signified, that in the interim of this cessation, the lord chancellor was an humble suitor unto his majesty, that he might see his majesty, and speak with him; and although his majesty, in respect of the lord chancellor's person, and of the place he holds, might have given his lordship that favour, yet, for that his lordship is under trial of this house, his majesty would not on the sudden grant it. That on Sunday last, the king calling all the lords of this house which were of his council before him, it pleased his majesty, to show their lordships, what was desired by the lord chancellor, demanding their lordships advice therein. The lords did not presume to advise his majesty; for that his majesty did suddenly propound such a course as all the world could not devise better, which was that his majesty would speak with him privately, That yesterday, his majesty admitting the lord chancellor to his presence, &c. It was thereupon ordered, That the lord treasurer should signi 'y unto his majesty, that the lords do thankfully acknowledge that his majesty's favour, and hold themselves, highly bourd unto his majesty for the same." In the morning of the 4th of April, a few days after this interview, the king was resent in the House of Lords, commended the complaint of all public grievances, and protested, that he would prefer no person whomsoever before the public good; and, in the evening of the same day, the Prince of Wales signified to the lords, that the Lord Chancellor had sent a submission.-The sentence was passed. The king remitted all which it was in his power to pardon. That the time would arrive when it would be proper to investigate the whole nature of these proceedings, Bacon foresaw. In a paper written in November, 1692, in Greek characters, and found amongst his papers, he says, "Of my offences, far be it from me to say, Dat veniam corvis, vexat censura columbas: but I will say what I have good warrant for, they were not the greatest offenders in Israel, upon whom the wall of Shilo fell:" And in his will, after desiring to be buried by his mother, he says, "For my name and memory, I leave it to men's charitable speeches, and to foreign nations, and the next ages." It is hoped that documents are now in existence, by which the whole of this transaction may, without impropriety, be elucidated. It seems that, from the intimacy between Archbishop Tennison and Dr. Rawley, the chancellor's chaplain and secretary, all the facts were known to the Archbishop, who published his Baconiana in the year 1679, "too near to the heels of truth and to the times of the persons concerned;" in which he says, "His lordship owned it under his hand, 'that he was frail and did partake of the abuses of the times.' And surely he was a partaker of their severities also. The great cause of his suffering is to some a secret. I leave them to find it out by his words to King James. 'I wish, as I am the first, so I may be the last sacrifice in your times, and, when from private appetite it is resolved, that a creature shall be sacrificed, it is easy to pick up sticks enough from any thicket, whither it hath strayed, to make a fire to offer it with.' At present I shall only add, that when upon his being accused, he was told it was time to look about him, he said, 'I do not look about me, I look above me,' and when he was condemned, and his servants rose upon his passing through the gallery, 'Sit down, my friends,' he said, 'your rise has been my fall.'"' and heavenly contemplation of justice and equity, which And That the love of excelling has a tendency to generate bad feeling, is as easily demonstrated. Tucker says, "This passion always chooses to move alone in a narrow sphere, where nothing noble or important can be achieved, rather than join with others in moving mighty engines, by which much good might be effected. Where did ambition ever glow more intensely than in Cæsar? whose favourite saying, we are told, was, that he would rather be the first man in a petty village, than the second in Rome. Did not Alexander, another madman of the same kind, reprove his tutor Aristotle for publishing to the world those discoveries in philosophy he would have had reserved for himself alone? 'Nero,' says Plutarch, put the fiddlers to death, for being more skilful in the trade than he was.' Dionysius, the elder, was so angry at Philoxenus for singing, and with Plato for disputing better than he did, that he sold Plato a slave to Ægina, and condemned Philoxenus to the quarries." In illustration of this doctrine, I cannot refrain from subjoining an anecdote which explains the whole of this morbid feeling. "A collector of shells gave thirty-six guineas for a shell: the instant he paid the money, he threw the shell upon the hearth, and dashed it into a thousand pieces: 'I have now,' said he, 'the only specimen in England.'” The love of excelling has, however, its uses. It leads "to that portion of knowledge for which it operates 'The spur is powerful, and I grant its force; and is attended with the chance of generating a habit to ac- Such is the nature of the love of excelling. The love of excellence, on the other hand, produced the Paradise Lost: the Ecclesiastical Polity, and the Novum Organum. It influenced Newton, and Descartes, and Hooker, and Bacon. It has ever permanently influenced, and will ever perma nently influence the