BACON, FRANCIS, BARON VERULAM, VISCOUNT ST. AL BANS (1561-1626), English philosopher, statesman and essayist, lord chancellor of England, was born at York House in the Strand, London, on Jan. 22, 1561. He was the youngest son of Sir Nicholas Bacon (q.v.), the lord keeper. His mother was a sister in-law of Sir William Cecil, afterwards Lord Burghley. In April 1573 he was entered at Trinity college, Cambridge, where he ap plied himself diligently to the several sciences as then taught. Years later, he himself defined the quality of his mind and the nature of his real aspirations in the De interpretatione naturae prooemium : I found that I was fitted for nothing so well as for the study of truth ; as having a mind nimble and versatile enough to catch the resemblances of things (which is the chief point) , and at the same time steady enough to fix and distinguish their subtler differences; as being gifted by nature with desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to consider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and as being a man that neither affects what is new nor admits what is old, and that hates every kind of imposture. So I thought my nature had a kind of familiarity and relation with Truth.
On June 27, 1576, Francis and his brother Anthony were entered at Gray's Inn, and a few months later he was sent abroad with Sir Amyas Paulet, English ambassador at Paris. He took up resi dence at Gray's Inn in 1579, and was admitted an outer barrister in 1582..In 158o he applied, unsuccessfully, through his uncle, Burghley, the lord treasurer, for some post at court. In 1584 he took his seat in parliament for Melcombe Regis in Dorsetshire. At the close of 1591 Bacon was acting as the confidential adviser of the earl of Essex, Elizabeth's favourite. In Feb. 1593 parlia ment was called, and Bacon took his seat for Middlesex. Bacon's opposition to the proposal to levy a double subsidy to meet the state necessities, though prompted by the desire to serve the queen, gave her deep and well-nigh ineradicable offence. He was accused of seeking popularity, and was for a time excluded from the court.
Essex at this time presented Bacon with a piece of land near Twickenham, and used his influence to procure for him the office of master of the rolls. Before anything came of this application, the Cadiz expedition had resulted in a brilliant success, and Essex became the idol of the army and the people. Bacon saw clearly that such a reputation would assuredly alienate the affections of the queen from his patron. He therefore addressed a letter to the earl, urging him to seek and secure the favour of the queen alone. His advice proved ineffectual.
Bacon, in the meantime, had increased his reputation by the publication in 1597 of his Essays, together with the Colours of Good and Evil and the Meditationes Sacrae.
The disgrace of Essex, after the unfortunate incidents of his campaign in Ireland in 1599, gave Bacon an opportunity of obtain ing again the royal favour. The trial of Essex took place (June 1600) before a body of her majesty's councillors, and Bacon had an unimportant part in the accusation. Strangely enough Essex does not seem to have been hurt by his action in this matter, and shortly after his release he was again on friendly terms with his old client. Bacon did not then know that Essex had formed the desperate project of seizing the queen's person and compelling her to dismiss from her council his enemies, Raleigh, Cobham, and Cecil. The plot was, however, forced on prematurely and the rash attempt to rouse the city of London (Feb. 8, 16o1) proved a complete fiasco. The leaders were arrested that night and thrown into prison.
Essex was tried along with the young earl of Southampton. Bacon, as one of her majesty's counsel, was present on the occa sion and at times intervened in the course of the trial, to recall to the minds of those present the real question at issue. It seems to have been thought that had it not been for Bacon's speeches Essex might have escaped, or, at all events, have been afterwards pardoned. But this view of the matter depends on the supposition that Essex was guilty only of a rash outbreak. That this was not the case was well known to the queen and her council. After the execution of Essex it was thought necessary that some account of the facts should be circulated, to remove the prejudice against the queen's action in the matter. This was entrusted to Bacon, who drew up a Declaration of the Practices and Treasons attempted and committed by Robert, late Earl of Essex, his first draft being extensively altered and corrected by the queen and council. The ill-feeling against Bacon was not wholly removed, and some years later, in 1604, he published, in the form of a letter to Mountjoy, an Apology for his action in the case.
