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Prose

Notes

In the nineteenth century his emphasis on induction was revived and developed by
William Whewell, among others. He has been reputed as the “Father of Experimental
Science”.

North America

Some authors believe that Bacon’s vision for a Utopian New World in North America was laid out
in his novel New Atlantis, which depicts a mythical island, Bensalem, located somewhere between
Peru and Japan. In this work he depicted a land where there would be freedom of religion -
showing a Jew treated fairly and equally in an island of Christians, but it has been debated
whether this work had influenced others reforms, such as greater rights for women, the abolition
of slavery, elimination of debtors’ prisons, separation of church and state, and freedom of political
expression,although there is no hint of these reforms in The New Atlantis itself. His propositions of

legal reform (which were not established in his life time), though, are considered to have been one
of the influences behind the Napoleonic Code, and therefore could show some resemblance with

or influence in the drafting of other liberal constitutions that came in the centuries after Bacon’s
lifetime, such as the American.
Francis Bacon played a leading role in creating the British colonies, especially in Virginia, the
Carolinas, and Newfoundland in northeastern Canada. His government report on “The Virginia
Colony” was submitted in 1609. In 1610 Bacon and his associates received a charter from the king
to form the Tresurer and the Companye of Adventurers and planter of the Cittye of London and Bristoll for
the Collonye or plantacon in Newfoundland and sent John Guy to found a colony there. In 1910
Newfoundland issued a postage stamp to commemorate Bacon’s role in establishing the province.
The stamp describes Bacon as, “the guiding spirit in Colonization Schemes in 1610.” Moreover,
some scholars believe he was largely responsible for the drafting, in 1609 and 1612, of two charters
of government for the Virginia Colony. Biography Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the

United States and author of the Declaration of Independence, wrote: “Bacon, Locke and Newton.
I consider them as the three greatest men that have ever lived, without any exception, and as having laid the
foundation of those superstructures which have been raised in the Physical and Moral sciences”. Historian
and biographer William Hepworth Dixon considered that Bacon’s name could be included in the
list of Founders of the United States of America.
It is also believed by the Rosicrucian organization AMORC, that Bacon would have influenced a
settlement of mystics in North America, stating that his work “The New Atlantis” inspired a colony
of Rosicrucians led by Johannes Kelpius, to journey across the Atlantic Ocean in a chartered vessel
called Sarah Mariah, and move on to Pennsylvania in late XVII Century. According to their claims,
these rosicrucian communities “made valuable contributions to the newly emerging American culture in
the fields of printing, philosophy, the sciences and arts”.
Johannes Kelpius and his fellows moved to Wissahickon Creek, in Pennsylvania, and became
known as “Hermits of Mystics of the Wissahickon” or simply “Monks of the Wissahickon”.

Law
Although much of his legal reform proposals were not established in his life time, his legal legacy
was considered by the magazine New Scientist, in a publication of 1961, as having influenced the
drafting of the Code Napoleon, and the law reforms introduced by Sir Robert Peel.
The historian William Hepworth Dixon referred to the Code Napoleon as “the sole embodiment of
Bacon’s thought”, saying that Bacon’s legal work “has had more success abroad than it has found at
home”, and that in France “it has blossomed and come into fruit”.

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