Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients

Chapter 1 · 1/11

Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients

Chapter 1

¹Produced by Turgut Dincer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) BACON’S ESSAYS AND WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE BY A. ²SPIERS PREFACE BY B. ³MONTAGU, AND NOTES BY DIFFERENT WRITERS [Illustration] BOSTON LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY _Copyright, 1884_, BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. ⁴THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, MASS., U. ⁵ADVERTISEMENT. ⁶In preparing the present volume for the press, use has been freely made of several publications which have recently appeared in England. ⁷The Biographical Notice of the author is taken from an edition of the Essays, by A. ⁸Spiers, Ph. ⁹To this has been added the Preface to Pickering’s edition of the Essays and Wisdom of the Ancients, by Basil Montagu, Esq. ¹⁰Parker’s edition, by Thomas Markby, M. ¹¹A., has furnished the arrangement of the Table prefixed to the Essays, and also “the references to the most important quotations.” ¹²The Notes, including the translations of the Latin, are chiefly copied from Bohn’s edition, prepared by Joseph Devey, M. ¹³We have given the modern translation of the Wisdom of the Ancients contained in Bohn’s edition, in preference to that “done by Sir Arthur Gorges,” although the last mentioned has a claim upon regard, as having been made by a contemporary of Lord Bacon, and published in his lifetime. ¹⁴Its language is in the style of English current in the author’s age, and for this reason may resemble more nearly what the philosopher himself would have used, had he composed the work in his own tongue instead of Latin. ¹⁵CONTENTS. ¹⁶PAGE Preface by B. ¹⁷Montagu, Esq. xi Introductory Notice of the Life and Writings of Bacon, by A. ¹⁸Spiers, Ph. ¹⁹1 ESSAYS; OR, COUNSELS CIVIL AND MORAL. ²⁰NO. ²¹Of Truth 1625; 57 2. ²²Of Death 1612; enlarged 1625 62 3. ²³Of Unity in Religion; Of Religion 1612; rewritten 1625 65 4. ²⁴Of Revenge 1625; 73 5. ²⁵Of Adversity 1625; 75 6. ²⁶Of Simulation and Dissimulation 1625; 78 7. ²⁷Of Parents and Children 1612; enlarged 1625 82 8. ²⁸Of Marriage and Single Life 1612; slightly enlarged 1625 84 9. ²⁹Of Envy 1625; 87 10. ³⁰Of Love 1612; rewritten 1625 95 11. ³¹Of Great Place 1612; slightly enlarged 1625 98 12. ³²Of Boldness 1625; 103 13. ³³Of Goodness, and Goodness of Nature 1612; enlarged 1625 105 14. ³⁴Of Nobility 1612; rewritten 1625 110 15. ³⁵Of Seditions and Troubles 1625 113 16. ³⁶Of Atheism 1612; slightly enlarged 1625 124 17. ³⁷Of Superstition 1612; ” ” 1625 130 18. ³⁸Of Travel 1625; 132 19. ³⁹Of Empire 1612; much enlarged 1625 135 20. ⁴⁰Of Counsels 1612; enlarged 1625 143 21. ⁴¹Of Delays 1625; 151 22. ⁴²Of Cunning 1612; rewritten 1625 153 23. ⁴³Of Wisdom for a Man’s Self 1612; enlarged 1625 159 24. ⁴⁴Of Innovations 1625; 161 25. ⁴⁵Of Dispatch 1612; 163 26. ⁴⁶Of Seeming Wise 1612; 166 27. ⁴⁷Of Friendship 1612; rewritten 1625 168 28. ⁴⁸Of Expense 1597; enlarged 1612; and again 1625 179 29. ⁴⁹Of the true Greatness of Kingdoms and Estates 1612; enlarged 1625 181 30. ⁵⁰Of Regimen of Health 1597; enlarged 1612; again 1625 195 31. ⁵¹Of Suspicion 1625; 197 32. ⁵²Of Discourse 1597; slightly enlarged 1612; again 1625 199 33. ⁵³Of Plantations 1625; 202 34. ⁵⁴Of Riches 1612; much enlarged 1625 207 35. ⁵⁵Of Prophecies 1625; 212 36. ⁵⁶Of Ambition 1612; enlarged 1625 217 37. ⁵⁷Of Masques and Triumphs 1625; 218 38. ⁵⁸Of Nature in Men 1612; enlarged 1625 223 39. ⁵⁹Of Custom and Education 1612; ” ” 225 40. ⁶⁰Of Fortune 1612; slightly enlarged 1625 228 41. ⁶¹Of Usury 1625; 231 42. ⁶²Of Youth and Age 1612; slightly enlarged 1625 237 43. ⁶³Of Beauty 1612; ” ” 1625 240 44. ⁶⁴Of Deformity 1612; somewhat altered 1625 241 45. ⁶⁵Of Building 1625; 243 46. ⁶⁶Of Gardens 1625; 249 47. ⁶⁷Of Negotiating 1597; enlarged 1612; very slightly altered 