nality of the elder Bacon, on comparing the Opus Majus with the Novum Organon, we feel compelled to award the wreath of superior genius to the more recent author. We admit the Franciscan's critical skill in Greek and Hebrew, and the remarkable neatness of his Latin style; we admire the condensation and arrangement with which he conducts a great argument, together with his extraordinary grasp of various subjects in one treatise, and his comprehension of them under one law of method; but there are an eloquence and a richness of diction and illustration in every paragraph-we had almost said in every sentence-of Lord Bacon's writings, of which but few traces are to be found in his predecessor's. There is, nevertheless, much exquisite finish observable about all Roger Bacon's pieces: he seems never to have been weary of reviewing, retouching, and augmenting them; which, as they remained in manuscript, he was enabled to do with facility. Thus it has been said, that, as he grew older and wiser, the children of his brain partook of their parent's fortune. It is probable, also, that he surpassed his successor in the number of experiments that he personally made; having more leisure to make them, in a life wholly devoted to learning, notwithstanding his persecutions. And as a mechanician it is likely, that he was not altogether unentitled to the honour awarded him by Dr. Friend, who declares that "a greater genius of his kind had not arisen since the days of Archimedes ;" in fact, he tells us himself of admirable inventions of vessels and chariots moved by machinery, and of machines for raising considerable weights, for diving, and for many other purposes, which he had personally seen and tried. It is likewise clear that he made numerous burning glasses, to which his friend, Peter de Maharn Curia, applied himself; having laboured three years about one glass, which was to burn at a certain distance-an experiment since established by Buffon beyond contradiction. They are supposed to have been reflectors made of metal, and capable of producing their effect at the distance of a bow-shot. In optics, however, as has been demonstrated, he hastily theorized on the doubtful authority of others, much more than he was able carefully to deduce by personal experience of actual effects. His merit, like that which has been claimed for Lord Bacon, consists in announcing a science or method initiative of an infinite series of observations and experiments, by means of which they might be conducted more safely than they had been towards a legitimate conclusion. The science, accordingly, as taught by both, was prophetic and anticipative of the results which might be produced by the labourers in the field of practical experience, who should have better opportunities of investigation in an age more favourable to the discovery of physical truth. Hence, to both Bacons we may apply what Dr. Reid said of the later, that "most arts have been reduced to rules after they had been brought to a considerable

degree of perfection by the natural sagacity of artists, and the rules have been drawn from the best examples of the art that had been before exhibited; but the art of philosophical induction was delineated, in a very ample manner, before the world had seen any tolerable example of it."

Among the proofs of the à priori quality of the science, the cathartic process required by it for the purification of the mind of the student is not the least. The hindrances to be cleared away are stated by the elder Bacon in a simpler and more elementary form than by his imitator. Yet these simple words have all the force of the "Idola Tribus," the "Idola Specus," the" Idola Fori," and the " Idola Theatri," of the later and more ornate writer. We mean that, in practice, they have all the same application; but it must be confessed, that in idea the phrases of Lord Bacon are abstractions raised from those of his predecessor, rather than mere synonymes for them. Thus, in actual experience, the idols of the tribe are found to be reduced to what is supposed authoritative, either in the course of nature or human intelligence; i. e. a greater degree of uniformity and accordance in both is conjectured than can be evidenced. But in the ideal abstraction which Lord Bacon's phrase implies, we are required to throw off the prejudices which belong to us as men; and, indeed, he frequently warns us that the intellectus humanus, mens hominis, has limitations which ought not to be mistaken for the definitions of things, whether natural or divine. Roger Bacon only requires of us what is of possible performance; he never dreamed that we should raise ourselves into critics of the construction according to which it had pleased the Creator to produce the human understanding-and, as the result of this act of criticism, set it aside entirely in favour of some possible measure of truth in some mind of loftier prerogatives, or in the supreme Reason itself. These inherent prejudices, which verily constitute the mind, cannot be avoided; and the authority which they imply must be permitted, if man is to judge of himself, of nature, or of God. There is, indeed, a high mystical precept to which all philosophy tends, as well as religion; namely, the Christian rule of " Judge not at all:" but we apprehend that the science of experiment, as applicable to the inquisition of natural phenomena, stops far short of that sublime maxim. The prejudices here predicated are not of those which we can remove, and it would be insane presumption in us to attempt the removal. They form, in fact, for us the foundations of morals, religion, and government; and serve as the very bases of the science itself, which is thus made to recommend their extinction. The earlier Bacon, if he stood on humbler, stood on safer ground. Herein the reader may apprehend the distinctions by which these two wise men are particularized. The genius of the learned Franciscan was of a more primitive character: that

of the noble chancellor affected an abstract and speculative refinement.

A similar subtlety is couched under Lord Bacon's Idols of the Den, which in practice are again reducible to the " complexions and custom" by which individual character is modified, and sometimes so "cabined, cribbed, confined," as to render expedient the warning," that he who studies nature should distrust those things which he is accustomed to contemplate with delight." So far correction is possible; we may resist effectually, if we will, what Roger Bacon denominates consuetudinis diuturnitas-but there is a personal character given to every man, and included in Lord Bacon's phrase, of which no man can rid himself; a character, perhaps, previous to his birthor even the embryo organization-an antecedent spiritual personality to which all material configurations are only so many approximations, and what we recognise as an individual's genius is the nighest approach.

