stly the object of great admiration. If we consider
him merely as an author and philosopher, the light in which we view
him at present, though very estimable, he was yet inferior to his
contemporary Galilaeo, perhaps even to Kepler. Bacon pointed out at a
distance the road to true philosophy: Galilaeo both pointed it out to
others, and made himself considerable advances in it. The Englishman was
ignorant of geometry: the Florentine revived that science, excelled
in it, and was the first that applied it, together with experiment, to
natural philosophy. The former rejected, with the most positive disdain,
the system of Copernicus: the latter fortified it with new proofs,
derived both from reason and the senses. Bacon's style is stiff and
rigid: his wit, though often brilliant, is also often unnatural and
far-fetched; and he seems to be the original of those pointed similes
and long-spun allegories which so much distinguish the English authors:
Galilaeo is a lively and agreeable, though somewhat a prolix writer.
But Italy not united in any single government, and perhaps satiated with
that literary glory which it has possessed both in ancient and modern
times, has too much neglected the renown which it has acquired by giving
birth to so great a man. That national spirit which prevails among the
English, and which forms their great happiness, is the cause why they
bestow on all their eminent writers, and on Bacon among the rest, such
praises and acclamations as may often appear partial and excessive. He
died in 1626, in the sixty-sixth year of his life.

If the reader of Raleigh's history can have the patience to wade through
the Jewish and rabbinical learning which compose the half of the volume,
he will find, when he comes to the Greek and Roman story, that his pains
are not unrewarded. Raleigh is the best model of that ancient style
which some writers would affect to revive at present. He was beheaded in
1618, aged sixty-six years.

Camden's history of Queen Elizabeth may be esteemed good composition,
both for style and matter. It is written with simplicity of expression,
very rare in that age, and with a regard to truth. It would not perhaps
be too much to affirm, that it is among the best historical productions
which have yet been composed by any Englishman. It is well known that
the English have not much excelled in that kind of literature. He died
in 1623, aged seventy-three years.

We shall mention the king himself