EDUCATORS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
Literature.—Church, Bacon; Macaulay, Essays; Spofford, Library of Historical Characters; Lord, Beacon Lights; Montagu, Life of Bacon; Barnard, English Pedagogy; Quick, Educational Reformers; Williams, History of Modern Education; Laurie, Life and Works of Comenius; Comenius, Orbis Pictus; Barnard, Journal of Education; Milton, Tractate on Education; Pattison, Milton; Fowler, Locke; Leitch, Practical Educationists; Gill, Systems of Education; Schwegler, History of Philosophy; Courtney, John Locke; Vogel, Geschichte der Pädagogik; Compayré, History of Pedagogy; Fénelon, Education of Girls; Azarias, Philosophy of Literature; Monroe, Comenius.
BACON[86] (1561-1626)
But little is known of the early years of Francis Bacon, but it is probable that he was well trained, as his father was a man of good education, and the boy was able to enter Cambridge when only a little over twelve years of age. His father was for many years Lord Keeper of the Seals, and this brought Francis in contact with court life, where his precocity made him a favorite with the queen. He thus early acquired that taste for the court, by which he climbed to the height of his ambition only to fall therefrom in ignominious defeat.
He remained at Cambridge only about three years. Lord Macaulay sums up the result of Bacon's university experience in the following words: "Bacon departed, carrying with him a profound contempt for the course of study pursued there, a fixed conviction that the system of academic education in England was radically vicious, a just scorn for the trifles on which the followers of Aristotle had wasted their powers, and no great reverence for Aristotle himself."[87]
Some think that thus early, while not yet fifteen years of age, Bacon began to formulate that inductive system which made him a great benefactor of the human race. There seems to be but little proof of this; and, if it be so, he laid it aside until near the close of his life, and devoted himself to politics. After leaving Cambridge, he went abroad with the English ambassador at Paris, with whom he served until the death of his father compelled his return to England. Unexpectedly finding that his patrimony was gone, he began a career at the bar, and rose step by step, amid many discouragements, until he reached the height of his ambition, the Lord High Chancellorship of the realm. In reaching this position he resorted to many of the tricks of the politician, and sacrificed his best friends to further his selfish interests. Concerning his actions toward his benefactor, Essex, Macaulay says, "This friend, so loved, so trusted, bore a principal part in ruining the earl's fortunes, in shedding his blood, and in blackening his memory. But let us be just to Bacon. We believe that, to the last, he had no wish to injure Essex. Nay, we believe that he sincerely wished to serve Essex, as long as he could serve Essex without injuring himself."[88] Such seeming mitigation of Bacon's ingratitude serves only to bring the Lord Chancellor's cowardice more completely to light.
This lack of principle and greed for office, together with the luxurious tastes which kept Bacon constantly in debt, made him susceptible to corruption. Accordingly he accepted bribes; and, when exposed, his degradation from the highest office under the crown was most complete and humiliating. He was summoned before the bar of Parliament; and, finding the evidence against him complete, he admitted his guilt and pleaded for clemency. These are the words of his confession, "Upon advised consideration of the charges, descending into my own conscience and calling upon my memory to account so far as I am able, I do plainly and ingenuously confess that I am guilty of corruption, and do renounce all defense."
He was found guilty and condemned to imprisonment in the Tower during the pleasure of the king, and to a fine of £40,000; he was forbidden ever to sit in Parliament or come within the verge of the court, and was forever debarred from holding office. He never paid the fine, was released from the Tower after two days, was permitted to visit the court, and was summoned to the meetings of Parliament.[89] He never, however, took any part in public affairs. The king granted him a pension upon which he lived the remainder of his days. Thus disappeared from public life one of England's greatest statesmen, whose political career ended in disgrace. But during the remaining six years of his life, he wrote his principal works, which made him famous for all time, and which mark a new era in education as well as in the world's progress.
In 1620 his greatest work, the "Novum Organum," was published. In this appears his Inductive Method, a great educational discovery, which has been of inestimable value to mankind. It revolutionized science, and suggested the application of the forces of nature to the wants of man, thus opening to man's enterprise an illimitable field for research. In the three centuries since Bacon's discovery, science has made vast strides, and yet is only at the threshold of its possible development. The watchwords of the inductive method—experiment, investigate, verify—have led to the establishment of laboratories, to the founding of experimenting stations, and to the study of Nature herself. As Macaulay puts it, "Two words form the key of the Baconian doctrine, Utility and Progress." Again he says, "The philosophy of Plato began in words and ended in words.... The philosophy of Bacon began in observation and ended in arts."[90]
Macaulay depreciates the work of Bacon, and shows that he was not the original inventor of the inductive method, "which," he says with truth, "has been practiced ever since the beginning of the world by every human being."[91] Nor was he the "first person who correctly analyzed that method and explained its uses," as Aristotle had done so long before. But these facts do not detract from the glory of Bacon any more than the discovery of America by the Norsemen five hundred years before the time of Columbus detracts from his glory. The same process of reasoning would take all credit from every philosopher that has ever lived, for with equal truth it may be said that every mental process "has been practiced ever since the beginning of the world by every human being."