Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/57

Rh From these suggestions, the germ of his opinions upon the same subject in the Advancement of Learning, it appears that he considered the object of education to be knowledge and improvement of the body and of the mind.

How far society has, after the lapse of two centuries, concurred with him in these opinions and, if he is not in error, how far we have acted upon his suggestions, may deserve a moment's consideration.

Bacon arranges knowledge respecting the body into

These subjects, considered of importance by Bacon, by the ancients, and by all physiologists, do not form any part of our university education. The formation of bodily habits, upon which our happiness and utility must be founded, are left to chance, to the customs of our parents, or the practices of our first college associates. All nature strives for life and for health. The smallest moss cannot be moved without disturbing myriads of living beings. If any part of the animal frame is injured, the whole system is active in restoring it: but man is daily cut off or withered in his prime; and, at the age of fifty, we stand amidst the tombs of our early friends.

At some future time the admonition of Bacon, that "although the world, to a Christian travelling to the land of promise, be as it were a wilderness, yet that our shoes and vestments be less worn away while we sojourn in this wilderness, is to be esteemed a gift coming from divine goodness," may, perhaps, be considered deserving attention.

Bacon arranges knowledge respecting the mind into. In the English universities there is not, except by a few lectures, some meager explanations of logic, and some indirect instruction by mathematics upon mental fixedness, any information imparted upon the nature or conduct of the understanding, and Locke might now repeat what he said more than a century ago: "Although it is of the highest concernment that great care should be taken of the mind, to conduct it right in the search of knowledge, and in the judgments it makes: yet the last resort a man has recourse to in the conduct of himself is his understanding. A few rules of logic are thought sufficient in this case for those who pretend to the highest improvement: and it is easy to preceive that men are guilty of a great many faults in the exercise and improvement of this faculty of the mind, which hinder them in their progress, and keep them in ignorance and error all their lives." At some future period our youth will, perhaps, be instructed in the different properties of our minds, understanding, reason, imagination, memory, will, and be taught the nature and extent of our powers for the discovery of truth;–our different motives for the exercise of our powers;–the various obstacles to the acquisition of knowledge,–and the art of invention, by which our reason will be "rightly guided, and directed to the place where the star appears, and point to the very house where the babe lies." In the English universities there are not any lectures upon the passions; but this subject, deemed important by all philosophy, human and divine, is disregarded, except by such indirect information as may be obtained from the poets and historians; by whom the love of our country is taught–perhaps, if only one mode is adopted, best taught–in the midst of Troy's flames: and friendship by Nisus eagerly sacrificing his own life to save his beloved Euryalus: and with such slight information we are suffered to embark upon our voyage, without any direct instruction as to the tempests by which we may be agitated; by which so many, believing they are led by light from heaven, are wrecked and lost; and so few reach the true haven of a well ordered mind; "that temple of God which he graceth with his perfection and blesseth with his peace, not suffering it to be removed, although the earth be removed, and although the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea." At some future time it may be deemed worthy of consideration, whether inquiry ought not to be made of the nature of each passion, and the harmony which results from the exact and regular movement of the whole.

In the fall of the year, Bacon expressed to the lord chancellor an inclination to write a history of Great Britain; and he prepared a work, inscribed to the king, upon its true greatness.

In this work, in which, he says, he has not any purpose vainly to represent this greatness, as in water, which shows things bigger than they are, but rather, as by an instrument of art, helping the sense to take a true magnitude and dimension, he intended an investigation of the general truths upon which the prosperity of states depends, with a particular application of them to this island.