Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients
imagery, continues still subject to the undivided supremacy of
intellect. In the midst of all the prodigality of an imagination
which, had it been independent, would have been poetical, his
opinions remained severely rational.
“It is not so easy to conceive, or at least to describe, other
equally essential elements of his greatness, and conditions of
his success. He is probably a single instance of a mind which,
in philosophizing, always reaches the point of elevation whence
the whole prospect is commanded, without ever rising to such
a distance as to lose a distinct perception of every part of
it.”[30]
Mr. Macaulay speaks of the following peculiarity of Bacon’s
understanding:[31]—
“With great minuteness of observation he had an amplitude
of comprehension such as has never yet been vouchsafed to
any other human being. The small fine mind of La Bruyère had
not a more delicate tact than the large intellect of Bacon.
The “Essays” contain abundant proofs that no nice feature of
character, no peculiarity in the ordering of a house, a garden,
or a court-masque, could escape the notice of one whose mind
was capable of taking in the whole world of knowledge. His
understanding resembled the tent which the fairy Paribanou gave
to prince Ahmed. Fold it, and it seemed a toy for the hand of the
lady. Spread it, and the armies of powerful sultans might repose
beneath its shade.
“In keenness of observation he has been equalled, though,
perhaps, never surpassed. But the largeness of his mind was all
his own. The glance with which he surveyed the intellectual
universe, resembled that which the archangel, from the golden
threshold of heaven, darted down into the new creation.
“Round he surveyed and well might, where he stood
So high above the circling canopy
Of night’s extended shade—from eastern point
Of Libra, to the fleecy star which bears
Andromeda far off Atlantic seas
Beyond the horizon.”
Bacon’s philosophy is, to use an expression of his own, “the servant
and interpreter of nature;” he cultivated it in the leisure left him by
the assiduous study and practice of the law and by the willing duties
of a courtier; it was rather the recreation than the business of his
life; “my business,” said he, “found rest in my contemplations;” but
his very recreations rendered him, according to Leibnitz, the father
of experimental philosophy, and, according to all, the originator of
all its results, of all later discoveries in chemistry and the arts, in
short, of all modern science and its applications.
Mr. Macaulay is of opinion that the two leading principles of his
philosophy are _utility_ and _progress_; that the ethics of his
inductive method are to do good, to do more and more good, to mankind.
Lord Campbell believes that a most perfect body of ethics might be made
out from the writings of Bacon.
The origin of his philosophy was the conviction with which he was
impressed of the insufficiency of that of the ancients, or rather of
that of Aristotle, which reigned with almost undisputed sway throughout
Europe. He reverenced antiquity for its great works, its great men;
but not because of its ancientness; he deemed its decrees worthy of
reverential consideration, but did not think they admitted of no
appeal; he was not a bigot to antiquity or a contemner of modern times.
He happily combated that undue and blind submission to the authority
of ancient times for the mere reason that they are older than our own,
alleging truly that “ANTIQUITAS SECULI JUVENTUS MUNDI, that our times
are the ancient times, when the world is ancient, and not those which
we account ancient, _ordine retrogrado_, by a computation backward from
ourselves.”[32]
Throwing off, then, all allegiance to antiquity, he appealed directly
from Aristotle to nature, from reasoning to experiment.
But let us invoke the testimony of an eminent philosopher, Sir John
Herschel:—
“By the discoveries of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo, the
errors of the Aristotelian philosophy were effectually overturned
on a plain appeal to the facts of nature; but it remained to
show, on broad and general principles, how and why Aristotle
was in the wrong; to set in evidence the peculiar weakness of
his method of philosophizing, and to substitute in its place a
stronger and better. This important task was executed by Francis
Bacon, Lord Verulam, who will therefore justly be looked upon in
all future ages as the great reformer of philosophy, though his
own actual contributions to the stock of physical truths were
small, and his ideas of particular points strongly tinctured with
mistakes and errors, which were the fault rather of the general
want of physical information of the age than of any narrowness
of view on his own part; of this he was fully aware. It has been
attempted by some to lessen the merit of this great achievement,
by showing that the inductive method had been practised in many
instances, both ancient and modern, by the mere instinct of
mankind; but it is not the introduction of inductive reasoning,
as a new and hitherto untried process, which characterizes the
Baconian philosophy, but his keen perception, and his broad
and spirit-stirring, almost enthusiastic, announcement of its
paramount importance, as the alpha and omega of science, as the
grand and only chain for the linking together of physical truths,
and the eventual key to every discovery and every application.
Those who would deny him his just glory on such grounds would
refuse to Jenner or to Howard their civic crowns, because a
few farmers in a remote province had, time out of mind, been
acquainted with vaccination, or philanthropists, in all ages, had
occasionally visited the prisoner in his dungeon.”
“It is to our immortal countryman Bacon,” says he, again,
“that we owe the broad announcement of this grand and fertile
principle; and the development of the idea, that the whole of
natural philosophy consists entirely of a series of inductive
generalizations, commencing with the most circumstantially
stated particulars, and carried up to universal laws, or axioms,
which comprehend in their statements every subordinate degree of
generality and of a corresponding series of inverted reasoning
from generals to particulars, by which these axioms are traced
back into their remotest consequences, and all particular
propositions deduced from them, as well those by whose immediate
consideration we rose to their discovery, as those of which we
had no previous knowledge....