1625 259 48. ⁶⁸Of Followers and Friends 1597; slightly enlarged 1625 261 49. ⁶⁹Of Suitors 1597; enlarged 1625 264 50. ⁷⁰Of Studies 1597; ” 1625 266 51. ⁷¹Of Faction 1597; much enlarged 1625 269 52. ⁷²Of Ceremonies and Respects 1597; enlarged 1625 271 53. ⁷³Of Praise 1612; ” 1625 273 54. ⁷⁴Of Vainglory 1612; 276 55. ⁷⁵Of Honor and Reputation 1597; omitted 1612; republished 1625 279 56. ⁷⁶Of Judicature 1612; 282 57. ⁷⁷Of Anger 1625; 289 58. ⁷⁸Of the Vicissitude of Things 1625; 292 APPENDIX TO ESSAYS. ⁷⁹Fragment of an Essay of Fame 301 2. ⁸⁰Of a King 303 3. ⁸¹An Essay on Death 307 THE WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS; A SERIES OF MYTHOLOGICAL FABLES. ⁸²Preface 317 1. ⁸³Cassandra, or Divination. ⁸⁴Explained of too free and unseasonable Advice 323 2. ⁸⁵Typhon, or a Rebel. ⁸⁶Explained of Rebellion 324 3. ⁸⁷The Cyclops, or the Ministers of Terror. ⁸⁸Explained of base Court Officers 327 4. ⁸⁹Narcissus, or Self-Love 329 5. ⁹⁰The River Styx, or Leagues. ⁹¹Explained of Necessity, in the Oaths or Solemn Leagues of Princes 331 6. ⁹²Pan, or Nature. ⁹³Explained of Natural Philosophy 333 7. ⁹⁴Perseus, or War. ⁹⁵Explained of the Preparation and Conduct necessary to War 343 8. ⁹⁶Endymion, or a Favorite. ⁹⁷Explained of Court Favorites 348 9. ⁹⁸The Sister of the Giants, or Fame. ⁹⁹Explained of Public Detraction 350 10. ¹⁰⁰Acteon and Pentheus, or a Curious Man. ¹⁰¹Explained of Curiosity, or Prying into the Secrets of Princes and Divine Mysteries 351 11. ¹⁰²Orpheus, or Philosophy. ¹⁰³Explained of Natural and Moral Philosophy 353 12. ¹⁰⁴Cœlum, or Beginnings. ¹⁰⁵Explained of the Creation, or Origin of all Things 357 13. ¹⁰⁶Proteus, or Matter. ¹⁰⁷Explained of Matter and its Changes 360 14. ¹⁰⁸Memnon, or a Youth too forward. ¹⁰⁹Explained of the fatal Precipitancy of Youth 363 15. ¹¹⁰Tythonus, or Satiety. ¹¹¹Explained of Predominant Passions 364 16. ¹¹²Juno’s Suitor, or Baseness. ¹¹³Explained of Submission and Abjection 365 17. ¹¹⁴Cupid, or an Atom. ¹¹⁵Explained of the Corpuscular Philosophy 366 18. ¹¹⁶Diomed, or Zeal. ¹¹⁷Explained of Persecution, or Zeal for Religion 371 19. ¹¹⁸Dædalus, or Mechanical Skill. ¹¹⁹Explained of Arts and Artists in Kingdoms and States 374 20. ¹²⁰Ericthonius, or Imposture. ¹²¹Explained of the improper Use of Force in Natural Philosophy 378 21. ¹²²Deucalion, or Restitution. ¹²³Explained of a useful Hint in Natural Philosophy 379 22. ¹²⁴Nemesis, or the Vicissitude of Things. ¹²⁵Explained of the Reverses of Fortune 380 23. ¹²⁶Achelous, or Battle. ¹²⁷Explained of War by Invasion 383 24. ¹²⁸Dionysus, or Bacchus. ¹²⁹Explained of the Passions 384 25. ¹³⁰Atalanta and Hippomenes, or Gain. ¹³¹Explained of the Contest betwixt Art and Nature 389 26. ¹³²Prometheus, or the State of Man. ¹³³Explained of an Overruling Providence, and of Human Nature 391 27. ¹³⁴Icarus and Scylla and Charybdis, or the Middle Way. ¹³⁵Explained of Mediocrity in Natural and Moral Philosophy 407 28. ¹³⁶Sphinx, or Science. ¹³⁷Explained of the Sciences 409 29. ¹³⁸Proserpine, or Spirit. ¹³⁹Explained of the Spirit included in Natural Bodies 413 30. ¹⁴⁰Metis, or Counsel. ¹⁴¹Explained of Princes and their Council 419 31. ¹⁴²The Sirens, or Pleasures. ¹⁴³Explained of Men’s Passion for Pleasures 420 PREFACE. ¹⁴⁴In the early part of the year 1597, Lord Bacon’s first publication appeared. ¹⁴⁵It is a small 12mo. volume, entitled “Essayes, Religious Meditations, Places of Perswasion and Disswasion.” ¹⁴⁶It is dedicated “_To M. ¹⁴⁷Anthony Bacon, his deare Brother_. ¹⁴⁸“Louing and beloued Brother, I doe nowe like some that have an Orcharde ill Neighbored, that gather their Fruit before it is ripe, to preuent stealing. ¹⁴⁹These Fragments of my Conceites were going to print, To labour the staie of them had bin troublesome, and subiect to interpretation; to let them passe had beene to aduenture the wrong they mought receiue by vntrue Coppies, or by some Garnishment, which it mought please any that should set