All this is what was embraced in his vision of a changed world of thought and achievement.

All this is what was meant by that _Regnum Hominis_, which, with a play on sacred words which his age did not shrink from, and which he especially pleased himself with, marked the coming of that hitherto unimagined empire of man over the powers and forces which encompassed him.

But the detail of all this is multifarious and complicated, and is not always what we expect; and when we come to see how his work is estimated by those who, by greatest familiarity with scientific ideas and the history of scientific inquiries, are best fitted to judge of it, many a surprise awaits us.
For we find that the greatest differences of opinion exist on the value of what he did.

Not only very unfavourable judgments have been passed upon it, on general grounds--as an irreligious, or a shallow and one-sided, or a poor and "utilitarian" philosophy, and on a definite comparison of it with the actual methods and processes which as a matter of history have been the real means of scientific discovery--but also some of those who have most admired his genius, and with the deepest love and reverence have spared no pains to do it full justice, have yet come to the conclusion that as an instrument and real method of work Bacon's attempt was a failure.

It is not only De Maistre and Lord Macaulay who dispute his philosophical eminence.