Though Bacon was to some extent trusted by Elizabeth, he seems to have seen that he had no chance of advancement. Her death in 1603, followed by the undisputed succession of James, gave him hopes which were not immediately realized. He pro cured, through his cousin Cecil, the dignity of knighthood, and was shortly afterwards formally installed as learned counsel. He was also appointed one of the commission to treat of the condi tions necessary for the Union. The success of that body must be attributed mainly to his influence. During the recess he published his Advancement of Learning, dedicated to the king.
In the second parliament there was little scope for the exercise of Bacon's powers. In the course of this session Bacon married Alice Barnham, daughter of a London alderman.
Bacon's services were rewarded in June 1607 by the office of Solicitor. In Oct. 1608 he became treasurer of Gray's Inn. Mean time he had not forgotten his cherished project of reorganizing natural science. A survey of the ground had been made in the Advancement, and some short pieces not published at the time were probably written in the subsequent two or three years. Towards the close of 1607, he sent to his friends a small tract entitled Cogitata et Visa, probably the first draft of what we have under that title. In 1609 he wrote the panegyric, In felicem memoriam Elizabethae, and the learned and ingenious work, De Sapientia Veterum; and completed what seems to have been the Redargutio P/iilosophiarum, or treatise on the "idols of the thea tre." In 1613 Bacon proposed to the king that Coke should be removed from the court of common pleas and transferred to the king's bench. The vacancy caused by Coke's promotion was then filled by Hobart, and Bacon stepped into the place of attorney general.
Bacon's services to the king had been most important ; and as he had, at the same time, acquired great favour with Sir George Villiers, the king's new favourite, his prospects looked brighter than before. On March 7, 1617, the great seal was bestowed upon Bacon, with the title of lord keeper. On Jan. 7, 1618, he became lord chancellor; in July of the same year he was made Baron Verulam and in Jan. 1621 created Viscount St. Albans. His fame, too, had been increased by the publication in 1620 of his most celebrated work, the Novum Organum.
In Nov. 1620, when a new parliament was summoned to meet, Bacon earnestly pressed that the most obnoxious patents should be given up. This prudent advice was unfortunately rejected, and the session was not far advanced when the question of patents was brought up. It was even proposed to proceed against the referees (Bacon and Montagu), who had certified that there was no objection to them in point of law. This proposal, however, was allowed to drop, while the king and Buckingham agreed to give up the monopolies.
It is probable that this charge was dropped because a more powerful weapon had in the meantime been placed in the hands of Bacon's enemies. This was the accusation of bribery and cor rupt dealings in Chancery suits, an accusation apparently wholly unexpected by Bacon, but, nevertheless, the cause of his downfall. The charges against him rapidly accumulated, and Bacon gave up all idea of defence and sent in a general confession to the Lords. On May 3, after considerable discussion, the Lords decided upon the sentence, which was, that he should undergo a fine of f 4o,000 ; that he should be imprisoned in the Tower during the king's pleasure ; that he should for ever be incapable of any office in the State; and that he should never sit in parliament, or come within the verge of the court. This sentence was only partially executed. The fine was in effect remitted by the king; imprison ment in the Tower lasted for about four days; a general pardon was made out, and was passed probably in Nov. 1621. Bacon also received permission to come within the verge of the court, but he never sat again in parliament.
On the whole it appears that Bacon's own account of this pain ful episode is substantially correct. He confesses (Letters and Life, vii. 235-236) that he had received bribes from suitors pendente lite. Yet he affirms that his intention was never swayed by a bribe; and in several cases his judgment appears to have been given against the party bestowing the bribe.
Bacon was well aware that the practice was in itself indefensible. So far, then, as the mere taking bribes is concerned, he would per mit no defence, and his own judgment on his action contains as severe a condemnation as has ever been passed upon him. Yet in the face of this he does not hesitate to call himself "the justest chancellor that bath been in the five changes since Sir Nicholas Bacon's time" (Letters and Life, vii. 56o), and this on the plea that his intentions had always been pure and had never been affected by the presents received.
