“’Tis a sharp medicine, but it is a sound cure for all diseases,” he said smiling to the Sheriff as he felt the edge of the ax.  Then he laid his head upon the block.

“Thus,” says the first writer of Raleigh’s life, “have we seen how Sir Walter Raleigh who had been one of the greatest scourges of Spain, was made a sacrifice to it.”

“So may we say to the memory of this worthy knight,” says Fuller, “’Repose yourself in this our Catalogue under what topic you please, statesman, seaman, soldier, learned writer or what not.’  His worth unlocks our cabinets and proves both room and welcome to entertain him . . . so dexterous was he in all his undertakings in Court, in camp, by sea, by land, with sword, with pen."*

Fuller’s Worthies.

BOOKS TO READ

Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley may be read in illustration of this chapter.

Chapter LII BACON—­NEW WAYS OF WISDOM

WHEN we are little, there are many things we cannot understand; we puzzle about them a good deal perhaps, and then we ask questions.  And sometimes the grown-ups answer our question and make the puzzling things clear to us, sometimes they answer yet do not make the puzzling things any clearer to us, and sometimes they tell us not to trouble, that we will understand when we grow older.  Then we wish we could grow older quick, for it seems such a long time to wait for an answer.  But worst of all, sometimes the grown-ups tell us not to talk so much and not to ask so many question.

The fact is, though perhaps I ought not to tell you, grown-ups don’t know everything.  That is not any disgrace either, for of course no one can know everything, not even father or mother.  And just as there are things which puzzle little folks, there are things which puzzle big folks.  And just as among little folks there are some who ask more questions and who “want to know” more than others, so among grown-ups there are some who more than others seek for the answer to those puzzling question.  These people we call philosophers.  The word comes from two Greek words, philos loving, sophos wise, and means loving wisdom.  In this chapter I am going to tell you about Francis Bacon, the great philosopher who lived in the times of Elizabeth and James.  I do not think that I can quite make you understand what philosophy really means, or what his learned books were about, nor do I think you will care to read them for a long time to come.  But you will find the life of Francis Bacon very interesting.  It is well, too, to know about Bacon, for with him began a new kind of search for wisdom.  The old searchers after truth had tried to settle the questions which puzzled them by turning to imaginary things, and by mere thinking.  Bacon said that we must answer these questions by studying not what was imaginary, but what was real—­by studying nature.  So Bacon was not only a lover of truth but was also the first of our scientists of to-day.  Scientist comes from the Latin word scio to know, and Science means that which we know by watching things and trying things,—­by making experiments.  And although Bacon did not himself find out anything new and useful to man, he pointed out the road upon which others were to travel.