no single feature of a good Bibliographical Dictionary. It is nothing more than a catalogue of a tolerably large theological library, with a few names of writers in general literature. Its only real value beyond other extant manuals, consists in the fact that it gives tables of contents to each writer, where it is practicable. THE second volume of Bunsen's " Egypt's Place in Universal History," containing the second and third volumes of the original German edition, is just announced by Longmans, London. The third and concluding volume is also preparing for publication. MESSES. B. Westermann & Co., New-York, have commenced the publication of a very convenient Literary Bulletin, which they furnish gratis, by mail, to all who desire it. It contains a list of the latest German books in every department of literature, as received by each steamer, and kept on hand by the Messrs. Westermann. THE volumes of Bohn's Libraries for May are the following:-The Illustrated Library: Norway and its Scenery; comprising the Journal of Edward Price, and a Road Book for Tourists, edited and Compiled by Forester, 12mo.-Humphrey W. Noel's Coin Collector's Manual; 2 vols., 12mo. The Standard Library: Delolme on the Constitution, edited by Macgregor; 12mo. The Classical Library: Diogenes Laertius, by Yonge; 12mo.-The Antiquarian Library: King Alfred, and his Position in English History, by Dr. R. Pauli; 12mo. AMONG the new works announced in Great Britain are the following:-Hypatia; or, New Foes with an Old Face. By C. Kingsley, Rector of Eversley. 2 vols., post 8vo. :-Critical Biographies of Public Men. By George Henry Francis. Sir Robert Peel, Bart., The Right Hon. B. D'Israeli, Henry Lord Brougham. Small Octavo :--Memoir, Physical, Historical, and Nautical, on the Mediterranean Sea. By W. H. Smyth, R. N., D. C. L., Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society. 8vo. :Goethe's Opinions on the World, Mankind, Literature, Science, and Art, extracted from his Communications and Correspondence:-The Poems of Goethe, translated in the Original Metres, preceded by a Sketch of Goethe's Life. By Edgar Alfred Bowring:-The Poems of Schiller, in English Verse. By Edgar A. Bowring: Propertius, with English Notes. By F. A. Paley, Editor of " Eschylus." Svo.: The Educational Institutions of the United States: their Character and Organization. Translated from the Swedish of Dr. P. A. Siljiström, by Frederica Rowan. Post 8vo. :-The Rise and Progress of National Education in England: its Obstacles, Wants, and Prospects; a Letter to Richard Cobden, Esq., M. P., By Richard Church. Svo., paper:-Historical Outlines of Political Catholicism; its Papacy, Prelacy, Priesthood, People. Demy 8vo.:-Chamois Hunting in the Mountains of Bavaria. By Charles Boner. With Illustrations. Demy 8vo. :-Montenegro, and the Slavonians of Turkey. By Count Valerian Krasinski, Author of the "Religious History of the Slavonic Nations," &c. Fcap. :-The Diary of Martha Bethune Baliol from 1753 to 1754. Post Svo. :-Language as a Means of Mental Culture and International Communication; or, A Manual of the Teacher and Learner of Languages. By C. Marcel. vols. crown 8vo., cloth :-The Stones of Venice. By John Ruskin. Vol. 2, Imperial 8vo., with numerous Illustrations:--Memorandums made in Ireland, in the Autumn of 1852. By John Forbes, M. D., Author of the "Physician's Holiday," 2 vols. post 8vo. :-The Bhilsa Topes; or, Buddhist Monuments of Central India. By Major A. Cunningham. 1 vol. 8vo. :-The Theory and Practice of Caste. By B. A. Irving, Esq. 1 vol. post 8vo. :-The Recom mendations of the Oxford University Commissioners; with Selections from their Report, and a History of the University Subscription Tests: including Notices of the University and Collegiate Visitations. By James Heywood, M. P., F. R. S., of Trinity College, Cambridge. 8vo. :-The History of Scotland, from the Revolution to the Extinction of the last Jacobite Insurrection (1689-1748). By John Hill Burton, Author of "The Life of David Hume," &c, 2 vols. 8vo. :-The Fall of the Roman Republic: a Short History of the Last Century of the Commonwealth. By the Rev. Charles Merivale, B. D., late Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, Author of "History of the Romans under the Empire." 12mo. :-The Autobiography of B. R. Haydon, Historical Painter. Edited, and continued to the Time of his Death from his own Journals, by Tom Taylor, M. A., of the Inner Temple, Esq.; late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and late Professor of the English Language and Literature in University College, London. 3 vols. post 8vo. :-Hebrew Politics in the Times of Sargon and Sennacherib: an Inquiry into the Historical Meaning and Purpose of the Prophecies of Isaiah, with some Notice of their Bearings on the Social and Political Life of England. By E. Strachey, Esq. 8vo. :Mount Lebanon: A Ten Years' Residence, from 1842 to 1852; with Descriptive Sketches of its Scenery, Productions, &c.; the Manners and Customs of its Inhabitants, particularly of the Druses and Maronites, and a Full and Correct Account of the Druse Religion, Historical Records of the Mountain Tribes, from Personal Intercourse with their Chiefs, and other Authentic Sources. By Colonel Churchill, Staff Officer on the British Expedition to Syria. 3 vols., 8vo. :-A Visit to Mexico, with Sketches of the West India Islands, Yucatan, and United States. By William Parish Robertson, author of "Letters on Paraguay." 2 vols. :-Lord Bacon and Sir Walter Raleigh; Critical and Biographical Essays. By Macvey Napier, Esq., late Editor of the Edinburgh Review. Post 8vo.:-Eschyli Eumenides. The Greek text, with English notes: with an Introduction, containing the substance of Müller's Dissertations and the Discussions of his Critics; and an English Metrical Translation. By B. Drake, M. A., Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, Editor of "Demosthenes de Corona." 8vo., cloth: The Frontier Lands of the Christian and the Turk; comprising Travels in the Regions of the Lower Danube, in 1850 and 1851. By a British Resident of twenty years in the East. 2 vols., 8vo. :-A History of the Papacy to the Period of the Reformation. Founded upon the German of Planck's "Geschichte Des Papsthums." By Rev. J. E. Riddle, author of the "Bampton Lectures," and "The Latin Dictionary." 2 vols., 8vo. AMONG the new works in miscellaneous literature recently announced on the continent of Europe are the following: Histoire de la Monarchie in Europe, depuis son origine jusqu'a nos jours; par M. Francis Lacombe. Tome ler. Formation des royautés européennes. 8vo. Histoire des classes laborieuses, précédée d'un essai sur l'économie industrielle et sociale; par A. Jaume, instituteur primaire supérieur à Toulon. 8vo. Secret Politique de Napoléon; par Hoëné Wronski. Comme introduction a sa récente Philosophie de l'histoire. Nouvelle édition. 8vo. Complément du Grand dictionnaire des dictionnaires francais de Napoléon Landais, renfermant, etc. Ouvrage qui met le Grand dictionnaire au niveau des diction naires spéciaux, etc. Par une société de savants, de grammariens et d'écrivains,sous la direction de MM. D. Chésurolles et L Barré. 4to. Cours complet de langue universelle, offrant en même temps un méthode facile et sûre pour apprendre les langues, et pour comparer, en quelques mois, toutes les litteratures mortes et vivantes; par C. L. A. Letellier. 1re partie. Grammaire. 8vo. Culte (le) des morts chez les principaux peuples anciens et modernes, avec la description des divers monuments funèbres; par l'abbé Simon. 12mo. Odisch-magnetische Briefe von Karl Frhrn. v. Reichenbach, Ph. Dr. Stuttgart: 1852; 199 pp., 8vo. Hellas. Vorträge über Heimath, Geschichte, Literatur und Kunst der Hellenen von Friedr. Jacobs. Aus dem handschriftlichen Nachlass des Verfassers herausgeg. von E. F. Wüstemann. Berlin: 1852; 438 PP., 8vo. Commentationis criticae de Anthologis Graeca pars prior. Scripsit Alph. Hecker, litt. hum. Dr. phil. th. Mag. Lugd. Bat., MDCCCLII. VIII, u. 357 pp., 8vo. Vorlesungen über die Geschichte der neueren Philosophie. Von Dr. K. Fischer. 1. Bd. Die Philosophie von Cartesius bis Spinoza. 1. Abth.: Einleitung in das Studium der Philosophie. Cartesius, Geulincx, Malebranche. Stuttgart: 1853; 231 Pp., 8vo. Examen de la philosophie de Bacon, ou l'on traite différentes questions de philosophie rationnelle. Ouvrage posthume du comte Jos. da Maistre, 2 vols. Lyon: 1852; pp. 354, 8vo. THE METHODIST QUARTERLY REVIEW. OCTOBER, 1853. ART. I.-THE BACON OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. [SECOND PAPER.] THE task of presenting a satisfactory alleviation for the difficulties of the sixteenth century was reserved for Francis Bacon-the father of an Instauration greater than any which preceded it, because it was the last. We should not be justified in regarding Bacon as the equal of Aristotle, if we compare the two together. Neither in versatility nor in comprehensiveness can he be legitimately esteemed as on a par with his predecessor; while the circumstances of his life, perhaps even more than the temper of his mind, denied him that habit of thorough, minute, and sustained observation, that patient sobriety of judgment, that graceful and felicitous negligence of all ostentation, which are so miraculously blended with the massive speculation of the earlier philosopher. The single epithet of Intellect, by which Plato happily characterized Aristotle, is preeminently appropriate to him, and to him alone. He was the intellect in its purest and simplest form, with a full mastery of all its various powers; free from weakness and without alloy. Unseduced by the imagination, though no stranger to its inspiration; untainted by passion, though susceptible of all healthy and legitimate emotion; without enthusiasm, though guided by a steady philosophic ardour; he was the perfect embodiment of the calm, self-sustaining, sober, discriminating, and all embracing mind. To this elevation Bacon never attained: but though inferior in the highest qualities of thought and feeling to his unrivalled predecessor, he had the advantage of living in a later and a more favourable age-an age of vigorous intellectual development. He had thus the vantage ground of past centuries to stand upon, and the expanding thought of the coming generation to hail and extend his dominion. The effect which he produced was thus more sensible, and his influence wider, more immediate, and more operative, than even in the case of Abelard. He became FOURTH SERIES, VOL. V.