IT is my purpose to give a true and plain Account , of the Designs and Labours of a very great Philosopher amongst us ; and to offer to the World , in some tollerable Method , those Remains of his , which to that end , were put into my Hands .

Something of this hath been done already by his Lordship himself ; and something further hath been added by the Reverend Dr. Rawley : But their Remarks lay scattered in divers Places ; and here they are put under one View , and have received very ample Enlargements .

In this last and most comprehensive Account , I have , on purpose , used a loose and Asiatic Style , and wilfully committed that venial fault with which the Laconian ( in Boccalini ) is merrily taxed , who had said that in three words , which he might possibly have express'd in two . I hop'd , by this means , to serve the more effectually , ordinary Readers , who stand chiefly in need of this Introduction ; and whose Capacities can be no more reach'd by a close and strict Discourse , than Game can be taken by a Net unspread .

For any praise upon the account of this small Performance , it is not worth the while to be solicitous about it . Yet sometimes , mean Men get a stock of Reputation , by gathering up the Fragments of the Learned ; as Beggars ( they say ) have gotten Estates by saving together the Alms of the Rich. If that falls not out here where it is not expected , it will be abundantly enough to me if the Inferiour Reader may have Benefit , and any Honour may be done to the Memory of his Lordship , whose more General Encomium I shall first set down , and then annex a particular Narrative of those Designs and Labours of his , which may be said , not only to merit , buteven to exceed all my Commendations .

I begin ( as I said ) with his Lordship's Praise , in a more general way . And here I affirm , with good assurance ( for Truth is bold ) that amongst those few , who by the strength of their private Reason , have resisted popular Errors , and avanced real and useful Learning ; there has not arisen a more Eminent Person , than the Lord High Chancellor Bacon . Such great Wits , are not the common Births of Time : And they , surely , intended to signifie so much who said of the Phoenix ( though in Hyperbole as well as Metaphor ) that Nature gives the World that Individual Species , but once in five hundred Years .

It is true , There lived in part of the last , and this , Century , many memorable Advancers of Philosophical Knowledg . I mean not here such as Patricius , or Telesius , Brunus , Severinus the Dane , or Campanella . These , indeed , departed from some Errors of the Ancients , but they did not frame any solid Hypothesis of their own . They only spun new Cobwebs , where they had brush'd down the old . Nay , I intend not , in this place , either de Chart , or Gassendi , They were , certainly , great Men , but they appeared somewhat later , and descended into the depths of Philosophy , after the Ice had been broken by others . And those I take to have been chiefly Copernicus , Father Paul the Venetian , Galileo , Harvey , Gilbert , and the Philosopher before-remembred , Sir Francis Bacon , who , if all his Circumstances be duly weigh'd , may seem to excel them all . He was by Profession , a common Lawyer ; by Office , in the Queen's time , one of the Clerks of the Council ; in the Reign of King Iames , one of the King's Counsel Learned , then Solicitor General , and one of the Iudges in the Knight-Marshals Court ; then Attorney General , and one of the King's Privy-Council ; then Lord-Keeper of the Great Seal , and during the Kings absence in Scotland , Lord Protector : And last of all , Lord High Chancellor of England . So that in such a Life as his , so thickly set with Business of such Height , it is a Miracle that all Seeds of Philosophy were not daily overdropped , and in a short time , quite choaked ; and that any one of them sprung up to Maturity . And yet his prosper'd beyond those of the Philosophers before-mentioned , though they were not pressed on with such a crowd of secular Business .

For Copernicus , he concern'd himself especially in the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies , in reviving and perfecting the obsolete Doctrine of Philolaus , touching the motion of the Earth , and in setting free the Planets from those many Epicycles , Eccentrics , and Concentries , in which Ptolomy , and others had entrangled them . And he well understood the Course of the Stars , though he did not much study that natural motive Power which carries them about in their several Elliptics . The like Remark may be made concerning Mr. Gilbert , who applied himself particularly to the consideration of Magnetic Powers ; as also concerning Dr. Harvey , who inquired principally into the Generation of Animals , and the motion of the Heart : Subjects in which he made great progress , though into the former , the help of Microscopes , would have given him further insight a a See Dr. Highmore , of Generation , P. 70 , 71. ; and in both , he rather pursued the proofs of his Hypotheses , than the nature of the Mechanic force , which produced those great Effects .