The remaining five years of his life were spent in work far more valuable to the world than anything he had accomplished in his high office. In March 1622 he presented to Prince Charles his History of Henry VII. In Nov. 1622 appeared the Historia Ven torum; in Jan. 1622/3 the Historia Vitae et Mortis; and in Oct. of the same year, the De Augmentis Scientiarum, a Latin transla tion, with many additions, of the Advancement. Finally, in Dec. 1624, he published his Apothegms, and Translations of some of the Psalms, dedicated to George Herbert ; and, in 1625, a third and enlarged edition of the Essays.
His life now drew rapidly to a close. In March 1626, when driving one day near Highgate, he was taken with a desire to dis cover whether snow would delay the process of putrefaction. He stopped his carriage, purchased a fowl, and with his own hands assisted to stuff it with snow. He was seized with a sudden chill, and was conveyed to Lord Arundel's house, near at hand. The cold and chill had brought on bronchitis, and he died on April g, 1626.
Putting aside the letters and occasional writings, we may con veniently distribute the other works into three classes, Profes sional, Literary, Philosophical.
The professional works include the Reading on the Statute of Uses, the Maxims of Law, and the treatise (possibly spurious) on the Use of the Law. Bacon's legal writings exhibit a richness and ethical fulness that more than compensate for their lack of dry legal detail. Bacon was indeed a lawyer of the first order, with a keen scientific insight into the bearings of isolated facts and a power of generalization which admirably fitted him for the self imposed task, unfortunately never completed, of digesting or codi fying the chaotic mass of the English law.
Of the literary works the most valuable are the Essays, which are widely read and universally admired. The matter is of the familiar, practical kind, that "comes home to men's bosoms." The short, pithy sayings have become popular mottoes and household words. The short tract, Colours of Good and Evil, which with the Meditationes Sacrae originally accompanied the Essays, was after wards incorporated with the De Augmentis. Along with these works may be classed the curiously learned piece, De Sapientia Veterum. The Apophthegms, though hardly deserving Macaulay's praise of being the best collection of jests in the world, contain a number of those significant anecdotes which Bacon used with such effect in his other writings. Of his historical works, besides a few fragments of the projected history of Britain, there remains the History of Henry VII., a valuable work, giving a clear and animated narrative of the reign, and characterizing Henry with great skill. The series of the literary works is completed by the minor treatises on theological or ecclesiastical questions, including the Meditationes Sacrae and the Confession of Faith.
Philosophical Works.—Bacon's philosophical works may be classified under three heads: (a) Writings originally intended to form parts of the Instauratio, but which were afterwards super seded or thrown aside ; (b) Works connected with the Instauratio, but not directly included in its plan; (c) Writings which actually formed part of the Instauratio Magna.
(a) The most valuable in this class are : (1) The Advancement of Learning, which is completely worked up into the De Aug mentis, and takes its place as the first part of the Instauratio. (2) Valeus Terminus, composed probably about 1603, which contains a brief and somewhat obscure outline of the first two parts in the Instauratio. (3) Temporis Artus Masculus, another curious fragment, remarkable for its style, which is arrogant and offen sive, in this respect unlike any other writing of Bacon's. (4) Redargutio Philosophorum, composed probably about 16o8 or 1609, and containing in pretty full detail much of what afterwards appears in connection with the Idola Theatri in book i. of the Novum Organum. (5) Cogitate et Visa, perhaps the most impor tant of the minor philosophical writings, and containing the sub stance of the first book of the Organum. (6) The Descriptio Globi Intellectualis goes over in detail the general classification of the sciences. (7) The brief tract De Interpretatione Naturae Sententiae Duoecim is evidently a first sketch of part of the Novum Organum. (8) A few smaller pieces, such as the Inquisi tio de Motu, the Calor et Frigus, the Historia Soni et Auditus, and the Phaenomena Universi, are early specimens of his Natural History, and exhibit the first tentative applications of the new method.
(b) The second group consists of treatises on subjects con nected with the Instauratio, but not forming part of it. The most interesting is the philosophical romance, the New Atlantis, a de scription of an ideal state in which the principles of the new phil osophy are carried out by political machinery and under state guidance. The work was to have been completed by the addition of a second part, treating of the laws of a model commonwealth, which was never written. Another important tract is the De Principiis atque Originibus secundum Fabulas Cupidinis et Caeli, where, under the disguise of two old mythological stories, he (in the manner of the Sapientia Veterum) finds the deepest truths.
