whole body. Quiescence of parts. Nature varying according to Which may in- Which may de- increases. Quiescence of Light. parts, &c. Iron may be a greater heat 1. EXCLUSION OF IRRELEVANTS. Solitary Instances.-If the inquiry be into the nature of colour: a rainbow and a piece of glass in a stable window, differ in every thing except in the prismatic colours; they are therefore solitary in resemblance. The different parts of the same piece of marble, the different parts of a leaf of a variegated tulip, agree in every thing, save the colour; they are, therefore, solitary in difference. By thus contracting the limits of the inquiry, may it not possibly be inferred, that colour depends upon refraction of the rays of light? Nature in motion.-Observe nature in her processes. If any man desired to consider and examine the contrivances and industry of a certain artificer, he would not be content to view only the The object of this exclusion is to make a per- rude materials of the workman, and then immedifect resolution and separation of nature, not by fire, ately the finished work, but covet to be present but by the mind, which is, as it were, the divine whilst the artist prosecutes his labour, and exerfire: that, after this rejection and exclusion is cises his skill. And the like course should be duly made, the affirmative, solid, true, and well-taken in the works of nature. defined form will remain as the result of the operation, whilst the volatile opinions go off in fume. TABLE V. Travelling Instances.-In inquiring into any nature, observe its progress in approaching to or receding from existence. Let the inquiry be into the nature of whiteness. Take a piece of The fifth table of Results, termed the first clear glass and a vessel of clear water, pound the vintage or dawn of doctrine, consists of a collec- glass into fine dust and agitate the water, the tion of such natures as always accompany the pulverised glass and the surface of the water will sought nature, increase with its increase, and de-appear white; and this whiteness will have tracrease with its decrease. It appears, that, in all instances, the nature of heat is motion of parts;-flame is perpetually in motion;-hot or boiling liquors are in continual agitation;—the sharpness and intensity of heat is increased by motion, as in bellows and blasts; -existing fire and heat are extinguished by strong compression, which checks and puts a stop to all motion;-all bodies are destroyed, or at least remarkably altered, by heat; and, when heat wholly escapes from the body, it rests from its labours; and hence it appears, that heat is motion, and nothing else. Having collected and winnowed, by the various tables, the different facts presented to the senses, he proposed to examine them by nine different processes of which he has investigated only the first, or PREROGATIVE INSTANCES, those instances by which the nature sought is most easily discovered. They may be thus exhibited : 1. Solitary. 2. Travelling. 4. Nature in motion. 1. Patent and Latent. 3. Frontier. velled from non-existence into existence. Again, take a vessel full of any liquor with froth at the top, or take snow, let the froth subside and the snow melt; the whiteness will disappear, and will have travelled from existence to non-existence. Journeying Instances.-In inquiring into any nature, observe its motions gradually continued or contracted. An inquirer into the vegetation of plants should have an eye from the first sowing of the seed, and examine it almost every day, by taking or plucking up a seed after it had remained for one, two, or three days in the ground; to observe with diligence when, and in what manner the seed begins to swell, grow plump, and be filled or become turgid, as it were, with spirit; next, how it bursts the skin, and strikes its fibres with some tendency upwards, unless the earth be very stubborn; how it shoots its fibres in part, to constitute roots downwards; in part, to form stems upwards, and sometimes creeping sideways, if it there find the earth more open, pervious, and yielding, with many particulars of the same kind. And the like should be done as to eggs during their hatching, where the whole process of vivification and organization might be easily viewed; and what becomes of the yolk, what of the white, &c. The same is also to be attempted in inanimate bodies; and this we have endeavoured after, by observing the ways wherein liquors open themselves by fire; for water | it was carried; the scent of the bloodhound; the opens one way, wine another, verjuice another, loadstone amongst stones; that species of flowers and milk, oil, &c., with a still greater difference. Constituent Instances.-In inquiring into any nature, separate complex into simple natures. Let the nature sought be memory, or the means of exciting and helping the memory: the constituent instances may be thus exhibited : which do not die when plucked from the stalk, but continue their colours and forms unaltered through the winter. So with grammarians the letter G is held singular for the easiness of its composition with consonants, sometimes with double and sometimes with triple ones, which is a property of no other letter. So the number 9 amongst figures possesses the peculiar property, that the sum of the digits of all its multiples is 9.1 Instances of Divorce.