Francis Bacon, Baron Verulam and Viscount St. Albans, is called by
one of his contemporaries, "the eloquentest man in England." Perhaps
those who read his legal arguments before the Star Chamber may not
see this eloquence so fully exemplified in them as in his
incomparable essays; but wherever he speaks, it is Francis Bacon
speaking. It is doubtful if any other man ever lived who has even
approached him in the power of controlling his own and subsequent
times by purely intellectual means. Until his time, Aristotle had no
rival in the domain of pure intellect Since he lived, the higher
mind of the world has owned his mastery and has shown the results of
the inspiration of his intellectual daring in following, regardless
of consequences, the "inductive method," the determination to make
truth fruitful through experiment, which has resulted in the
scientific accomplishments of the modern world. Lucretius writes of
the pleasure of knowing truth as like that a man on shore in a storm
has in seeing the struggles of those who are about to be
shipwrecked:--
"'Tis sweet when the seas are roughened by violent winds to view on
land the toils of others; not that there is pleasure in seeing
others in distress, but because man is glad to know himself
secure. It is pleasant, too, to look with no share of peril on the
mighty contests of war; but nothing is sweeter than to reach those
calm, undisturbed temples, raised by the wisdom of philosophers,
whence thou mayst look down on poor, mistaken mortals, wandering up
and down in life's devious ways."--(Lucretius ii 1, translated by
Ramage.)
"Suave mari magno turbantibus aequora ventis,
E terra magnum altcrius spectare laborem;
Non quia vexari quenquam est jucunda voluptas,
Sed quibus ipse malis careas, quia cernere suave est," etc.
Perhaps the spirit of the ancient learning was never so well
expressed elsewhere as in these lines. In what may be called a plea
for the possibilities of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
Bacon answered it.
"Is there any such happiness for a man's mind to be raised above the
confusion of things where he may have the prospect of the order of
nature and error of man? But is this view of delight only and not of
discovery--of contentment, and not of benefit? Shall he not as well
discern the riches of Nature's warehouse as the beauties of her
shop? Is truth ever barren? Shall he not be able thereby to produce
worthy effects and to endow the life of man with infinite
commodities?"
Among the "infinite commodities" already developed from the thought
flowing into and out of the mind which framed these sublime
sentences are the steam engine, the electric motor, the discoveries
of the microscope in the treatment of disease, the wonders of
chemistry, working out practical results to alleviate human misery,
and to increase steadily from year to year, and from century to
century, the sum of human comfort. Looking forward to this, Bacon
worked for it until his whole life became a manifestation of his
master-thought. It may be said with literal truth that he died of
it, for the cold which brought him his death resulted from his
rashness in leaving his carriage, when sick, to experiment on the
arrest of putrefaction by freezing. The idea came to him. It was
winter and the ground was covered with snow. He was feeble, but he
left his carriage to stuff snow into the carcass of a chicken he had
procured for the experiment. The experiment succeeded, and
centuries later, as a result of it, England is fed with the meat of
America and Australia, But Bacon died after it, leaving behind him
ideas which stamp him as the greatest and brightest, whether or not
he was also "the meanest of mankind." On this latter point, he may
speak for himself, as he does thus in the volume 'State Trials' from
which his speech on Dueling, before the Star Chamber, here used, is
extracted:--
(Howell's, Vol. ii.): "Upon advised consideration of the charge,
descending into my own conscience and calling my memory to account,
as far as I am able, I do plainly and ingenuously confess that I am
guilty of corruption, and do renounce all defense and put myself
upon the grace and mercy of your lordships. ... To the nineteenth
article, _vis._, 'That in the cause between Reynell and Peacock, he
received from Reynell two hundred pounds and a diamond ring worth
four or five hundred pounds,' I confess and declare that on my first
coming to the Seal when I was at Whitehall, my servant Hunt
delivered me two hundred pounds from Sir George Reynell, my near
ally, to be bestowed upon furniture of my house, adding further that
he had received divers former favors from me. And this was, as I
verily think, before any suit was begun. The ring was received
certainly _pendente_ _lite_, and though it was at New Year's tide it was
too great a value for a New Year's gift, though, I take it, nothing
near the value mentioned in the article."
That while Lord Chancellor of England he took gifts intended to
corrupt justice, he confessed to his shame, but he does not seem to
have been wholly able to decide whether in doing so he broke faith
with those who wished to corrupt him, or with the kingdom and
constitution of England he represented, against their desire to
purchase justice. He seems to have believed that though his conduct
was corrupt, his decisions were honest. He says, indeed, that in
spite of his bribe-taking, "he never had bribe or reward in his eye
or thought when he pronounced any sentence or order."
This cannot be admitted in excuse even for Bacon, but his moral
weakness, if it obscure for the time the splendor of his intellect,
died with him, while his genius, marvelously radiant above that of
any other of the last ten centuries, still illuminates the path of
every pioneer of progress.
His address to the Star Chamber on Dueling was delivered in the
proceedings against Mr. William Priest for writing and sending a
challenge, and Mr. Richard Wright for carrying it, January 26th,
1615, Bacon being then the King's attorney-general. The text is from
T. B. Howell's 'State Trials,' London 1816.