The works of Francis Bacon, lord chancellor of England.

liv LIFE OF BACON.
them not audible, all things dissolve into anarchy tigation of every species of philosophy, divine,
and confusion." natural, and human, of which, from his analysis
So when explaining, amidst the advantages of of human philosophy, or the science of man, some
knowledge, its excellency in diffusing happiness conception may be formed of the extent and perthrough succeeding ages, he says, ", Let us con- fection of the different parts of the work.
elude with the dignity and excellency of know- These different subjects, exhibited with this
ledge and learning in that whereunto man's na- perspicuity, are adorned with beautiful illustrature doth most aspire; which is, immortality or tion and imagery: as, when explaining the doccontinuance: for to this tendeth generation, and trine of the will, divided into the image of good,
raising of houses and families; to this buildings, or the exhibition of truth, and the culture or
foundations, and monuments; to this tendeth the Georgics of the mind, which is its husbandry or
desire of memory, fame, and celebration, and, in tillage, so as to love the truth which it sees, he
effect, the strength of all other human desires. says, " The neglecting these Georgics seemeth
WVe see then how far the monuments of wit and to me no better than to exhibit a fair image or
learning are more durable than the monuments of statue, beautiful to behold, but without life or
power or of the hands. For, have not the verses motion."
of Hoomer continued twenty-five hundred years, Having thus made a small globe of the intelor more, without th'e loss of a syllable or letter; lectual world, he, looking at the work he had
during which time infinite palaces, temples, made, and hoping that it was good, thus concastles, cities, have been decayed and destroyed. cludes: c" And being now at some pause, looking
It is not possible to have the true pictures or back into that I have passed through, this writing
statues of Cyrus, Alexander, Casar; no, nor of seemeth to me,,si nunquam fallit imago,' (as
the kings or great personages of much later far as a man can judge of his own work,) not
years; for the originals cannot last, and the much better than the noise or sound which mucopies cannot but leese of the life and truth: but sicians make while they are tuning their instruthe images of men's wits and knowledges remain ments, which is nothing pleasant to hear, but yet
in books exempted from the wrong of time, and is a cause why the music is sweeter afterwards:
capable of perpetual renovation. Neither are they so have I been content to tune the instruments of
fitly to be called images, because they generate the muses, that they may play that have better
still, and cast their seeds in the minds of others, hands. And surely, when I set before me the
provoking and causing infinite actions and opinions condition of these times, in which learning hath
in succeeding ages; so that, if the invention of made her third visitation or circuit in all the quathe ship was thought so noble, which carrieth lities thereof: as the excellency and vivacity of
riches and commodities from place to place, and the wits of this age; the noble helps and lights
consociateth the most remote regions in participa- which we have by the travails of ancient writers;
tion of their fruits, how much more are letters to the art of printing, which communicateth books
be magnified, which, as ships, pass through the to men of all fortunes; the openness of the world
vast seas of time, and make ages so distant to by navigation, which hath disclosed multitudes
participate of the wisdom, illuminations, and in- of experiments, and a mass of natural history;
ventions, the one of the other? " the leisure wherewith these times abound, not
After having thus explained some of the bless- employing men so generally in civil business as
ings attendant upon knowledge, he concludes the the states of Graecia did, in respect of their pofirst book with lamenting that these blessings are pularity, and the state of Rome, in respect of the
not more generally preferred. greatness of their monarchy; the present dispoThe second book, after various preliminary ob- sition of these times at this instant to peace; the
servations, and particularly upon the defects of consumption of all that ever can be said in conuniversities, of which, from the supposition that troversies of religion, which have so much dithey are formed rather for the discovery of new verted men from other sciences; and the insepaknowledge than for diffusing the knowledge of rable property of time, which is ever more and
our predecessors, he, through life, seems to have more to disclose truth,-I cannot but be raised to
formed too high an estimate, he arranges and this persuasion, that this third period of time will
adorns every species of history, which lhe in- far surpass that of the Grecian and Roman learncludes within the province of memory,-and every ing; only if men will know their own strength,
species of poetry, by which imagination can and their own weakness both; and take, one
"6 elevate the mind from the dungeon of the body from the other, light of invention, and not fire of
to the enjoying its own divine essence::"-and, contradiction; and esteem of the inquisition of
passing from poetry, by saying, "but it is not truth as of an enterprise, and not as of a quality
good to stop too long in the theatre: let us now or ornament; and employ wit and magnificence
pass on to the judicial place or palace of the mind, to things of worth and excellency, and not'o
which we are to approach and view with more things vulgar and of popular estimation."
reverence and attention," he proceeds to the inves- Of this work he presented copies to the King