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UTILITY THE END OF KNOWLEDGE: BACON.
1.
Among the great precursors of a new order of thought Francis Bacon occupies a unique position.

He drew up a definite programme for a "great Renovation" of knowledge; he is more clearly conscious than his contemporaries of the necessity of breaking with the past and making a completely new start; and his whole method of thought seems intellectually nearer to us than the speculations of a Bruno or a Campanella.

Hence it is easy to understand that he is often regarded, especially in his own country, as more than a precursor, as the first philosopher, of the modern age, definitely within its precincts.
[Footnote: German critics have been generally severe on Bacon as deficient in the scientific spirit.

Kuno Fischer, Baco van Verulam (1856).