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The Age of Political Experiments 305 castles and of walled cities. Guns swept away feudalism. Con- stantinople fell to guns. Mexico and Peru fell before the terror of the Spanish guns. The seventeenth century saw the development of systematic scientific publication, a less conspicuous but ultimately far more pregnant innovation. Conspicuous among the leaders in this great CROMWELL DISSOLVES THE LONG PARLIAMENT AND SO BECOMES AUTOCRAT OF THE ENGLISH REPUBLIC {Froin a contemporary satirical print in the British Museum) forward step was Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626), afterwards Lord Verulam, Lord Chancellor of England. He was the pupil and perhaps the mouthpiece of another Englishman, Dr. Gilbert, the experi- mental philosopher of Colchester (1540-1603). This second Bacon, like the first, preached observation and experiment, and he used the inspiring and fruitful form of a Utopian story, The New Atlantis, to express his dream of a great service of scientific research. Presently arose the Royal Society of London, the Florentine