He served as Memberof Parliament for Melcome Regis in 1584, and then Taunton (1586),Southampton and Ipswich (1597), Liverpool (1589), Middlesex (1593) and StAlbans and Ipswich (1604).His earlyopposition to Elizabeths tax program retarded his politicaladvancement, but, with the help of his powerful uncle, Lord Burghley,he rose quickly in the legal profession, receiving the valuable appointmentof reversion to the Clerkship of the Star Chamber in 1589. He was an astutepolitician.With theaccession of King James I after Elizabeth's death in 1603, Bacon's starcontinued to rise and he was knighted in the same year. He received the King'sfavour, although he was not always so popular with his peers. He wasrewarded with one prestigious appointment after another,.SirFrancis played a leading role in creating the British colonies in theNew World, especially in Virginia, the Carolinas and Newfoundland. His governmentreport on The Virginia Colony was made in 1609, and he helped form the NewfoundlandColonization Company which sent John Guy to found a colony inNewfoundland in 1610.SirFrancis Bacon's public career ended in disgrace in 1621, when aParliamentary Committee on the administration of the law charged him withtwenty-three counts of corruption and bribery. Work ForBacon, the only knowledge of importance to man was empirically rooted inthe natural world, and a clear system of scientific inquiry wouldassure man's mastery over the world. He had a great reverence for Aristotle, although he found Aristotelian philosophy barren,disputatious and wrong in its objectives.Baconargued that, while philosophy at the time generally used the deductivesyllogism to interpret nature, it should instead proceed through inductivereasoning, from fact to axiom to law. However, hecautioned that before beginning this induction, the philosopher must free hismind from certain false notions or tendencies which distort the truth,which he characterized as the four Idols: "Idols of the Tribe"(common to the race); "Idols of the Den" (peculiar to theindividual); "Idols of the Marketplace" (from the misuse oflanguage); and "Idols of the Theatre" (from the abuse of authority).In Ethics, he distinguished between dutyto the community (an ethical matter) and duty to God (a religiousmatter). He believed that any moral action is the action of the human will(which is governed by belief and spurred on by the passions),that good habit is what aids men in directing their will toward thegood, but that no universal rules can be made, as both situations andmen's characters differ. One of his many aphorisms was that "a littlephilosophy inclineth mans mind to Atheism; but depth inphilosophy bringeth mens minds about to religion". Among hisearlier publication were the "Essays", the "Coloursof Good and Evil", the "Meditationes Sacrae"(which includes his famous aphorism, "knowledge is power", anearly expression of Pragmatism), andthe "Proficience and Advancement of Learning". In 1620,his "Novum Organum" ("The NewInstrument"), the most important part of his fragmentary andincomplete "Instauratio Magna" ("The GreatRenewal"), was published, and a second part, "DeAugmentis Scientiarum" ("The Advancement ofLearning"), was published in 1623.SirFrancis Bacon: EssaysOf Studies STUDIES serve for delight, for ornament, andfor ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; forornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment, and dispositionof business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars,