[英國]弗朗西斯·培根/Francis Bacon
弗朗西斯·培根（1561-1626），英國著名的唯物主義哲學家和科學家。在文藝複興時期的巨人中，他被尊稱為哲學史和科學史上劃時代的人物。馬克思稱他是“英國唯物主義和整個現代實驗科學的真正始祖”。他是第一個提出“知識就是力量”的人。培根生於倫敦一個官宦世家，12歲時，被送入劍橋大學三一學院深造。在校學習期間，他對傳統的觀念和信仰產生了懷疑，開始獨自思考社會和人生的真諦。培根是近代哲學史上首先提出經驗論原則的哲學家，對近代科學的建立起了積極的推動作用，對人類哲學史、科學史都作出了重大的曆史貢獻。為此，羅素尊稱培根為“給科學研究程序進行邏輯組織化的先驅”。
1626年，在倫敦北郊，培根由於支氣管炎複發，病情惡化，於4月9日清晨病逝。
In this famous essay, first published in 1625，Francis Bacon declares that truth in the philosophical and theological sense, as well as honesty in the civil business sense, are the“sovereign good of human nature.”
Truth, which only doth judge itself, teacheth that the inquiry of truth, which is the love-making or wooing of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature. The first creature of God, in the works of the days, was the light of the sense;the last was the light of reason;and his sabbath work ever since is the illumination of his Spirit. First he breathed light upon the face of the matter or chaos;then he breathed light into the face of man;and still he breatheth and inspireth light into the face of his chosen. The poet that beautified the sect that was otherwise inferior to the rest saith yet excellently well:It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore and to see ships tossed upon the sea;a pleasure to stand in the window of a castle and to see a battle and the adventures thereof below;but no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of truth（a hill not to be commanded, and where the air is always clear and serene），and to see the errors and wanderings and mists and tempests in the vale below;so always that this prospect be with pity, and not with swelling or pride. Certainly, it is heaven upon earth to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.