§  12.  Of  the  soundness  and  the  fertility  of  Bacon's  method  of  inves-
tigation, the  best  proof  will  be  a  simple  and  practical  one :  we  have
only  to  compare  the  progress  made  by  humanity  in  all  the  useful  arts
during  the  two  centuries  and  a  half  since  induction  has  been  generally
employed  in  all  branches  of  science,  with  the  progress  made  during  the
twenty  centuries  which  elapsed  between  Aristotle  and  the  age  of  Bacon.
It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  in  the  shorter  interval  that  progress
has  been  ten  times  greater  than  in  the  longer.  That  this  progress  is  in
any  degree  attribij^able  to  any  superiority  of  the  human  intellect  in
modern  times  is  a  supposition  too  extravagant  to  deserve  a  moment's
attention.    Never  did  humanity  produce  intellects' more  vast,  more


A.  D.  1561-1626.]  LORD  BACOm  103

penetrating,  and  more  active,  I  will  not  say  than  Aristotle  himself,  but
than  tli6  series  of  great  men  who  \tasted  their  powers  in  abstract  ques-
tions which  never  could  be  solved,  or  in  the  sterile  subtleties  of
scholastic  disputation.  We  may  remark,  too,  as  a  strong  confirmation
of  the  truth  of  what  we  are  saying,  that  in  those  sciences  which  are
independent  of  experiment,  and  proceed  by  the  efforts  of  reasoning  and
contemplation  alone,  —  as  theology,  for  instance,  or  pure  geometry,  —
the  ancients  were  fully  as  far  advanced  as  we  are  at  this  moment.
The  glory  of  Bacon  is  founded  upon  a  union  of  speculative  power  with
practical  utility  which  were  never  so  combined  before.  He  neglected
nothing  as  too  small,  despised  nothing  as  too  low,  by  which  our  happi-
ness could  be  augmented ;  in  him,  above  all,  were  combined  boldness
and  prudence,  the  intensest  enthusiasm,  and  the  plainest  common  sense.
