New Atlantis

Francis Bacon (1561 1626) wrote New Atlantis around 1632. He wrote of his aspiration for establishing an ideal commonwealth. This section from the introduction gives a summary of Bacon s reasons for writing this short essay. The generosity and enlightenment, the dignity and splendor, the piety and public spirit, of the inhabitants of Bensalem represent the ideal qualities which Bacon the statesman desired rather than hoped to see characteristic of his own country; and in Solomon's House we have Bacon the scientist indulging without restriction his prophetic vision of the future of human knowledge. No reader acquainted in any degree with the processes and results of modern scientific inquiry can fail to be struck by the numerous approximations made by Bacon's imagination to the actual achievements of modern times. Even in Bacon s idealistic viewpoint he still saw science in a practical manner. Science was the way to man s advancement. Bacon s ideals have yet to be achieved, but they do give us goals to reach for.