e was
immediate and lasting. Under the former head it is pointed out (i.) that
the fundamental principle of Locke's _Essay_, that all our ideas are
product of sensation and reflection, is briefly stated in the first
aphorism of the _Novum Organum_, and (ii.) that the whole atmosphere of
that treatise is characteristic of the _Essay_. Bacon is, therefore,
regarded by many as the father of what is most characteristic in English
psychological speculation. As he himself said, he "rang the bell which
called the wits together." In the sphere of ethics he is similarly regarded
as a forerunner of the empirical method. The spirit of the _De Augmentis_
(bk. vii.) and the inductive method which is discussed in the _Novum
Organum_ are at the root of all theories which have constructed a moral
code by an inductive examination of human consciousness and the results of
actions. Among such theories utilitarianism especially is the natural
result of the application to the phenomenon of conduct of the Baconian
experimental method. In this connexion, however, it is important to notice
that Hobbes, who had been Bacon's secretary, makes no mention of Baconian
induction, nor does he in any of his works make any critical reference to
Bacon himself. It would, therefore, appear that Bacon's influence was not
immediate.

In the sphere of natural science, Bacon's importance is attested by
references to his work in the writings of the principal scientists, not
only English, but French, German and Italian. Fowler (_op. cit._) has
collected from Descartes, Gassendi, S. Sorbiere, Jean Baptiste du Hamel,
quotations which show how highly Bacon was regarded by the leaders of the
new scientific movement. Sorbiere, who was by no means partial to things
English, definitely speaks of him as "celuy qui a le plus puissamment
solicite les interests de la physique, et excite le monde a faire des
experiences" (_Relation d'un voyage en Angleterre_, Cologne, 1666, pp.
63-64). It was, however, Voltaire and the encyclopaedists who raised Bacon
to the pinnacle of his fame in France, and hailed him as "le pere de la
philosophie experimentale" (_Lettres sur les Anglois_). Condillac, in the
same spirit, says of him, "personne n'a mieux connu que lui la cause de nos
erreurs." So the _Encyclopedie_, besides giving a eulogistic article
"Baconisme," speaks of him (in d'Alembert's preliminary discourse) as "le
plus grand, le plus universel, et le plus eloquent des philosophes