his History of Henry VII., and some others, were published after his disgrace. Various accounts have been given of the immediate cause of his death. Some have attributed it to the bursting of a retort; others to an experiment on snow, which gave him a mortal chill. His last letter was written to the Earl of Arundel, in whose house at Highgate he expired on the 9th of April, 1626, in his sixty-sixth year. In this letter he calls himself the "martyr of science," and compares himself to Pliny the elder, whose death was caused by his over-zealous observation of Vesuvius. In his will, he says, "My name and memory I leave to foreign nations, and to my own countrymen, after some time be passed over." Lord Bacon left no children.

The accomplishments of Lord Bacon were unrivalled in his day, and his character displayed the phenomenon of great originality combined with a most extensive range of acquirements. He was a poet and an orator, a lawyer and a statesman. In the philosophy of experiment and of observation he was pre-eminent. The metaphysical and the physical were both congenial to his genius; and although the taint of his immorality has induced many to doubt the extent and to depreciate the excellence of his knowledge and ability in every department, except his method of studying nature, an impartial and searching examination will fill us with admiration as we successively trace his steps in almost every branch of intellectual exertion.

The observations and experiments of Bacon in physical science, viewed beside the results obtained by his immediate successors, do not appear to great advantage: nor can we compare them at all with the brilliant discoveries of his contemporary Galileo. It is only when viewed with reference to the general state of knowledge in his own times, that Bacon's recorded experiments and observations can be fairly estimated. His merits indeed would have been greater than those of any experimental philosopher, were his discoveries at all equal to the method of studying science which he taught.

In the first part of his great work on the 'Instauration

of the Sciences,' Bacon proposed to make a survey of knowledge as it then existed, which was a necessary preliminary to the reform which he contemplated. In this work he has made a distribution of all knowledge under the three heads of Memory, Imagination, and Reason. This division has been occasionally adopted by subsequent writers, though it does not appear to have the recommendation either of exactness or utility. The 'Novum Organum,' which is divided into two books, is the second part of the 'Instauration.' In the first book of the Organum' Bacon attempted to point out the states of mind which caused the existence of a false and fruitless philosophy. He saw causes of error in our common nature-in the peculiarities which mark the individual--in the mental use of the symbols of thought, and in those sectarian and party habits which the processes of association interweave with all the elements of the character, and harden into the schools and creeds which exert a despotic sway over successive generations. The influence of these mental states upon the interpreters of nature, Bacon called the worship of an idol: and the states themselves, in his fanciful nomenclature, are idols of different kinds : those which proceed from principles common to the species are idols of the tribe; those produced by the peculiar character of the individual are idols of the den; the commerce or intercourse of society by the use of words causes the worship of the idols of the forum; and the idols of the theatre are the creatures of the imaginary and visionary systems of philosophy which have appeared. Some causes of error are universal; the undue love of simplicity, and the spirit of system, are illusions influencing every mind, and therefore perpetually opposing the advancement of real knowledge. Other causes of error are peculiar. Some are disposed to mark the differences and others the resemblances of things, and the peculiar studies of a single mind are apt to warp its views in other regions of thought. Words influence thoughts, and the subtlety of the processes of the mind in using them is a source of error affecting the operations of the intellect and the communication of its

results. The perverse influence of systems is obvious; it is illustrated fully by the history of philosophy. The undue reverence for antiquity, the authority of names, the pursuit of unattainable objects, the examination only of the rare, the extraordinary, and the great, together with superstition, which Bacon does not forget to enumerate, had long opposed the progress of all true knowledge.

In the first part of the 'Organum,' the true object of science is clearly pointed out by Bacon: "It is impossible," he says, "to advance with any profit in the race, when the point to be attained is not distinctly determined. In science, the true end is to enrich human life with new discoveries and wealth." ('Organum,' lib. i. aphorism 81.) In the second book Bacon proceeds to explain the method of studying nature which he proposed for the advancement of science.

The first thing is to prepare a history of the phenomena to be explained, in all their modifications and varieties, written with the utmost caution and care in regard to the correctness of the language employed, and the evidence of the facts which we narrate. Having brought together the facts, we must begin by considering what things they exclude from the number of possible causes, or forms, as they are called in the language of Bacon. Negative instances in which the supposed form is wanting ought to be collected. "It may perhaps (says Bacon) be competent to angels or superior intelligences to determine the form or essence directly by affirmations from the first consideration of the subject. But it is certainly beyond the power of man, to whom it is only given at first to proceed by negatives, and in the last place, to end in an affirmation after the exclu.sion of everything else."

The observations and experiments of the natural philosopher-the facts which he is to record in his inductive history-are witnesses whose evidence, and the weight due to whose testimonies, vary in the same way as the evidences which form the grounds of moral investigations. The facts, or instances, as Bacon calls them, vary in

clearness, in authenticity, applicability, &c. Bacon enumerates twenty-seven different kinds of instances, and estimates the weight due to each from the peculiar circumstances which constitute their value or worthlessness as means of discovery and aids to investigation; but it is impossible in this outline to enter into a description of their nature and importance. Of these twenty-seven instances fifteen are enumerated to assist the understanding in estimating the value, and forming a right judgment, of different facts; five correct the fallacies of the senses and instruct them in their observations; and the remaining seven direct the hands "in raising the superstructure of art on the foundation of science." This last division includes the use of instruments in aiding the senses, in subjecting objects to alteration for the purpose of observing them better, and in the production of that alliance of knowledge and power which has, in our day, crowded every part of civilized life with the most useful inventions.

Such were the principles which Bacon shaped into rules for the conduct of experimental inquiries, when he was almost without an example of success to confirm his confidence and encourage his efforts. In the words of Professor Playfair, "the power and compass of the mind which could form such a plan beforehand, and trace not merely the outline, but many of the most minute ramifications of sciences which did not yet exist, must be an object of admiration to all succeeding ages."

THIS eminent dramatist was born at Westminster, in 1574. "His mother, after his father's death, married a bricklayer, and it is generally said that he wrought some time with his father-in-law, and particularly on the garden-wall of Lincoln's Inn, next to Chancery Lane." This is Aubrey's account; and there can be no doubt of the fact of Jonson's early occupation. But the young bricklayer had been building up something better than the garden wall of Lincoln's Inn. He had raised for himself an edifice of sound scholarship, as a boy of Westminster; and whilst his mother and stepfather, according to Fuller, "lived in Hartshorn Lane near Charing Cross," he was studying under the great Camden, then a junior master of that celebrated school. The good old author of the Worthies' thus continues: "He was statutably admitted into Saint John's College in Cambridge (as many years after incorporated a honorary member of Christ Church in Oxford), where