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heroic enterprise.* There is too the testimony of Dr. Samuel Sorbiere, who in 1660 visited England; and though in his Relation d'un Voyage en Angleterre, published four years afterwards, he has given a prejudiced account of our national character, yet admits that Bacon successfully promoted the cause of physical science. † So in 1666 the Abbé Gallois, in one of the numbers of the Journal des Sçavans, (the earliest of the French literary journals,) admits, that 'this great chancellor is one of those who have most contributed to the advancement of the

* See Napier's Diss. Ed. Phil. Trans., vol. 8, p. Ed. Rev. ut sup.

417;

+ Dr. Sorbiere's book was considered an insolent libel on our nation,' and called forth a reply from Dr. Sprat. See his 'Observations on Monsieur de Sorbiere's Voyage into England, Lond. 1668.' There appears also to have been another answer, printed at Amsterdam, in French.-Wood's Ath. Oxon. vol. 4, p. 728, Bliss's edit. In Mr. Southey's interesting essay on Foreign Travellers, (Essays, vol. 1, p. 258,) it is said, that for publishing this work, Sorbiere was banished by the French Government to the city of Nantes.

sciences; and John Baptiste du Hamel, the first secretary of the Royal Academy of Sciences, founded this year, represents Bacon as the father of the inductive or experimental method; and in his treatise De Mente Humana, has commented at length upon the Baconian philosophy.

In Germany, too, so early as 1623, the Verulamian Method was known and appreeiated; for in the introduction to Campanella's Realis Philosophia, published at Frankfort, in that year, Adams compares his unfortunate friend Campanella to the great Verulam, who took experience for his guide, and drew his philosophy from the book of nature. Commenius too, in a work, published in 1643, speaks of the Novum Organum in the highest terms of praise ;* and the historian of the Academia Natura Curiosorum, (the royal society of Germany,) which was founded in 1652, ascribes the

*Napier's Diss. Ed. Phil. Trans., vol. 8, p. 422.

spirit which produced it to the writings of

Bacon. mony of the celebrated Puffendorf. 'It was the late Chancellor Bacon,' says he, ' who raised the standard, and urged on the march of discovery; so that if any considerable improvements have been made in philosophy in this age, there has been not a little owing to that great man.'*

To these we may add the testi

Lord Bacon's correspondence with Father Fulgentio, the Venetian philosopher, and with Baranzan, a Piedmontese monk of the order of Barnabites, shows that the fame of his philosophical writings had at a very early period extended into Italy. † So in a letter written from thence to lord Cavendish, before Bacon's death, it is said, lord Bacon is here more and more known, and his works more and more delighted in.' +

It is highly probable that Galileo was well

See Ed. Phil. Trans., vol. 8, p. 424.

† See ante, p. 205, and Bacon's Works, vol. 13, p. 68. Rawley's Life of Bacon.

acquainted with Bacon's writings; and it appears, from a passage in one of Mr. Matthew's letters, written in 1619, when on his way to Florence, that a MS. copy of Bacon's discourse on the tides, (which was not published till several years after his death,) had been seen by the Florentine philosopher; for he endeavoured to answer it, and was about to forward his reply to Mr. Matthew; but upon being informed that his answer was founded upon a false supposition, namely, that there was in the ocean a full sea but once in the twenty-four hours, he relinquished this design.*

* Bacon's Works, vol. 12, p. 367. With some of Galileo's writings Bacon was evidently acquainted, as he refers to them more than once in his Instauration. In a letter to lord Bacon, dated Brussels, 21st April, 1616, Mr. Matthew says, 'I presume to send you the copy of a piece of a letter, which Galileo, of whom I am sure you have heard, wrote to a monk of my acquaintance in Italy, about the answering of that place in Joshua which concerns the sun's standing still, and approving thereby the pretended falsehood of Coperni

It is impossible, we think, after reading the foregoing testimonies, and many others might be accumulated, coming from such authentic sources, and all so explicit, for any one, be he never so sceptical, to hesitate for a moment in saluting our illustrious philosopher as the father of experimental science, and in ascribing to his works the merit of having greatly accelerated the progress of

cus's opinion. The letter was written by occasion of the opposition which some few in Italy did make against Galileo, as if he went about to establish that by experiments which appears to be contrary to Holy Scripture. But he makes it appear the while by this piece of a letter which I send you, that if that passage of scripture doth expressly favour either side, it is for the affirmation of Copernicus's opinion, and for the negative of Aristotle's. To an attorney-general in the midst of a town, and such a one as is employed in the weightiest affairs of the kingdom, it might seem unseasonable for me to interrupt you with matter of this nature. But I know well enough in how high account you have the truth of things; and that no day can pass wherein you give not liberty to your wise thoughts of looking upon the works of nature.'-Ibid. 294; and see p. 368.

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