Benjamin Farrington (1891-1974) was an Irish scholar and professor of the Classics. Born in Cork, he was educated in Ireland and taught at the university level in Ireland and South Africa. He wrote several books on the development of scientific thought in Western culture, with a particular emphasis on the contributions of the Greek philosophers and Francis Bacon.

Condemned to struggle for favor amidst court intrigues, Francis Bacon devoted his extraodinary intellectual energy to devising a plan to reform human knowledge. Aware that he stood at the thredhold of a new era, he felt a strong need for the deliberate invention of new arts, and gave a powerful impetus in his writings to the development of science in the seventeenth century, becoming the prophet of the scientific outlook.

This penetrating study of his life and writings helps us to understand the history of the last three hundred years and the science and industry which have created our world. Professor Farrington, in this fresh and readable account, gives us a vivid sense of what Bacon and his experimental method means to us today.