CHAPTER VI. THE AGE OF ELIZABETH (1550-1620)did more practical experimenting than the Elizabethan sage;
and the latter’s famous "idols" are strongly suggestive of the
former’s "Four Sources of Human Ignorance." Although Ba-
con did not make any of the scientific discoveries at which
he aimed, yet the whole spirit of his work, especially ofthe
Organum, has strongly influenced science in the direction of
accurate observation and of carefully testing every theory
by practical experiment. "He that regardeth the clouds shall
not sow," said a wise writer of old; and Bacon turned men’s
thoughts from the heavens above, with which they had been
too busy, to the earth beneath, which they had too much ne-
glected. In an age when men were busy with romance and
philosophy, he insisted that the first object of education is
to make a man familiar with his natural environment; from
books he turned to men, from theory to fact, from philoso-
phy to nature,– and that is perhaps his greatest contribution
to life and literature. Like Moses upon Pisgah, he stood high
enough above his fellows to look out over a promised land,
which his people would inherit, but into which he himself
might never enter.
RICHARD HOOKER (1554?-1600)In strong contrast with Ba-
con is Richard Hooker, one of the greatest prose writers of
the Elizabethan Age. One must read the story of his life, an
obscure and lowly life animated by a great spirit, as told by
Izaak Walton, to appreciate the full force of this contrast. Ba-
con took all knowledge for his province, but mastered no sin-
gle part of it. Hooker, taking a single theme, the law and
practice of the English Church, so handled it that no scholar
even of the present day would dream of superseding it or of
building upon any other foundation than that which Hooker
laid down. His one great work isThe Laws of Ecclesiastical
Polity,^129 a theological and argumentative book; but, entirely
apart from its subject, it will be read wherever men desire to
(^129) The first five books were published 1594-1597, and are asHooker wrote
them The last three books, published after his death, are ofdoubtful authorship,
but they are thought to have been completed fromHooker’s notes.