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DEFENCE OF REASON.

But so it is, the name of the light of nature is made hateful with men; the star of reason and learning, and all other such like helps beginneth no otherwise to be thought of, than if it were an unlucky comet; or as if God had so accursed it, that it should never shine or give light in things concerning our duty any way toward him, but be esteemed as that star in the revelation, called Wormwood, which, being fallen from heaven, maketh rivers and waters in which it falleth so bitter, that men tasting them die thereof. A number there are who think they can not admire as they ought the power and authority of the word of God, if in things divine they should attribute any force to man's reason; for which cause they never use reason so willingly as to disgrace reason. Their usual and common discourses are unto this effect. First, 'the natural man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned,' &c. &c. By these and the like disputes, an opinion hath spread itself very far in the world; as if the way to be ripe in faith, were to be raw in wit and judgment; as if reason were an enemy unto religion, childish simplicity the mother of ghostly and divine wisdom.

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To our purpose, it is sufficient that whosoever doth serve, honour, and obey God, whosoever believeth in him, that man would no more do this than innocents and infants do but for the light of natural reason that shineth in him, and maketh him apt to apprehend those things of God, which being by grace discovered, are effectual to persuade reasonable minds, and none other, that honour, obedience, and credit, belong aright unto God. No man cometh unto God to offer him sacrifice, to pour out supplication and prayers before him, or to do him any service, which doth not first believe him both to be, and to be a rewarder of them who in such sort seek unto him. Let men be taught this, either by revelation from heaven, or by instruction upon earth; by labour, study, and meditation, or by the only secret inspiration of the Holy Ghost; whatsoever the mean be they know it by, if the knowledge thereof were possible without discourse of natural reason, why should none be found capable thereof but only men; nor men till such time as they come unto ripe and full ability to work by reasonable understanding? The whole drift of the Scripture of God, what is it, but only to teach theology? Theology, what is it, but the science of things divine? What science can be attained unto, without the help of natural discourse and reason? Judge you of that which I speak, saith the apostle. In vain it were to speak any thing of God, but that by reason men are able somewhat to judge of what they hear, and by discourse to discern how consonant it is to truth. Scripture, indeed, teacheth things above nature, things which our reason by itself could not reach unto. Yet those also we believe, knowing by reason that the Scripture is the word of God. * * The thing we have handled according to the question moved about it, which question is, whether the light of reason be so pernicious, that, in divising laws for the church, men ought not by it to search what may be fit and convenient? For this cause, therefore, we have endeavored to make it appear, how, in the nature of reason itself, there is no impediment, but that the self-same spirit which revealeth the things that God hath set down in his law, may also be thought to aid and direct men in finding out, by the light of reason, what laws are expedient to be made for the guiding of his church, over and besides them that are in Scripture.

Lecture the Seventeenth.

SIR FRANCIS BACON-RICHARD GRAFTON-JOHN STOW-RAPHAEL HOLINSHEDJOHN HOOKER-FRANCIS BOTEVILLE-WILLIAM HARRISON-RICHARD HAKLUYT -SAMUEL PURCHAS-JOHN DAVIS-GEORGE SANDYS-WILLIAM LITHGOW.

UR remarks in the last lecture embraced a sketch and illustrations of

Our very inent and distinguished men among the early prose wri

ters of the age of Elizabeth. But great as they unquestionably were, they were immeasurably surpassed by the transcendant genius of Bacon, successively made Lord High Chancellor of England, Baron Verulam, and Viscount St. Albans.

FRANCIS BACON was the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the great seal, and was born in London on the twenty-second of January 1561. In his childhood he had, from his father's position, free access to the court, and he there displayed such vivacity of intellect, and sedateness of conduct, that Queen Elizabeth was accustomed to call him her young lord-keeper. At the age of thirteen he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where the rapidity and solidity of his literary and scientific attainments, more than realized the brilliant promise of his childhood. Before he was sixteen years he became disgusted with the Aristotelian philosophy, which at that time held unquestioned sway in the great English schools of learning. This dislike of the philosophy of Aristotle, Bacon, as he himself declares, fell into not for the worthlessness of the author, to whom he would ever ascribe all high attributes, but for the unfruitfulness of t way; being a philosophy only strong for disputations and contentions, but barren of the production of works for the benefit of the life of man.'

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After having passed about four years at Cambridge, and when not yet seventeen years of age, Bacon's father called him from the university to attend, into France, the queen's ambassador, Sir Amyas Pawlet. The esteem and confidence of this minister he so thoroughly gained, that he soon after charged him with a mission to the queen, which he executed with the entire approbation of both parties, and then returned again to France to finish his travels. The result of his observation abroad afterward appeared in a work

entitled, Of the State of Europe, and which was, perhaps, his first literary performance.