them forth to bestow vpon them. ¹⁵⁰Therefore I helde it best as they passed long agoe from my Pen, without any further disgrace, then the weaknesse of the Author. ¹⁵¹And as I did euer hold, there mought be as great a vanitie in retiring and withdrawing mens conceites (except they bee of some nature) from the World, as in obtruding them: So in these particulars I haue played myself the Inquisitor, and find nothing to my vnderstanding in them contrarie or infectious to the state of Religion, or Manners, but rather (as I suppose) medecinable. ¹⁵²Only I disliked now to put them out, because they will be like the late new Halfepence, which, though the Siluer were good, yet the Peeces were small. ¹⁵³But since they would not stay with their Master, but would needes trauaile abroade, I haue preferred them to you that are next my selfe, Dedicating them, such as they are, to our Loue, in the depth whereof (I assure you) I sometimes wish your Infirmities translated vppon my selfe, that her Maiestie mought haue the Seruice of so actiue and able a Mind, and I mought be with excuse confined to these Contemplations and Studies for which I am fittest, so commend I you to the Preseruation of the Diuine Maiestie: From my Chamber at Graies Inne, this 30 of Januarie, 1597. ¹⁵⁴Your entire Louing Brother, FRAN. ¹⁵⁵BACON.” ¹⁵⁶The Essays, which are ten in number, abound with condensed thought and practical wisdom, neatly, pressly, and weightily stated, and, like all his early works, are simple, without imagery. ¹⁵⁷They are written in his favorite style of aphorisms, although each essay is apparently a continued work, and without that love of antithesis and false glitter to which truth and justness of thought are frequently sacrificed by the writers of maxims. ¹⁵⁸A second edition, with a translation of the _Meditationes Sacræ_, was published in the next year; and another edition enlarged in 1612, when he was solicitor-general, containing thirty-eight essays; and one still more enlarged in 1625, containing fifty-eight essays, the year before his death. ¹⁵⁹The Essays in the subsequent editions are much augmented, according to his own words: “I always alter when I add, so that nothing is finished till all is finished,” and they are adorned by happy and familiar illustration, as in the essay of Wisdom for a Man’s Self, which concludes, in the edition of 1625, with the following extract, not to be found in the previous edition: “Wisdom for a man’s self is, in many branches thereof, a depraved thing. ¹⁶⁰It is the wisdom of rats, that will be sure to leave a house somewhat before it fall. ¹⁶¹It is the wisdom of the fox, that thrusts out the badger, who digged and made room for him. ¹⁶²It is the wisdom of crocodiles, that shed tears when they would devour. ¹⁶³But that which is specially to be noted is, that those which (as Cicero says of Pompey) are _Sui Amantes sine Rivali_ are many times unfortunate. ¹⁶⁴And whereas they have all their time sacrificed to themselves, they become in the end themselves sacrifices to the inconstancy of Fortune, whose wings they thought, by their self wisdom, to have pinioned.” ¹⁶⁵So in the essay upon Adversity, on which he had deeply reflected before the edition of 1625, when it first appeared, he says: “The virtue of prosperity is temperance; the virtue of adversity is fortitude; which in morals is the more heroical virtue. ¹⁶⁶Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New, which carrieth the great benediction, and the clearer revelation of God’s favor. ¹⁶⁷Yet, even in the Old Testament, if you listen to David’s harp, you shall hear as many hearse-like airs as carols; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon. ¹⁶⁸Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes, and adversity is not without comforts and hopes. ¹⁶⁹We see in needle-works and embroideries, it is more pleasing to have a lively work upon a sad and solemn ground than to have a dark and