Deserving of attention are also the Cogitationes de Natura Rerum, probably written early, perhaps in 1605, and the treatise on the theory of the tides, De Fluxu et Refluxu Maris, written about 1616.
(c) Consisted in the Instauratio, in its final form of six divisions.
(1) Partitiones Scientiarum.—The famous classification on which this survey of the sciences proceeds is based upon an anal ysis of the faculties and objects of human knowledge. This divi sion is represented by the De Augmentis Scientiarum.' (2) Interpretatio Naturae.—The new method, by which the mind of man is to be trained and directed in its progress towards the renovation of science. This division is represented, though only imperfectly, by the Novum Organum, particularly book ii.
(3) Historia Naturalis et Experimentalis.—The new method is valueless, because inapplicable, unless supplied with materials duly collected and presented—in fact, unless there be formed a com petent natural history of the Phaenomena Universi. A short intro ductory sketch of the requisites of such a natural history is given in the tract Parasceve, appended to the Novum Organum. The principal works intended to form portions of the history, and either published by himself or left in manuscript, are Historia Ventorum, Historia Vitae et Mortis, Historia Densi et Rari, and the collection of facts and observations entitled Sylva Sylvarum.
(4) Scala Intellectus.—For practical purposes, Bacon inter posed two divisions between the preliminaries and the philosophy itself. The first was intended to consist of types or examples of investigations conducted by the new method. Of this division there seems to be only one small fragment, the Filum Labyrinthi.
(5) Prodromi (forerunners of the new philosophy) was to con tain certain speculations not formed by the new method but by the unassisted use of his understanding. There is extant a short preface to this division of the work, and some of the miscellaneous treatises, such as De Principiis, De Fluxu et Refluxu, Cogitationes de Natura Rerum, may have been prepared for inclusion under this head.
(6) The new philosophy, which is the work for future ages and the result of the new method.
Bacon's grand motive in his attempt to found the sciences anew was the conviction that the knowledge man possessed was of little service to him. Sovereignty over nature, which can be founded on 'The division of the sciences adopted in the great French Encyclo pedie was founded upon this classification of Bacon's. See Diderot's Prospectus (Oeuvres, iii.) and d'Alembert's Discours (Oeuvres i.) . The scheme should be compared with later attempts of the same nature by Ampere, Cournot, Comte, and Herbert Spencer.
knowledge alone, had been lost, and instead we have nothing but vain notions and blind experiments. To restore the original com merce between man and nature, and to re-establish the irperium hominis, is the object of all science. Failure had been due to many causes, but chiefly to the want of appreciation of the nature of philosophy and its real aim. The true philosophy is not the science of things divine and human ; it is not the search after truth but is something altogether practical, nor is it of great matter what abstract notions one may entertain concerning the ultimate nature and the principles of things. Nevertheless, by following the new aim we shall also arrive at a true knowledge of the universe in which we are, for truth and utility are in ultimate aspect the "works themselves are of greater value as pledges of truth than as contributing to the comforts of life." Such was the conception of philosophy with which Bacon started, and in which he felt himself to be thoroughly original.
As his object was new, so the method he intended to employ differed, as he conceived, from all previous modes of investiga tion. He seems always to have felt that the first part of the new scheme must be a destructive criticism of all other methods. Op position was to be expected, not only from previous philosophies, but especially from the human mind itself.
Before proceeding to unfold his method, Bacon found it neces sary to discuss the obstacles to progress. As an insurance against error in collection of facts Bacon warned men against his four famous Idola, or false notions of things, erroneous ways of looking at nature. There were the Idola Tribus, the idols of the tribe, fallacies inherent in human kind in general, and notably man's proneness to suppose in nature greater order than is actually there. There were Idola Specus, idols of the cave, errors inherent in our individual constitution, our private and particular prejudices, as we may term them. There were the Idola Fori, idols of the market place, errors arising from the influence of mere words over our minds. There were the Idola Theatri, the idols of the theatre, errors arising from received systems of thought. But did not Bacon himself fail to discern a fifth set of idols, which we may term the Idola Academiae, the idols of the schools, the fallacy of supposing that a blind though learned rule can take the place of judgment ? It was this fifth idol that prevented Bacon from enter ing into the promised land of which but a Pisgah view was granted to him.