“It would seem that a union of two qualities almost opposite
to each other—a going forth of the thoughts in two directions,
and a sudden transfer of ideas from a remote station in one to
an equally distant one in the other—is required to start the
first idea of _applying science_. Among the Greeks, this point
was attained by Archimedes, but attained too late, on the eve
of that great eclipse of science which was destined to continue
for nearly eighteen centuries, till Galileo in Italy, and Bacon
in England, at once dispelled the darkness; the one, by his
inventions and discoveries; the other, by the irresistible force
of his arguments and eloquence.”[33]
His style is copious, comprehensive, and smooth; it does not flow
with the softness of the purling rill, but rather with the strength,
fulness, and swelling of a majestic river, and the rude harmony of the
mountain stream. His images are replete with poetry and thought; they
always illustrate his subject. Hallam is of opinion that the modern
writer that comes nearest to him is Burke. “He had,” said Addison,
“the sound, distinct, comprehensive knowledge of Aristotle, with all
the beautiful lights, graces, and embellishments of Cicero. One does
not know which to admire most in his writings, the strength of reason,
force of style, or brightness of imagination.”[34]
Bacon improved so much the melody, elegance, and force of English
prose, that we may apply to him what was said of Augustus with regard
to Rome: _lateritiam invenit, marmoream reliquit_; he found it brick,
and he left it marble. Mr. Hallam’s opinion differs somewhat from this;
it is as follows:—
“The style of Bacon has an idiosyncrasy which we might expect
from his genius. It can rarely indeed happen, and only in men
of secondary talents, that the language they use is not, by
its very choice and collocation, as well as its meaning, the
representative of an individuality that distinguishes their
turn of thought. Bacon is elaborate, sententious, often witty,
often metaphorical; nothing could be spared; his analogies are
generally striking and novel; his style is clear, precise,
forcible; yet there is some degree of stiffness about it, and in
mere language he is inferior to Raleigh.”[35]
It is a most remarkable characteristic of Bacon, and one in which Burke
resembled him, that his imagination grew stronger with his increasing
years, and his style richer and softer. “The fruit came first,” says
Mr. Macaulay, “and remained till the last; the blossoms did not appear
till late. In eloquence, in sweetness and variety of expression, and
in richness of illustration, his later writings are far superior to
those of his youth.” His earliest Essays have as much truth and cogent
reasoning as his latest; but these are far superior in grace and
beauty. A most striking illustration of this is afforded by one of the
last Essays, added a year before Bacon’s death, that of _Adversity_
(Essay V.), than which naught can be more graceful and beautiful.
The account of Bacon’s works will necessarily be very succinct, and,
we fear, imperfect. We shall, however, for each of them, call in the
aid of the most competent judges, whose award public opinion will not
reverse.
ESSAYS.
Bacon published his _Essays_ in 1597. They were, in the estimation of
Mr. Hallam, the first in time and in excellence of English writings on
moral prudence. Of the fifty-eight Essays, of which the work is now
composed, ten only appeared in the first edition. But to these were
added _Religious Meditations, Places of Perswasion and Disswasion,
Seene and allowed_; many of which were afterwards embodied in the
Essays. These Essays were: 1. Of Studie; 2. Of Discourse; 3. Of
Ceremonies and Respects; 4. Of Followers and Friends; 5. Of Sutors; 6.
Of Expence; 7. Of Regiment of Health; 8. Of Honor and Reputation; 9. Of
Faction; 10. Of Negociating. In the edition of 1612, “The Essaies of
S^r Francis Bacon Knight, the King’s Atturny Generall,” were increased
to forty-one.
The new Essays added are: 1. Of Religion; 2. Of Death; 3. Of Goodnesse,
and Goodnesse of Nature; 4. Of Cunning; 5. Of Marriage and Single
Life; 6. Of Parents and Children; 7. Of Nobility; 8. Of Great Place;
9. Of Empire; 10. Of Counsell; 11. Of Dispatch; 12. Of Love; 13. Of
Friendship; 14. Of Atheism; 15. Of Superstition; 16. Of Wisedome for a
Man’s selfe; 20. Of seeming wise; 21. Of Riches; 22. Of Ambition; 23.
Of Young Men and Age; 24. Of Beauty; 25. Of Deformity; 26. Of Nature in
Men; 27. Of Custom and Education; 28. Of Fortune; 35. Of Praise; 36. Of
Judicature; 37. of Vaine-Glory; 38. Of Greatnesse of Kingdomes; 39. Of
the Publique; 40. Of Warre and Peace.
These forty-one Essays were afterwards again augmented to fifty-eight,
with the new title of _The Essaies or Covnsels, Civill and Morall_;
they were likewise improved by corrections, additions, and
illustrations. By the peculiarity of Bacon, already noticed, the later
Essays rise in beauty and interest.
Bacon considered his Essays but as “the recreations of his other