melancholy work upon a lightsome ground; judge, therefore, of the pleasure of the heart by the pleasure of the eye. ¹⁷⁰Certainly, virtue is like precious odors, most fragrant when they are incensed, or crushed; for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.” ¹⁷¹The Essays were immediately translated into French and Italian, and into Latin, by some of his friends, amongst whom were Hacket, Bishop of Lichfield, and his constant, affectionate friend, Ben Jonson. ¹⁷²His own estimate of the value of this work is thus stated in his letter to the Bishop of Winchester: “As for my Essays, and some other particulars of that nature, I count them but as the recreations of my other studies, and in that manner purpose to continue them; though I am not ignorant that these kind of writings would, with less pains and assiduity, perhaps yield more lustre and reputation to my name than the others I have in hand.” ¹⁷³Although it was not likely that such lustre and reputation would dazzle him, the admirer of Phocion, who, when applauded, turned to one of his friends, and asked, “What have I said amiss?” ¹⁷⁴although popular judgment was not likely to mislead him who concludes his observations upon the objections to learning and the advantages of knowledge by saying: “Nevertheless, I do not pretend, and I know it will be impossible for me, by any pleading of mine, to reverse the judgment either of Æsop’s cock, that preferred the barleycorn before the gem; or of Midas, that being chosen judge between Apollo, president of the Muses, and Pan, god of the flocks, judged for plenty; or of Paris, that judged for beauty and love against wisdom and power. ¹⁷⁵For these things continue as they have been; but so will that also continue whereupon learning hath ever relied and which faileth not, _Justificata est sapientia a filiis suis_:” yet he seems to have undervalued this little work, which for two centuries has been favorably received by every lover of knowledge and of beauty, and is now so well appreciated that a celebrated professor of our own times truly says: “The small volume to which he has given the title of ‘Essays,’ the best known and the most popular of all his works, is one of those where the superiority of his genius appears to the greatest advantage, the novelty and depth of his reflections often receiving a strong relief from the triteness of the subject. ¹⁷⁶It may be read from beginning to end in a few hours; and yet after the twentieth perusal one seldom fails to remark in it something overlooked before. ¹⁷⁷This, indeed, is a characteristic of all Bacon’s writings, and is only to be accounted for by the inexhaustible aliment they furnish to our own thoughts and the sympathetic activity they impart to our torpid faculties.” ¹⁷⁸During his life six or more editions, which seem to have been pirated, were published; and after his death, two spurious essays, “Of Death,” and “Of a King,” the only authentic posthumous essay being the Fragment of an Essay on Fame, which was published by his friend and chaplain, Dr. ¹⁷⁹Rawley. ¹⁸⁰This edition is a transcript of the edition of 1625, with the posthumous essays. ¹⁸¹In the life of Bacon[1] there is a minute account of the different editions of the Essays and of their contents. ¹⁸²They may shortly be stated as follows:— First edition, 1597, genuine. ¹⁸³There are two copies of this edition in the university library at Cambridge; and there is Archbishop Sancroft’s copy in Emanuel Library; there is a copy in the Bodleian, and I have a copy. ¹⁸⁴Second edition, 1598, genuine. ¹⁸⁵Third edition, 1606, pirated. ¹⁸⁶Fourth edition, entitled “The Essaies of Sir Francis Bacon, Knight, the Kings Solliciter Generall. ¹⁸⁷Imprinted at London by Iohn Beale, 1612,” genuine. ¹⁸⁸It was the intention of Sir Francis to have dedicated this edition to Henry, Prince of Wales; but he was prevented by the death of the prince on the 6th of November in that year. ¹⁸⁹This