-Observe the separation of such natures as are generally united. Light and heat are generally united; but in a cold moonlight Such are specimens of his mode of excluding night there is light without heat, and in hot water irrelevant naturés. 2. OBSERVING THE NATURE WHERE MOST CONSPICUOUS, OR INSTANCES OF EXTREMES. there is heat without light. The action of one body upon another is in general affected by the medium through which it acts; thus sound varies with the state of the atmosphere, and through a thick wall is scarcely perceptible. The magnetic attraction seems to be an instance of divorce, as it acts indifferently through all mediums. Patent and Latent Instances. In inquiring into any nature, observe where the nature, in its usual state, appears most conspicuous, and where it appears in its weakest and most imperfect state. Deviating Instances. Observe nature when apThe loadstone is a glaring instance of attrac-parently deviating from her accustomed course; tion. The thermometer is a glaring instance of as in all cases of monsters, prodigious births, the expansive nature of heat. Flame exhibits its &c. He who knows the ways of nature will expansive nature to the sense, but it is momentary the easier observe her deviations; and he who and vanishes. Again, let the inquiry be into the knows her deviations, will more exactly describe nature of solidity, the contrary of which is fluid- her ways. For the business in this matter is no ity. Froth, snow, bubbles, whether of soap and more than by quick scent to trace out the footways water, blown by children, or those which may be of nature in her wilful wanderings, that so afterseen occasionally on the surface of a fluid or on the ward you may be able at your pleasure to lead or side of a vessel, or the looking-glasses made of force her to the same place and posture again. As spittle by children in a loop of a single hair or a a man's disposition is never well known till he be rush, where we see a consistent pellicule of water, crossed, nor did Proteus ever change shapes till like infant ice, exhibit solidity in its most feeble he was straitened and held fast. states. Maxima and Minima. In inquiring into any nature, observe it in its extremes, or its maxima Such are specimens of his modes of viewing nature where most conspicuous. RENT CAUSES. and minima. Gold in weight; iron in hardness; 3. FIXING THE REAL, between different appathe whale in bulk of animal bodies; the hound in scent; the explosion of gunpowder in sudden expansion, are instances of maxima. The minute worms in the skin is an instance of minimum in animal bulk. Frontier Instances. Observe those species of bodies which seem composed of two species; as moss, which is something betwixt putrefaction and a plant; flying fishes, which are a species betwixt birds and fish; bats, which are betwixt birds and quadrupeds; the beast so like ourselves, the ape; the biformed births of animals; the mixtures of different species, &c. Singular Instances. In inquiring into any nature, observe those instances which, in regular course, are solitary amidst their own natures. Quicksilver amongst metals; the power of the carrier pigeon to return to the place from whence Crucial Instances. When, in inquiring into any particular nature, the mind is in æquilibrio between two causes, observe if there is not some instance which marks the cause of the sought nature. Let the nature sought be gravity. Heavy bodies, having a tendency to the earth, must fall ex mero motu, from their own construction, or be attracted by the earth. Let two equal bodies fall through equal spaces at different distances from the earth, and if they fall through these equal spaces in unequal times, the descent is influenced by the attraction of the earth. 1 Thus 9x2=18 and 8+1=9. 9x1199 and 9+9=18 and 1+8=9 4. RESEMBLANCES AND DIFFERENCES. Such are specimens, mere specimens, of this most valuable of all his works, and by him most highly valued. It is written in a plain, unadorned style, in aphorisms, invariably stated by him to be the proper style for philosophy, which, conscious of its own power, ought to go forth "naked and unarmed;" but, from the want of symmetry and ornament, from its abstruseness, from the novelty of its terms, and from the imperfect state in which it was published, it has, although the most valuable, hitherto been too much neglected: but it will not so continue. The time has arrived, or is fast approaching, when the pleasures of intellectual pursuit will have so deeply pervaded society, that they will, to a con Observe resemblances between apparent differences. -Are not gums of trees and gems produced in the same manner, both of them being only exudations and percolations of juices: gums being the transuded juices of trees, and gems of stones; whence the clearness and transparency of them both are produced by means of a curious and exquisite percolation?