To discover exactly Bacon's view of the characteristics and objects of natural philosophy it is necessary to examine the place it holds in the general scheme furnished in the Advancement or De Augmentis. All human knowledge, it is there laid down, may be referred either to man's memory or to his imagination or to his reason. Corresponding to memory is history, either natural or civil; corresponding to imagination is poesy; and corresponding to reason is philosophy. Natural philosophy is again divided into theoretical and practical, according as the end is contemplation or works. Theoretical natural philosophy has to deal with natural substances and qualities, and is subdivided into physics and meta physics. The principal objects of physics are concrete substances, or abstract though physical qualities. The research into abstract qualities, the fundamental problem of physics, comes near to the metaphysical study of forms. Natural philosophy is, therefore, in ultimate resort, the study of forms, and consequently the funda mental problem of philosophy in general is the discovery of these forms.
A study of the various passages in the Novum Organum in which the definition of forms is attempted seems to show that Bacon's forms are no ideas or abstractions, but highly general physical properties. Further, it is hinted that these general quali ties may be looked upon as the modes of action of simple bodies. Thus, by a knowledge of forms, Bacon believed that man's prac tical control of Nature would be enormously increased. For ex ample, so long as we possess only certain practical recipes for the production of heat, these can only be applied when the requisite conditions are available. But, armed with the knowledge of what heat consists of, i.e., the form of heat is violent, irregular, motion of particles, we can produce heat by any method which will induce such motion.
This fruitful conception, however, Bacon does not work out; and though he uses the word cause, and identifies form with formal cause, yet it is perfectly apparent that the modern notions of cause as dynamical, and of nature as in a process of flow or development, are foreign to him, and that in his view nature was regarded in a purely statical aspect.
Francis Bacon, in common with his i3th century predecessor, Roger Bacon, held that the sciences are organically connected. At the basis of all he placed a body of general truth, common to all the sciences, which he called the Prima Philosopliia.
Following this summary philosophy come the sciences proper, rising like a pyramid in successive stages, the lowest stage being occupied by natural history or experience, the second by physics, the third, which is next the peak of unity, by metaphysics. The knowledge of the peak, or of the one law which binds nature to gether, is perhaps denied to man. Nature presented itself to Bacon's mind as a huge congeries of phenomena, the manifesta tions of some simple and primitive qualities, which were hidden from us by the complexity of things themselves. The world was a vast labyrinth, the clue to which, the filum labyrinthi, is the new method of induction. But the new method could not be applied until facts had been observed and collected.
Concealed among the facts presented to sense are the causes or forms, and the problem therefore is so to analyse experience that we shall with certainty and mechanical ease arrive at a true con clusion. For this purpose Bacon proposed to draw up three "tables of comparative instances." We must have before us in stances in which any given nature is present, instances in which it is absent, and instances in which the nature is present in different degrees. To make clear the nature of these "tables" let us take for example the case of heat. We wish to discover the form of heat, i.e. the condition which is present or absent when heat is present or absent, and which increases or decreases as heat in creases or decreases. To do this we begin with a process of elim ination of all those inessential conditions which are not found always and only in conjunction with the phenomenon of heat. Bacon, for instance, excludes the property of rarity, since metals like gold are of very great density, even though heated. Thus, by a process of elimination, we should arrive at the true form of heat. But as it is exceedingly difficult to make our exclusive table at all exhaustive, Bacon proposes that we pause when a certain stage is reached, and a tentative survey be made of the state of the en quiry. This survey, which he calls the "first vintage" is probably Bacon's nearest approximation to our modern conception of the formation of a scientific hypotheses, the department in which Bacon's chief weakness lay. It is evident that if the tables were complete, and our notions of the respective phenomena clear, the process of exclusion would infallibly lead to the detection of the cause or form. But it is just as evident that these conditions can never be adequately fulfilled.
