Passing over the success of Bacon's own endeavors to improve the details of
physical science, which was next to nothing, and of his method as a whole,
which has never been practised, we might say much of the good influence of
his writings. Sound wisdom, set in sparkling wit, must instruct and amuse
to the end of time: and, as against error, we repeat that Bacon is soundly
wise, so far as he goes. There is hardly a form of human error within his
scope which he did not detect, expose, and attach to a satirical metaphor
which never ceases to sting. He is largely indebted to a very extensive
reading; but the thoughts of others fall into his text with such a
close-fitting compactness that he can make even the words of the Sacred
Writers pass for his own. A saying of the prophet Daniel, rather a
hackneyed quotation in our day, _Multi pertransibunt, et augebitur
scientia_, stands in the title-page of the first edition {90} of Montucla's
_History of Mathematics_ as a quotation from Bacon--and it is not the only
place in which this mistake occurs. When the truth of the matter, as to
Bacon's system, is fully recognized, we have little fear that there will be
a reaction against the man. First, because Bacon will always live to speak
for himself, for he will not cease to be read: secondly, because those who
seek the truth will find it in the best edition of his works, and will be
most ably led to know what Bacon was, in the very books which first showed
at large what he _was not_.