taught the

have all one common end, which comprehends and shines Plato through the particular purpose of each several Dialogue; and art of this is, to establish the sources, to evolve the Principles, and to Method. exemplify the Art of METHOD. This is the clue, without which it would be difficult to exculpate the noblest productions of the "Divine" Philosopher from the charge of being tortuous and labyrinthine in their progress, and unsatisfactory in their ostensible results. The latter, indeed, appear not seldom to have been drawn, for the purpose of starting a new problem, rather than of solving the one proposed as the subject of previous discussion. But with the clear insight that the purpose of the writer is not so much to establish any particular truth, as to remove the obstacles, the continuance of which is preclusive of all truth, the whole scheme assumes a different aspect, and justifies itself in all its dimensions. We see that the EDUCATION of the Intellect, by awakening the Method of self-developement, was his proposed object, not any specific information that can be conveyed into it from without. He desired not to assist in storing the passive Mind with the various sorts of knowledge most in request, as if the Human Soul were a mere repository, or banqueting-room, but to place it in such relations of circumstance as should gradually excite its vegetating and germinating powers to produce new fruits of Thought, new Conceptions, and Imaginations, and Ideas. Plato was a Poetic Philosopher, as Shakspeare was a Philosophic Poet. In the Poetry, as well as in the Philosophy, of both, there was a necessary predominance of Ideas; but this did not make them regardless of the actual existences around them. They were not visionaries, nor mystics; but dwelt in "the sober certainty" of waking knowledge. It is strange, yet characteristic of the spirit that was at Plato wrongfully work during the latter half of the last century, that the writings accused of of PLATO should be accused of estranging the Mind from plain neglecting experience and substantial matter-of-fact, and of debauching it experience.

fact and

Bacon.

by fictions and generalities. Plato, whose Method is inductive throughout, who argues on all subjects not only from, but in and by, inductions of facts! who warns us, indeed, against the usurpation of the Senses, but far oftener, and with more unmitigated hostility, pursues the assumptions, abstractions, generalities, and verbal legerdemain of the Sophists. Strange! but still more strange, that a notion so groundless should be entitled to plead in its behalf the authority of Lord BACON, whose scheme of Logic, as applied to the contemplation of Nature, is Platonic throughout! It is necessary that we should explain this circumstance at some length, in order to establish, by the concurrence of authorities, vulgarly supposed to be contradictory, the truth of a System which we have already maintained on so many other grounds.

What Lord Bacon was to England, Cicero was to Romethe first and most eloquent advocate of Philosophy. It is needless to remind the classical scholar of that almost religious veneration with which the accomplished Roman speaks of Plato, whom indeed he calls, in one instance, deus ille noster, and in other places "the Homer of Philosophers;" their "Prince ;” the most weighty of all who ever spoke, or ever wrote;" “most wise, most holy, divine." This last appellation, too, it is well known, long remained, even among Christians, as a distinguishing epithet of the great ornament of the Socratic School. Why Bacon should have spoken detractingly of such a man, His depreci- why he should have stigmatized him with the name of "Sophist," and described his Philosophy (with the tyrant Dionysius), as verba otiosorum senum ad imperitos juvenes, it is much easier to explain than to justify, or even to palliate. He was, perhaps, influenced in part by the tone given to thinking Minds by the Reformation; the founders and fathers of which saw in the Aristotelians, or Schoolmen, the antagonists of Protestantism, and in the Italian Platonists (as they conceived) the

ation of

Plato.

secret enemies of Christianity itself. In part, too, Bacon may have formed his notions of Plato's doctrines from the absurdities of his misinterpreters, rather than from an unprejudiced and diligent study of his Works. Be it remembered, however, that this unfairness was not less manifested to his contemporaries; that his treatment of GILBERT was cold, invidious, and unjust; and that he seems to have disdained to learn either the existence or the name of Shakspeare. At this conduct no one can be surprised who has studied the life of this

wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind.

But our present business is not with his weaknesses, or his failings, but with those Philosophical Principles which, especially as displayed in the Novum Organum, have deservedly obtained for him the veneration of succeeding Ages.

