English Literature
philosophy to his own life, he will find the essay, "Of Great Place," most
interesting in this connection.
Bacon now withdrew permanently from public life, and devoted his splendid
ability to literary and scientific work. He completed the _Essays_,
experimented largely, wrote history, scientific articles, and one
scientific novel, and made additions to his _Instauratio Magna_, the great
philosophical work which was never finished. In the spring of 1626, while
driving in a snowstorm, it occurred to him that snow might be used as a
preservative instead of salt. True to his own method of arriving at truth,
he stopped at the first house, bought a fowl, and proceeded to test his
theory. The experiment chilled him, and he died soon after from the effects
of his exposure. As Macaulay wrote, "the great apostle of experimental
philosophy was destined to be its martyr."
WORKS OF BACON. Bacon's philosophic works, _The Advancement of Learning_
and the _Novum Organum_, will be best understood in connection with the
_Instauratio Magna_, or _The Great Institution of True Philosophy_, of
which they were parts. The _Instauratio_ was never completed, but the very
idea of the work was magnificent,--to sweep away the involved philosophy of
the schoolmen and the educational systems of the universities, and to
substitute a single great work which should be a complete education, "a
rich storehouse for the glory of the Creator and for the relief of man's
estate." The object of this education was to bring practical results to all
the people, instead of a little selfish culture and much useless
speculation, which, he conceived, were the only products of the
universities.
THE INSTAURATIO MAGNA. This was the most ambitious, though it is not the
best known, of Bacon's works. For the insight it gives us into the author's
mind, we note here a brief outline of his subject. It was divided into six
parts, as follows:
1. _Partitiones Scientiarum_. This was to be a classification and summary
of all human knowledge. Philosophy and all speculation must be cast out and
the natural sciences established as the basis of all education. The only
part completed was _The Advancement of Learning_, which served as an
introduction.
2. _Novum Organum_, or the "new instrument," that is, the use of reason and
experiment instead of the old Aristotelian logic. To find truth one must do
two things: (_a_) get rid of all prejudices or idols, as Bacon called them.
These "idols" are four: "idols of the tribe," that is, prejudices due to
common methods of thought among all races; "idols of the cave or den," that
is, personal peculiarities and prejudices; "idols of the market place," due
to errors of language; and "idols of the theater," which are the unreliable
traditions of men. (_b_) After discarding the above "idols" we must
interrogate nature; must collect facts by means of numerous experiments,
arrange them in order, and then determine the law that underlies them.
It will be seen at a glance that the above is the most important of Bacon's
works. The _Organum_ was to be in several books, only two of which he
completed, and these he wrote and rewrote twelve times until they satisfied
him.
3. _Historic Naturalis et Experimentalis_, the study of all the phenomena
of nature. Of four parts of this work which he completed, one of them at
least, the _Sylva Sylvarum_, is decidedly at variance with his own idea of
fact and experiment. It abounds in fanciful explanations, more worthy of
the poetic than of the scientific mind. Nature is seen to be full of
desires and instincts; the air "thirsts" for light and fragrance; bodies
rise or sink because they have an "appetite" for height or depth; the
qualities of bodies are the result of an "essence," so that when we
discover the essences of gold and silver and diamonds it will be a simple
matter to create as much of them as we may need.
4. _Scala Intellectus_, or "Ladder of the Mind," is the rational
application of the _Organum_ to all problems. By it the mind should ascend
step by step from particular facts and instances to general laws and
abstract principles.
5. _Prodromi_, "Prophecies or Anticipations," is a list of discoveries that
men shall make when they have applied Bacon's methods of study and
experimentation.
6. _Philosophia Secunda_, which was to be a record of practical results of
the new philosophy when the succeeding ages should have applied it
faithfully.
It is impossible to regard even the outline of such a vast work without an
involuntary thrill of admiration for the bold and original mind which
conceived it. "We may," said Bacon, "make no despicable beginnings. The
destinies of the human race must complete the work ... for upon this will
depend not only a speculative good but all the fortunes of mankind and all
their power." There is the unconscious expression of one of the great minds
of the world. Bacon was like one of the architects of the Middle Ages, who
drew his plans for a mighty cathedral, perfect in every detail from the
deep foundation stone to the cross on the highest spire, and who gave over
his plans to the builders, knowing that, in his own lifetime, only one tiny
chapel would be completed; but knowing also that the very beauty of his
plans would appeal to others, and that succeeding ages would finish the
work which he dared to begin.