-Are not the hairs of beasts and the feathers of birds produced in the same manner, by the percolation of juices? and are not the colours of feathers more beautiful and vivid, because the juices are more subtilely strained through the substance of the quill in birds than through the skins of beasts? Do not the celes-siderable extent, form the pleasures of our youth; tial bodies move in their orbits by the same laws which govern the motions of the bodies terrestrial. 6 and the lamentation in the Advancement of Learning will be diminished or pass away: "Nevertheless, I do not pretend, and I know it will be impossible for me, by any pleading of mine, to reverse the judgment, either of Æsop's cock, that preferred the barley-corn before the gem; or of Midas, that, being chosen judge between Apollo, president of the muses, and Pan, god of the flocks; 6 6 beauty and love, against wisdom and power; or of Agrippina, occidat matrem modo imperet,' that preferred empire with any condition, never so detestable; or of Ulysses, qui vetulam prætulit immortalitati,' being a figure of those which prefer custom and habit before all excellency; or of a number of the like popular judgments. For these things must continue as they have been: but so will that also continue, whereupon learning hath ever relied, and which faileth not: justificata est sapientia a filiis suis.'" Copies of the work were sent to the king, the University of Cambridge, Sir Henry Wotton, and Sir Edward Coke. From the conformity between a speculum and the eye, the structure of the ear and of the cavernous places that yield an echo, it is easy to form and collect this axiom,-that the organs of the senses, and the bodies that procure reflections to the senses, are of a like nature. And, again, the un-judged for plenty; or of Paris, that judged for derstanding being thus admonished, easily rises to a still higher and more noble axiom; viz., that there is no difference between the consents and sympathies of bodies endowed with sense, and those of inanimate bodies without sense, only that in the former an animal spirit is added to the body so disposed, but is wanting to the latter; whence, as many conformities as there are among inanimate bodies, so many senses there might be in animals, provided there were organs or perforations in the animal body, for the animal spirit to act upon the parts rightly disposed, as upon a proper instrument. And, conversely, as many senses as there are in animals, so many motions there may be in bodies inanimate, where the ani- The tranquil pursuits of philosophy he was mal spirit is wanting; though there must, of ne- now, (1620,) for a time, obliged to quit, to allay, if cessity, be many more motions in inanimate bo- possible, the political storm in which the state dies than there are senses in animate bodies, be- was involved, and which he vainly thought that cause of the small number of the organs of sense. he had the power to calm. It is scarcely possible Real differences in apparent resemblances.-Do | for any chancellor to have been placed in a situaany two beings differ more from each other than two human beings? Men's curiosity and diligence have been hitherto principally employed in observing the variety of things, and explaining the precise differences of animals, vegetables, and fossils, the greatest part of which variety and differences are rather the sport of nature, than matters of any considerable and solid use to the sciences. Such things, indeed, serve for delight, and sometimes contribute to practice, but afford little or no true information, or thorough insight into nature; human industry, therefore, must be bent upon inquiring into, and observing the similitudes and analogies of things, as well in their wholes as in their parts; for these are what anite nature, and begin to build up the sciences. tion of greater difficulty. He knew the work that must be done, and the nature of his materials. The king, who was utterly dependent upon the people, was every day resorting to expedients which widened the breach between them: despotic without dignity, and profuse without magnificence, meanly grasping, and idly scattering neither winning their love, nor commanding their reverence, he seemed in all things the reverse of his illustrious predecessor, except in what could be well spared, the arbitrary spirit common to them both. While the people were harassed and pillaged by the wretches to whom the king had delegated his authority, he reaped only part of the spoil, but all the odium. The chancellor had repeatedly assured the king that his best interests, which consisted in a good | punity. Truth, the daughter of time, not of auunderstanding with his subjects, could be main- thority, is constantly warning the community in tained only by calling frequent parliaments: ad- what their interests consist, and that to protect, vice not likely to be acceptable to a monarch who not to encroach upon these interests, all governhad issued a proclamation, commanding all his ments are formed. people, from the highest to the lowest, "not to intermeddle, by pen or speech, with state concernments and secrets of empire, at home or abroad, which were not fit themes for common meetings or vulgar persons;" but, whatever their secret dissatisfaction might be, the whole body of the nation manifested so much zeal