Philosophy._
[Born in London, 1561. Died 1626. Aged 65.]
The son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal under Queen
Elizabeth. Francis was yet a boy when he evinced so keen and lively an
intellect, that Elizabeth was wont to call him her young Lord Keeper. He
rose to the highest distinction in the state, becoming Lord Chancellor
of England. He was removed from his eminence, because he had sullied it
by accepting bribes. He lived ostentatiously, and died leaving many
debts. His name is one of the greatest this country boasts. He is the
father of the modern Philosophy. Standing between two intellectual eras,
he surveyed the past, and predicted the future, of human inquiry.
Reverting his eye, he saw that the most acute and powerful intellects
had, age after age, wasted their strength in investigating physical
phenomena, without fruit either of great ascertained truths, or of
service won from their speculations to human uses. Neither zeal nor
ability had been wanting. He inferred that the method of those elder
philosophers was in fault. Impatient and arrogant, they presumed, upon
the first strong impressions caught from the contemplation of Nature,
oracularly to divine her universal laws. From these laws, affirmed not
established, they proceeded to solve, as best they could, all further
phenomena: for, within these false and hasty conclusions once
recognised, Reason lay thenceforward imprisoned. Lord Bacon said: “Have
patience. Wait upon Nature. Observe indefatigably. Accumulate, without
ceasing, records of the appearances. Verify experiment by experiment.
Set instance beside instance, without sparing, but not without choosing.
Ultimately the law will stand revealed.” What has happened? Immense and
ever-advancing discovery--science created upon science--observers,
without number, conspiring in the most disjoined parts of the civilized
world to solve the same philosophical problems--Nature every day more
and more yielding to man the service of her powers--and the wisdom of
her Author every day more and more discerned in His works--these are the
results which honour the school of Bacon.
[From the monument at St. Albans.]