Such was the method devised by Bacon, and to which he ascribed the qualities of absolute certainty and mechanical sim plicity. But even supposing that this method were accurate and completely unfolded, it is evident that it could only be made applicable and produce fruit when the phenomena of the uni verse have been very completely tabulated and arranged.
It has been pointed out, and with perfect justice, that science in its progress has not followed the Baconian method. The reason of this is not far to seek.
The process of scientific discovery is essentially an act of judgment. Facts, phenomena, are infinite in number. We cannot choose them all, as Bacon would have had us do, and then pass them through a mill of logic and elicit a result. Still less dare we choose at random. The process of choosing facts is an act of judgment on the part of the man of science. His choice is doubt less limited by his knowledge of his art. He exercises his judg ment to choose things which bear a certain relation to each other. But no knowledge of the nature of reasoning, however profound, nor even knowledge of his science, however complete, will make a man a scientific discoverer. The scientific man has, in fact, to practise two distinct mental processes, the making of the dis covery and the demonstration of its truth. Essentially the two processes are distinct, and the one might be largely developed while the other was in a state of relative arrest.
This distinction between the act and demonstration of dis covery was consistently missed during the middle ages. Mediaeval thought is further distinguished from our own by the persistent conviction in those ages that a wide measure of truth could be elicited from a very small series of observations by the extensive use of ratiocination. The latter error Bacon clearly discerned, and his discernment entitles him to rank as the herald of modern science. His claim that a direct appeal to nature was the only way to truth at once raised the functions of the observer while it tended to depress the vast mediaeval claims for ratiocination.
On the other point, in which our thought is separated from that of the middle ages, Bacon remained in darkness. He succeeded indeed in emphasizing the importance of the operation of collec tion of facts, but he failed to perceive how deeply the act of judgment must be involved in the effective collection of facts.
We may now turn to consider whether, in fact, the knowledge of his time would have enabled him to come to any other con clusions than those which he reached. What, we may enquire, were the actual, concrete, scientific achievements of his day, on which he might have tested his method? We may perhaps exon erate Bacon for having effectively ignored the astronomical ideas of his day. Copernicus (q.v.) ), though he initiated a great movement, made no important observational contribution in his work, the first edition of which appeared in 1543. It was not till 1630, when Bacon had been in his grave for f our years, that Galileo (1564-1642) gave the Copernican theory its formal observational justification, though Bacon had had news of Gali leo's activities as early as 1616 from his friend, Sir Tobie Matthew (1577-1655), then travelling in Italy. Bacon missed, however, the New Astronomy (16o9) of Kepler (q.v.) (15 7 1 1630) which laid the foundation of modern astronomical views, set forth for the first time the laws of planetary motion, and de veloped a tenable theory of tides, a subject in which Bacon was specially interested.
Biology was less advanced than astronomical science, but there was one biological work of first-class importance from which Bacon might have learned of the distinction between the act of discovery and the demonstration of discovery. It had been written at Padua in 1543 by the Belgian, Andreas Vesalius (q.v.) (1514-64), and bore the title On the Fabric of the Human Body. It placed the study of anatomy at once on a scientific basis, and contained an enormous number of first-hand observations. But besides this, there were two men at home who were admirable exponents of the experimental method, and whom Bacon might have watched at work. One was William Gilbert (q.v.) 1603) physician to Bacon's two royal masters, Elizabeth and James I., and founder of the science of electricity. Gilbert's great book On the Magnet was published in 1600. Now Gilbert so clearly perceived the character of the scientific process that he adopted in his book a special typographical method of marking and distinguishing his actual observations. Had Bacon followed these observations, he might have watched the practice of the art of discovery at the hand of a master. At Gilbert's house in London there used to foregather a society of men interested in the secrets of Nature. This may be regarded as the earliest scientific association in England, and perhaps the earliest in Europe. The inspiration of Bacon's philosophy and the magic of his pen produced in the generation that followed him the "secret college," which grew into the "Royal Society." It was an irony of fate that Bacon was no member of that secret college that was meeting at his very door.