for the recovery of the palatinate, that the juncture was deemed favourable for relieving the king's pecuniary difficulties, who consented with this view to sum-mined, if possible, to maintain a good correspondmon a parliament. This resolution was no sooner formed, than the chancellor was instructed to confer with the most proper persons as to the best means of carrying it into effect; and he accordingly availed himself of the assistance of the two chief justices, and of Serjeant Crew, who, after mature deliberation, agreed upon four points, which were immediately communicated to his majesty and to Buckingham. Different days were fixed for the meeting of this eventful parliament, which was called with a full knowledge of the king's motive for summoning them; and that, had not the expedient respecting benevolence wholly failed, this council of the nation would never have been assembled; as the king considered the Commons" daring encroachers upon his prerogative; endeavouring to make themselves greater, and their prince less, than became either." Previous to the meeting, the lord chancellor was raised to the dignity of Viscount St. Alban, by a patent which stated that the king had conferred this title because he thought nothing could adorn his government more or afford greater encouragement to virtue and public spirit, than the raising worthy persons to honour; and with this new dignity, he, on the 27th day of January, was with great ceremony invested at Theobalds, the patent being witnessed by the most illustrious peers of the realm, the Lord Carew carrying, and the Marquess of Buckingham supporting the robe of state before him, while his coronet was borne by the Lord Wentworth. The new viscount returned solemn thanks to the king for the many favours bestowed upon him. The thirtieth of January, an ominous day to the family of the Stuarts, was at last fixed for the king to meet his people, writhing as they were under the intolerable grievances by which they were oppressed; grievances which, notwithstanding the warnings and admonitions addressed to the king when he ascended the throne, had most culpably increased. Power, not only tenacious in retaining its authority, but ever prone to increase its exactions, may disregard the progress of knowledge, but it is never disregarded with im Upon the opening of parliament the king addressed the Commons. He stated his opinion of their relative duties: that he was to distribute justice and mercy; and they, without meddling with his prerogative, were by petition to acquaint him with their distresses, and were to supply his pecuniary wants. At first there appeared nothing but duty and submission on the part of the Commons. Deter ence with their prince, they without one dissenting voice voted him two subsidies, and that too at the very beginning of the session, contrary to the maxims frequently adopted by former parliaments. They then proceeded, in a very temperate and decided manner, to the examination of their oppressions, intimating that the supply of the king's distresses and the removal of their vexations were to advance hand in hand without precedency, as twin brothers. 66 Of their grievances the Commons loudly and justly complained. Under the pretext of granting patents, the creatures of Buckingham had rapaciously exacted large fees. These exactions can scarcely be credited. There were patents for every necessary and convenience of life; for gold and silver thread; for inns and ale-houses; for remitting the penalties of obsolete laws, and even for the price of horse-meat, starch, candles, tobacco-pipes, salt, and train-oil; and such traders as presumed to continue their business without satisfying the rapacity of the patentees, had been severely punished by vexatious prosecutions, fine, and imprisonment. The outcries of the subject were incessant. Monopolies and briberies were beaten upon the anvil every day, almost every hour." The complaints were so numerous that not less than eighty committees to redress abuses in the church, in the courts of law, and in every department of the state, were immediately nominated. From the mass of evils under consideration, the House first directed its attention to the three great patents, of inns, of ale-houses, and of gold and silver thread. The chief actors were Sir Giles Mompesson, a man of property, and a member of the house, and Sir Francis Michell, his tool, a poor justice, who received annually £100 for issuing warrants to enforce his tyranny. The rage for punishment was not confined to Mompesson and Michell. Sir Henry Yelverton, the attorneygeneral, who had incurred the displeasure of Buckingham, was prosecuted and severely punished, for some irregularity respecting a patent for a charter for the city of London. It appeared before a committee of the house. that the profits from these patents were shared by (H) all classes of society who were connected with | in matters of such moment, Buckingham should Buckingham. Amongst the patentees were the apply for counsel to Williams rather than to Lord Harrington and the Countess of Bedford. Bacon, by whose advice he professed to be alChristopher Villiers, and Sir Edward Villiers, ways guided: