Lord Bacon.
The word bacon is usually applied to a piece of smoked pork, and sometimes means nothing more than ham. But, in the present case, it is applied to one of the greatest and most useful men that ever lived,—and this may show that the same word may signify very different things.
Now, this Lord Bacon—whose Christian name was Francis—as I have said, was a great and useful man; but what did he do? He was no warrior, and never fought a battle; he was no king, and never wore a crown; he was no giant, and never performed any great feat of bodily strength: but he did more for the good of mankind than any giant, king, or warrior. He taught the world how to think, how to reason, how to find out truth!
He was born in London, in the year 1561. He was bred a lawyer, and held office under Elizabeth, then queen of England. But, after a time, he offended the queen, and his hopes of high preferment were disappointed. After queen Elizabeth died, and James I. came to the throne, he was made a judge, and held several important stations, and at last was honored with the title of Viscount St. Albans—which meant that he was one of the nobles of the land; or, in other words, that he was to be called a lord.
But the offices and honors he enjoyed, were not the foundation of Bacon’s claims to the respect and gratitude of mankind. You must remember that he lived almost three hundred years ago; and then the people, even those who were learned, held many absurd opinions, and, what was the worst of all, they had false and foolish modes of reasoning. Thus it often happened, that even the learning and philosophy of those days rather led to error than to truth.
Now, Bacon applied himself to the teaching of better modes of thinking and reasoning. Instead of bewildering the mind with theories and fancies, he taught the world to study into facts; to gather stores of knowledge; and to make this knowledge the starting-point—the foundation of their philosophy. He taught this great and simple truth, and the result of it has been, that mankind, since his time, have discarded many absurd errors, and gone on making new and wonderful discoveries. Many of the great inventions, and much of the science and knowledge now current among mankind, are the result of Bacon’s wise and useful lessons.
This great man died in 1626; and though he did so much for the world, he can hardly be said to have led a happy life. He was once imprisoned in the Tower of London—a dreary old castle—fined 200,000 dollars, turned out of parliament, and declared unworthy of serving his country! Perhaps he did something wrong, though the general opinion is, that he suffered this on account of unjust accusations. He was liberated from the tower, and the fine was remitted by the king; but from this period, he lived in privacy, devoting himself to the writing of books. They are now held in great estimation, for their stores of wisdom.