y unknown regions of what is yet to be known. He supposed
that by his process Nature could be simplified to her few primary
elements, and that from these all other knowledge was to be deduced.
But, although her laws and elementary forms may be few, their
mollifications, as affecting knowledge and consequently human power and
interests, are unlimited. Moreover, in supposing that the discovery of
Nature could be made certain, and that, by a proper collection of facts,
the intellects of men might be brought upon a level of capacity for
discovery,--that is, that the process of discovery could be reduced to
a simple process of correct reasoning upon established facts,--Bacon
omitted to take into account the essential part which the imagination
plays in all discovery.

No discovery, properly so called, is the pure result of observation and
induction. Maury takes the accumulated observations of fifty years,
deduces from them the existence of certain prevailing winds and
currents, and states the fact. It is not properly a discovery, although
a collection of similar facts may lead to the knowledge of a general
law. Newton sees an apple fall; his imagination, with one of the vastest
leaps that human imagination ever made, connects its fall with the
motion of the planets, and makes an immortal discovery. James Watt said,
"Nature has her blind side." True, but it is only the instinct of the
imagination that discovers where the blind side lies. The tops of
kettles had been dancing ever since kettles were first hung over fires,
but no one caught the blind side of the fact till a Scotch boy saw it as
he sat dreaming at his aunt's fireside.

But if Bacon's imagination was imperfect in some directions, it
possessed in others a vision of the largest scope. No man ever saw more
clearly or vindicated more nobly the dignity of knowledge, the capacity
of the human mind, and the glory of God in the works of His hand. The
impulse which he gave to thought is still gathering force, and many of
the recommendations earnestly pressed in his works upon the attention
of men are only now beginning to receive their recognition and
accomplishment. When he sent a copy of the "Novum Organum" to Sir Henry
Wotton, Wotton, in his letter of thanks, said, "Your Lordship hath done
a great and everlasting benefit to the children of Nature, and to Nature
herself in her utmost extent of latitude,"--and his eulogium had more
truth than is common in contemporary co