it is, however, certain that he not half-brother of the lord marquis, received £1,800 only communicated privately with Williams, but annually between them; and from one single that he carried him to the king, whom they found patent the king's annual profit was £10,000. closeted with the prince, in much distress and perplexity, when the dean read to his royal master a document prepared at the suggestion of Buckingham, or the fruit of his own politic brain. These rumours reached and alarmed the king, who instantly caused a communication to be made to the lords, that the patent was sanctioned by divers of the judges for the point of law, and by divers lords for point of convenience. vision of the seals floated before him, and induced him to plot against the "gracious Duncan," he could not but foresee that the result of the inquiries would only convince the parliament that Mompesson and Michell were mere puppets moved for the profit and advantage of others, and that Buckingham, or one as highly placed, might be demanded. It is to be hoped that the fiend ambition did not Reform was now the universal cry of the na- so far possess him, as to recommend the greater tion. It was one of those periodical outcries, sacrifice of Bacon, should Mompesson and Michell which ever has been and ever will be heard in | be deemed insufficient to allay the storm; but if England, till, by admitting the gradual improve- ambition did influence this politic prelate, if the ment which the progress of knowledge requires, the current, instead of being opposed, is judiciously directed. The streams which for centuries roll on, and for centuries are impeded, at last break down or rush over the barriers and carry every thing before them. When in this deluge the ark itself is in danger, the patriot endeavours to confine the torrent within its proper banks, and to resist or direct its impetuosity, while the demagogue joins in the popular clamour, visiting on individuals the faults of the times, and sacrificing, as an atonement to injured feeling, the most virtuous members of the community. When the complaints of the people could no longer be resisted, and public inquiry became inevitable, Buckingham, insensible to all other shame, appeared fully conscious of the infamy of exposure. The honour of a gentleman and the pride of nobility slept at ease upon the moneybags extorted from the sufferers, but he and his noble colleagues endured the utmost alarm at the prospect of discovery. Conscious of his peril, disquieted, and robbed of all peace of mind, admonished "That the arrow of vengeance shot against his brother grazed himself," he consulted one of the ablest men in England, Williams, then Dean of Westminster, who, well versed in matters of state, soon saw the position in which all parties were placed. He recommended that Villiers should, without a moment's delay, be sent upon some foreign embassy; and, his guilt being less enormous or less apparent than of the other offenders, he was thus protected by the power of his brother. Villiers being safe, Williams advised compliance with the humour of the people, and suggested that in this state tempest Sir Giles Mompesson and Sir F. Michell "should be thrown overboard as wares that might be spared," quoting a wise heathen as a precedent, well knowing that his breviary contained no such doctrine: advice which was gratefully received by the marquis, who declared that, for the future, he would attend to no other counsellor. On the 15th of March, 1620, Sir Robert Phillips reported from the committee appointed to inquire into the abuses of courts of justice, of which he was chairman, that two petitions had been presented for corruption against the lord chancellor, by two suitors in the court of chancery, the one named Aubrey, the other Egerton. Aubrey's petition stated, "That having a suit pending before the lord chancellor, and being worn out by delays, he had been advised by his counsel to present £100 to the chancellor, that his cause might, by more than ordinary means, be expedited, and that in consequence of this advice he had delivered the £100 to Sir George Hastings and to Mr. Jenkins, of Gray's Inn, by whom it was presented to his lordship; but notwithstanding this offering, the chancellor had decided against him." Egerton's complaint was, that "To procure my lord's favour, he had been persuaded by Sir George Hastings and Sir Richard Young, to make some present to the chancellor; and that he accordingly delivered to Sir George and to Sir Richard £400, which was delivered by them to the chancellor as a gratuity, for that my lord, when attorney-general, had befriended him: and that, before this advice, Egerton had himself, either before or after the chancellor was intrusted with the great seal, presented to his lordship a piece of plate worth fifty guineas; but that, notwithstanding these presents, the lord chancellor, assisted by Lord Chief Justice Hobart, had decided against him. If Bacon, instead of treating the charge with contempt, and indulging in imaginations of the friendship of Buckingham and of the king, thinkIt may, at first sight, appear remarkable, that, ing, as they were, only of their own safety, had |