noblest minds, and has ever generated, and will ever generate good feeling. "We see," says Bacon, "in all other pleasures there is a satiety, and after they That the love of excelling is only a temporary motive for the be used, their verdure departeth: which showeth well they acquisition of knowledge, may as easily be demonstrated: be but deceits of pleasure, and not pleasures: and therefore when the object is gained, or the certainty of failure disco- we see that voluptuous men turn friars, and ambitious vered, what motive is there for exertion? What worlds are princes turn melancholy: but of knowledge there is no there to conquer? "Sed quid ego hæc, quæ cupio deponere satiety; but satisfaction and appetite are perpetually interet toto animo atque omni curâ piλoσopɛiv. Sic inquam in changeable, and therefore appeareth to be good in itself animo est. Vellem ab initio ;" are the words of Cicero. simply without fallacy or accident." "I have," says Burke, "Indeed, my lord, I greatly deceive myself, if in this hard "through life been willing to give every thing to others, and season I would give a peck of refuse wheat for all that is to reserve nothing to myself, but the inward conscience that called fame and honour in the world," are the words of I have omitted no pains to discover, to animate, to discipline, Burke. Milton, in his tract on Education, speaking of young to direct the abilities of the country for its service, and to men when they quit the universities: "Now on the sudden place them in the best light to improve their age, or to adorn transported under another climate to be tossed and turmoiled it. This conscience I have. I have never suppressed any with their unballasted wits in fathomless and unquiet deepsman; never checked him for a moment in his course, by any of controversy, do for the most part grow into hatred and jealousy, any policy. I was always ready to the height of contempt of learning, mocked and deluded all this while with my means (and they were always infinitely below my de ragged notions and babblements, while they expected worthy sires) to forward those abilities which overpowered my and delightful knowledge; till poverty or youthful years call own." And so Pæderatus, "being left out of the election them importunately their several ways, and hasten them of the number of the three hundred, said, 'It does ine good with the sway of friends either to an ambitious and merce- to see there are three hundred found better in the city than nary, or ignorantly zealous divinity; some allured to the myself."" rade of law, grounding their purposes not on the prudent If any reader of this note conceive that education cannot be conducted without the influence of this motive, he will find the subject most ably investigated in the chapter on Vanity in Tucker's Light of Nature:-and if he imagine that this doctrine is injurious, he may be satisfied that there never will be wanting men to fill up the niches of society. "These things will 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."" And if he imagine that this doctrine will deter elevation of mind from engaging in worldly pursuit, let him read Bacon's refutation of the conceit that learning should dispose men to leisure and privateness, and his admonition that we should direct our strength against nature herself, and take her high towers and dismantle her fortified holds, and thus enlarge the borders of man's dominion as far as Almighty God of his goodness shall permit. NOTE I. Referring to page 140. In page 207 of this work may be found Bacon's observations upon the importance of invention: upon which the considerations seem to be: 1. The utility of inventions. "Let any one consider what a difference there is betwixt the life led in any polite province of Europe, and in the savage and barbarous parts of the world; and he will find it so great that one inan may deservedly seem a god to another, not only on account of greater helps and advantages, but also upon a comparison of the two conditions; and this difference is not owing to the soil, the air, or bodily constitution, but to arts." 2. Utility of an art of invention. Roman fleet before Syracuse, and baffled the unceasing efforts of Marcellus to take the town. An Athenian admiral delayed till evening to attack, on the coast of Attica, a Lacedemonian fleet, which was disposed in a circle, because he knew that an evening breeze always sprung up from the land. The breeze arose, the circle was disordered, and at that instant he made his onset. The Athenian captives, by repeating the strains of Euripides, were enabled to charm their masters into a grant of their liberty." NOTE M. Referring to page 142. See page 268 of this volume, relating to the houses of experiments in the New Atlantis. At the time I am writing this note, a proposal has just been published for the formation of a university in Yorkshire, and another proposal for the formation of a university in London: aud I please myself with the consciousness of the good which must result from the agitation of this question, in the age in which we are so fortunate to live. London is, perhaps, except Madrid, the only capital in Europe, withEdinburgh and Dublin, and inexpedient in the capital in out an university. Why is such an institution expedient in England? Lord Bacon thought, in the year 1620, that from the constitution