The only other contemporary Englishman who was a first class exponent of the experimental method was William Harvey (1578-. 16 S 7) . Harvey was lecturing in London on the circulation of the blood as early as 1616, though he did not publish his discovery until 1628. Among his patients was Lord Chancellor Bacon. Yet Bacon not only knew nothing of Harvey's work, but failed to make any impression on the fine practical mind of the great physiologist. Harvey would not allow him to be a great philoso pher, though he esteemed him much for his wit and style. Speak ing of Bacon, Harvey told Aubrey : "He writes philosophy (i.e. Science) like a lord chancellor." This shrewd saying may well contain the root of the matter.
It may be that it was just Bacon's legal powers and legal train ing that shut him out from a real appreciation of the scientific process. Often in history a legal bias has corrupted scientific method by giving a false conception of natural law. No less often has the legal form fixed the gaze of the investigator on the prospect of a scientific verdict so that he fails to focus exactly the details of scientific method.
We must glance at the influence of Bacon on posterity. It is significant that he has made himself more felt in the department of the moral and metaphysical sciences than in the physical. Furthermore, we observe that while many who have written about science have done him homage—and notable among them Voltaire and d'Alembert and the other contributors to the Encyclopedie by whom he was regarded as "le plus grand, le plus universal, et le plus eloquent des philosophes"—while men of science such as Leibnitz, Huygens, and above all Robert Boyle, have had him in good regard, yet there is not the least evidence that these or any other eminent scientific men have ever followed his method. Yet despite Bacon's failure in the field of the practical applica tion of his method, the world certainly owes to him some develop ments of high importance. These we may sum up as threefold:— I. He did in fact set forth clearly the widening intellectual breach which separated the men of his day from the middle ages. He perceived the vices of the scholastic method, and in the clear ness of his vision and explanation he stands above his contem poraries, men such as Campanella (q.v.) and Gior dano Bruno (q.v.) (1548-160o), who, like him, were striving towards a new form of intellectual activity.
2. English writers of the later 17th century concur in ascrib ing to the impetus of Bacon's writings the foundation of the Royal Society. Thomas Sprat (1635-1713), Bishop of Roch ester, the first historian of the Society, assures us of this, as does Oldenburg the most energetic of its early secretaries. The opinion is confirmed by Boyle (1627-91) and by many other of the early members.
3. It is perhaps in the department of psychological speculation that the influence of Bacon has been most marked. The basic principle of Locke's essay "Concerning Human Understanding" (1690), that all ideas are the product of sensation and of reflec tion, is implicit in the first aphorism of Bacon's Novum Organism, "Man, who is the servant and interpreter of nature, can act and understand no further than he has observed, either in operation or in contemplation, of the method and order of nature." The whole atmosphere of Locke's work is taken from, or at least is characteristic of, the Novum Organum. Through the "practical" tendency of his philosophy, and through Locke, Bacon was the father alike of English psychological speculation and of the empirical method in the department of ethics. Whatever his positive achievements may have been, we may thus accord to him his own claim that he "rang the bell which called the wits together." BIBLIOGRAPHY. Editions: The classical edition is that of R. L. Bibliography. Editions: The classical edition is that of R. L. Ellis, J. Spedding, and D. D. Heath, vols. i.—iii., philosophical writings; iv.—v., translations; literary and professional works (1st ed., 1857 ; 2nd ed., 187o) . A useful reprint (in one vol.) of the philosophical works (with a few not strictly philosophical), based on the first Ellis-Spedding edition, was published by J. M. Robertson (19o5) ; besides the original introductions, it contains a useful summary by the editor of the various problems of Bacon's life and thought. Numerous cheap editions have been published, e.g. in the "World's Classics" (19o1) , and "New Universal Library" series (1905) Sidney Lee, English Works of Francis Bacon, (19o5), The State papers of James's reign contain a remarkable series of papers by Bacon (1612 13) indicating his view of the proper relations between king and parliament.
