THE STORY OF PHILOSOPHY2 The Lives and Opinions

FRANCIS BACON 105
day, the mystery of the New Atlantis. "There reigned in this island about
nineteen hundred years ago/' one of the inhabitants tells them, "a King
whose memory above all others we most adore. . . . His name was
Solamona, and we esteem him as the Law-giver of our nation. This King
had a large heart . . . and was wholly bent to make his kingdom and
"Among the excellent acts of that King
people happy." 98
one above all
hath the preeminence. It was the creation and institution of the Order,
or Society, which is called Solomon's House; the noblest foundation, as
we think, that was ever upon the earth; and the lantherne of this kingdom."
99
There follows a description of Solomon's House, too complicated for a
quoted abstract, but eloquent enough to draw from the hostile Macaulay
the judgment that "there is not to be found in any human composition a
passage more eminently distinguished by profound and serene wisdom."
100 Solomon's House takes the place, in the New Atlantis, of the
Houses of Parliament in London; it is the home of the island government
But there are no politicians there, no insolent "elected persons," no "na-
tional palaver," as Carlyle would say; no parties, caucuses, primaries, conventions,
campaigns, buttons, lithographs, editorials, speeches, lies, and
elections; the idea of filling public office by such dramatic methods seems
never to have entered the heads of these Atlantans. But the road to the
heights of scientific repute is open to all, and only those who have traveled
the road sit in the councils of the state. It is a government of the people
and for the people by the selected best of the people; a government by
technicians, architects, astronomers, geologists, biologists, physicians,
chemists, economists, sociologists, psychologists and philosophers. Com*
plicated enough; but think of a government without politicians!
Indeed there is little government at all in the New Atlantis; these
governors are engaged rather in controlling nature than in ruling man.
"The End of Our Foundation is the Knowledge of Causes and secret
motions of things; and the enlarging of the bounds of human empire, to
the effecting of all things possible." 101 This is the key-sentence of
the book, and of Francis Bacon. We find the governors engaged in such
undignified tasks as studying the stars, arranging to utilize for industry
the power of falling water, developing gases for the cure of various ailments,
102
experimenting on animals for surgical knowledge, growing new
varieties of plants and animals by cross-breeding, etc. "We imitate the
flights of birds; we have some degree of flying in the air. We have ships
and boats for going under water." There is foreign trade, but of an
unusual sort; the island produces what it consumes, and consumes what
**The New Atlantis, Cambridge University Press, 1900; p. 20.
"Ibid., p. 22. m lbid.9 p. xxv. ^Ibid., p. 34-
102 Cf. The New York Times of May 2, 1923, for a report of War Department
chemists on the use of war gases to cure diseases.