and facts which lay beyond the borderland of then permitted thought or speech: a man who would not, like a bruised snail, shrink himself to endure and suffer, and remain a memorial of the blasting weight of the oppressor's foot, or lower his life's aims and efforts by prescription; or for the pleasure of being patted, like a pet of the kennel, now and then, fawn, and cringe, and crouch, and flatter, only to gain a more distinct application of the whip when he should fail in any point implied in the monkish lesson of subserviency. He had a praiseworthy stubborn uprightness, a rightful confidence in his own powers of thought and action, a knowing acquaintance with the fallacies of the soul as well as the sophistries of his sect, and a firm-set faith in the truth of God, when read aright either in word or work. How sad to think that such a one as he should feel necessitated to complain that he was held back from pursuing his researches into nature by "the rumours of the vulgar!" How refreshing it is to find him, even when beset by his enemies, asserting, regarding one of his new discoveries, that it is "of more satisfaction to a discreet mind than a king's crown." There is a depth of feeling in the phrase as uttered by him, which gives it emphasis. These are the words of a simple, single-minded, benevolent, philosophically-inclined man, whose heart was grieved that aught else should be preferred to "divine philosophy." Like an early ripe fruit in a surly spring, he was used frostily, and the flavour of his life was somewhat lost; enough, however, remains to make us feel that he was one of Time's favourite children—a foreshadower of the future. He did not give actual being to experimental philosophy, but he did, more than any other man of his own or any other single age, compared with his surroundings, to establish the principle Experimental Science. ΙΣΙ that experiment is the test of theory, and the touchstone of thought, the handmaiden of truth, and the chief foe to selfdeception in investigation. He is the earliest consistent theoretical and practical inquirer into the realities of natural phenomena; the noblest advocate in his own age of the right of private judgment on matters of science, of the need of reform in study, teaching, and thinking. The sorrows he bore for his beloved's sake-Truth-endear him to our heart, and warm up our sympathies to the highest. We know not if we have so thought and expressed ourselves as to make this plain to others, as it seems to be to us. We sincerely hope that this, at least, has been made palpablethat even amid the greatest difficulties of the saddest times in the world's history, the truly gifted man can work the work given him to do, and leave his memory green in the hearts of the people, in spite of ignorance, misunderstanding, misrepresentation, and malice, and that truth is stronger than persecution, neglect, contumely, and death. The remarkable monk of whose life we have presented a summary so brief, did not fail in the great work to which he devoted himself through any deficiency of will or worth. The times were not ripe for the great step forward he proposed. Life was too unsettled; thought was too torpid; the ignorance, even of thinking men, was too profound; reason too submissive, and custom too strong. In his great mind the germ was planted which another Bacon cultured till it bore fruit-fruit for the blessing of all nations. To pursue the path of true philosophy in an age of ignorance and error; to incur, endure, and brave the displeasures of his co-friars and the Church; to persevere in the speculations, experiments, and endeavours which occupied his soul in opposition to Custom, Authority, Prejudice, and Perse cution, indicate a nobleness superior to that of his illustrious namesake and successor, even though we free his memory from many of the reproaches that have been cast upon it. That in an age when any attempt to promote the expansion of the human intellect alarmed the Church with thoughts of heresy, Bacon maintained the right of man to free thought in science, forms a claim to the respect of all ages which is undeniable: for as the late Professor John Playfair said, “It is but fair to consider persecution, inflicted by the ignorant and bigoted, as equivalent to praise bestowed by the liberal and enlightened." 66 'Tuscan, that wanderest through the realms of gloom, Stern thoughts and awful from thy soul arise, Thy sacred song is like the trump of doom; As up the convent walls, in golden streaks, -Longfellow. "Dante's great poem is at once a tomb and a cradle: the splendid tomb of a world passing away-the cradle of a dawning brighter world to come."-Abbé Lamennais. "Both as a man and a poet, Dante stands first of that race of mighty subjectives who may be said, in token of their conquests, to stamp the impress of their own individuality both upon the actual world and upon that which they create; that is to say, they derive all from within themselves or from the future, of which they are the prophets."-Guiseppe Mazzini. 66 Weep not for the dead, but weep ye sore for him who goeth forth from his place, and returns no more.”—Jeremiah. |