The sudden death of his father, which occurred in 1579, compelled Bacon to return hastily to England, and engage in some secular employment. After in vain soliciting his uncle, lord Burleigh, to procure for him such a provision from government as would allow him to devote his time to literature and philosophy, he entered Gray's Inn, where he spent several years in the study of the law. While engaged in practice as a barrister, however, he did not forget philosophy; as it appears that he sketched, at an early period of life, his great work called The Instauration of the Sciences. In 1590, Bacon obtained the post of Counsel Extraordinary to the queen; and three years after sat in Parliament for the county of Middlesex. As an orator he is spoken of by Ben Jonson, and other contemporaries in terms of the highest praise. In one of his speeches, he distinguished himself by taking the popular side in a question respecting some large subsidies demanded by the court; but finding that he had given great offence to her majesty, he at once altered his tone, and condescended to apologize with that servility which unhappily appeared in too many of his subsequent actions. To lord Burleigh and his son Robert Cecil, Bacon continued to crouch in the hope of advancement, till at length, finding himself disappointed in that quarter, he attached himself to Burleigh's rival, Essex, who, with the utmost ardor of a generous friendship, endeavored to procure for him, in 1594, the office of attorney general, which was then vacant. In this attempt he was, however, defeated through the influence of the Cecils, who were jealous of both him and his friends; but he, in some degree, soothed Bacon's disappointment by presenting to him an estate at Twickenham, with two thousand pounds. It is painful to relate the manner in which Bacon repaid such benefits. When Essex was brought to trial for a conspiracy against the queen, the friend whom he had so largely obliged, and in whom he had entirely confided, not only deserted him in the hour of need, but unnecessarily appeared as counsel against him, and by every art and distorting ingenuity of a pleader, endeavored to magnify his crimes. He complied, moreover, after the Earl's execution with the queen's request that he would write A Declaration of the Practices and Treasons Attempted and Committed by Robert, Earl of Essex; which was published by authority. Into such conduct, which indicates a lamentable want of high moral principle, courage and self-respect, Bacon was, in some measure, led by pecuniary difficulties, into which his improvident and ostentatious habits, coupled with the relative inadequacy of his revenues, had plunged him. By maintaining himself in the good graces of the court, he hoped to secure that professional advancement which would not only fill his empty coffers, but gratify those ambitious longings that had arisen in his mind. But temptations of this sort, though they may palliate, can never excuse such immoralities as those which Bacon, on this, and on several future occasions, showed himself capable.

On the accession of James the First to the crown of England, the fortunes

of that mon

of Bacon began to improve. He was knighted in the first year arch's reign, and, in subsequent years, obtained successively the offices of king's counsel, solicitor-general, judge of the Marshalsea court, and attorneygeneral, the last of which was bestowed upon him in 1613. In the execu

tion of his duties, he did not scruple to lend himself to the most arbitrary measures of the court, and even assisted in an attempt to extort from an aged clergyman named Peacham, a confession of treason, by torturing him on a rack. In 1619, Bacon reached the summit of his ambition, by being created Lord High Chancellor of England, Baron Verulam, and in the following year, Viscount St. Albans. As Chancellor, it can not be concealed that, both in his political and judicial capacities, he grossly deserted his duty. He not only suffered the king's favorite, Villiers, to interfere with his decisions as a judge, but by accepting numerous presents or bribes from suitors, gave occasion, in 1621, to a parliamentary inquiry, which resulted in his condemnation and disgrace. He fully confessed all the articles of corruption laid to his charge-twenty-three in number; and when waited upon by a committee of the House of Lords, appointed to inquire whether the confession was subscribed by himself, he remarked, 'It is my act, my hand, my heart: I beseech your lordships to be merciful to a broken reed.'

Banished by this act from public life, Bacon had now ample leisure to attend to his philosophical aud literary pursuits; though these, even while he was engaged in business, had by no means been neglected. In 1597, he published the first edition of his 'Essays,' which were afterward greatly enlarged. These, as he himself says of them, 'come home to men's business and bosoms; and like the late new half-pence, the pieces are small, and the silver is good.' From the interesting nature of the subjects of these 'Essays,' and the excellence of their style, the work immediately acquired great popularity, and to the present day continues the most generally read of all the author's productions. It is also,' to use the language of Dugald Stewart, 6 one of those where the superiority of his genius appears to the greatest advantage, the novelty and depth of his reflections often receiving a strong relief from the triteness of his subject. It may be read from beginning to end in a few hours, and, yet after the twentieth perusal, one seldom fails to remark something in it overlooked before. This, indeed, is a characteristic of all Bacon's writings, and is only to be accounted for by the inexhaustible aliment they furnish to our thoughts, and the sympathetic activity they impart to our torpid faculties.'

In 1605, Bacon published another work, which still continues to be extensively perused, under the title, Of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning, Divine and Human. This volume constitutes the first part of his great work, called 'The Instauration of the Sciences.' The second part, entitled Novum Organum, is that upon which, chiefly, his high reputation, as a philosopher, is based, and on the composition of which he bestowed most labor. It was not published until 1620. The concluding part of the volume relates, exclusively, to revealed religion. In the first part of the Ad

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