of our universities, they opposed the advancement of learning. He says, "In the customs and institutions of schools, universities, colleges, and the like conventions, destined for the seats of learned men and the promotion of knowledge, all things are found opposite to the advancement of the sciences; for the readings and exercises are here so managed, that it cannot easily come into any "If some large obelisk were to be raised, would it not one's mind to think of things out of the common road. Or seem a kind of madness for men to set about it with their if here and there one should venture to use a liberty of judg naked hands? and would it not be greater madness still to ing, he can only impose the task upon himself, without obincrease the number of such naked labourers, in confidence taining assistance from his fellows; and if he could dispense of effecting the thing? and were it not a further step in with this, he will still find his industry and resolution a great lunacy, to pick out the weaker bodied, and use only the hinderance to the raising of his fortune. For the studies of robust and strong; as if they would certainly do? but if, not men in such places are confined, and pinned down to the content with this, recourse should be had to anointing the writings of certain authors; from which, if any man happens limbs, according to the art of the ancient wrestlers, and then to differ, he is presently reprehended as a disturber and innoall begin afresh, would not this be raving with reason? vator. this is but like the wild and fruitless procedure of mankind and civil affairs; for the danger is not the same from new But there is surely a great difference between arts in intellectuals; whilst they expect great things from multi-light, as from new commotions. In civil affairs, it is true, a tude and consent; or the excellence and penetration of ca- change even for the better is suspected, through fear of dispacity; or strengthen, as it were, the sinews of the mind turbance; because these affairs depend upon authority, conwith logic. And yet, for all this absurd bustle and struggle, sent, reputation, and opinion, and not upon demonstration: men still continue to work with their naked understandings." but arts and sciences should be like mines, resounding on all The object of the Novum Organum is to explain the nature sides with new works, and farther progress. And thus it of the art of invention. ought to be, according to right reason; but the case, in fact, is quite otherwise. For the above-mentioned administration and policy of schools and universities, generally opposes and greatly prevents the improvement of the sciences." 3. The high estimation of inventors. Yet In addition to the passage to which this note is appended, there is another similar passage, I believe, in the Novum Organum. "The introduction of noble inventions seems to hold by far the most excellent place among all human actions. And this was the judgment of antiquity, which attributed divine honours to inventors, but conferred only heroical honours upon those who deserved well in civil affairs, such as the founders of empires, legislators, and deliverers of their country. And whoever rightly considers it, will find this a judicious custom in former ages, since the benefits of inventors may extend to all mankind, but civil benefits only to particular countries, or seats of men ; and these civil benefits seldom descend to more than a few ages, whereas inventions are perpetuated through the course of time. Besides, a state is seldom amended in its civil affairs, without force and pertur bation, whilst inventions spread their advantage, without doing injury or causing disturbance." See also in page 269 of this volume, where Bacon speaks in his New Atlantis of the respect due to inventors: the passage beginning with the words, "we have two very long and fair galleries." 4. The art of inventing arts and sciences is deficient. See page 207 of this volume. Whether these observations made by Bacon, in 1620, are to any and what extent applicable to the year 1820, I know not: but I have been informed, that the anxiety for improvement, for which this age is distinguished, has extended to the university of Cambridge: that it has already beautified the buildings; and that an inquirer may now safely consider cal philosophy which are to be found in the university manuwhether the compendia and calculations of moral and politials, are best calculated to form high national sentiments. There is scarcely any subject of more importance than the subject of universities. So Bacon thought. In this note, I had intended to have collected his scattered opinions, and to have investigated various questions respecting universities; but I must reserve these considerations for the same passage in the treatise "De Augmentis," where I hope to examine 1. The uses of universities. 1. The preservation and propagation of existing knowledge. 2. The formation of virtuous habits in youth 3. The discovery of unexplored truths 2. The situation of universities. 3. The buildings. 1. Libraries. 1. General. 2. Particular. 