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impediments to which the most zealous inquirers CENT. XVII. are exposed in the pursuit of truth; and it appears plainly that this great man, to whose elevated and comprehensive genius all things seemed easy, was at certain times so far carried away by the vastness of his conceptions, as to require from the application and abilities of men more than they were capable of performing, and to desire the end, without always examining whether the means of attaining it were possible. At the same time it must be confessed, that a great part of the improvements in learning, and of the progress in science that were made in Europe, during this century, was owing to the counsels and directions of this extraordinary man. This is more especially true of the improvements that were made in natural philosophy, to which noble science Bacon did such important service, as is alone sufficient to render his name immortal. He opened the eyes of those who had been led blindfold by the dubious authority of traditionary systems, and the uncertain directory of hypothesis and conjecture. He led them to nature, that they might consult that oracle directly and near at hand, and receive her answers; and, by the introduction of experimental inquiry, he placed philosophy upon a new and solid basis. It was thus undoubtedly that he removed the prejudices of former times, which led men to consider all human knowledge as circumscribed within the bounds of Greek and Latin erudition, and an acquaintance with the more elegant and liberal arts; and thus, in the vast regions of nature, he opened scenes of instruction and science, which, although hitherto unknown or disregarded, were infinitely more noble and sublime, and much more productive of solid nourishment to the minds of the wise, than that kind of learning that was in vogue before his time. XXVI. It is remarkable, in general, that the scien- More especial ces of natural philosophy, mathematics, and astron- matics."

ly the mathe

=

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CENT. XVII. omy, were carried in this century, in all the nations of Europe, to such a high degree of perfection, that they seemed to rise, all of a sudden, from the puny weakness of infancy to a state of full maturity. There is certainly no sort of comparison between the philosophers, mathematicians, and astronomers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The former look like pigmies, when compared with the gigantic stature of the latter. At the head of these latter appears Galilei, the ornament of natural science in Italy, who was encouraged, in his astronomical researches and discoveries, by the munificence and protection of the grand dukes of Tuscany. After this arose in France Des Cartes and Gassendi, who left behind them a great number of eminent disciples; in Denmark Tycho Brahe; in England Boyle and Newton; in Germany Kepler, Hevelius, and Leibnitz; and in Switzerland the two Bernoulli. These philosophers of the first magnitude, if I may use that expression, excited such a spirit of emulation in Europe, and were followed by such a multitude of admirers and rivals, that, if we except those countries that had not yet emerged from a state of ignorance and barbarism, there was scarcely any nation that could not boast of possessing a profound mathematician, a famous astronomer, or an eminent philosopher. Nor were the dukes of Tuscany, however distinguished by their hereditary zeal for the sciences, and their liberality to the learned, the only patrons of philosophy at this time; since it is well known that the monarchs of Great Britain and France, Charles II. and Lewis XIV. honoured the sciences, and those that cultivated them, with their protection and encouragement. It is to the munificence of these two princes that the Royal Society of London, and the Academy of Sciences at Paris, owe their origin

See Heuman's Acta Philosoph. part xiv. p. 261, part xv. p. 4G7, part xvii. p. 803.

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and establishment, their privileges, honours, and CENT. XVII. endowments; and that we, of consequence, are indebted for the interesting discoveries that have been made by these two learned bodies, the end of whose institution is the study and investigation of nature, and the culture of all those arts and sciences that lead to truth, and are useful to mankind. These establishments, and the inquiries they were so naturally adapted to encourage and promote, proved not only beneficial, in the highest degree, to the civil interests of mankind, but were also productive of inestimable advantages to the cause of the true religion. By these inquiries, the empire of superstition, which is always the bane of genuine piety, and often a source of rebellion and calamity in sovereign states, was greatly shaken; by them the fictitious prodigies, that had so long held miserable mortals in a painful state of servitude and terror, were deprived of their influence; by them natural religion was built upon solid foundations, and illustrated with admirable perspicuity and evidence; as by them the infinite perfections of the Supreme Being were demonstrated with the utmost clearness and force from the frame of the universe in general, and also from the structure of its various parts.

