denique variationes Eclipticae et apogo- 
eorum planetarum, opus esset utilius quam forte primo intuitu videatur, essetque 
mihi magnum operae compendium; sed non spero id facturum quenquam.” ( Ep. 
LX VII.) If any one will compare these suggestions with the letter to Baran- 
zon before referred to, be will find them almost a literal transcript of Bacon’s 
request to the Savoyard philosopher to undertake this identical task. These 
extracts show the philosophical character of Descartes in a light somewhat dif¬ 
ferent from that in which it is commonly regarded; like other great geometers 
before and since, he carried the use of abstractions and hypotheses too far and 
too soon into physical reasoning; but though he did not, with the wisdom of 
Newton, abide by the fundamental principle, laid down by Bacon, “non fin- 
gendum, nec excogitandum, sed inveniendum, quid natura faciat aut ferat,” 
he was no stranger to the inductive method of collecting axioms from observa¬ 
tion and experiment. In a letter addressed to Descartes, and prefixed to his 
celebrated treatise on the passions, a strong appeal is made to the public liberality 
to enable him to pursue those multiplied experiments for which he had occasion 
in order to carry on his investigations into nature. It is stated in this letter, 
that Gilbert had expended more than 50,000 crowns on the magnet alone, and 
that to execute all the experiments which Bacon had designed, would require 
more than the revenue of two or three kings. The writer (probably Mersenne) 
refers to “ l’lnstauratio magna et le Novus Atlantis du Chancelier Bacon, qui 
me semble estre de tous ceux qui ont escrit avant vous celuy qui a eu les meil- 
leures pensees touchant la methode qu’on doit tenir pour conduire la Physique 
en sa perfection.” 
In England meanwhile an experimental school was forming, more faithful to 
the principles of the inductive philosophy. Foremost among the founders of 
the Royal Society, “ Mr. Boyle, the ornament of his age and country, succeeded 
to the genius and inquiries of the great Chancellor Verulam 1 ; ” and he has left 
us no doubt as to the master by whom he had been taught; for in recording his 
experiments he has retained not only the method, but the peculiar idiom and 
technical phrases of Bacon. Thus this great interpreter of nature stood among 
philosophers like the pilot among the crew; he constructed the chart of know¬ 
ledge, he marked upon it the place of the ship, he took the bearings of the land, 
he pointed out the variation of the compass, he noted the force and direction of 
the winds, and taught the adventurer to steer a certain course over the wide 
and trackless sea. 
1 Boerhaave. 
