5 6

Sir ISAAC~NEWTO N’s Book I.

But all the merit' of this excellent philosopher and elegantwriter conld not preserve him from persecution in his old age.Some pretended philosophers, who had imprudently objectedagainst his new discoveries in the heavens, when they foundthemselves worsted and exposed to ridicule, turned their hatredand resentment against his person. He was obliged, by therancour of the Jesuits (as ’tis said *) and the weakness of hisprotector, to go to Rome, and there solemnly renounce thedoctrine of the motion of the earth, which he had arguedfor with so much ingenuity and evidence +. After this cruelusage he was silent for some time, but not idle ; for we havevaluable pieces of his of a later date.

7. Sir Francis Bacon Lord Verulam +, who was cotem-porary with Galileo and Kepler , is justly held amongst therestorers of true learning, but more especially the sounder ofexperimental philosophy. When he was but sixteen years old,he began to dislike the vulgar physics and what was calledArijlotle' s philosophy. He saw there was a necessity for athorough reformation in the way os treating natural knowledge,and that all theory was to be laid aside that was not sounded onexperiment. He proposed his plan in his insauratio magna,with so much strength of argument, and so just a zeal, asrenders that admirable work the delight of all who have ataste for solid learning.

* Vir in omni mathematum parte fummus Galileus Galilei , Jesuitarum in ipsumodio, ac principis Thufci sub quo vixit socordi metu, coactus fre Romam, ideoquod terram movisset, non vetante vestro Hortenjio , dure habitus, ut majus vitaretmalum, quasi ab ecciesia edoctus, sua scita rescidit. Hug. Grotius in epistola adVojfium , Lutet. 17. maii, 1635.

f He was besides condemned to a years imprisonment in the inquisition, and thepenance of repeating daily some penitential psalms.

X He was born in 1560, Galileo in 1564.

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