Of particular works there are numerous editions in all the chief languages. The following are the most important: T. Fowler, Novum Organum, with notes, full introduction on Bacon's philosophy in all its relations, and a most valuable bibliography (1878 and 1889) . The Essays have been edited more than 3o times since 187o; the following editions may be mentioned: W. Aldis Wright (1862) ; Arch bishop Whately, 6th ed. (1864) ; E. A. Abbott (1879) ; John Buchan (1879) ; F. Storr and Gibson (1886) ; A. S. West (1897) ; W. Evans (1897) ; R. Wilson (1924). A facsimile reprint of the 1st edition was published in New York (19o4). Advancement of Learning: W. Aldis Wright (1866; 5th ed., 1900) ; F. G. Selby (1892-95) ; H. Morley (1905) ; with the New Atlantis, in the "World's Classics" series, intro. by Prof. T. Case (1906) ; and with the Essays and the Colours of Good and Evil, lib. of Eng. el. (192o) . Wisdom of the Ancients and New Atlantis in "Cassell's National Library" (1886 1903). A. B. Gough, New Atlantis (1915) ; New Atlantis, ed. with More's Utopia, with an intro., notes, and glos. by H. Gotein (1925). Biography: J. Spedding, The Life and Letters of Lord Bacon (1861) ; Life and Times of Francis Bacon (1878) ; also Dr. Rawley's Life in the Ellis-Spedding editions, and J. M. Robertson's reprint (above) ; W. Hepworth Dixon, Personal History of Lord Bacon (1861) ; Story of Lord Bacon's Life (1862) ; John Campbell, Lives of the Chancellors, vol. ii. (1845) ; P. Woodward, Early Life of Lord Bacon (1902) ; T. Fowler, Francis Bacon, in "English Philos." series (1881) ; R. W. Church's Bacon, in "Men of Letters" series (1884) . Philosophy : Beside the introductions in the Ellis-Spedding and T. Fowler editions, and general histories of philosophy, see Kuno Fischer, Fr. Bacon (1856, 2nd ed., 1875, Eng. trans. by John Oxenford, 1857) ; Francis Bacon and seine Schule Entwicklungs-geschichte der Erfahrungs-philosophie in vol. v. of Jubilaums-Ausgabe of his Geschichte der neueren Philosophie (19o4) ; Ch. de Remusat, Bacon, sa vie . . . et son influence (1857 and 1877) ; G. L. Craik, Lord Bacon, his Writings and his Philosophy (1846-47 and 186o) ; A. Dorner, De Baconis Philosophia (1867 and 1886) ; J. v. Liebig, Uber F.B. v. Verulam (1863) ; Ad. Lasson, Uber B. v. Verulam's wissen schafteliche Principien (186o) ; E. H. Bohmer, Uber F.B. v. Verulam (Erlangen, 5864) ; Ch. Adam, Philos. de Francis Bacon (1890) ; Barthelmy St. Hilaire, Etude sur Francis Bacon (189o) ; R. W. Church, op. cit. H. Heussler, F. Bacon and seine geschichtliche Stellung (Breslau, 188o) ; H. Hoffding, History of Modern Philosophy, Eng. trans. (1900) ; J. M. Robertson, Short History of Freethought (1906) ; Sidney Lee, Great Englishmen of the 26th Century (19o4) ; W. Sorley, "The Beginnings of English Philosophy" in vol. iv. of Camb. History of Mod. Lit. (19o4) ; Emil Wolff, Francis Bacon and seine Quellen (191o) ; Israel Levine, Francis Bacon, Viscount St. Albans (1925) ; A. Levi, 11 Pensiero di Francesco Bacone considerato in relazione con le filosofie della natura del Rinascimento, etc. (1925) ; Charles D. Broad, The Philosophy of Francis Bacon (1926), a paper read at the Bacon tercentenary in Cambridge; A. E. Taylor, Francis Bacon, etc. (1927), a paper read before the British Academy. For the relations between Bacon and Ben Jonson see The Tale of the Shakespeare Epitaphs by Francis Bacon (1888) ; for Bacon's poetical gifts see an article in the Fortnightly Review (March, 19o5).
For Bacon-Shakespeare controversy see SHAKESPEARE. (C. SI.)