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? vii

Acknowledgments ix

Note on the Texts xi

Principal Dates in the Life of Sir Francis Bacon xiii

Introduction to the Second Edition xv

The Great Instauration I

Promium 2

Epistle Dedicatory 5

Preface 8

The Plan of the Work 19

The Idols of the Mind 35

Synopsis and Questions 56

New Atlantis 61

Of Unity in Religion 113

Synopsis and Questions 118

Of the True Greatness of Kingdoms and Estates 121

Synopsis and Questions 130

On Bacon’s New Atlantis 133

Bibliography 159