BIOGRAPHY AND PERSONALITY OF A FAMOUS AQUARIUS: SIR FRANCIS BACON

Philosopher and statesman, born in London, UK, the younger son of Sir Nicholas Bacon. He studied at Cambridge and Gray's Inn (1576), and was called to the bar in 1582. Becoming an MP in 1584, he was knighted by James I in 1603. He was in turn solicitor general (1607), attorney general (1613), privy counsellor (1616), Lord Keeper (1617), and Lord Chancellor (1618). He became Baron Verulam in 1618, and was made viscount in 1621. However, complaints were made that he accepted bribes from suitors in his court, and he was publicly accused before his fellow peers, fined, imprisoned, and banished from parliament and the court. Although soon released, and later pardoned, he never returned to public office, and he died in London, deeply in debt. His philosophy is best studied in The Advancement of Learning (1605) and Novum Organum (1620). His stress on inductive methods gave a strong impetus to subsequent scientific investigation.