Introductory Note |
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Introductory Note
Introductory Note
Bacon`s literary executor, Dr. Rawley, published "The New Atlantis" in
1627, the year after the author`s death. It seems to have been written about
1623, during that period of literary activity which followed Bacon`s political
fall. None of Bacon`s writings gives in short space so vivid a picture of his
tastes and aspirations as this fragment of the plan of an ideal commonwealth.
The generosity and enlightenment, the dignity and splendor, the piety and
public spirit, of the inhabitants of Bensalem represent the ideal qualities
which Bacon the statesman desired rather than hoped to see characteristic of
his own country; and in Solomon`s House we have Bacon the scientist indulging
without restriction his prophetic vision of the future of human knowledge. No
reader acquainted in any degree with the processes and results of modern
scientific inquiry can fail to be struck by the numerous approximations made
by Bacon`s imagination to the actual achievements of modern times. The plan
and organization of his great college lay down the main lines of the modern
research university; and both in pure and applied science he anticipates a
strikingly large number of recent inventions and discoveries. In still another
way is "The New Atlantis" typical of Bacon`s attitude. In spite of the
enthusiastic and broad-minded schemes he laid down for the pursuit of truth,
Bacon always had an eye to utility. The advancement of science which he sought
was conceived by him as a means to a practical end-the increase of man`s
control over nature, and the comfort and convenience of humanity. For pure
metaphysics, or any form of abstract thinking that yielded no "fruit," he had
little interest; and this leaning to the useful is shown in the practical
applications of the discoveries made by the scholars of Solomon`s House. Nor
does the interest of the work stop here. It contains much, both in its
political and in its scientific ideals, that we have as yet by no means
achieved, but which contain valuable elements of suggestion and stimulus for
the future.
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