Letters on England [20]
so inconsiderable an
advantage as to be disregarded by the ladies? It must be confessed
that we are an odd kind of people. Perhaps our nation will imitate
ten years hence this practice of the English, if the clergy and the
physicians will but give them leave to do it; or possibly our
countrymen may introduce inoculation three months hence in France
out of mere whim, in case the English should discontinue it through
fickleness.
I am informed that the Chinese have practised inoculation these
hundred years, a circumstance that argues very much in its favour,
since they are thought to be the wisest and best governed people in
the world. The Chinese, indeed, do not communicate this distemper
by inoculation, but at the nose, in the same manner as we take
snuff. This is a more agreeable way, but then it produces the like
effects; and proves at the same time that had inoculation been
practised in France it would have saved the lives of thousands.
LETTER XII.--ON THE LORD BACON
Not long since the trite and frivolous question following was
debated in a very polite and learned company, viz., Who was the
greatest man, Caesar, Alexander, Tamerlane, Cromwell, &c.?
Somebody answered that Sir Isaac Newton excelled them all. The
gentleman's assertion was very just; for if true greatness consists
in having received from heaven a mighty genius, and in having
employed it to enlighten our own mind and that of others, a man like
Sir Isaac Newton, whose equal is hardly found in a thousand years,
is the truly great man. And those politicians and conquerors (and
all ages produce some) were generally so many illustrious wicked
men. That man claims our respect who commands over the minds of the
rest of the world by the force of truth, not those who enslave their
fellow-creatures: he who is acquainted with the universe, not they
who deface it.
Since, therefore, you desire me to give you an account of the famous
personages whom England has given birth to, I shall begin with Lord
Bacon, Mr. Locke, Sir Isaac Newton, &c. Afterwards the warriors and
Ministers of State shall come in their order.
I must begin with the celebrated Viscount Verulam, known in Europe
by the name of Bacon, which was that of his family. His father had
been Lord Keeper, and himself was a great many years Lord Chancellor
under King James I. Nevertheless, amidst the intrigues of a Court,
and the affairs of his exalted employment, which alone were enough
to engross his whole time, he yet found so much leisure for study as
to make himself a great philosopher, a good historian, and an
elegant writer; and a still more surprising circumstance is that he
lived in an age in which the art of writing justly and elegantly was
little known, much less true philosophy. Lord Bacon, as is the fate
of man, was more esteemed after his death than in his lifetime. His
enemies were in the British Court, and his admirers were foreigners.
When the Marquis d'Effiat attended in England upon the Princess
Henrietta Maria, daughter to Henry IV., whom King Charles I. had
married, that Minister went and visited the Lord Bacon, who, being
at that time sick in his bed, received him with the curtains shut
close. "You resemble the angels," says the Marquis to him; "we hear
those beings spoken of perpetually, and we believe them superior to
men, but are never allowed the consolation to see them."
You know that this great man was accused of a crime very unbecoming
a philosopher: I mean bribery and extortion. You know that he was
sentenced by the House of Lords to pay a fine of about four hundred
thousand French livres, to lose his peerage and his dignity of
Chancellor; but in the present age the English revere his memory to
such a degree, that they will scarce allow him to have been guilty.
In case you should ask what are my thoughts on this head, I shall
answer you in the
advantage as to be disregarded by the ladies? It must be confessed
that we are an odd kind of people. Perhaps our nation will imitate
ten years hence this practice of the English, if the clergy and the
physicians will but give them leave to do it; or possibly our
countrymen may introduce inoculation three months hence in France
out of mere whim, in case the English should discontinue it through
fickleness.
I am informed that the Chinese have practised inoculation these
hundred years, a circumstance that argues very much in its favour,
since they are thought to be the wisest and best governed people in
the world. The Chinese, indeed, do not communicate this distemper
by inoculation, but at the nose, in the same manner as we take
snuff. This is a more agreeable way, but then it produces the like
effects; and proves at the same time that had inoculation been
practised in France it would have saved the lives of thousands.
LETTER XII.--ON THE LORD BACON
Not long since the trite and frivolous question following was
debated in a very polite and learned company, viz., Who was the
greatest man, Caesar, Alexander, Tamerlane, Cromwell, &c.?
Somebody answered that Sir Isaac Newton excelled them all. The
gentleman's assertion was very just; for if true greatness consists
in having received from heaven a mighty genius, and in having
employed it to enlighten our own mind and that of others, a man like
Sir Isaac Newton, whose equal is hardly found in a thousand years,
is the truly great man. And those politicians and conquerors (and
all ages produce some) were generally so many illustrious wicked
men. That man claims our respect who commands over the minds of the
rest of the world by the force of truth, not those who enslave their
fellow-creatures: he who is acquainted with the universe, not they
who deface it.
Since, therefore, you desire me to give you an account of the famous
personages whom England has given birth to, I shall begin with Lord
Bacon, Mr. Locke, Sir Isaac Newton, &c. Afterwards the warriors and
Ministers of State shall come in their order.
I must begin with the celebrated Viscount Verulam, known in Europe
by the name of Bacon, which was that of his family. His father had
been Lord Keeper, and himself was a great many years Lord Chancellor
under King James I. Nevertheless, amidst the intrigues of a Court,
and the affairs of his exalted employment, which alone were enough
to engross his whole time, he yet found so much leisure for study as
to make himself a great philosopher, a good historian, and an
elegant writer; and a still more surprising circumstance is that he
lived in an age in which the art of writing justly and elegantly was
little known, much less true philosophy. Lord Bacon, as is the fate
of man, was more esteemed after his death than in his lifetime. His
enemies were in the British Court, and his admirers were foreigners.
When the Marquis d'Effiat attended in England upon the Princess
Henrietta Maria, daughter to Henry IV., whom King Charles I. had
married, that Minister went and visited the Lord Bacon, who, being
at that time sick in his bed, received him with the curtains shut
close. "You resemble the angels," says the Marquis to him; "we hear
those beings spoken of perpetually, and we believe them superior to
men, but are never allowed the consolation to see them."
You know that this great man was accused of a crime very unbecoming
a philosopher: I mean bribery and extortion. You know that he was
sentenced by the House of Lords to pay a fine of about four hundred
thousand French livres, to lose his peerage and his dignity of
Chancellor; but in the present age the English revere his memory to
such a degree, that they will scarce allow him to have been guilty.
In case you should ask what are my thoughts on this head, I shall
answer you in the