In the two remaining biases both Bacons stand on the same level: the vulgar prejudices of the market-place, and the theatrical prejudices of philosophic schools, are hindrances which can and ought to be removed; and relative to which, the attempt militates nothing against those antecedent and prior laws which make the human mind what it is, and which are for us the only tests of scientific truth. We have, however, already observed that we should be upon our guard how we receive to its full extent the sweeping condemnation of the Aristotelian and scholastic modes, which pervades the writings of both Bacons, but the later most. Roger Bacon, indeed, professes the utmost reverence for the genuine works of Aristotle; and limits his censure to the Arabic versions, and the corrupt copies then in use. It would be to submit to the slavery of a new school, and, in so doing, to violate one of its own first principles-i. e. to worship the idola theatri therein-to condemn the schoolmen without inquiry, solely on the authority of either Bacon, or of both. We have not so learned the experimental philosophy; and we therefore feel qualified to admire whatever is excellent in speculations often profound and subtle, though sometimes frivolous and fantastic. Our task at the present juncture, as we have already indicated, is to correct a tendency in the opposite direction, and to recall the mind to the forms of thought from the almost exclusive search after the phenomena of matter. Connected with the genesis and growth of Protestantism, we cheerfully advocate the claims and use of inductive science; but it may be, that both have hitherto been fortified in extreme opinions as the only method of correcting the opposite tendencies which they were divinely appointed to counteract. But, in resisting the heresy of Rome, the Protestant does not necessarily surrender his belief in a "holy catholic and apostolic church;"

and, indeed, the expediency becomes daily more and more evident, that the Protestant should assert the great principle of the reality of such a church, and insist upon his own being acknowledged as the purest embodiment of it which the world has yet seen. Thus it is that already signs are apparent of the restoration of that equilibrium which has so long been disturbed. Sooner or later, we are prophetically instructed, that it is in the economy of Providence this result shall be produced. In like manner there is no reason to doubt, but that all the apparent contradictions of philosophy and science are capable of solution and reconciliation; and that all methods of inquiry, whether à priori or à posteriori, have a tendency to conduct the human mind finally to firm and immutable principles. If one mode is expedient for the corroboration, the other is clearly necessary for the discovery of laws. If one fact were not sufficient to suggest an idea of the kind-or if, when suggested, man must wait until all the applicable phenomena were produced-Newton would in vain have conceived the theory of gravitation, or rather would have failed to conceive it altogether. We are convinced that the time is at hand when scientific men will be able to declare that the great classes of facts are sufficiently determined; and that the laws of physics should henceforth be contemplated with reference to the mental conformation, in order to their more complete solution. The noblest of all sciences, that of selfknowledge, will then again have its professors and disciples; who, being taught by the experience and the mistakes of past ages, will effectually distinguish the practical from the speculative, the moral from the intellectual-and, without separating either from the other, maintain the order of the faculties, and arrive at the due appreciation and proper use of all those "high capacious powers," which hitherto, comparatively speaking, have lain "folded up in man." When that time arrives, it will be witnessed that even our errors have had their use, and that the folly of the creature has been the wisdom of the Creator.

ART. IV.-The Refutation of Nonconformity on its own professed Principles. By the Rev. E. C. KEMP, M. A. Parts I. and II. Whitaker and Co. London.

WHY is it, we have often reflected, that moral and religious truths, depending upon a chain of presumptive evidence for their proof, will invariably meet with opposition and cavil, and be received with every degree and variety of belief, from the lowest point of incredulity where a thing is judged barely possible, to. that state of infallible conviction which merges doubt in faith? A man shall possess that unhesitating reliance on the testimony of others in pure mathematics, of which he may be lamentably

deficient in all that concerns his eternal welfare. He would not perhaps scruple to adopt, as a link in the chain of his geometrical conviction, a theorem of Archimedes, although he has no leisure to examine it for himself, and no grounds whatever for supposing it free from paralogisms, save faith in his authority; but that higher faith which compasses the revelation from above is a stranger to his soul,--the evidence which is invariably not to be impugned: and every individual who chooses to examine into it will come to the same conclusion, and on the same grounds. It is really remarkable, the different impression which moral truth will make upon men; presenting a clear light to some, which, by illustrating their duty, makes it attractive to them-whilst unto others it has all the character of a distressing and irksome glare, which irritates and arms their fury against it, till it seems to blind their eyes by its intensity; as there are plants which are sure to wither away if too directly exposed to that sun, which gives vitality and beauty to the vegetable world. To what is this remarkable distinction in the nature of moral and mathematical proof to be attributed? In the apostolic age, christian martyrs have welcomed the stake in as firm belief of the incarnation of the WORD, and of the life and immortality thereby brought to light, as ever they might entertain of the three angles of a triangle equalling two right angles. How could those flames hold out any terrors, which were only an avenue to the bosom of their Lord and Saviour? In the midst of the conflagration they chaunted their hallelujahs; and Hope, without a shadow of misgiving, would steep her wings in the bliss of paradise. They beheld the "Truth"-that light from Heaven, figured by the star which appeared to the wise men, and the only object here below, worthy the cares and researches of mankind. Such was the virgin singleness of heart, such the fervour, with which the faith of Christ was embraced during the first centuries of his dispensation; but ages have since intervened, and the spirit hath wofully evaporated. What an infinite variety of opinion in all the stages of belief and unbelief must have existed from the hour when the first martyr, "full of the Holy Ghost," "saw Jesus standing on the right hand of God," and called upon him as God to receive his spirit,-to the days of Priestley and Tom Paine! And yet the word of God cannot be inconsistent with itself: the truth of the Almighty is and must ever be the same: what was the fact in morals and religion and belief eighteen hundred years ago, is true in morals and religion and belief at this day. Truth, in the hour that St. Stephen "fell asleep," must have been one and the same with truth when he, who made the Scriptures his jest-book, wrote the impious inscription, Deo erexit Voltaire. The arch-infidel, any more than " the synagogue of the libertines," could never question the relation of an antecedent to its consequent in a series of equal ratios. How is it, we repeat, that mathematical evidence hath this advantage over