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A28024 Baconiana, or, Certain genuine remains of Sr. Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, and Viscount of St. Albans in arguments civil and moral, natural, medical, theological, and bibliographical now for the first time faithfully published ... Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626.; Tenison, Thomas, 1636-1715. 1679 (1679) Wing B269; ESTC R9006 137,175 384

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of saying things The Vnderstanding f Nov. Organ l. 1. Aph. 49. p. 44 45. is not only made up of dry Light but it receives an infusion from the Will and Affections And that begets such Sciences as the Heart desireth For a Man soonest believes that which he would have to be true Wherefore he rejects difficult Truths through impatience in inquiring and sober Truths because they restrain his hope or desire and the deeper Natural Truths by reason of Superstition and the Light of Experiments by reason of Arrogance and Pride lest the Mind should seem to be conversant in mean and transitory Things and Paradoxes out of respect to the opinion of the Vulgar In sum the Will seasons and infects the Mind by innumerable Ways and by such as are sometimes not at all perceived Now how think you doth Spinoza shew this opinion to be a gross and fundamental Mistake Why by denying that there is any such thing in Man as a Will as if that general name was ever used to signifie a particular Act and not rather to express the general notion of that Power By telling us that all Volitions are particular Acts and as fatally determin'd by a Chain of Physical Causes as any effects whatsoever of Natural Bodies So that we are like to learn well from his Philosophy how to amend our Erroneous Assent whilst it teacheth us that it is necessary and not to be mended unless Men could have other Bodies and there were another Scheme of Nature It must be confess'd that the Lord I write of was not without Infirmities Intellectual or Moral And the latter of these have made the greater Noise from the greatness of his Fall I do not here pretend to speak of an Angel but of a Man And no Man great in Wit and high in Office can live free from suspicion of both kinds of Errors For that Heat which is instrumental in making a great Wit is apt to disorder the attention of the Mind and the stability of the Temper And High Place because it giveth power to Opportunity though no Athority to offend is ever look'd on with a jealous Eye And corrupt Men who mete by their own Measures think no Man can be Great and Innocent too His Lordship own'd it under his Hand g In his Letter to King James March 25. 1620. In the Cab. that He was frail and did partake of the Abuses of the Times And surely he was a partaker of their Severities also though they proved by accident happy Crosses and Misfortunes Methinks they are resembled by those of Sir George Sommers who being bound by his Employment to another Coast was by Tempest cast upon the Barmudas And there a Shipwrack'd Man made full discovery of a new temperate fruitful Region which none had before inhabited and which Mariners who had only seen its Rocks had esteemed an inaccessible and enchanted Place The great cause of his Suffering is to some a secret I leave them to find it out by his words to King Iames h See Mr. Bushels Extract p. 19. I wish said he that as I am the first so I may be the last of Sacrifices in your Times And when from private Appetite it is resolv'd that a Creature shall be sacrific'd it is easie to pick up sticks enough from any Thicket whither it hath straid to make a Fire to offer it with But whatsoever his Errors were or the causes of his Misfortunes they are over-ballanc'd by his Vertues and will die with Time His Errors were but as some Excrescencies which grow on those Trees that are fit to build the Palaces of Kings For though they are not proper and natural Parts yet they do not very much deprive the Body of its use and value And further to express my self by a more decent Image a Comparison of his own His Fall will be to Posterity but as a little Picture of Night-work remaining amongst the Fair and Excellent Tables of his Acts and Works i Epist to Bishop Andrew● These I distinguish into two kinds His Mechanical Inventions and his Writings I doubt not but his Mechanical Inventions were many But I can call to mind but Three at this time and of them I can give but a very broken Account And for his Instruments and Ways in recovering deserted Mines I can give no account at all though certainly without new Tools and peculiar Inventions he would never have undertaken that new and hazardous Work Of the three Inventions which come now to my Memory the First was an Engine representing the motion of the Planets Of this I can say no more than what I find in his own words in one of his Miscellany Papers in Manuscript The words are these I did once cause to be represented to me by Wires the motion of some Planets in fact as it is without Theories of Orbs c. And it seemed a strange and extravagant Motion One while they moved in Spires forwards another while they did unwind themselves in Spires backwards One while they made larger Circles and higher another while smaller Circles and lower One while they mov'd to the North in their Spires another while to the South c. His Second Invention was a secret Curiosity of Nature whereby to know the Season of every Hour of the Year by a Philosophical Glass placed with a small proportion of Water in a Chamber This Invention I describe in the words of him from whom I had the notice of it Mr. Thomas Bushel k See his Extract p. 17. one of his Lordships Menial Servants a Man skilful in discovering and opening of Mines and famous for his curious Water-Works in Oxfordshire by which he imitated Rain Hail the Rain-bow Thunder and Lightning This secret cannot be that Instrument which we call Vitrum Calendare or the Weather-Glass the Lord Bacon in his Writings l Hist. of life and death p. 22. speaking of that as a thing in ordinary use and commending not Water ‖ In Form● Calid● ● 24. p. 176. Org. but rectifi'd Spirit of Wine in the use of it Nor being an Instrument made with Water is it likely to have shewed changes of the Air with so much exactness as the later Baroscope made with Mercury And yet it should seem to be a secret of high value by the Reward it is said to have procured For the Earl of Essex as he in his Extract pag. 17. reporteth when Mr. Bacon had made a Present of it to him was pleas'd to be very bountiful in his Thanks and bestow upon his Twicknam-Park and its Garden of Paradise as a place for his Studies I confess I have not Faith enough to believe the whole of this Relation And yet I believe the Earl of Essex was extremely Liberal and free even to Profuseness that he was a great lover of Learned Men being in some sort one of them himself m MS. Hist. of Q. Eli● p. 39. and that with singular Patronage he