New Atlantis and The Great Instauration

Jerry Weinberger is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University. He received his B.A. from The University of California at Berkeley and his Ph.D. from Harvard University. He has won the MSU Teacher-Scholar Award, fellowships from the Earhart Foundation and the Institute for Educational Affairs, and has twice been a Senior Research Fellow of the NEH. He is Director of the LeFrak Forum and Co-Director of the Symposium on Science, Reason, and Modern Democracy. Among his books are Science, Faith and Politics: Francis Bacon and the Utopian Roots of the Modern Age (1985); Francis Bacon’s History of the Reign of King Henry the Seventh: A New Edition and Interpretive Essay (1996); and Benjamin Franklin Unmasked: On the Unity of His Moral, Religious, and Political Thought (2005). A resident of Washington, DC, he is a regular contributor to City Journal, the nation’s premier urban-policy magazine.

• Preface: Why a Second Edition? viiAcknowledgments ixNote on the Texts xiPrincipal Dates in the Life of Sir Francis Bacon Introduction to the Second Edition xvThe Great Instauration 1Proœmium 2Epistle Dedicatory 5Preface 8The Plan of the Work 19The Idols of the Mind 35Synopsis and Questions 56New Atlantis 61Of Unity in Religion 113Synopsis and Questions 118Of the True Greatness of Kingdoms and Estates 121Synopsis and Questions 130On Bacon’s New Atlantis 133Bibliography 159