BACON. 
6 t?6 
was elected treafurer of'Gray’s Inn. His great modera¬ 
tion and confummate prudence preserved him through tire 
dangerous reign of queen Mary. In the very dawn of 
that of Elizabeth he was knighted; and, on the 22d of 
December, 1558, the great feal of England, being taken 
from Nicholas Heath archbifliop of York, was delivered 
to him with the title of lord keeper , and he was alfo made 
one of the queen’s privy council. As a flatefman, he was 
remarkable for a clear, head and deep counfels: but his 
great parts and high preferment were far from raifing him 
in his own opinion, as appears from the modefi.anfwer he 
gave to queen Elizabeth, when (he told him his houfe at 
Redgrave was too little for him : “ Not fo, madam (he 
replied); but your majefly has made me top great for my 
houfe.” Afrer ; baving had the great feal more than twen¬ 
ty years, this-abbs ftatefman and faithful counfellor was 
fuddenly removed from this life, as Mr. Mallet informs 
us, by ordering a window before him to be thrown open, 
when he fell afleep ; and, as the current of frefh air was. 
blowing in upon him, he awa ; kened fome time after dif- 
tempered all over. He. was immediately Removed into his 
bed-chamber, where he died, on the 26th of February,. 
1578-9, equally lamented by the queen and her fubjeds.. 
He was buried in St.-Paulis, where a monument was,erect¬ 
ed to him, which was deflioyed by the fire of I.ondpp in 
1666. Mr. Granger obferves, that he was the firft lord 
keeper that ranked as lord chancellor; and that he had 
much of that penetrating genius, folidity, and judgment, 
perfuafive eloquence, and comprehenfive knowledge of law 
and equity, which afterwards fhone forth with fo great a 
luflre in his fon. 
Bacon (Francis), baron of Verulam, vifeount of St. 
Alban’s, and lord high chancellor of England, under king 
James I. He was born in 1560, being the fon of the laft- 
mentioned gentleman, by Anne, daughter of Sir Anthony 
Cook, eminent for her (kill in the Latin and Greek lan¬ 
guages. He gave even in his infancy tokens of what he 
would one day become; and queen Elizabeth had many 
times occafion to admire his wit and talents, and ufed to 
call him her young lord keeper. He fludied the philofo- 
phy of Ariflotleal Cambridge; where he made Rich pro- 
grefs in his Rudies, that at fixteen years of age he had run 
through the whole circle of the liberal arts as they were 
then taught, and even began to perceive thofe imperfec¬ 
tions in the reigning philofophy, which he afterwards fo 
effectually expofed, and thence not only overturned that 
tyranny which prevented the progrefs of true knowledge, 
but laid the foundation of that free and ufeful philofophy 
which lias fince opened a way to io many glorious difeo- 
veries. On his leaving the univerfity, his father lent him 
to France : where, before he was nineteen years of age, be 
wrote a general view of the Rate of Europe : but, his fa¬ 
ther dying, he was obliged fuddenly to return to England; 
where he. applied himfelf to the Rudy of tire common law, 
at Gray’s Inn. His merit at length railed him to the high- 
efl dignities in his profelfion, attorney-general, and lord 
high chancellor. But, being of an eafy and liberal difpo- 
iifion, his fervants took advantage of that temper, and 
their fituation under him, by accepting prefents in the line 
*»f His profelfion. Being abandoned by the king, lie was 
tried by the houfe .of lords, for bribery and corruption, and 
by them fentenced to pay a fine of 40,000b and to remain 
priloner in the Tower during the king’s pleafure. The 
king however loon after remitted the fine and punifiiment: 
but his misfortunes had given him a difiafie for public af¬ 
fairs,-and die afterwards moRly lived a retired life, clofely 
,purfiiing his 1 philofophical Rudies and amufements, in 
which time he conifiofed the greateR part of his Englilh 
and Latin works. Though even in the midft of his ho¬ 
nours and[employments he forgot not his philofophy, but 
in 1620 publiflied his great work Novum Organum. Af¬ 
ter fame years 1'peiit in his. philofophical retirement, he 
died in 1626, being fixty-fix years of age. 
