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matiques. Ce fut un grand trait d’habileté de sapart, voulant combattre les scolastiques, d’op-poser l’univers à leurs livres au lieu d’attaquerl’autorité par l’autorité.

Les services immenses rendus par Galilée à laphilosophie ont été proclamés dans la patriemême de Bacon. Il suffira, à cet égard, de citerHume (1), historien subtil et philosophique, qui

Çi) «The great glory ofliterature in this island, during thereign of James, was Lord Bacon . Most of his performances werecomposed in Ljatin ; though he possessed neither the eleganceof tliat, nor of his native tongue. If we consider the variety oftalents displayed by this man, as a public speaker, a man ofbusiness, a wit, a courtier, a compauion, an aulhor, a philo-sopher, heis justly the objectofgreat admiration. Ifwe con-sider him merely as an author and philosopher, the light inwhich we view him at présent, though very estimable, he wasyetinferior tohiscontemporary Galilæo,perhaps even to Ke-pler. Bacon pointed out at a distance the road to true pliiloso-phy : Galilæobolh pointed it out to olhers and made,himself,considérable advances in it. TheEnglishman was ignorant ofgeometry : The Florentine revivedthat science, excelled in it,and was the first who applied it, together with experiment,to natural philosophy. The former rejected with the mostpositive disdain the System of Copernicus : The latter forti-fied it withnewproofs derived both from reason and the sen-sés. Bacon ’s style is stifFand rigid : His wit though often bril-liant, is sometimes unnatural and far-fetched ;'and he seemsto be the original of those pointed similies and long-spunallégories, which so much distinguish the English authors :