Father Paul , was a more general Philosopher , and the Head of a Meeting of Vertuosi in Venice . He excelled in Mechanics , in Mathematics of all kinds , in Philological Learning , in Anatomy . In his Anatomical Studies , he exercis'd such Sagacity , that he made further discoveries in the fabrick of the Eye , and taught Aqua-pendente , those new Speculations which he publish'd on that Subject ; he found out ( saith Fulgentio ) the Valvulae in the Veins , and began the Doctrine of the Circulation of the Blood : Though there is reason to believe , that he receiv'd the hints of it from Sir Henry Wotton , who himself had taken them from Dr. Harvey a a Cartes diss . de Methodo . P. 46. Herveo laus ●aec tribuenda est quò d primam in istâ materi● glac●em f●egerit , &c. . But , the present state of the Affairs of Venice so requiring , Father Paul bent his Studies to Ecclesiastical Polity , and chiefly employ'd his Pen in detecting the Usurpations and Corruptions of the Papacy : Endeavouring ( so far as Books could do it ) to preserve the Neck of that Republick , from the Bondage of Paul the Fifth , who attempted to set his Foot upon it .

Galileo further improv'd the Doctrine of Copernicus ; discover'd by Telescopes , new Stars in the Heavens ; wrote Dialogues concerning the System of the World , and touching Local Motion ; which latter is the Key that openeth Nature . But he descended not to the several Classes of Bodies in Nature , and the particulars contained in them , and their respective Motions , and Uses . Neither did he publish any thing till many Years had pass'd , since Mr. Bacon had form'd and modelled in his thoughts , his larger Idea of Experimental Knowledg . His Sidereus Nuncius , came not forth till towards the midst of the Reign of King Iames. And King Charles had sate some Years on his Throne , er'e he publish'd his Dialogue of the System of the World . Whereas Mr. Bacon had not only publish'd two Books of his Advancement , in the beginning of K. Iames's Reign , but early in the Queen's time , ( as from his Letter to Fulgentio , plainly appeareth ) he had written his Temporis Partus Maximus . That Book ( pompous in its Title , but solid in its Matter ; like a great Feather put sometimes on a good Head piece ) contained in it , though in imperfect manner , and so far as the greenness of his Years permitted , the principal Rudiments of his Instauration . The work therefore of the Instauration , was an Original ; and a Work so vast and comprehensive in its design , that though others in that Age , might hew out this , or the other Pillar ; yet of him alone it seemeth true , that he fram'd the whole Model of the House of Wisdom .

In those days in which he began his Studies , Aristotle was , in effect , the Pope in Philosophy . The Lectures , both in his private College , and in the publick Schools , were generally Expositions upon Aristotle's Text. And every Opinion , wrote by him as his own , was esteem'd as Authentick , as if it had been given under the Seal of the Fisher. It was , therefore , a very singular Felicity in a young Gentleman to see further into Nature , than that celebrated Philosopher , at whose feet he was plac'd . And it was as happy as it was extraordinary , that he took distaste betimes at the Vulgar Physicks . Use and Custome in that way , might have reconciled it to him , as it had done to others of great Learning . For a Philosopher is like a Vine , of which they say , It must be set of a Plant , and not of a Tree .

But , though there was bred in Mr. Bacon so early a dislike of the Physiologie of Aristotle , yet he did not despise him with that Pride and Haughtiness , with which Youth is wont to be puffed up . He had a just esteem of that great Master in Learning c c De Augm. Scient. l. 3. c. 4. Caeterum , de viro tam Eximio certè , & , ob acumen Ingenii , mirabili , Aristotele , &c ▪ , and greater than that which Aristotle himself expressed towards the Philosophers that went before him . For he endeavour'd ( some say ) to stifle all their Labours ; designing to himself an universal Monarchy over Opinions , as his Patron Alexander did over Men. Our Heröe owned what was excellent in him ; but , in his Inquiries into Nature , he proceeded not upon his Principles . He began the Work a-new , and laid the foundation of Philosophick Theory in numerous Experiments .

By this Theory is not ( as I conceive ) so much to be understood , that most abstracted , and more narrow one , of the meer nature and definition of Matter , Motion , Place , Figure , Sight , Quantity , and the like , which a Man's Reason may find out , by a few common and daily Appearances in Nature , or Operations of Art : But we are to understand by it , a truer and fuller Knowledg , of the Systeme of the World , of the several Actions and Passions of Bodies in it , and of the divers Ways whereby , in themselves , or by the application of Art to them , they may be made serviceable to Humane Life .

Now this was a Work for a Man of a thousand Hands , and as many Eyes , and depended upon a distinct , and comprehensive , History of Nature . It was a way laborious and tedious , yet useful and honourable , and in this , like that way of the Snail , which shineth though it is slow .