The chancellor Bacon is one of thofe extraordinary ge- 
tsiufes who. have-contributed the moR to the advancement 
• i . 
of the fciences. He clearly perceived the imperfection of 
the fchool philofophy, and he pointed out the only means 
of reforming it, by proceeding In the oppofite way, from 
experiments to the difeovery of the laws of nature. Ad- 
difon has faid of him, That he had the found, diflind, 
comprehenfive, knowledge of Arifiotle, with all the beau¬ 
tiful light graces and embellilhments of Cicero. Mr. 
Walpole calls him the prophet of arts, which Newton was 
afterwards to reveal; and adds, that his genius and his 
works will be univerfally admired as long as fcience exifis. 
He did not yet, faid another great man, underfiand nature, 
but he knew and pointed out all the ways that lead to her. 
He very early defpi fed all that the univerfities called phi- 
lofbphy; and he did every thing in his power that they 
Riould hot difgrace her by their quiddities, their horrors 
of a vacuum, their fubftantial forms, and fuch-like im¬ 
pertinences. He comppfed two works for perfeding the 
fciences: the former On the Dignity and Augmentation 
of the Sciences. Me here (hews the Rate in which they 
then were, and points out what remains to be difeovered 
for perfecting them ; condemning the unnatural way of 
AriRotle, in revertin'* the natural order of things. He 
here alfo propofes his celebrated divifion of the fciences. - 
Tq- remedy the faults of the common logic, Bacon com- 
pbfed llis lecond Work, the New Organ of Sciences above- 
mentioned. He here teaches a new logic, the chief end 
ot Which is to fliew how to make a good inference, as that 
of Ariftotle’s is to make a fyilogifni. Bacon was eighteen 
years in compofing this work, and he always eReemed it 
as the chief ot his compofitions. 
The pains which Bacon beflowed upon all tire fciences 
in general, prevented him from making any confiderable 
application to any one in particular : and, as he knew that 
natural philofophy is the foundation of all the other fci¬ 
ences, he chiefly endeavoured to give perfection to it. He 
therefore propofed to eRabliRi a new fyRern of phyfics, re¬ 
jecting the doubtful principles, of the ancients. For this 
purpofe he took the refolution of compofing every month 
a treatife pn fome branch of phyfics : he accordingly be¬ 
gan with that of the winds; then he gave that of heat; 
next that of motion; and laRly that of life and death. 
But, as it was impofiible that one man alone could fo com- 
pofe the whole circle of the fciences with the fame pre- 
cifion, after having given thefe patterns, to ferve as a mo¬ 
del to thofe who might choofe to labour upon his princi¬ 
ples, he contented himfelf with tracing in a few words the 
defign of four other tracts, and with furniRiing the ma¬ 
terials, in his Silva Silvarum, where he has amafied a vaR 
number of experiments, to ferve as a foundation for Iris 
new phyfics. In fad, no one before Bacon underRood any 
thing of the experimental philofophy; and, of all the 
phylical experiments which have been made fince his time, 
there is fcarcely one that is nbt pointed out in his works. 
This great precurfor of philofophy was alfo an elegant 
writer, an hifiorian, and a wit. His moral efiays are va¬ 
luable, but are formed more to inflrud than than to pleafe. 
There are excellent things too in his work On the Wif- 
dom of the Ancients, in which he has moralized the fa¬ 
bles which formed the theology of the Greeks and Ro¬ 
mans. He wrote alfo The Hifiory of Henry VII. King 
of England, by which it appears that he was not lefs a 
great politician than a great philofopher. Bacon had alfo 
fome other writings, publiflied at different times ; the 
whole of which were colleded together, and publiflied at 
Frankfort, in the year 1665, in folio, with an introdu.dion 
concerning his life and writings. Another edition of his 
v/orks was publiflied at London in 1740; the enumeration 
of which is as below: 1. De Dignitate et Augmentis Sci- 
entiarum. 2. Novum Organum Scientiarum, five Judicia 
vera de Interpretatione Naturae ; cum Parafceve ad'Hifto- 
riamNaturalem & Experimentalem. 3. Phaenomena Uni- 
verfi, five Hifloria Naturalis 6 c Experimentalis de Vends; 
Hifioria Denfi Sc Rari; Hifloria Gravis & Levis ; Hifloria 
Sympathiae & Antipathiae Rerum; Hifloria Sulphuris, 
Mercurii, & Salis; Hifloria Vide Sc Mortis; Hifloria Na¬ 
turalis 
