BACON (Faexcis) in biography, Ba ron of Verulam, Viscount of St. Albans, and Lord High Chancellor of England under King James I. He was born in 1560, being son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, by Ann, daugh. ter of sir Anthony Cook, eminent for her skill in the Latin and Greek languages. He gave, even in his infancy, tokens of what he would one day become ; and Queen Elizabeth had many times occasion to admire his wit and talents, and used to call him her young lord keeper. In his thirteenth year he was entered a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied the philosophy of Aristotle, and made such progress in his studies, that at sixteen years of age he had run through the whole circle of the liberal arts,as they were then taught, and even began to per ceive those imperfections in the existing philosophy, which he afterwards so effec tually exposed, and thence not only over turned the tyranny, which prevented the progress of true knowledge, hut laid the foundation ofthat free and useful philo sophy, which has since opened a way to so many glorious discoveries. On his leaving the university, his father sent him to France, where, before lie was 19 years of age, he wrote a general view of the state of Europe : but Sir Nicholas dying, he was obliged suddenly to return to Eng land, where he applied himself to the stu dy of the common law, at Gray's Inn. His merit at length raised him to the highest dignities in his profession, viz. of Attor ney-General, and Lord High Chancellor. But being of an easy and ,liberal disposi tion, his servants took advantage of fhat temper and their situation under him, by accepting presents in the line of his pro. fession. Being abandoned by the king, he was tried by the house of lords for bribery and corruption, and by them sen tenced to pay a fine of 40,0001. and to re-, main prisoner in the Tower during the king's pleasure. The king, however, soon after remitted the fine and imprison ment; but his misfortunes had given him a distaste for public affairs, and he after wards mostly lived a retired life, closely pursuing his philosophical studies and amusements, in which time he composed the greatest part of his English and La tin works. Though even in the midst of his honours and employments he forgot not his philosophy, but in 1620 published his great work "Novum Organum." Af
ter some years spent in philosophical re tirement, he was suddenly seized with pains in his head and stomach, as he was travelling intothe country. These oblig ed him to stop at Highgate, at the Earl of Arundle's, where he expired on the 9th of April, in the 66th year of his age. No memorial remains of his last hours, excepting a letter addressed to the-noble man in whose house he died, in which he compares himself to Pliny, who lost his life by approaching too near Vesuvius du ring an eruption. He was buried at St. Albans.
To Bacon unquestionably belonged a most commanding genius, capable of in venting, methodizing, and carrying for ward to considerable maturity, a general plan for the improvement of natural sci ence, by the only sure method of experi ment. With a mind prompt in invention, patient in enquiry, and subtle in discrimi nation, neither affecting nor idolizing an tiquity, he formed, and in a great measure executed his great plan, " The Instaura tion of Sciences," in six parts. Of these the first is entitled "The advancement of Learning :" the second is the " Novum Organum," or new method of employing the reasoning faculties in the pursuit of truth : the " Sylva Sylvarum," or History of Nature, is the third part : the fourth is7entitled " Scala Intellectus ;" a series of steps is pointed out, by which the un derstanding may regularly ascend in its philosophical enquiries : the fifth part is " Anticipationes Philosophicx," intended as philosophical hints and suggestions : the sixth part, in which the universal principles of natural knowledge, drawn from experiments, should be exhibited in a regular and complete system, the au thor did not attempt to accomplish. The grand edifice, of which he laid the foun dation only, he left to be finished by the united labours of philosophers of future ages. With confidence in the merit of his own works, and depending on posthu mous celebrity, Bacon begins his last tes tament with, " My name and memory I leave to foreign nations ; and to mine own countrymen, after sonic time is passed over." Upon the superstructure that has been raised, on the foundation of experi mental philosophy he Zstahlished, will be read by distant ages, " Bacon, the father of experimental philosophy."