appears by the following letter:— _To the Most High and Excellent Prince, Henry, Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, and Earl of Chester. ¹⁹⁰_ It may please your Highness: Having divided my life into the contemplative and active part, I am desirous to give his Majesty and your Highness of the fruits of both, simple though they be. ¹⁹¹To write just treatises, requireth leisure in the writer and leisure in the reader, and therefore are not so fit, neither in regard of your Highness’s princely affairs nor in regard of my continual service; which is the cause that hath made me choose to write certain brief notes, set down rather significantly than curiously, which I have called Essays. ¹⁹²The word is late, but the thing is ancient; for Seneca’s Epistles to Lucilius, if you mark them well, are but Essays; that is, dispersed meditations though conveyed in the form of epistles. ¹⁹³These labors of mine, I know, cannot be worthy of your Highness, for what can be worthy of you? ¹⁹⁴But my hope is, they may be as grains of salt, that will rather give you an appetite than offend you with satiety. ¹⁹⁵And although they handle those things wherein both men’s lives and their persons are most conversant; yet what I have attained I know not; but I have endeavored to make them not vulgar, but of a nature whereof a man shall find much in experience and little in books; so as they are neither repetitions nor fancies. ¹⁹⁶But, however, I shall most humbly desire your Highness to accept them in gracious part, and to conceive, that if I cannot rest but must show my dutiful and devoted affection to your Highness in these things which proceed from myself, I shall be much more ready to do it in performance of any of your princely commandments. ¹⁹⁷And so wishing your Highness all princely felicity, I rest your Highness’s most humble servant, 1612. ¹⁹⁸FR. ¹⁹⁹BACON. ²⁰⁰It was dedicated as follows:— _To my loving Brother, Sir John Constable, Knt. ²⁰¹_ My last Essaies I dedicated to my deare brother Master Anthony Bacon, who is with God. ²⁰²Looking amongst my Papers this vacation, I found others of the same nature: which, if I myselfe shall not suffer to be lost, it seemeth the World will not; by the often printing of the former. ²⁰³Missing my Brother, I found you next; in respect of bond both of neare Alliance, and of straight Friendship and Societie, and particularly of communication in Studies. ²⁰⁴Wherein I must acknowledge my selfe beholding to you. ²⁰⁵For as my Businesse found rest in my Contemplations, so my Contemplations ever found rest in your loving Conference and Judgment. ²⁰⁶So wishing you all good, I remaine your louing Brother and Friend, FRA. ²⁰⁷BACON. ²⁰⁸Fifth edition, 1612, pirated. ²⁰⁹Sixth edition, 1613, pirated. ²¹⁰Seventh edition, 1624, pirated. ²¹¹Eighth edition, 1624, pirated. ²¹²Ninth edition, entitled, “The Essayes or Covnsels, Civill and Morall, of Francis Lo. ²¹³Vervlam, Viscovnt St. ²¹⁴Alban. ²¹⁵Newly enlarged. ²¹⁶London, Printed by Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret and Richard Whitaker, and are to be sold at the Signe of the King’s Head in Paul’s Churchyard.” 1625, genuine. ²¹⁷This edition is a small quarto of 340 pages; it clearly was published by Lord Bacon; and in the next year, 1626, Lord Bacon died. ²¹⁸The Dedication is as follows, to the Duke of Buckingham:— _To the Right Honorable my very good Lo. the Duke of Buckingham his Grace, Lo. ²¹⁹High Admirall of England. ²²⁰_ EXCELLENT LO.:—Salomon saies, A good Name is as a precious Oyntment; and I assure myselfe, such wil your Grace’s Name bee, with Posteritie. ²²¹For your Fortune and Merit both, haue beene eminent. ²²²And you haue planted things that are like to last. ²²³I doe now publish my Essayes; which, of all my other Workes, have beene most currant: for that, as it seemes, they come home to Mens Businesse and Bosomes. ²²⁴I haue enlarged them both in number and weight, so that they are