DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.69463#0024
&ACON. [ENGLAND.
the whole system of human knowledge, and opened those
paths in which Newton, Boyle, and Locke afterwards so
eminently distinguished themselves. He is justly con-
sidered, from the extent and variety of his talents, as one
of the most extraordinary men that any nation ever pro-
duced. He broke through the scholastic obscurity of
the age, and shewed mankind the necessity of thinking
for themselves, in order to become truly learned. He
began with taking a view of the various objects of
human knowledge; he divided these objects into classes;
he examined what was already known in regard to each
of them, and he drew up an immense catalogue of what
yet remained to be discovered. He even went further;
he shewed the necessity of experimental physics, and of
reasoning experimentally on moral subjects. If he did
not greatly enlarge the bounds of any particular science
himself, he was no less usefully employed in breaking the
fetters of false philosophy, and conducting the lovers of
truth to the proper method of cultivating the whole circle
of the sciences. Happy for himself and for the nation
whom he thus adorned by his genius and his writings, if
he had been satisfied with these noble pursuits; and if a
character, in other respects so perfect, had not been sul-
lied by ambition and avarice!
This great man was born in York Place, in the Strand,
on the 22d of January, 1560. He was the son of Sir
Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, under
Elizabeth, by Anne, one of the daughters of Sir Anthony
Cooke, a lady eminent for her skill in the Greek and
Latin languages. Under such illustrious guides, his na-
tural talent could not fail of being improved by all the
advantages which parental fondness and a learned edu-
the whole system of human knowledge, and opened those
paths in which Newton, Boyle, and Locke afterwards so
eminently distinguished themselves. He is justly con-
sidered, from the extent and variety of his talents, as one
of the most extraordinary men that any nation ever pro-
duced. He broke through the scholastic obscurity of
the age, and shewed mankind the necessity of thinking
for themselves, in order to become truly learned. He
began with taking a view of the various objects of
human knowledge; he divided these objects into classes;
he examined what was already known in regard to each
of them, and he drew up an immense catalogue of what
yet remained to be discovered. He even went further;
he shewed the necessity of experimental physics, and of
reasoning experimentally on moral subjects. If he did
not greatly enlarge the bounds of any particular science
himself, he was no less usefully employed in breaking the
fetters of false philosophy, and conducting the lovers of
truth to the proper method of cultivating the whole circle
of the sciences. Happy for himself and for the nation
whom he thus adorned by his genius and his writings, if
he had been satisfied with these noble pursuits; and if a
character, in other respects so perfect, had not been sul-
lied by ambition and avarice!
This great man was born in York Place, in the Strand,
on the 22d of January, 1560. He was the son of Sir
Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, under
Elizabeth, by Anne, one of the daughters of Sir Anthony
Cooke, a lady eminent for her skill in the Greek and
Latin languages. Under such illustrious guides, his na-
tural talent could not fail of being improved by all the
advantages which parental fondness and a learned edu-