t after
righteousness, for they shall be filled." But he can in mercy look
upon our infirmity, and see us, as it is said, "Remember that we are
dust." He who from the dust made and quickened man, for that his
work of clay's sake, gave his only son to death. Who can explain,
who can worthily so much as conceive, how much he loveth us?

FRANCIS BACON (1561-1626)

Francis Bacon, Baron Verulam and Viscount St. Albans, is called by
one of his contemporaries, "the eloquentest man in England." Perhaps
those who read his legal arguments before the Star Chamber may not
see this eloquence so fully exemplified in them as in his
incomparable essays; but wherever he speaks, it is Francis Bacon
speaking. It is doubtful if any other man ever lived who has even
approached him in the power of controlling his own and subsequent
times by purely intellectual means. Until his time, Aristotle had no
rival in the domain of pure intellect Since he lived, the higher
mind of the world has owned his mastery and has shown the results of
the inspiration of his intellectual daring in following, regardless
of consequences, the "inductive method," the determination to make
truth fruitful through experiment, which has resulted in the
scientific accomplishments of the modern world. Lucretius writes of
the pleasure of knowing truth as like that a man on shore in a storm
has in seeing the struggles of those who are about to be
shipwrecked:--

"'Tis sweet when the seas are roughened by violent winds to view on
land the toils of others; not that there is pleasure in seeing
others in distress, but because man is glad to know himself
secure. It is pleasant, too, to look with no share of peril on the
mighty contests of war; but nothing is sweeter than to reach those
calm, undisturbed temples, raised by the wisdom of philosophers,
whence thou mayst look down on poor, mistaken mortals, wandering up
and down in life's devious ways."--(Lucretius ii 1, translated by
Ramage.)

"Suave mari magno turbantibus aequora ventis,
E terra magnum altcrius spectare laborem;
Non quia vexari quenquam est jucunda voluptas,
Sed quibus ipse malis careas, quia cernere suave est," etc.

Perhaps the spirit of the ancient learning was never so well
expressed elsewhere as in these lines. In what may be called a plea
for the possibilities of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
Bacon answered it.

"Is there any such happiness for a man's mind to be raised