XXVII. The improvements made in history, and History. more especially the new degrees of light that were thrown upon the ancient history of the church, were of eminent service to the cause of genuine

The History of the Royal Society of London was published by Dr. Sprat in 4to. in the year 1722.* See the Biblioth. Angloise, tom. xi. p. 1. The History of the Academy of Paris has been composed by Fontenelle. The reader will find a comparison between these two learned bodies in the fourth volume of the Works of Voltaire, entitled, Melanges de Litterature et de Philosophie, cap. xxvi. p. 317.

A much more interesting and ample history of this respectable society has lately been composed and published by Dr. Birch, its learned secretary,

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CENT. XVII. Christianity. For thus the original sources and reasons of many absurd opinions and institutions, which antiquity and custom had rendered sacred, were discovered and exposed in their proper colours; and innumerable errors, that had possessed and perplexed the anxious spirits of the credulous and superstitious multitude, were happily deprived of their authority and influence. Thus, of consequence, the cheerful light of truth, and the calm repose and tranquillity that attend it, arose upon the minds of many, and human life was delivered from the crimes that have been sanctified by superstition, and from the tumults and agitations in which it has so often involved unhappy mortals. The advantages that flowed from the improvement of historical knowledge are both innumerable and inestimable. By this many pious and excellent persons, whom ignorance or malice had branded with the ignominious title of heretics, were delivered from reproach, recovered their good fame, and thus were secured against the malignity of superstition. By this it appeared, that many of those religious controversies, which had divided nations, friends, and families, and involved so often sovereign states in bloodshed, rebellion, and crimes of the most horrid kind, were owing to the most trifling and contemptible causes, to the ambiguity and obscurity of certain theological phrases and terms, to superstition, ignorance, and envy, to ghostly pride and ambition. By this it was demonstrated, with the fullest evidence, that many of those religious rites and ceremonies, which had been long considered as of divine institution, were derived from the most inglorious sources, being either borrowed from the manners and customs of barbarous nations, or invented with a design to deceive the ignorant and credulous, or dictated by the idle visions of senseless enthusiasm. By this the ambitious intrigues of the bishops and other ministers of religion, who, by perfidious arts, had encroached

upon the prerogatives of the throne, usurped a CENT.XVIL considerable part of its authority and revenues, and SECT. 1. held princes in subjection to their yoke by terrors of the church, were brought to light. And, to mention no more instances, it was by the lamp of history that those councils, whose decrees had so long been regarded as infallible and sacred, and revered as the dictates of celestial wisdom, were exhibited to the attentive observer as assemblies, where an odious mixture of ignorance and knavery very frequently presided. Our happy experience, in these latter times, furnishes daily instances of the salutary effects of these important discoveries on the state of the christian church, and on the condition of all its members. Hence flow that lenity and moderation that are mutually exercised by those who differ from one another in their religious sentiments; that prudence and caution that are used in estimating opinions and deciding contro. versies; that protection and support that are granted to men of worth, when attacked by the malice of bigotry; and that visible diminution of the errors, frauds, crimes, and cruelties, with which superstition formerly embittered the pleasures of human life, and the enjoyments of social intercourse.

eloquence and

XXVIII. Many of the doctors of this century ap- The study of plied themselves, with eminent success, to the the languages. study of Hebrew and Greek literature, and of the oriental languages and antiquities. And, as their progress in these kinds of erudition was rapid, so, in many instances, was the use they made of them truly excellent and laudable. For, by these succours, they were enabled to throw light on many difficult passages of the sacred writings that had been ill understood and injudiciously applied, and which some had even employed in supporting erroneous opinions, and giving a plausible colour to pernicious doctrines. Hence it happened, that many patrons and promoters of popular notions,