The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-07-15

JKSDAY, JULY Is, i
ll1lasli as6zuIi - -.
NeD BACON ANes The OLD METHOD.
-se4 p e&e2a 81 III. isasEszsgss .na
asAtst hs dsatA sof Esissbsth, in l6o3, Bacon
vaadossy+heee yeam Of age, and held only The
paai1inn Of Counsel to the Qussu.s The accas-
sion OF James vas fortunate for the Philoses
pAsr' for his very pedansry made him patton
Of shs learned, and especially could he appre
ciste genius when ito possessor shoxed proper
senss OF Royal requirements. We do not end
hn Processing any excellence unappreciated
b. his eourtiers. rsk. ese s.4at
Ishall not dwell upon tho details of this most
prosperous period Of his life. He IVES succev
aissay kniehted, pensioned, ennobled with the
td1aes OF Lord Verulam and :Viscount st.; AL.
bans, and was also made Attorney General and
Lord Reaper, with the title of Lord High
0haucellof. h vas during this period of his
szskfnal prssoseity TIA. he published those
works, that, bF tAss blind paths Of the school.
men, made plain the only highway Of discov-
sry. Most men deem retirement essential to
fsaectiou; yet Bacon sought public 'responsi-
bility and employment, that he might pursue
Philosophy, and the greatest work of the age
was completed amid the labors of high and
most arduous offce-s work which terminated
Che despoeism of the ancients, which inaugura-
ted the age Of discovery. IS e1asf
It has always been matter of surprise, that
the Greeks, with their wonderful AGO uirements,
possessed 90 little real knowledge. In Rheto.
ric, in Logic, in Philosophy, as they termed il,
ia Sculpture and Painting, in Pure Mathemat.
ics, and in Mechanics, their progress was great.
The Greek Classics must ever be our study.
The declaration that we're the Gods to ad-
dssss men, they would use the language Of
Plato" is 40 well a compliment to his tongue
- to himself From Cicero to Webster, from
Tacitus to Prescott, from Virgil to Longfeliow,
Orators, Historians, and Poets, have alike
stndied the great Grecisn models, and deemed
their own style sucoessfdl as il approached that
Of their masters. Neither have we been able
10 improve upon the logic of Plato and Aris-
totle. As We shall see, the too exclusive stten-
ton to dialectics seemed to deceive and divert
the mind Of The ancient inquirer from the study
Of nature, yet, the premise being known, the
synogism continues the only method Of demon
stsation. In the Ideal Philosophy, Who has
gone beyond Plato2 He ia called Q dreamer,
perhaps truly; but he dreamed like a God 1
and has furnished material for all the dreamers
that have followed him. / need hardly speak
Of that Architecture that has immortalized the
Acropolis and the desert, and made every ruin
bat q shrine. Centuries Of trial have taught rs
that the only perfect Column is the Grecian in its
various Orders, aud taste tolerates no departure
from its approved proportions. Their combina-
ton by the Romans, with the addition of the
Arch-6t emblem of their combined unity--is
ell the change which Grecian Architecture has
been found capable of enduring. speak not
Of the ever-varying modern Gothic, a style
adapted to the rudest beginnings and to the
endless aspirations towards an unattainable
psr(1csion. 1t could never have been Grecian,
because it can never be perfect, but is 6s
emblem of modern aspiration and progress,
whose great success only reveals the gorgeous
in6nity beyond So in Sculpture-how timid-
" do very few venture to depart from the
almost bresthing forms of their Grecian mas
tsrs; and if the Painters of modern Europe
have been adjudged to exceed those of Athens,
We may perhaps account for it in the fact, that
the Athenian canvas was less durable than her
marble. Likewise in pure Mathematics and
Mechanics, ancient progress was great In
The latter, we have not as yet created powers
familiar to them. The war machines of Ar
chimedes, and the powers which transport.
and raised the Egyptian o oelisks, have always
been our puzzle.
But, with all this progress, in the knowledge
Of nature and in the useful arts, the ancients
we're but babss. Their Astronomy, born among
the Shepherds of Babylonia, was but mapping
of the heavens upon an equidistant concave.
The Earth was the centre of universal revolu.
tion--the pivot of the universe. The glimpses
of the true theory caught by Pythagoras and
Plato, we're unsupported by such demonstra.
u.
Their Geography was limited to portions of the
Eastern Continent; and when certain bold nav.
igasors were said to have sailed through the
Pillars of Hercules, and, ooasting around Africa,
to have returned by the Red Sea, wise men
gave, a. conclusive evidence of the fabulousness
of the story, the claim of these navigators that
on the south of Africa they saw the meridian
sun in the north. Little was known of the
human system, except the external form.
Though slave might be tortured to death, that
the artist may catch his agony, yet to have dis
sected his body would have been sacrilege.
From Comparative Anatomy, they obtained an
imperfect knowledge of some Of the organs; but
the profouudest philosophers we're ignorant of
the Forms beautiful mechani,m-of the circu.
lasion Of the blood-of the distinctive features,
uses, and perfect adaptation, of the several
tissaes-and what is yet scarce known, of the
wonderful character of the nervous system. Man
then had no power over electricity and magnet
ism; nor, a. nov, could he by Chemistry pierce
the secrets of matter and almost of life.
We naturally wonder ct this ignorance
those Who knew 20 much should know 90 little.
Passing by subordinate causes, have been led
10 attribute this ignorance-this barrenness Of
discovery to the social and poli,icalinstitu.
tons of ancient nations, creating general igno-
rance in the masses, and false tastes in the
learned and, second, to their false philosophy
!. e., their false object, method, and direction,
in philosophical il quiry.
: let. In the most civilized ancient States, the
people we're divided into freemen and slaves,