starting his enquiry, he "worked on true Baconian principles, and, without any theory, collected facts on a wholesale scale1." But Bacon did not recognise that, in investigations of this sort also, the enumeration must be guided by an idea or hypothesis, the validity of which is capable of being tested by the facts. He overlooked the function of the scientific imagination-a power with which he himself was richly endowed.

According to Bacon, "human knowledge and human power meet in one "; and the stress which he laid upon this doctrine lends interest to his discussions on practical principles. His views on ethical and political theory, however, were never set forth systematically or with completeness. They are to be found in the second book of the Advancement and in the seventh and eighth books of De Augmentis, as well as in the Essays and in some of his occasional writings. His observations on private and public affairs are full of practical wisdom, for the most part of the kind commonly called 'worldly.' He was under no illusions about the ordinary motives of men, and he thought that we are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do and not what they ought to do." Fundamental principles are dealt with less frequently, but they are not altogether neglected. A preference is expressed for the active over the contemplative life, for "men must know that in this theatre of man's life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers

"Aristotle's reasons for preferring the contemplative life have respect to private good only. But the "exemplar or platform of good" discloses a double nature: "the one, as everything is a total or substantive in itself; the other, as it is a part or member of a greater body; whereof the latter is in degree the greater and the worthier, because it tendeth to the conservation of a more general form (formae amplioris) 2." In this way Bacon introduced

1 Charles Darwin: his life told in an autobiographical chapter (1902), p. 40. 2 De Augmentis, VII, I; Advancement, 11; Works, 1, p. 717, III, p. 420.

into English ethics the distinction, on which many controversies have turned, between private and public good. But the nature of this good is not subjected to philosophical analysis.

A similar remark has to be made regarding Bacon's contributions to political theory. There is much discussion of matters of detail, but first principles are barely mentioned. The arts of government' are said to contain three duties: the preservation, the happiness and prosperity, and the extension, of empire; but only the last is discussed. Bacon maintained the independence of the civil power, and, at the same time, defended the royal prerogative; nevertheless, his ideal of the state was not arbitrary government but the rule of law. In the Advancement he had noted that "all those which have written of laws have written either as philosophers or as lawyers, and none as statesmen. As for the philosophers, they make imaginary laws for imaginary commonwealths; and their discourses are as the stars, which give little light because they are so high. For the lawyers, they write according to the states where they live, what is received law, and not what ought to be law." And he goes on to say that "there are in nature certain fountains of justice, whence all civil laws are derived but as streams.' To this subject he returns in the eighth book of De Augmentis, which closes with a series of aphorisms on universal justice. In these aphorisms all civil authority is made to depend on "the sovereign power of the government, the structure of the constitution, and the fundamental laws": law does not merely protect private rights; it extends to everything that regards the well-being of the state its end is or should be the happiness of the citizen; and "that law may be set down as good which is certain in meaning, just in precept, convenient in execution, agreeable to the form of government, and productive of virtue in those that live under it."

Bacon's contributions to human philosophy' do not

S. E. P.

3

rank in importance with his reforming work in natural philosophy; and his influence on the moral sciences was later in making itself felt, though it was similar in character to his influence on natural science. He often appealed for help in carrying out his new philosophy; but neither in natural science, nor in moral science, nor in philosophy generally, did he found a school. The philosophical writings which belong to the period following Bacon's death show but slight traces of his influence. His genius was recognised, and he was quoted now and again on special points; but his leading doctrines were generally ignored. No new logic appeared on the lines described in his Novum Organum. The writers of logical treatises followed the traditional scholastic method or adopted the modifications of it introduced by Ramus. Even Milton's logic, which is founded on that of Ramus, pays no attention to the Baconian revolution. Harvey's unfavourable judgment on his work has been already quoted. Hobbes, who acted for a time as his secretary, does not seem to have been influenced by him in any important manner. And yet it is the leading thinkers-men such as Leibniz and Hume and Kant-who acknowledge most fully the greatness of Bacon. His real contribution to intellectual progress does not consist in scientific discoveries or in philosophical system; nor does it depend on the value of all the details of his method. But he had the insight to discover, the varied learning to illustrate, and the eloquence to enforce, certain principles regulative of the mind's attitude to the world which, once grasped, became a permanent possession. He did more than anyone else to help to free the intellect from preconceived notions and to direct it to the unbiased study of facts, whether of nature, of mind, or of society; he vindicated an independent position for the positive sciences; and to this, in the main, he owes his position in the history of modern thought.

CHAPTER III

HERBERT OF CHERBURY AND OTHERS

WHILE Bacon was engaged upon his plan for the renewal of the sciences, his younger contemporary Edward Herbert was at work upon a similar problem. But the two men had little in common except their vaunted independence of tradition and their interest in the question of method. And their thinking diverged in result. Bacon is claimed as the father of empirical or realistic philosophy; Herbert influenced, and to some extent anticipated, the characteristic doctrines of the rationalist or intellectualist school of thought.

Edward Herbert, the representative of a branch of the noble Welsh family of that name, and elder brother of George Herbert the poet, was born at Eyton in Shropshire on 3 March 1583, matriculated at University College, Oxford, in 1595, married in 1599, and continued to reside at Oxford till about 1600, when he removed to London. He was made a Knight of the Bath soon after the accession of King James. From 1608 to 1618 he spent most of his time on the continent, as a soldier of fortune: seeking occasionally the society of scholars, in the intervals of the campaign, the chase, or the duel. In 1619 he was appointed ambassador at Paris; after his recall in 1624 King James rewarded him with an Irish peerage. He was created an English peer as Baron Herbert of Cherbury in 1629. The civil war found him unprepared for decision; but he ultimately saved his property by siding with the parliament. He died in London on 20 August 1648.

His works were historical, literary, and philosophical. His account of the Duke of Buckingham's expedition to Rhé and his history of Henry VIII were written with a

view to royal favour. The latter was published in 1649; a Latin version of the former appeared in 1658, the English original not till 1860. His literary works-poems and autobiography-are of much higher merit. The former were published by his son in 1665; the latter was first printed by Horace Walpole in 1764. His philosophical works give him a distinct and interesting place in the history of thought. His greatest work, De Veritate, was, he tells us, begun in England and "formed there in all its principal parts." Hugo Grotius, to whom he submitted the manuscript, advised its publication; but it was not till this advice had been sanctioned (as he thought) by a sign from heaven that he had the work printed (Paris, 1624). To the third edition (London, 1645) he added a short treatise De Causis Errorum, a dissertation entitled Religio Laici, and an Appendix ad Sacerdotes. In 1663 appeared his De Religione Gentilium-a treatise on what is now called comparative religion. A popular account of his views on religion was published in 1768 under the title A Dialogue between a Tutor and his Pupil, by Edward Lord Herbert of Chirbury; and, although the external evidence is incomplete, it may have been from his pen.

Herbert does not stand in the front rank of speculative thinkers; but his claims as a philosopher are worthy of note. Like Bacon he was occupied with the question of method; and his enquiry went deeper, though it was less effective upon philosophical opinion. Bacon, it may be said, investigated the criteria and canons of evidence, whereas Herbert sought to determine the nature and standard of truth. Descartes soon afterwards referred to the question and put it aside, saying of Herbert1: "he examines what truth is; for myself, I have never doubted about it, as it seems to me to be a notion so transcendentally clear that it is impossible to ignore it." The problem which Herbert put before himself concerned the conditions of knowledge; and it has a bearing upon later 1 In a letter of 16 Oct. 1639; Oeuvres, ed. Adam and Tannery, II, pp. 576f.