The University Commission.
"For not to know at large of things remote From use, obscure and subtle; but to know That which before us lies in daily use,
Δεῖ δ ̓ ἐλεύθερον εἶναι τὸν μέλλοντα φιλοσοφεῖν.-PTOLEMT.
A VOICE came o'er the sea that thou wert loth, Oxford, to bare thee to the coming search: Lessen thy proud sails ere thy vessel lurch; Her hull is of much-venerable growth. Thine hope to fetter progress, by my troth, Is feeble as the Bull of Romish Church Hurl'd at old Galileo, to unperch
Earth from its axis, and decree its sloth.
Stretch out thine Eson arms to the kind leech: Open thy veins: let forth thy time-dull'd blood: Infuse the fresh invigorating flood
Drawn from the fathom'd wells of living Truth; Flourish again in renovated youth;
And mingle modern things with ancient speech.
"Homo, naturæ minister et interpres."-Novum Organon.
His the true aim of Learning, who first sought No couch luxurious for the mind's repose; No stately tower for pomp and idle shows; No terrace whence a fair view might be caught; No vantage-ground for battle to be fought; No shop wherein his trinkets to expose ; But a rich storehouse all things to enclose Thither for Man's good or God's glory brought; Who left those heights where all were wont to err, For Science' lowliest places; thence to rise, Step after step, to heights of loftier scan;* Who scorned the wisdom of the ancient wise; Tried Truth by practice; humbly looked on Man As Nature's servant and interpreter.
* Neque enim in plano via sita est, sed ascendendo et descendendo; ascendendo primo ad axiomata, descendendo ad opera."-Novum Organon.
[It is perhaps superfluous to observe that this Sonnet is little more than a paraphrase of a well-known passage in Bacon.]
"He has displayed a reach of thought and a justness of anticipation which, when compared with the discoveries of the two succeeding centuries, seem frequently to partake of the nature of prophecy."-DUGALD STEWART.
BACON! between two worlds thy wondrous stand, The dark Past and bright Future, like the star That heralds in the morning! Thou from far, As with a prophet's glance, didst view the land Of promise, rais'd by thine Ithuriel wand; Like Judah's Law-giver of old, whose car Halted on Pisgah, whilst his death-gaze saw The milk-and-honey-flowing plains at hand. Thou too, when loud the murmuring nations cried, Fainting in Error's wilderness for thirst,
Didst smite the rock with barrenness long curst; Then forth gushed streams that ever flow more wide On to Eternal Wisdom's Ocean-shore,
Where finite Reason stops, her wanderings o'er.
"They enjoyed no succession of prophets, passing the torch of truth from hand to hand; no apostolic illumination, to be a light to their feet and an illumination to their paths. Nature, alone, was their teacher."— THEODORET.
NOT to The Book alone should we confine
Our knowledge and our search for moral rules; But with the Gospel for our lamp, the tools Of Thought may safely dig in Plato's mine; For there bright veins of natural riches shine. True that the labourers of the heathen Schools Toiled on in darkness, simple babes and fools, By Nature's feeble light and Reason's line; For not for them, as us, the Prophet-band Was station'd in dark crypt and deep recess, То pass the torch of Truth from hand to hand; Yet, lit by Bible beams, their labyrinths show They struck with useful, if uncertain, blow; The wisdom of the Greeks, not foolishness.
"For they are like those birds of song which imitate the voice of man, but know not the meaning of the words they utter."-THEODORET.
As birds which imitate the voice of man, Know not the meaning of the words they speak, So of the things of God argued the Greek, Darkly, as through a glass, viewing His plan; And often thence the words in error ran: Therefore, as in a garden, where we seek Fair flowers with spangled eyes and velvet cheek, Weeds not unfrequent mingle; so we scan Error and Truth in Plato side by side; But we may leave the one, the other pluck : Or rather, with the wisdom of the bee, Honey alike from weed and flowret suck; Like skilful leeches who with care divide The balm and venom of the poisonous tree.
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