Such an useful and noble Philosophy did our Author design , instead of the Art of Disputation , which then generally prevail'd , and which he compar'd to the condition of Children who are apt for Talk , but not for Generation . And certainly , that Character was most due unto himself which he gave to Xenophanes , of whom he said , that he was a Man of a vast Conceit , and that minded nothing but Infinitum d d Hist. of Life & Death . p. 15. .

Easie it is to add to things already invented ; but to Invent , and to do it under Discouragement , when the World is prejudiced against the Invention , and with loud Clamour hooteth at the Projector ; this is not an Undertaking for Dulness , or Cowardize . To do this , argues an Inquisitive and Sagacious Wit ; A mind free from slavish prepossession ; a piercing Iudgment , able to see through the mists of Authority ; a great Power in the Understanding , giving to a Man sufficient Courage to bear up the Head against the common Current of Philosophical Doctrines , and Force to beat out its own way in untravelled Places .

With such Intellectual Ability , was the Lord Verulam endow'd : And he stood on the old Paths , and perceiv'd , the unsoundness of their Bottom ; their intricate Windings ; their tendency to an useless End , or rather to endless Disputation ; and the daily Justlings and Rencounters of those who travail'd in them : And he looked attentively round about him , and he espied a new , and better , and larger , and safer way ; and he journey'd far in it himself ; and he left a Map of it for Posterity , who might further pursue it ; and he has been happy in being follow'd , by Men of the ablest Understandings , with singular success ; and the Societies for improving of Natural Knowledg , do not at this day , depart from his Directions , though they travel further than Death would suffer him to adventure .

I can , at present , call to remembrance but one Man , who hath undervalued his Lordship's Method ; and it is the same Man who hath libell'd the Holy Scriptures themselves ; the Infidel Spinoza e e B. D. Spinoza in Ep. 2. ad H. Oldenburg . with op. Posth . p. 398 , 399. . This Man objecteth against his Way , that it faileth in the very entrance of it , through a mistake about the Original of Error .

His Lordship's Opinion is the same with that which de Chart insisteth on , in his latter Philosophy . Both shew that therefore Man deceives himself , because his Will ( being larger in its desires , than the Vnderstanding is in its Comprehensions ; and hastning its opinion of such Objects as it covets to know , before it hath sufficiently attended to them , and obtain'd a clear and distinct perception of them ) does cause it to yield a blind and rash , and therefore groundless Assent to insufficient Evidence .

His Lordship hath expressed it thus , after his better way of saying things . The Vnderstanding f f Nov. Organ . l. 1. Aph. 49. p. 44 , 45. is not only made up of dry Light , but it receives an infusion from the Will and Affections : And that begets such Sciences as the Heart desireth . For a Man soonest believes that which he would have to be true . Wherefore he rejects difficult Truths , through impatience in inquiring ; and sober Truths , because they restrain his hope [ or desire ; ] and the deeper Natural Truths , by reason of Superstition ; and the Light of Experiments , by reason of Arrogance and Pride , lest the Mind should seem to be conversant in mean and transitory Things ; and Paradoxes , out of respect to the opinion of the Vulgar . In sum , the Will seasons and infects the Mind , by innumerable Ways , and by such as are , sometimes , not at all perceived .

Now , how , think you , doth Spinoza shew this opinion , to be a gross and fundamental Mistake ? Why , by denying that there is any such thing in Man as a Will : ( as if that general name was ever used to signifie a particular Act , and not rather to express the general notion of that Power : ) By telling us that all Volitions are particular Acts , and as fatally determin'd by a Chain of Physical Causes , as any effects whatsoever of Natural Bodies . So that we are like to learn well , from his Philosophy , how to amend our Erroneous Assent , whilst it teacheth us that it is necessary , and not to be mended , unless Men could have other Bodies , and there were another Scheme of Nature .

It must be confess'd , that the Lord I write of , was not without Infirmities , Intellectual or Moral : And the latter of these have made the greater Noise from the greatness of his Fall . I do not , here , pretend to speak of an Angel , but of a Man : And no Man , great in Wit , and high in Office , can live free from suspicion of both kinds of Errors . For that Heat which is instrumental in making a great Wit , is apt to disorder the attention of the Mind , and the stability of the Temper . And High Place , because it giveth power to Opportunity , though no Athority to offend , is ever look'd on with a jealous Eye : And corrupt Men who mete by their own Measures , think no Man can be Great , and Innocent too .