much as you have both place to practise it, and judgment and leisure to look deeper into it than I have done. Herein you must call to mind, "Apsov pèv voup. Though the argument be not of great height and dignity, nevertheless it is of great and universal use. And yet I do not see why, to consider it rightly, that should not be a learning of height which teacheth to raise the highest and worthiest part of the mind. But, howsoever that be, if the world take any light and use by this writing, I will the gratulation be to the good friendship and acquaintance between us two. And so recommend you to God's divine protection.

With this letter he presented a tract upon "Helps to the Intellectual Powers," which contains similar observations upon the importance of knowledge and improvement of the Body. (d)

From these suggestions, the germ of his opinions upon the same subject in the Advancement of Learning, it appears that he considered the object of education to be knowledge and improvement of the body and of the mind. How far society has, after the lapse of two centuries, concurred with him in these opinions, and, if he is not in error, how far we have acted upon his suggestions, may deserve a moment's consideration.

Bacon arranges knowledge respecting the body (e) into

These subjects considered of importance by Bacon; by the ancients, and by all physiologsts, (b) do not form any part of our University education. The formation of bodily habits, upon which our happiness and utility must be founded, are left to chance, to the customs of our parents, or the practices of our first college associates. All nature strives for life and for health. The smallest moss cannot be moved without disturbing myriads of living beings. If any part of the animal frame is injured, the whole system is active in restoring it: but man is daily cut off or withered in his prime; and, at the age of fifty, we stand amidst the tombs of our early friends.

At some future time the admonition of Bacon, that "although the world, to a christian travelling to the land of promise, be as it were a wilderness, yet that our shoes and vestments be less worn away while we sojourn in this wilderness, is to be esteemed a gift coming from divine goodness," may, perhaps, be considered deserving attention.

In the English universities there is not, except by a few lectures, some meagre explanations of logic, and some indirect instruction by mathematics upon mental fixedness, any information imparted upon the nature or conduct of

(b) See note QQQ at the end.

the understanding, and Locke might now repeat what he said more than a century ago: "although it is of the highest concernment that great care should be taken of the mind, to conduct it right in the search of knowledge and in the judgments it makes: yet the last resort a man has recourse to in the conduct of himself is his understanding. A few rules of logic are thought sufficient in this case for those who pretend to the highest improvement: and it is easy to perceive that men are guilty of a great many faults in the exercise and improvement of this faculty of the mind, which hinder them in their progress, and keep them in ignorance and error all their lives." (a)

At some future period our youth will, perhaps, be instructed in the different properties of our minds, understanding, reason, imagination, memory, will, (b) and be taught the nature and extent of our powers for the discovery of truth;-our different motives for the exercise of our powers; the various obstacles to the acquisition of knowledge,—and the art of invention, by which our reason will be "rightly guided, and directed to the place where the star appears, and point to the very house where the babe lies."

In the English universities there are not any lectures upon the passions; but this subject, deemed important by all philosophy, human and divine, is disregarded, (c) except by such indirect information as may be obtained from the

(a) See Introduction to Locke's Conduct of the Understanding and to the Essay. See note Y Y Y at the end.

(b) "Facultates autem animæ notissimæ sunt; Intellectus, Ratio, Phantasia, Memoria, Appetitus, Voluntas denique universæ illæ, circæ quas versantur scientiæ Logica et Ethica." Augmentis Scientiarum, lib. iv, p. 242. Vol. viii. p. 242.

Greatness

poets and historians; by whom the love of our country is taught, perhaps, if only one mode is adopted, best taught, in the midst of Troy's flames: and friendship by Nisus eagerly sacrificing his own life to save his beloved Euryalus: and with such slight information we are suffered to embark upon our voyage, without any direct instruction as to the tempests by which we may be agitated; by which so many, believing they are led by light from heaven, are wrecked and lost; and so few reach the true haven of a well ordered mind; "that temple of God which he graceth with his perfection and blesseth with his peace, not suffering it to be removed although the earth be removed, and although the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea."

At some future time it may be deemed worthy of consideration whether inquiry ought not to be made of the nature of each passion, and the harmony which results from the exact and regular movement of the whole. (z)

In the fall of the year Bacon expressed to the Lord Chanof Britain. cellor an inclination to write a history of Great Britain ;(a) and he prepared a work, inscribed to the King, upon its true greatness.

"Fortunatos nimium sua si bona norint."

In this work in which, he says, he has not any purpose vainly to represent this greatness, as in water, which shews things bigger than they are, but rather, as by an instrument of art, helping the sense to take a true magnitude and dimension, he intended an investigation of the general

(2) Saville was Provost of Eton. On Sept. 21 the King partook of a banquet at Eton College, and knighted Saville: this letter must therefore have been written after the 21st Sept.; and it seems to have been written in 1604, as it is a rudiment of that part of the Advancement of Learning which relates to universities, and was published in 1605.

(a) See vol. xii. p. 69.

truths upon which the prosperity of states depends, with a particular application of them to this island. He has, however, only drawn the outline, and filled up two or three detached parts, reserving the minute investigation of the whole subject for other works. (b)

According to his usual method, he commences the tract by clearing the way, in the removal of some erroneous opinions, on the dependence of government upon extent of territory;-upon wealth;-upon fruitfulness of soil;and upon fortified towns. Each of these subjects it was his intention to have separately considered, but he has in this fragment completed only the two first sections.

To expose the error, that the strength of a kingdom de- Extent of pends upon the extent of territory, "Look," he says, "at territory. the kingdom of Persia, which extended from Egypt to Bactria and the borders of the East, and yet was overthrown and conquered by a nation not much bigger than the isle of Britain. Look, too, at the state of Rome, which, when too extensive, became no better than a carcass, whereupon all the vultures and birds of prey of the world did seize and ravine for many ages; as a perpetual monument of the essential difference between the scale of miles and the scale of forces: and that the natural arms of each province or the protecting arms of the principal state, may, when the territory is too extensive, be unable to counteract the two dangers incident to every government, foreign invasion and inward rebellion."

Having thus generally refuted this erroneous opinion, he beautifully explains that the power of territory, as to ex

(b) See vol. v. p. 311; also see his treatise on the Art of Government, which he notified the next year, and published in the decline of his life; see Advancement of Learning in fine, vol. ii. p. 295, and de Augmentis, vol. ix. p. 72; and see his essay on the true Greatness of Kingdoms and States, vol. i. p. 97.