indeed a new Work. ²²⁵I thought it therefore agreeable to my Affection, and Obligation to your Grace, to prefix your Name before them, both in English and in Latine. ²²⁶For I doe conceiue, that the Latine Volume of them (being in the vniuersal language) may last as long as Bookes last. ²²⁷My Instauration I dedicated to the King: my Historie of Henry the Seventh (which I haue now also translated into Latine), and my Portions of Naturall History, to the Prince: and these I dedicate to your Grace: being of the best Fruits, that by the good encrease which God gives to my pen and labours, I could yeeld. ²²⁸God leade your Grace by the Hand. ²²⁹Your Graces most obliged and faithfull Seruant. ²³⁰FR. ²³¹ST. ²³²ALBAN. ²³³Of this edition, Lord Bacon sent a copy to the Marquis Fiat, with the following letter:[2]— “MONSIEUR L’AMBASSADEUR MON FILZ: Voyant que vostre Excellence faict et traite Mariages, non seulement entre les Princes d’Angleterre et de France, mais aussi entre les langues (puis que faictes traduire mon Liure de l’Advancement des Sciences en Francois) i’ai bien voulu vous envoyer mon Liure dernierement imprimé que i’avois pourveu pour vous, mais i’estois en doubte, de le vous envoyer, pour ce qu’il estoit escrit en Anglois. ²³⁴Mais a’ cest’heure pour la raison susdicte ie le vous envoye. ²³⁵C’est un Recompilement de mes Essays Morales et Civiles; mais tellement enlargiés et enrichiés, tant de nombre que de poix, que c’est de fait un ouvre nouveau. ²³⁶Ie vous baise les mains, et reste vostre tres affectionée Ami, et tres humble Serviteur. ²³⁷THE SAME IN ENGLISH. ²³⁸MY LORD AMBASSADOR, MY SON: Seeing that your Excellency makes and treats of Marriages, not only betwixt the Princes of France and England, but also betwixt their languages (for you have caused my book of the Advancement of Learning to be translated into French), I was much inclined to make you a present of the last book which I published, and which I had in readiness for you. ²³⁹I was sometimes in doubt whether I ought to have sent it to you, because it was written in the English tongue. ²⁴⁰But now, for that very reason, I send it to you. ²⁴¹It is a recompilement of my Essays Moral and Civil; but in such manner enlarged and enriched both in number and weight, that it is in effect a new work. ²⁴²I kiss your hands, and remain your most affectionate friend and most humble servant, &c. ²⁴³Of the translation of the Essays into Latin, Bacon speaks in the following letter:— “TO MR. ²⁴⁴TOBIE MATHEW: It is true my labors are now most set to have those works which I had formerly published, as that of Advancement of Learning, that of Henry VII., that of the Essays, being retractate and made more perfect, well translated into Latin by the help of some good pens which forsake me not. ²⁴⁵For these modern languages will, at one time or other, play the bankrupt with books; and since I have lost much time with this age, I would be glad, as God shall give me leave, to recover it with posterity. ²⁴⁶For the Essay of Friendship, while I took your speech of it for a cursory request, I took my promise for a compliment. ²⁴⁷But since you call for it, I shall perform it.” ²⁴⁸In his letter to Father Fulgentio, giving some account of his writings, he says:— “The _Novum Organum_ should immediately follow; but my moral and political writings step in between as being more finished. ²⁴⁹These are, the History of King Henry VII., and the small book, which, in your language, you have called _Saggi Morali_, but I give it a graver title, that of _Sermones Fideles_, or _Interiora Rerum_, and these Essays will not only be enlarged in number, but still more in substance.” ²⁵⁰The nature of the Latin edition, and of the Essays in general, is thus stated by Archbishop Tenison:— “The Essays, or Counsels Civil and Moral, though a by-work also, do yet make up a book of greater weight by far than the Apothegms; and coming home to men’s business and bosoms, his