ice; for as snow and ice, especially being holpen, and their cold activated by nitre or salt, will turn water into ice, and that in a few hours; so it may be, it will turn wood or stiff clay into stone, in longer time." How very different is this solution from the modern geological one, viz., that earth is formed by the disgregation, or decay, of rocks, which detritus or sand being washed down from elevated positions, into the depressions or excavations of the earth's surface, ara there subjected to the combined influence of pressure and volcanic heat, whereby they are again consolidated into primitive, solid rock, which, being subsequently elevated by the same volcanic power, becomes once more the subject of another revolution. Nor did the English philosopher, appear to have, even, dreamed, that the stones and pebbles, he refers to, were once aggregate portions of mountain rock, which had been wrought into their present character by the tireless operation of time and the elements.

Of making gold, by transmutation, this philosopher says: "The world hath been much abused by the opinion of making gold: The work itself I judge to possible; but the means hitherto propounded to effect it are, in the practice, full of error and imposture; and, in the theory, full of unsound imaginations." In the mean time, by occasion of handling the axioms, touching maturation, we will direct a trial touching the maturing of metals, and thereby turning some of them into gold; for we conceive indeed, that a perfect good concoction, or digestion, or maturation of some metals, will produce gold." And here fol

lows his recipe, for that invaluable purpose, viz. "Let there be a small furnace made of a temperate heat; let the heat be such, as may keep the metal perpetually molten, and no more; for that, above all, purporteth to the work. For the material, take sil ver, which is the metal that, in nature, symbolizeth most with gold; put in also with the silver, a tenth part of quicksilver, and a twelfth part of nitre, by weight; both these to quicken and open the body of the metal; and so let the work be continued, by the space of six months, at the least. I wish also that there be at some times, an injection of some oiled substance, such as they use in the recovering of gold, which, by vexing with separations, hath been made churlish; and this is to lay the parts more close and smooth, which is the main work." Alchimy, I need not tell you, in the utmost hight of its phrensy, never perpetrated a greater absurdity than this.

"Putrefaction," he says, "is the work of the spirits of bodies, which are ever unquiet, to get forth, and congregate with the air, and to enjoy the sunbeans." Of the many means, he enumerates, to induce and accelerate putrefaction, "the eighth is, by the releasing of the spirits, which, before, were close kept, by the solidness of their coverture, and thereby their appetite of issuing checked; as in the artificial rusts induced by strong waters (meaning the mineral acids) in iron, lead &c.; and, therefore, wetting hasteneth rust or putrefaction of any thing, because it softeneth the crust, for the spirits to come forth." Again, he says, of the conversion of oil into water,

"The intention of version of water into a more oily substance, is by digestion; for oil is almost nothing but water digested; and this digestion is principally by heat; or it may be caused by the mingling of bodies, already oily or digested; for they will somewhat communicate their nature with the rest." Again, upon the subject of vegetation, he says, "The ancients have affirmed, that there are some herbs, that grow out of stone; which may be, for that it is certain, that toads have been found in the middle of freestone." You do not mistake this illustration of the most preposterous fallacy, viz., that our philosopher seriously believed the toads referred to, to have been generated, nourished and matured within the enclosures where they were found. (Upon the subject of atmospheric impurities, he says, "It was observed in the great plague of last year, that there were seen, in divers ditches, and low ground about London, many toads, that had tails two or three inches long, at the least; whereas toads, usually, have no tails at all; which argueth a great disposition to putrefaction, in the soil and air." Now this interpretation of a fact, that probably never existed, and seriously promulgated as an important item of natural philosophy, is too contemptible, even, for irony. It is entirely unworthy of a sneer.

As the last quotation, with which I will trouble you, at this time, I will present you one, with the following very curious caption, viz. "Of sweetness of odor from the rainbow." "It hath been observed by the ancients," says Lord Bacon, "that, where a

rainbow seemeth to hang over, or to touch, there breatheth forth a sweet smell. The cause is, for that this happeneth in certain matters, which have, in themselves some sweetness, which the gentle dew of the rainbow, doth draw forth, and the like do soft showers; for they also make the ground sweet: But none are so delicate, as the rainbow, where it falleth. It may be also that the water itself have some sweetness," &c. In the foregoing quotations, you are presented with adequate nieans to enable you to distinguish with satisfactory precision, the difference between the state of natural science, two hundred years ago, and at the present time.

You see, in what inexplicable mystery, the most ordinary phenomena were then enveloped; and how extremely fallacious, were the reasoning and interpretations of the most extraordinary genius of any age or country. But with these palpable-these preposterous fallacies, Sir Francis Bacon was not justly chargeable. He was undeniably an intellectual prodigy, who, having been born two hundred years later, would be, at this moment, the predominant star, in the world's literary firmament. No! it was not Bacon, but the times in which Bacon lived, that stultified an intellect, that, to-day, would successfully aspire to universal knowledge; a time when, for more than two thousand years, Superstition had inextricably fastened its clogs, upon the heels of Genius, and effectually tied up Reason, in leading strings.-A long period of proverbial literary darkness, which Christianity had arbitrarily fnforced upon mankind. Do

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not mistake me, as including, in my ideas of superstition, the 'most fastidious, moral virtue; but treat me, if you will, with the courtesy of recollecting my3 definition of it, as the subject of future criticism. 1 define superstition to be a religious veneration, for what cannot be examined by our senses, nor legiti mately deduced by our reason: And if this definition is exceptionable, or its subject justifiable, they are in your possession, together with my premeditated promise of grateful acknowledgement for amendment, or refutation.

"

"I am conscious of having hazarded much, with your patience, by the foregoing series of quotations and unavoidable, slightest possible comments, but, as I have already said, I could not forego the pleasure of introducing you to a few of the innumerable 'gems that sparkled upon the pages of former science. Nov will you, carelessly, mistake the character of the specimens, with which you have been presented. They are neither the stupid yawnings of rusticity, nor the evaporations of a brain, steeped in the bigotries of the time; but the profoundest cogitations of the profoundest and most learned of men. What, therefore, must have been the character of Bacon's time and cotemporaries, I leave to the fertility of your imaginations to interpret; langnage being altogether inadequate to its description.

From what has been adduced, you are doubtless fully convinced of the progressive nature of human science; (and that the knowledge requisite to have inade a wonderful philosopher of two centuries ago,