BACON, FRANCIS (1561–1626), Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Albans; English statesman, essayist, and philosopher of science. A major political figure in early Stuart England, Bacon drew a visionary picture of the role and practices of the science of the future. This science was to be experimental, and Bacon advocated setting up public institutions for its pursuit. Written in the conviction that science, properly conducted, would lead to the improvement of the material conditions of life, his major works are at the same time philosophical discourses and recommendations for public policy.

Bacon was born of distinguished parents. His father was lord keeper of the great seal to Elizabeth I, and his mother was the niece of Lord Burghley, Elizabeth's lord treasurer. In 1573 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, and two years later was enrolled briefly as a law student at Gray's Inn. His father's death in 1579 left Francis, the youngest...