THE STORY OF PHILOSOPHY2 The Lives and Opinions

FRANCIS BACON 83
vigor; of new beginnings and enterprises in every field; an age that waited
for a voice, some synthetic soul to sum up its spirit and resolve. It was
Francis Bacon, "the most powerful mind of modern times/' 12 who "rang
the bell that called the wits together," and announced that Europe had
come of age.
II. THE POLITICAL CAREER OF FRANCIS BACON
Bacon was born on January 22, 1561, at York House, London, the residence
of his father, Sir Nicholas Bacon, who for the first twenty years of
Elizabeth's reign had been Keeper of the