THE ESSAYS. Bacon's famous _Essays_ is the one work which will interest all
students of our literature. His _Instauratio_ was in Latin, written mostly
by paid helpers from short English abstracts. He regarded Latin as the only
language worthy of a great work; but the world neglected his Latin to seize
upon his English,--marvelous English, terse, pithy, packed with thought, in
an age that used endless circumlocutions. The first ten essays, published
in 1597, were brief notebook jottings of Bacon's observations. Their
success astonished the author, but not till fifteen years later were they
republished and enlarged. Their charm grew upon Bacon himself, and during
his retirement he gave more thought to the wonderful language which he had
at first despised as much as Aristotle's philosophy. In 1612 appeared a
second edition containing thirty-eight essays, and in 1625, the year before
his death, he republished the _Essays_ in their present form, polishing and
enlarging the original ten to fifty-eight, covering a wide variety of
subjects suggested by the life of men around him.
Concerning the best of these essays there are as many opinions as there are
readers, and what one gets out of them depends largely upon his own thought
and intelligence. In this respect they are like that Nature to which Bacon
directed men's thoughts. The whole volume may be read through in an
evening; but after one has read them a dozen times he still finds as many
places to pause and reflect as at the first reading. If one must choose out
of such a storehouse, we would suggest "Studies," "Goodness," "Riches,"
"Atheism," "Unity in Religion," "Adversity," "Friendship," and "Great
Place" as an introduction to Bacon's worldly-wise philosophy.
MISCELLANEOUS WORKS. Other works of Bacon are interesting as a revelation
of the Elizabethan mind, rather than because of any literary value. _The
New Atlantis_ is a kind of scientific novel describing another Utopia as
seen by Bacon. The inhabitants of Atlantis have banished Philosophy and
applied Bacon's method of investigating Nature, using the results to better
their own condition. They have a wonderful civilization, in which many of
our later discoveries--academies of the sciences, observatories, balloons,
submarines, the modification of species, and several others--were
foreshadowed with a strange mixture of cold reason and poetic intuition.
_De Sapientia Veterum_ is a fanciful attempt to show the deep meaning
underlying ancient myths,--a meaning which would have astonished the myth
makers themselves. The _History of Henry VII_ is a calm, dispassionate, and
remarkably accurate history, which makes us regret that Bacon did not do
more historical work. Besides these are metrical versions of certain
Psalms--which are valuable, in view of the controversy anent Shakespeare's
plays, for showing Bacon's utter inability to write poetry--and a large
number of letters and state papers showing the range and power of his
intellect.
BACON'S PLACE AND WORK. Although Bacon was for the greater part of his life
a busy man of affairs, one cannot read his work without becoming conscious
of two things,--a perennial freshness, which the world insists upon in all
literature that is to endure, and an intellectual power which marks him as
one of the great minds of the world.
Of late the general tendency is to give less and less prominence to his
work in science and philosophy; but criticism of his _Instauratio_, in view
of his lofty aim, is of small consequence. It is true that his "science"
to-day seems woefully inadequate; true also that, though he sought to
discover truth, he thought perhaps to monopolize it, and so looked with the
same suspicion upon Copernicus as upon the philosophers. The practical man
who despises philosophy has simply misunderstood the thing he despises. In
being practical and experimental in a romantic age he was not unique, as is
often alleged, but only expressed the tendency of the English mind in all
ages. Three centuries earlier the monk Roger Bacon did more practical
experimenting than the Elizabethan sage; and the latter's famous "idols"
are strongly suggestive of the former's "Four Sources of Human Ignorance."
Although Bacon did not make any of the scientific discoveries at which he
aimed, yet the whole spirit of his work, especially of _the Organum_, has
strongly influenced science in the direction of accurate observation and of
carefully testing every theory by practical experiment. "He that regardeth
the clouds shall not sow," said a wise writer of old; and Bacon turned
men's thoughts from the heavens above, with which they had been too busy,
to the earth beneath, which they had too much neglected. In an age when men
were busy with romance and philosophy, he insisted that the first object of
education is to make a man familiar with his natural environment; from
books he turned to men, from theory to fact, from philosophy to nature,--
and that is perhaps his greatest contribution to life and literature. Like
Moses upon Pisgah, he stood high enough above his fellows to look out over
a promised land, which his people would inherit, but into which he himself
might never enter.
RICHARD HOOKER (1554?-1600) In strong contrast with Bacon is Richard
Hooker, one of the greatest prose writers of the Elizabethan Age. One must
read the story of his life, an obscure and lowly life animated by a great
spirit, as told by Izaak Walton, to appreciate the full force of this
contrast. Bacon took all knowledge for his province, but mastered no single
part of it. Hooker, taking a single theme, the law and practice of the
English Church, so handled it that no scholar even of the present day would
dream of superseding it or of building upon any other foundation than that
which Hooker laid down. His one great work is _The Laws of Ecclesiastical
Polity_,[158] a theological and argumentative book; but, entirely apart
from its subject, it will be read wherever men desire to hear the power and
stateliness of the English language. Here is a single sentence, remarkable
not only for its perfect form but also for its expression of the reverence
for law which lies at the heart of Anglo-Saxon civilization:
Of law there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of
God, her voice the harmony of the world; all things in heaven and earth do
her homage; the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not