*J. Aubrey.
This little story of how Bacon came by his death gives a good
idea of how he tried to make use of his philosophy. He was not
content with thinking and speculating, that is, looking at ideas.
Speculate comes from the Latin speculari, to spy out. He wanted
to experiment too. And although in those days no one had thought
about it, we now know that Bacon was quite right and that meat
can be kept by freezing it. And it is pleasant to know that
before Bacon died he was able to write that the experiment had
succeeded "excellently well."
In his will Bacon left his name and memory "to men's charitable
speeches, to foreign nations and to the next ages," and he was
right to do so, for in spite of all the dark shadows that hang
about his name men still call him great. We remember him as a
great man among great men; we remember him as the fore-runner of
modern science; we remember him for the splendid English in which
he wrote.
And yet, although Bacon's English is clear, strong, and fine,
although Elizabethan English perhaps reached in him its highest
point, he himself despised English.
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