1. Law. 2. Medical, &c. At present I must content myself with expressing my anxious hope that the project for a metropolitan university will (as it will sooner or later) be realized, and that the enquirers for knowledge will not be under the present necessity of attending for information at the different taverns in the different parts of this city: at Willis's Rooms, and at the London Tavern, and at the Crown and Anchor in the Strand, and the Paul's Head, Cateaton Street, where lectures, numerrously attended, are now delivered upon different parts of natural and human philosophy. the crude, hasty, and injudicious method in which mathe matics are taught in one university, seems little preferable to the absolute neglect of them in the other. In both the genuine sources of information, the ancient writers, have been too much neglected, and from the saine neglect has pro ceeded the downfall of logic, as well as mathematics. Since neither in the first is Aristotle, or his purest Greek commentators, Simplicius and Philopinus regarded; nor in the latter have the elegant inventions recorded in Pappus and Archi. medes, the Analytical restitutions which Vieta and Halley have given from Apollonius, the genuine conic geometry of the same author, the spherics of Theodosius and Menceaus, the remains of Theon and Eutocius, of Eratosthenes and Hero, been sufficiently attended, to which, and to the suc cessful use of the new methods of calculus, it has happened that mathematics, as they are now cultivated, have much de parted from that perspicuity and evidence which ought always to be their character. "I make it therefore a desideratum that the use and effect of the ancient Analysis be well considered both in plane and solid problems, since it is certain that its use did extend very far among the ancients, and the restitution of it would very much improve the construction of problems, which are always less perspicuously, many times less easily treated by common Algebra. "Something of this kind, though not generally known, is to be found in an unpublished MS. of Sir Isaac Newton, de Geometria libri tres, great part of which is perfect. "The true theory of the Porisms, imperfectly found in Pap Query 1. As a tree is for some dimension and space entire and continued before it breaks and parts itself into arms and boughs, ought there not to be lectures upon such general sub-pus, given up as unintelligible by Halley, inadequately atjects as will be applicable to men in all states of society: upon 1. Man as an individual. 1. The laws of health. 2. The passions, including all our different pleasures. 3. The understanding 2. Man in society. 1. The general principles of law. 2. The general principles of politics, political economy, &c. &c. Query 2. As the British Museum contains a noble library, a collection of natural history, of sculpture, and of paintings as the buildings are rapidly advancing, and as it has been intimated that a street is to be opened from the museum to Waterloo bridge, could this establishment be of any and what use to such an institution? NOTE N. Referring to page 142. John Milton in his tract on education, says, "That which casts our proficiency therein so much behind, is our time lost partly in too oft idle vacancies given both to schools and universities: partly in a preposterous exaction, forcing the empty wits of children to compose themes, verses, and orations, which are the acts of ripest judgment, and the final work of a head filled by long reading and observing, with elegant maxims and copious invention. These are not matters to be wrung from poor striplings, like blood flowing out of the nose, or the plucking of untimely fruit; besides the ill habit which they get of wretched barbarizing against the Latin and Greek idioms, with their untutored Anglicisms, odious to read, yet not to be avoided without a well continued and judicious conversing among the pure authors digested, which they scarce taste." "I deem it to be an old error of universities, not well recovered from scholastic grossness of barbarous ages, that instead of beginning with arts most casy, (and those be such as are most obvious to the sense,) they present their young unmatriculated novices at first coming with the most intellective abstractions of logic and metaphysics." Cicero, says Middleton, made it his constant care that the progress of his knowledge should keep pace with the improvement of his eloquence. He considered the one as the foundation of the other, and thought it in vain to acquire ornaments before he had provided necessary furniture. I subjoin the following observations from a MS. in my possession; by whom it was written I know not :--- "The defects here noted in the universities seem to have cured themselves. Logic, by the supineness of teachers, and inaolence of pupils, having become a mere dead letter: nothing however has been properly substituted in its place, and tempted by the acute Fermat, and laboured with much unvailing industry by Rob. Simson, may be said to be at last completely ascertained by Professor Playfair of Edinburgh." NOTE O. Referring to page 143. Bacon arranges the History of Arts as a species of Natural History. This subject is much improved in the treatise "De Augmentis," where he states his reasons for this arrangement, (See chap. 2. Book 2. De Aug.) saying, "We are the rather induced to assign the History of Arts, as a branch of Natural History, because an opinion hath long time gone current, as if art were some different thing from nature, and artificial from natural." The same sentiment is expressed both by Sir Thomas Brown