Lord Bacon as portrayed by Macaulay
His great defects of character
Contrast made between the man and the philosopher
Bacon’s youth and accomplishments
Enters Parliament
Seeks office
At the height of fortune and fame
His misfortunes
Consideration of charges against him
His counterbalancing merits
The exaltation by Macaulay of material life
Bacon made its exponent
But the aims of Bacon were higher
The true spirit of his philosophy
Deductive philosophies
His new method
Bacon’s Works
Relations of his philosophy
Material science and knowledge
Comparison of knowledge with wisdom

GALILEO.

Astronomical discoveries.

A brilliant portent
The greatness of the sixteenth century
Artists, scholars, reformers, religious defenders
Maritime discoveries
Literary, ecclesiastical, political achievements
Youth of Galileo
His early discoveries
Genius for mathematics
Professor at Pisa
Ridicules the old philosophers; invents the thermometer
Compared with Kepler
Galileo teaches the doctrines of Copernicus. 
Gives offence by his railleries and mockeries. 
Theology and science
Astronomical knowledge of the Ancients
Utilization of science
Construction of the first telescope
Galileo’s reward
His successive discoveries
His enemies
High scientific rank in Europe
Hostility of the Church
Galileo summoned before the Inquisition; his condemnation and
admonition
His new offences
Summoned before a council of Cardinals
His humiliation
His recantations
Consideration of his position
Greatness of mind rather than character
His confinement at Arceti
Opposition to science
His melancholy old age and blindness
Visited by John Milton; comparison of the two, when blind
Consequence of Galileo’s discoveries
Later results
Vastness of the universe
Grandeur of astronomical science

BEACON LIGHTS OF HISTORY.

DANTE.

A.D. 1265-1321.

Rise of modern poetry.

The first great genius who aroused his country from the torpor of the Middle Ages was a poet.  Poetry, then, was the first influence which elevated the human mind amid the miseries of a gloomy period, if we may except the schools of philosophy which flourished in the rising universities.  But poetry probably preceded all other forms of culture in Europe, even as it preceded philosophy and art in Greece.  The gay Provencal singers were harbingers of Dante, even as unknown poets prepared the way for Homer.  And as Homer was the creator of Grecian literature, so Dante, by his immortal comedy, gave the first great impulse to Italian thought.  Hence poets are great benefactors, and we will not let them die in