-31 at once, and still remains, the undoubted parent of modern science, and of all the great discoveries to which the modern intellect lays claim, and of which it might be so justly proud, if it did not suffer itself to be dazzled by the brilliancy and extent of its empire. It is only at this late day that a competitor has arisen to dispute the continued reign of Bacon; but M. Comte recognises him as the legislator of his philosophy, and the claim has been alleged by the eager followers of the great Positivist, not by himself-and still remains to be substantiated. To aid in the settlement of this claim is our object; and to inform the judgment of our readers, we proceed to examine the characteristics of the Baconian reform with the same sobriety and impartiality which we have endeavoured to exercise in the analysis of the careers of Aristotle and Abelard. The universality contemplated by the Baconian Instauration is the first of its features to be noticed. It designed a chart of the intellectual globe, and criticised all learning and all knowledge. It scrutinized the practical as well as the theoretical, and proposed the improvement, the extension, and the expansion of both. There was no exclusive partiality for any one form of human development,no unjust derogation from the dignity, validity, and importance of any other but the harmonious reconstruction of all speculation was desired as a preparation for a more enlightened, efficient, and successful practical procedure. If the scholastic misapplication of logic was severely censured, its due claims were confidently asserted; and, though the necessities of the times, no less than existing abuses, directed the attention and the labours of Bacon principally to natural science, the superior dignity of moral and religious truth, and the higher authority of the Aristotelian logic are uniformly and steadily maintained by him. His philosophy, when received in a large and congenial spirit, will be found to be equally removed from the onesided exclusiveness of transcendental rationalism, and from the narrow insufficiency of mere empiricism. It embraces in harmonious union the sober truth of either extreme, and duly subordinates all human thought to the over-ruling supremacy of a revealed religion. Taking the familiar division of knowledge into ethical and physical science, it is true that Bacon concerned himself principally with the latter, and most assiduously attempted its development. He did so, however, without forgetting, denying, or neglecting the former; and employed his talents in this direction because physical science was at that time the most diseased, and the most inefficient, in consequence of the misapplication of syllogistic logic to its investigation. But physical science was never pursued by Bacon for its own sake, nor ever regarded by him as of itself the legitimate end of knowledge. We are aware that this judgment of the Baconian philosophy is not exactly consonant with the superficial fallacies current upon the subject; but it has been the fashion for men, like Macaulay, to declaim magisterially respecting productions of which they had read only scattered fragments, and to be listened to with a stupid credulity. The great merit of Bacon's intellectual renovation is, that it rejects no part of human knowledge, conceived or conceivable; that it proposes to render the barren places of speculation productive by a better culture, and to retain with a firm hand and under better management all old acquisitions, while extending, by the aid of a more efficacious procedure, the frontiers of science, and bringing under its jurisdiction territories as yet unknown and undiscovered. We next notice the manner in which the proposed reform was undertaken. The errors to be corrected, as the false philosophy to be supplanted, had sprung in great measure from misapprehension of the narrowness of the special domain of scholastic logic, and from the misapplication of the syllogistic or deductive method to those physical inquiries to which it was singularly inappropriate, and in regard to which it had been sedulously, though not altogether methodically, renounced by Aristotle and the more profound sages of antiquity. In instituting a new method, or rather in giving novel prominence and a more decided type to an old one, a more correct logical procedure was required for the prosecution of scientific studies. The deductive method was to be chiefly and primarily confined to moral or ethical speculations, and nature was to be investigated, and the general laws of her action discovered, not by the new, but by the newly revived and more clearly apprehended instrumentality of induction. Induction itself, as a formal mode of reasoning, was neither invented, discovered, nor first expounded by Bacon. Aristotle gives Socrates the credit of its first scientific recognition. It was largely employed by Aristotle in his Zoological works and in his Political inquiries: its conditions were examined by the Scholiasts,* and in the eleventh century by Joannes Italus;† David. Prolegg. Porph. Int. Schol. Aristot., p. 18, a. 36, Alex. Aphrod. Schol., p. 585, b. 40; p. 586, a. 20. † ἔστι δὲ τῶν διαλεκτικῶν ἀποδείξεων εἴδη δύο, τὸ μὲν ἐπαγωγὴ, τὸ δὲ συλλoɣioμós, K. T. 2., cit. Waitz. Ed. Organon, vol. i, p. 19. It has been maintained by Macaulay, and his position is in some degree justified by Bacon's own expressions, that the induction of the ancients was different from that of Bacon, and merely a simple comparison of instances; but this is disproved by Aristotle, Metaph. xii, iv, p. 1078, and by the above passage of Joannes Italus, which continues to criticise the inductive process in the manner and with the acuteness of Sir Wm. Hamilton, (Discussions, &c., p. 164,) anticipating his distinctions. |