and by Shakspeare. Brown says, "Nature is not at variance with art; nor art with nature: they being both the servants of the Providence of God. Art is the perfection of nature: were the world now as it was the sixth day, there were yet a chaos. Nature hath made one world, and art another. In brief, all things are artificial; for, nature is the art of God." So Shakspeare says, "Perdita. For I have heard it said, There is an art, which in their piedness shares "Pol. Say there be, Yet nature is made better by no mean, But nature makes that mean; So over that art, which you say adds to nature, NOTE P. Referring to page 146. This note is referred to the treatise De Augmentis. NOTE Q. Referring to page 150. See as to the nature of credulity under Fantastical Learning, ante pages 139, 171. See also Nov. Org. aph. 9. "The mind has the peculiar and constant error of being more moved and excited by affirmatives than by negatives, whereas it should duly and equally yield to both. But, on the contrary, in the raising of true axioms, negative instances have the greatest force. "The mind of man, if a thing have once been existent, and held good, receives a deeper impression thereof, than if the same thing far more often failed and fell out otherwise: which is the root, as it were, of all superstition and vain credulity." Bacon, in his experiments respecting antipathy in his Sylva Sylvarum, speaking of "the supposed sympathies between persons at distant places," says, "it is true that they may hold in these things which is the general root of superstition, namely that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss and commit to memory the one, and forget and pass over the other." NOTE R. Referring to page 150 "The spirit of man presupposes and feigns a greater equal ity and uniformity in nature than in truth there is. Hence that fiction of the mathematicians, that in the heavenly bodies all is moved by perfect circles, rejecting spiral lines. So it comes to pass that whereas there are many things in nature, as it were, monodica and full of imparity: yet the conceits of men still feign and frame unto themselves relatives; parallels, and conjugates: for upon this ground the element of fire and its orb is brought in to keep square with the other three, earth, water, air. The chymists have set out a fanatical squadron of words, feigning by a most vain conceit in these their four elements, (heaven, air, water, earth,) there are to be found to every one parallel and uniform species. "As the northern part of the earth was supposed to be a hemisphere, the southern part was assumed to be of the same form. "Bacon says, 'In the structure of the universe the motion of living creatures is generally performed by quadruple limits or flexures: as the fins of fish; the feet of quadrupeds; and the feet and wings of fowl.'-To which Aristotle adds, 'the four wreaths of serpents.' "That produce increases in an arithmetic and population in a geometric ratio, is a position which seems to partake of the love of uniformity." See Novum Organum, aph. 45. NOTE S. Referring to page 150. Bacon's doctrine of idols of the understanding is more fully explained in the beginning of the Novum Organum, where these idols or tendencies of the mind to be warped from the truth are investigated and deprecated. He then explains, that if these idols once take root in the mind, truth will hardly find entrance, or if it do, that it will be choked and destroyed, and he warns us that "Idols are to be solemnly and forever renounced, that the understanding may be thereby purged and cleansed; for the kingdom of man, which is founded in the sciences, can scarce be entered otherwise than the kingdom of God, that is, in the condition of little children." And in his introduction to the just method of compiling history, he says; "If we have any humility towards the Creator; if we have any reverence and esteem of his works; if we have any charity towards men, or any desire of relieving their miseries and necessities; if we have any love for natural truths; any aversion to darkness; and any desire of purifying the understanding; mankind are to be most affectionately intreated, and beseeched to lay aside, at least for a while, their preposterous, fantastic and hypothetical philosophies, which have led experience captive, and childishly triumphed over the works of God; and now at length condescend, with due submission and veneration, to approach and peruse the volume of the Creation; dwell some time upon it; and, bringing to the work a mind well purged of opinions, idols, and false notions, converse familiarly therein. This volume is the language which has gone out to all the ends of the earth, unaffected by the confusion of Babel; this is the language that men should thoroughly learn, and not disdain to have its alphabet perpetually in their hands: and in the interpretation of this language they should spare no pains; but strenuously proceed, persevere, and dwell upon it to the last." Bacon having explained the general nature of idols, and demonstrated the importance of destroying them, divides them into four sorts: but they seem to be reducible to two, which may be thus exhibited. "Speaking of idols of the tribe, he says, 'There are cer tain predispositions which beset the mind of man; certain idols which are constantly operating upon the mind and warping