Letters concerning the English Nation/Letter XII
Not long since, the trite and frivolous Question following was debated in a very polite and learned Company, viz. who was the greatest Man, Cæsar, Alexander, Tamerlane, Cromwell, &c.
Some Body answer'd, that Sir Isaac Newton excell'd them all. The Gentleman's Assertion was very just; for if true Greatness consists in having receiv'd from Heaven a mighty Genius, and in having employ'd it to enlighten our own Minds and that of others; a Man like Sir Isaac Newton, whose equal is hardly found in a thousand Years, is the truly great Man. And those Politicians and Conquerors, (and all ages produce some) were generally so many illustrious wicked Men. That Man claims our Respect, who commands over the Minds of the rest of the World by the Force of Truth, not those who enslave their Fellow Creatures; He who is acquainted with the Universe, not They who deface it.
Since therefore you desire me to give you an Account of the famous Personages which England has given birth to, I shall begin with Lord Bacon, Mr. Locke, Sir Isaac Newton, &c. Afterwards the Warriors and Ministers of State shall come in their order.
I must begin with the celebrated Viscount Verulam, known in Europe by the Name of Bacon, which was that of his Family. His Father had been Lord Keeper, and himself was a great many Years Lord Chancellor under King James the First. Nevertheless, amidst the Intrigues of a Court, and the Affairs of his exalted Employment, which alone were enough to engross his whole Time, he yet found so much Leisure for Study, as to make himsef a great Philosopher, a good Historian, and an elegant Writer; and a still more surprizing Circumstance is, that he liv'd in an Age in which the Art of writing justly and elegantly was little known, much less true Philosophy. Lord Bacon, as is the Fate of Man, was more esteem'd after his Death than in his Life-time. His Enemies were in the British Court, and his Admirers were Foreigners.
When the Marquis d'Effiat attended in England upon the Princess Henrietta Maria, Daughter to Henry the Fourth, whom King Charles the First had married, that Minister went and visited the Lord Bacon, who being at that Time sick in his Bed, receiv'd him with the Curtains shut close. You resemble the Angels, says the Marquis to him; we hear those Beings spoken of perpetually, and we believe them superiour to Men, but are never allow'd the Consolation to see them.
You know that this great Man was accus'd of a Crime very unbecoming a Philosopher, I mean Bribery and Extortion. You know that he was sentenc'd by the House of Lords, to pay a Fine of about four hundred thousand French Livres; to lose his Peerage and his Dignity of Chancellor. But in the present Age, the English revere his Memory to such a Degree, that they will scarce allow him to have been guilty. In case you should, ask what are my Thoughts on this Head, I shall answer you in the Words which I heard the Henry St Lord Bolingbroke use On another Occasion. Several Gentlemen were speaking, in his Company, of the Avarice with which the late Duke of Marlborough had been charg'd, some Examples whereof being given, the Lord Bolingbroke was appeal'd to, (who having been in the opposite Party, might perhaps, without the Imputation of Indecency, have been allow'd to clear up that Matter:) "He was so great a Man, replied his Lordship that I have forgot his Vices."
I shall therefore confine my, self to those Things which so justly gain'd Lord Bacon the Esteem of all Europe.
The most singular, and the best of all his Pieces, is that which, at this Time, is the most useless and the least read, I mean his Novum Scientiarum Organum. This is the Scaffold with which the new Philosophy was rais'd; and when the Edifice was built, Part of it at least, the Scaffold was no longer of Service.
The Lord Bacon was not yet acquainted with Nature, but then he knew, and pointed out, the several Paths that lead to it. He had despis'd in his younger Years the Thing call'd Philophy in the Universities; and did all that lay in his Power to prevent those Societies of Men, instituted to improve human Reason, from depraving it by their Quiddities, their Horrors of the Vacuum, their substantial Forms, and all those impertinent Terms which not only Ignorance had rendred venerable, but which had been made sacred, by their being ridiculously blended with Religion. He is the Father of experimental Philosophy. It must indeed be confess'd, that very surprizing Secrets had been found out before his Time; The Sea-Compass, Printing, engraving on Copper Plates, Oil-Painting, Looking-Glasses; the Art of restoring, in some Measure, old Men to their Sight by Spectacles; Gun-Powder, &c. had been discover'd. A new World had been sought for, found, and conquer'd. Would not one suppose that these sublime Discoveries had been made by the greatest Philosophers, and in Ages much more enlightened than the present? But 'twas far otherwise; all these great Changes happen'd in the most stupid and barbarous Times. Chance only gave Birth to most of those Inventions; and 'tis very probable that what is call'd Chance, contributed very much to the Discovery of America at least it has been always thought, that Christopher Columbus undertook his Voyage, merely on the Relation of a Captain of a Ship, which a Storm had drove as far Westward as the Caribee Islands. Be this as it will, Men had sail'd round the World, and cou'd destroy Cities by an artificial Thunder more dreadful than the real one: But, then they were not acquainted with the Circulation of the Blood, the Weight of the Air, the Laws of Motion, Light, the Number of our Planets, &c. And a Man who maintain'd a Thesis on Aristotle's Categories; on the universals a parte rei, or such like Nonsense, was look'd upon as a Prodigy.
