The New Atlantis of Francis Bacon

that science succeeded and magic failed.’ This is mere ignorance. The best modern account of Francis Bacon’s work bears the title “From Magic to Science’. The words are a true description of Bacon’s achievement.()

Nobody could possibly understand Bacon from the point of view from which Lewis approaches science. In “The Abolition of Man’ he tells us: “There is something which unites magic and applied science while separating both from the “wisdom” of earlier ages. For the wise men of old the cardinal problem had been to conform the soul to reality. . . . For magic and applied science alike, the problem is to subdue reality to the wishes of man.’ What this obscure oracle may mean I know not, unless it be that man should return to the food-gathering stage. All human history has been the story of the subjugation of nature to man’s will. Whatever wisdom Lewis had in mind, it was not the wisdom of the Bible; for there the divine command to Adam is to replenish the earth and subdue it; and it was upon the God-given promise of dominion that Bacon based the argument of his “Great Instauration’. Bacon’s wisdom was the wisdom of the Bible, which always treats God as the God of history, not as a metaphysical concept. “The Great Instauration’ was not concerned with abstract truth, but was the forecast of a coming event in time. Lewis ignores this and proceeds: ‘If we compare the chief trumpeter of the new era (Bacon) with Marlowe’s Faustus, the similarity is striking’. I confess it does not strike me. Marlowe's Faustus sold his soul to the devil in a private bargain for selfish ends: Bacon summoned all his countrymen in the name of charity to join him in a common enterprise for the common good. Regardless of this Lewis proceeds: “You will read in some critics that Faustus has a thirst for knowledge. In reality he hardly mentions it. It is not truth he wants from his devils, but gold, guns and girls. . . . In the same spirit Bacon condemns those who value knowledge as an end in itself.’ So there we have it. What Bacon was after in “The Great Instauration’ was gold, guns and girls, or something of that sort. Lewis is now dead, but I shall not be so conventional as to try to find something good to say about such an argument. I owe a debt to him for some of his books. (2) See Paolo Rossi, Francesco Bacone: Dalla magia alla scienza. Bari, 1957