it from the truth; the mind of man, drawn over and clouded with the sable pavilion of the body, is so far from being like a smooth, equal, and clear glass, which might sincerely take and reflect the beams of things according to their true incidence, that it is rather like an enchanted glass, full of superstitions and impostures."" Having explained the nature of some of the "idols of the tribe," he explains the "idols of the den," or those prejudices which result from the false appearances imposed by every "We every one of man's own peculiar nature and custom. us have our particular den or cavern which refracts and corrupts the light of nature, either because every man has his respective temper, education, acquaintance, course of reading and authorities, or from the difference of impressions, as they happen in a mind prejudiced or prepossessed, or in one that is calm and equal. The faculties of some men are confined to poetry: of some to mathematics: of some to morals: of some to metaphysics. The schoolmaster, the lawyer, the physician, have their several and peculiar ways of observing nature." NOTE T. Referring to page 150. The prejudices from words are what Bacon calls, "idols of the market," which are fully explained in the Novum Orga. num, where there is an expansion of the following doctrine. "There are also idols that have their rise, as it were, from compact, and the association of mankind; which, on account of the commerce and dealings that men have with one another, we call idols of the market. For men associate by discourse, but words are imposed according to the capacity of the vulgar; whence a false and improper imposition of words strangely possesses the understanding. Nor do the definitions and explanations wherewith men of learning in some cases defend and vindicate themselves, any way repair the injury; for words absolutely force the understanding, put all things in confusion, and lead men away to idle controversies and subtleties without number." This important subject is investigated in the Novum Organum, where the different defects of words are explained. NOTE U. Referring to page 150. This important subject of memory is investigated in the Novum Organum, under the head of "Constituent Instances," and may be thus exhibited. I. The art of mak- II. The art of re- 2. Places for artincial memory. 3. Technical me mory. 2. Reducing intellectual to sensible things. That impressions are strongly made when the mind is free and disengaged, may appear from the permanent impressions made in early life, which often remain in old age, when all intermediate impressions are forgotten. That impressions may be strongly made when the mind is influenced by passion, may be illustrated by the following anecdote, from the Life of Benvenuto Cellini, who says, "My father happened to be in a little room, in which they had been washing, and where there was a good fire of oak burn ing, with a fiddle in his hand he sang and played near the fire; the weather being exceeding cold, he looked at this time into the flames and saw a little animal resembling a lizard, Y which could live in the hottest part of that element: instantly perceiving what it was, he called for my sister, and, after he had shown us the creature, he gave me a box of the ear: I fell a crying, while he soothing me with his caresses, spoke these words, 'My dear child, I dont give you that box for any fault you have committed, but that you may recollect that this little creature which you see in the fire, is a salamander.'" Instances of the same nature occur daily, of which one of the most common and practical is the custom, when boys walk the boundaries of parishes, for the officer to strike the boy, that he may remember in old age the boundary which he walked; so that Bacon's doctrine seems to be well founded, that these things which make an impression by means of strong affection or passion assist the memory. The mind when disturbed, being, for this purpose, free from the same cause, the exclusion of all thought but the predominant passion. That strong impressions are produced by a variety of circumstances, appears by "proving the same geometrical proposition by different forms of proofs, as algebraic and geometric, &c. Reading the same several truths in prose and in verse, and in different styles in each, &c. That impressions ought not to be too hastily made, may be inferred from the old adage, that "great wits have short memories.' With respect to cutting of infinity, or what Bacon terms, "the limitation of an indefinite seeking to an inquiry within a narrow compass." The first mode is, he says, by order or distribution; the second by places for artificial memory; which he says, "May either be places in a proper sense, as a door, a window, a corner, &c., or familiar and known persons, or any known persons, or any other things at pleasure: provided they be placed in a certain order, as animals, plants, words, letters, characters, historical personages, &c., though some of these are more, and some less fit for the purpose. But such kind of places greatly help the memory, and raise it far above its natural powers." And we are told by Aubrey, that Lord Bacon's practice corresponded with his theory; for "In his description of Lord Bacon's house at Gorhambury, he says, 'Over this portico is a stately gallery, where glass windows are