Those who talk superficially about Bacon's Philosophy, that is to say, nineteen-twentieths of those who talk about it at all, know little more than his induction, and the application which he makes of his own Method to particular classes of Physical facts; applications which are at least as crude, for the Age of Gilbert, Galileo, and Kepler, as were those of Aristotle (whom he so superciliously reprehends) for the Age of Philip and Alexander. Or they may, perhaps, have been struck with his recommendation of tabular collections of particulars, and hence have placed him at the head of a Body of men, but too nume- The Minute rous in modern days-the Minute Philosophers. We need phers. scarcely say that this is venturing his reputation on a very tottering basis. Let any unprejudiced Naturalist turn to Bacon's questions and proposals for the investigation of single problems; to his "Discourse on the Winds;" or to what may almost be called a caricature of his scheme, in the "Method of improving Natural Philosophy," by ROBERT HOOKE1 (the

4 We refer particularly to p. 22 to 42 of the above-mentioned Work; and we would, above all, notice the following admirable specimen of confused and dis

Philoso

history of whose Philosophical life is alone a sufficient answer to all such schemes) and then let him fairly say whether any desirable end could reasonably be hoped for, from this processwhether by this mode of research any important discovery ever was made, or ever could be made? Bacon, indeed, always takes care to tell us that the sole purpose and object of collecting together these particulars is to concentrate them, by careful selection, into universals; but so immense is their number, and so various and almost endless the relations in which each is to be separately considered, that the life of an antediluvian Patriarch would be expended, and his strength and spirits wasted, long before he could commence the process of simplification, or arrive in sight of the Law, which was to reward the toils of the over-tasked PSYCHE.5

orderly minuteness:—“The history of potters, tobacco-pipe-makers, glaziers, glass-grinders, looking-glass-makers or foilers, spectacle-makers and optic-glass makers, makers of counterfeit pearl and precious stones, bugle-makers, lampblowers, colour-makers, colour-grinders, glass-painters, enamellers, varnishers, colour-sellers, painters, limners, picture-drawers, makers of baby-heads, of little bowling stones or marbles, fustian-makers, (query, whether Poets are included in this trade?) music-masters, tinsey-makers, and taggers; -the history of schoolmasters, writing-masters, printers, book-binders, stage-players, dancing-masters, and vaulters, apothecaries, chirurgeons, seamsters, butchers, barbers, laundresses, and cosmetics! &c. &c. &c. (the true nature of each of which being exactly determined,) WILL HUGELY FACILITATE OUR INQUIRIES IN PHILOSOPHY ! ! !”

In parallel, or rather in contrast, with the advice of Mr. Robert Hooke, may be fairly placed that of the celebrated Dr. WATTS, which was thought by Dr. Knox to be worthy of insertion in the Elegant Extracts, vol. ii. p. 456, under the head of

DIRECTIONS CONCERNING OUR IDEAS.

"Furnish yourselves with a rich variety of Ideas. Acquaint yourselves with things ancient and modern, things Natural, Civil, and Religious; things of your native land, and of foreign countries; things domestic and national; things present, past, and future; and above all, be well acquainted with God and yourselves; with animal nature, and the workings of your own spirits. Such a general acquaintance with things will be of very great advantage."

5 See the beautiful allegoric tale of Cupid and Psyche in the original of Apuleius. The tasks imposed on the hapless nymph, through the jealousy of her mother-inlaw, and the agency by which they are at length self-performed, are noble instances of that hidden wisdom "where more is meant than meets the ear!"

Novum

Had Bacon done no more than propose these impracticable Bacon's projects, we should have been far from sharing the sentiments Organum. of respect everywhere attached to his Philosophical character. But he has performed a task of infinitely greater importance, by constructing that Methodical System, which is so elegantly developed in the Novum Organum. It is this which we propose to compare with the Principles long before enunciated by Plato. In both cases the inductions are frequently as crude and erroneous as might readily be anticipated from the infant state of Natural History, Chemistry, and Physiology, in their several Ages. In both cases the proposed applications are often impracticable; but setting aside these considerations, and extracting from each writer that which constitutes his true Philosophy, we shall be convinced that it is identical, in regard to the Science of Method, and to the grounds and conditions of that Science. We do not see, therefore, how we can more appropriately conclude this section of our inquiry than by a brief statement of our renowned Countryman's own Principles of Method, conveyed, for the greater part, in his own words; or in what more precise form we can recapitulate the substance of the doctrines asserted and vindicated in the preceding pages. For we rest our strongest pretensions to approbation on the fact, that we have only re-proclaimed the coinciding precepts of the Athenian Verulam and the British Plato.

and Bacon.

In the first instance, Lord Bacon, equally with ourselves, The common System demands, as the motive and guide of every Philosophical experi- of Plato ment, what we have ventured to call the intellectual or mental initiative; namely, some well-grounded purpose, some distinct impression of the probable results, some self-consistent anticipation, the ground of the prudens quæstio, (the forethoughtful inquiry,) which he affirms to be the prior half of the knowledge sought, dimidium scientiæ. With him, therefore, as with us, an Idea is an experiment proposed, an experiment is an Idea

E