The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1858-11-11

AuQ none knew save nc WneIc AI was W
be found. False to nan, he was true to
nature. The impulses that moved Bacon
to study the principles OF rational sys-
ten of philosophy were u pure and fresh
as the beatings of childhood's heart. Ma
ture was not to him dumb and senscless
thing, but full Of life. instinct with in-
spiration, and Offering glad companion
ship to those who sought, in right spirit,
her ancient and abiding wisdom. Poets
have Taught men TO look on her for beau
ty, and to draw solace for troubled hours
tron. her calm landscapes and silent skies
In her works, rising from the minute TO
the magnificent, and presenting every
form, hue, aud aspect that induite yarie
ty could make pxlpable to the eye, they
have found symbols for truths elso unex-
pressed. The mysteries Of the soul have
gone to her for sympathy and support,
and not gone i'll vain. Sublmity and
grandeur, dwelling in mems minds but
enfecb!cd in utterance, have learned her
majestic language and represented their
selectest thoughts But no poet ever
brought man SO near TO nature as Lord
Bacon. Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth
caught only her outward expression and
employed it to embellish their own senti-
mepts. Nor can it De otherwise with po-
etrv in its relations to the visible uni
verse A glance, intense and rapturous
it may be, but only a glance, Is all that 1t
can beStow ordinarl y on the face of ma
ture aud even in those more protraoted
oommunings, in which it seeks its poems
in the material world rather than create
them oat of its own emotional thoughts,
poetry merely oantemplates natural phe-
nomena as they address the imagination.
Nature mainly exists to the poet for the
sake Of illustration. She is not primarily
his teacher; but when he repairs to her
presence, never unweicome. never unre-
| freshing, it is that he may enter on her
pictorial galleries crowded with images in
unison with his sentiments and feelings.
Bacon went to Nature for other ends
! The practical, the useful, the phllan-
! thropic, the progressive, these we're the
principles he sought for in her works.
Instead Of thinking with Seneca that phi
losophy has nothing to do with utilitarian
objects, he conceived that it was wisely
employed if engaged in promoting the
present good Of human kind. The acute
insight of Bacon saw that nature was a
vast storehouse of resources, an immense
arsenal whence men might draw the weap-
ons needed in the warfare with ignorance,
poverty, and feebleness.
| Bacon Taught the seventeenth century
the science of thought; Newton listened
to the authoritative critic and imbibed
his spirit Bacon showed where men
had erred; Newton kept his eye on the
beacon light, aud never lost for an instant
its warning radiance. Bacon declared
how Nature ought to be approached---the
childlike temper. the reverent docility,
the simple trustingncss, the waiting hui
mility, the perscvering energy, the in
vincibe hopefulness were the attributes
that he commended in one who should
inquire in Natures temple; Newton an
swered to the splendid ideal. His phi
losophy was religion in everyday apparel
If, in seasons of enrapturing revelations.
it put OF its Worshiping robes and lifted
high its psalm-like praise, it quickly re-
turned to the attitude of disciple seated
at Natures feet, and breathlesSIy holding,
az one awe c-struck, the sublime thoughts
that the wonders of creation awakened
within him. Bacon stated the language
! in which the oracles of Nature were to be
questioned; Newton adopted it, and was
answered. Bacon enunciated the oardi-
nal maxims Of modern science; Newton
! took the axioms and based on them his
demonstrations. What glorious fellow
ship! How mighty the summons, how
majestic the response! Both were giant
of thought how like, and yet how unlike !
! TIE one was the most magnificent of the
orists the other was the genius Of reality.
| If the former laid the sure foundations
and erected the massive supcrstructure OF
the temple of modern science, the latter
opened its portals that the glory of the
universe might enter and abide, for all
time, above its dedicated shrine.
Both these illustrious men were dis
coVerers. Bacon was a discoverer Of
thoughts, and Newton Of facts. Bacon
worked within; Newton without. More
perfect parallelisms never existed, Act
les in completest harmony, they have
prospectively secured the material uni
verse to the human mind They were
the founders of the empire of man over
nature, Since their day the history of
intellect has been history of progressive
growth, Of fertile activity, of broad en-
largement. This is not surprising. Pc
riods of great discoveries have always been
followed by intense and widespread in
tellectual excitement, Men start into
] =