all painted: and every pane with several figures of beast, bird, or flower: perhaps his lordship might use them as topics for local memory." The third mode is, he says, by technical memory, of which there are an infinite number of modes, not very highly prized by Bacon, (see page 212 of this volume,) of which old Fuller says, "It is rather a trick than an art, and more for the gain of the teacher than profit of the learners. Like the tossing of a pike, which is no part of the postures and motions thereof, and is rather ostentation than use, to show the strength and nimbleness of the arm, and is often used by wandering soldiers as an introduction to beg. Understand it of the artificial rules which at this day are delivered by the memory mountebanks: for sure an art therefore may be made, (wherein as yet the world may be defective,) and that no more destructive to natural memory than spectacles are to the eyes, which girls in Holland wear from twelve years of age." With respect to the reduction of intellectual to sensible things, Bacon is more copious in his treatise "De Augmentis," where he says, "What is presented to the senses strikes more forcibly than what is presented to the intellect. The image of a huntsman pursuing a hare; or an apothecary putting his boxes in order; or a man making a speech; or a boy reciting verses by heart; or an actor upon the stage, are more easily temembered than the notions of invention, disposition, elocution, memory, and action." NOTE V. Referring to page 157. This seed has, for the last two centuries, been apparently not really dormant. It has, during this interval, been softening and expanding, and has lately appeared above the surface. By the labours of foreign authors, from Montesquieu to the benevolent Beccarria, and of various philosophers and poli tical economists in this island, and, above all, of Jeremy Bentham, it is beginning to be admitted that "law is a science," and that " pour diriger les mouvemens de la pouppée humaine, il faudroit connoitre les fils qui la meuvent." Commerce has already felt the influence of these opinions, the injurious restraints, by which its freedom was shackled, are mouldering away: and the lesson taught two thousand years ago, of forgiveness of debtors, has, after the unremitted exertions of philosophy during this long period, been lately sanctioned by the legislature. It is now no longer contended that the counting-house has any alliance with the jail, or that a man should be judge in his own cause, and assign the punishment of his own pain. These errors have passed away. In the first year of the reign of his present majesty, arbitrary imprisonment for debt was abolished by the establishment of the Insolvent Court. The same influence has extended to our criminal law. The restraints upon conscience are gradually declining and the punishment of death is receding within its proper limits, which it has for years exceeded, by the erroneous notion, that the power of a law varied not inversely, but directly as the opinion of its severity. Twenty years have scarcely passed away since Sir Samuel Romilly first proposed the mitigation of the punishment of death. His proposal was met in the English parliament as disre spectful to the judges, and an innovation by which crime would be increased, and the constitution endangered. During, the excesses of the French revolution, the prudence of this country stood upon the old ways, dreading the very name of change; but these fears no longer exist: timidity is finding its level, and, instead of being perplexed by fear of change, our intellectual government encourages improvement, which, thus fostered, is now moving upon the whole island. In the same first year of the reign of his present majesty, the following laws were enacted: "An Act, to repeal so much of the several Acts passed in the thirty-ninth year of the reign of Elizabeth, the fourth of George I., the fifth and eighth of George II., as inflicts capital punishments on certain offences therein specified, and to provide more suitable and effectual punishment for such offences. "An Act to repeal so much of the several Acts passed in the first and second years of the reign of Philip and Mary, the eighteenth of Charles II., the ninth of George L., and the twelfth of George II., as inflicts capital punishment on certain offences therein specified. "An Act to repeal so much of an Act passed in the tenth and eleventh years of King William III., entitled, An Act for the better apprehending, prosecuting, and punishing of felons, that commit burglary, house-breaking, or robbery, in shops, ware-houses, coach-houses, or stables, or that steal horses, as takes away the benefit of clergy from persons privately stealing in any shop, ware-house, coach-house, or stable, any goods, wares, or merchandises, of the value of 5s., and for more effectually preventing the crime of stealing privately in shops, ware-houses, coach-houses, or stables." May we not hope that during the next fifty years more progress will be made in sound legislation, than for some preceding centuries and may we not ascribe these improvements partly to the exertions of this great philosopher, who, in his dedication of the Novum Organum to King James, says, "I shall, perhaps, when I am dead, hold out a light to posterity, by this new torch set up in the obscurity of philosophy ' |