The most astonishing, the most useful Inventions, are not those which reflect the greatest Honour on the human Mind. 'Tis to a mechanical Instinct, which is found in many Men, and not to true Philosophy, that most Arts owe their Origin.
The Discovery of Fire, the Art of making Bread, of melting and preparing Metals, of building Houses, and the Invention of the Shuttle are infinitely more beneficial to Mankind than Printing or the Sea-Compass: And yet these Arts were invented by uncultivated, savage Men.
What a prodigious use the Greeks and Romans made afterwards of Mechanicks! Nevertheless, they believ'd that there were crystal Heavens; that the Stars were small Lamps which sometimes fell into the Sea; and one of their greatest Philosophers, after long Researches, found that the Stars were so many Flints which had been detach'd from the Earth.
In a Word, no one, before the Lord Bacon, was acquainted with experimental Philosophy, nor with the several physical Experiments which have been made since his Time. Scarce one of them but is hinted at in his Work, and he himself had made several. He made a kind of pneumatic Engine, by which he guess'd the elasticity of the Air. He approach'd, on all Sides as it were, to the Discovery of its Weight, and had very near attain'd it, but some Time after Taricelli seiz'd upon this Truth. In a little Time experimental Philosophy began to be cultivated on a sudden in most Parts of Europe. 'Twas a hidden Treasure which the Lord Bacon had some Notion of, and which all the Philosophers, encourag'd by his Promises, endeavour'd to dig up.
But that which surpriz'd me most was to read in his Work, in express Terms, the new Attraction, the Invention of which is ascrib'd to Sir Isaac Newton.
We must search, says Lord Bacon, whether there may not be a kind of magnetic Power, which operates between the Earth and heavy Bodies, between the Moon and the Ocean, between the Planets, &c. In another Place he says, either heavy Bodies must be carried towards the Center of the Earth, or must be reciprocally attracted by it; and in the latter Case 'tis evident, that the nearer Bodies, in their falling, draw towards the Earth, the stronger they will attract one another. We must, says he, make an Experiment to see whether the the same Clock will go faster on Top of a Mountain or at the Bottom of a Mine. Whether the Strength of the Weights decreases on the Mountain, and increases in the Mine. 'Tis probable that the Earth has true attractive Power.
This Fore-runner in Philosophy was also an elegant Writer, an Historian and a Wit.
His moral Essays are greatly esteem'd, but they were drawn up in the View of instructing rather than of pleasing: And as they are not a Satyr upon Mankind, like Rochefoucault's Maxims, nor written upon a sceptical Plan, like Montagne's Essays, they are not so much read as those two ingenious Authors.
His History of Henry the Seventh was look'd upon as a Master-Piece, but how is it possible that some Persons can presume to compare so little a Work with the History of our illustrious Thuanus?
Speaking about the famous Impostor Perkin, Son to a converted[1] Jew, who assum'd boldly the Name and Title of Richard the Fourth, King of England, at the Instigation of the Duchess of Burgundy; and who disputed the Crown with Henry the Seventh, the Lord Bacon writes as follows:
"At this Time the King began again to be haunted with Sprites, by the Magick and curious Arts of the Lady Margaret; who raised up the Ghost of Richard Duke of York, second Son to King Edward the Fourth, to walk and vex the King."[2]
"After such Time as she (Margaret of Burgundy) thought he (Perkin Warbeck) was perfect in his Lesson, she began to cast with her self from what Coast this Blazing-Starre should first appear, and at what Time it must be upon the Horizon of Ireland; for there had the like Meteor strong Influence before."[3]
Methinks or sagacious Thuanus does not give into such Fustian, which formerly was look'd upon as Sublime, but in this Age is justly call'd Nonsense.
- ↑ John Osbeck.
- ↑ The History of the Reign of King Henry the Seventh, page 112. London, printed in 1641. Folio.
- ↑ Idem. p. 116
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse