wise indicated, and even made plain; and men had nothing more to do, than to proceed patiently and perseveringly to reach with certainty the expected end of their labours. From the time of Bacon, in consequence, the progress of knowledge of all kinds has been rapid and continual. That his writings constituted the sole cause of this general progression, I by no means intend to assert; but that they taught solely, and established, the only true method of acquiring knowledge, will not be disputed. The minds of men thus enlightened, their views of things became clear and settled. All future change, relative to the method of proceeding, is now out of the question; and we may go on, without any risk that our labour shall be in vain, to accumulate knowledge, to spread illumination and happiness. His writings, therefore, form one of the most important æras, not merely in the history of English literature, but in the annals of mankind. The quality of mind, by which Bacon was preeminently distinguished-a quality, which of all others is the most distinctive of genius-was that variety, that universality of intellectual powers, which enabled him to embrace all nature in the ample vision of his capacious soul. Thus largely endowed, his faculties were kept in unceasing activity by their native force; the voice of fame was to him an unnecessary stimulus, and he never sought extensive and indiscriminate applause. Yet his studies were always the principal business of his life. His great aim in his philosophical pursuits was, to discover remedies for all human ills. Hence, he modestly stiles himself, in his letter to Fulgentio, the Servant of Posterity;' and thought, and in the event proved, 1 himself to have been born for the use of human kind. All the works of Lord Bacon were published collectively at London, in 1740, in four volumes folio: a very correct edition of them was also given to the world in 1765 by Dr. Birch, in five volumes 4to.; and they have been lately reprinted in ten volumes 8vo., six being appropriated to his English, and four to his Latin compositions. Analysis of Bacon's Advantages of Learning? 1. Learning relieves man's afflictions, which arise from nature. 2. Learning represses the inconveniences, which grow from man to man. 3. Learning has a certain concurrence with military virtue. 4. Learning improves private virtues. 5. Learning is the greatest of all powers. 6. Learning advances fortune. 7. Learning in pleasure and delight surpasses all other pleasure in nature. 8. Learning insures immortality. Under the fourth and following heads, he observes: To proceed now from Imperial and Military Virtue to Moral and Private Virtue: first, it is an assured truth, which is contained in the verses ; Scilicet ingenuas didicisse fideliter artes, Emollit mores, nec sinit esse feros. • It taketh away the wildness, and barbarism, and fierceness of men's minds: but, indeed, the accent had need be upon fideliter; for a little superficial learning doth rather work a contrary effect. It taketh away all levity, temerity, and insolency by copious suggestion of all doubts and difficulties, and acquainting the mind to balance reasons on both sides, and to turn back the first offers and conceits of the mind, and to accept of nothing but examined and tried. It taketh away vain admiration of any thing, which is the root of all weakness: for all things are admired, either because they are new, or because they are great. For novelty, no man that wadeth in learning or contemplation thoroughly, but will find that printed in his heart, Nil novi super terram. Neither can any man marvel at the play of puppets, that goeth behind the curtain and adviseth well of the motion. And for magnitude, as Alexander the Great, after that he was used to great armies and the great conquests of the spacious provinces in Asia, when he received letters out of Greece of some fights and services there, which were commonly for a passage or a fort or some walled town at the most, he said, "It seemed to him that he was advertised of the battles of the Frogs and the Mice that the old tales went of." So certainly, if a man meditate upon the universal frame of nature, the earth with men upon it (the divineness of souls excepted) will not seem much other than an ant-hill, where some ants carry corn, and some carry their young, and some go empty, and all to and fro a little heap of dust. 'It taketh away or mitigateth fear of death, or adverse fortune; which is one of the greatest impediments of virtue and imperfections of manners. For if a man's mind be deeply seasoned with the consideration of the mortality and corruptible nature of things, he will easily concur with Epictetus, who went forth one day and saw a woman weeping for her pitcher of earth that was broken; and went forth the next day, and saw a woman weeping for her son that was dead: and thereupon said, Herì vidi fragilem frangi, hodiè vidi mortalem mori. And, therefore, Virgil did excellently and profoundly couple the knowledge of causes and the conquests of all fears together as concomitantia : Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari. It were too long to go over the particular remedies which learning doth minister to all the diseases of the mind, sometimes purging the ill humours, sometimes opening the obstructions, sometimes helping digestion, sometimes increasing appetite, sometimes healing the wound and exulcerations thereof, and the like; and therefore I will conclude with that which hath rationem totius, which is, that it disposeth the constitution of the mind not to be fixed or settled in the defects thereof, but still to be capable and susceptible of growth and reformation. For the unlearned man knows not what it is to descend into himself, or to call himself to account; nor the pleasure of that suavissima vita, indies sentire se fieri meliorem. The good parts he hath he will learn to show to the full, and use them dexterously, but not much to increase them. The faults he hath he will learn how to hide and colour them, but not much to amend them; like an ill mower, that mows on still, and never whets his scythe: whereas with the learned man it fares otherwise, that he doth ever intermix the correction and amendment of his mind with the use and employment thereof. Nay farther, in general and in sum, certain it is that veritas and bonitas differ but as the seal and the print: for truth prints goodness; and they be the clouds of error, which descend in the storms of passions and pertur bations. From Moral Virtue let us pass on to matter of Power and Commandment, and consider whether in right reason there be any comparable with that, wherewith knowledge investeth and crowneth man's nature. We see the dignity of the commandment is according to the dignity of the commanded: to have commandment over beasts, as herdmen have, is a thing contemptible; to have commandment over children, as schoolmasters have, is a matter of small honour; to have commandment over galley-slaves, is a disparagement rather than an honour. Neither is the commandment of tyrants much better over people, which have put off the generosity of their minds: and therefore it was ever holden, that honours in free monarchies and commonwealths had a sweetness more than in tyrannies; because the commandment extendeth more over the wills of men, and not only over their deeds and services. And therefore, when Virgil putteth himself forth to attribute to Augustus Cæsar the best of human honours, he doth it in these words: Victorque volentes Per populos dat jura, viamque affectat Olympo. VOL. II. 2 I |
