History maketh a young man to be old, without either wrinkles or gray hairs, privileging him with the experience of age, without either the infirmities or inconveniences thereof.-Fuller. CHAPTER X. BRITISH HISTORIANS AND ESSAYISTS. FRANCIS BACON. JOHN DRYDEN. JOSEPH ADDISON. SAMUEL JOHNSON. CHARLES LAMB. THOMAS CARLYLE. THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY. Life is a building. It rises slowly, day by day, through the years. Every new lesson we learn lays a block on the edifice which is rising silently within us. Every experience, every touch of another life on ours, every influence that impresses us, every book we read, every conversation we have, every act of our commonest days, adds to the invisible building.-Miller. FRANCIS BACON. 1561-1626. The Father of Experimental Science. The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind.-Pope. P RINCIPAL Writings:-Essays, fifty-eight in all, upon various subjects. Was a lawyer by profession, and held a number of influential government positions, but he was unfaithful to his duty, received bribes, and rendered unjust decisions, for which he was banished from court. He was always performing experiments, and finally became the martyr as well as "the father of experimental science." While out riding one day in early spring he bought a fowl and stuffed it with snow, intending to see if snow would not prove as good a preservative as salt, but he got thoroughly chilled in the performance, and finally was so overcome that he could not reach home. He was taken to the home of a friend, where he died in a few days. MEMORY SELECTIONS. "Read, not to contradict and refute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested —that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly and with dilgence and attention." "Were it not better for a man in a fair room to set up one great light, or branching candlestick of lights, than to go about with a rush-light into every dark corner?" "Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man." "Some men think that the gratification of curiosity is the end of knowledge; some the love of fame; some the pleasure of dispute; some the necessity of supporting themselves by their knowledge: but the real use of all knowledge is this, that we should dedicate that reason which was given us by God to the use and advantage of man." "No pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of truth." "Libraries are the shrines where all the relics of the ancient saints, full of true virtue, and that without delu- . sion or imposture, are preserved and reposed." CRITICISMS. I. His faults were-we write it with pain-coldness of heart and meanness of spirit. He seems to have been incapable of feeling strong affection, of facing great dangers, of making great sacrifices. His desires were set on things below.-Macaulay. 2. His intimacy with every department of human knowledge, except mathematics, is marvelous; while few writers have been more eloquent, more imaginative, or witty.-Selected. REFERENCES. Life and Letters of Bacon, Spedding. |