lordship entertained this persuasion concerning them, that the Latin volume might last as long as books should last. ²⁵¹His lordship wrote them in the English tongue, and enlarged them as occasion served, and at last added to them the Colors of Good and Evil, which are likewise found in his book _De Augmentis_. ²⁵²The Latin translation of them was a work performed by divers hands: by those of Dr. ²⁵³Hacket (late Bishop of Lichfield), Mr. ²⁵⁴Benjamin Jonson (the learned and judicious poet,) and some others, whose names I once heard from Dr. ²⁵⁵Rawley, but I cannot now recall them. ²⁵⁶To this Latin edition he gave the title of _Sermones Fideles_, after the manner of the Jews, who called the words Adagies, or Observations of the Wise, Faithful Sayings; that is, credible propositions worthy of firm assent and ready acceptance. ²⁵⁷And (as I think), he alluded more particularly, in this title, to a passage in _Ecclesiastes_, where the preacher saith, that he sought to find out _Verba Delectabilia_ (as Tremellius rendereth the Hebrew), pleasant words; (that is, perhaps, his Book of Canticles;) and _Verba Fidelia_ (as the same Tremellius), Faithful Sayings; meaning, it may be, his collection of Proverbs. ²⁵⁸In the next verse, he calls them Words of the Wise, and so many goads and nails given _ab eodem pastore_, from the same shepherd [of the flock of Israel”]. ²⁵⁹In the year 1638, Rawley published, in folio, a volume containing, amongst other works, _Sermones Fideles, ab ipso Honoratissimo Auctore, præterquam in paucis, Latinitate donati_. ²⁶⁰In his address to the reader, he says:— _Accedunt, quas priùs_ Delibationes Civiles _et_ Morales _inscripserat; Quas etiam in Linguas plurimas Modernas translatas esse novit; sed eas posteà, et Numero, et Pondere, auxit; In tantum, ut veluti Opus Novum videri possint; Quas mutato Titulo_, Sermones Fideles, _sive_ Interiora Rerum, _inscribi placuit_. ²⁶¹The title-page and dedication are annexed: _Sermones Fideles sive Interiora Rerum. ²⁶²Per Franciscum Baconum Baronem de Vervlamio, Vice-Comitem Sancti Albani. ²⁶³Londini Excusum typis Edwardi Griffin. ²⁶⁴Prostant ad Insignia Regia in Cœmeterio D. ²⁶⁵Pauli, apud Richardum Whitakerum_, 1638. ²⁶⁶Illustri et Excellenti Domino _Georgio_ Duci _Buckinghamiæ_, Summo _Angliæ_ Admirallio. ²⁶⁷_Honoratissime Domine_, _Salomon_ inquit, _Nomen bonum est instar Vnguenti fragrantis et pretiosi_; Neque dubito, quin tale futurum sit _Nomen_ tuum apud Posteros. ²⁶⁸Etenim et Fortuna, et Merita tua, præcelluerunt. ²⁶⁹Et videris ea plantasse, quæ sint duratura. ²⁷⁰In lucem jam edere mihi visum est _Delibationes meas_, quæ ex omnibus meis Operibus fuerunt acceptissimæ: Quia forsitan videntur, præ cæteris, _Hominum_ Negotia stringere, et in sinus fluere. ²⁷¹Eas autem auxi, et Numero, et Pondere; In tantum, ut planè Opus Novum sint. ²⁷²Consentaneum igitur duxi, Affectui, et Obligationi meæ, erga _Illustrissimam Dominationem_ tuam, ut _Nomen_ tuum illis præfigam, tam in _Editione Anglicâ_, quam _Latinâ_. ²⁷³Etenim, in bonâ spe sum, Volumen earum in _Latinam_ (_Linguam_ scilicet universalem), versum, posse durare, quamdiù _Libri_ et _Literæ_ durent. ²⁷⁴_Instaurationem_ meam _Regi_ dicavi: _Historiam Regni Henrici Septimi_ (quam etiam in _Latinum_ verti et Portiones meas _Naturalis Historiæ_, _Principi_): Has autem _Delibationes Illustrissimæ Dominationi_ tuæ dico, Cùm sint, ex Fructibus optimis, quos Gratia divinâ Calami mei laboribus indulgente, exhibere potui. ²⁷⁵_Deus illustrissimam Dominationem_ tuam manu ducat. ²⁷⁶_Illustrissimæ Dominationis_ tuæ Servus Devinctissimus et Fidelis. ²⁷⁷FR. ²⁷⁸ALBAN. ²⁷⁹In the year 1618, the Essays, together with the Wisdom of the Ancients, was translated into Italian, and dedicated to _Cosmo de Medici_, by Tobie Mathew; and in the following year the Essays were translated into French by Sir Arthur Gorges, and printed in London. ²⁸⁰WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS. ²⁸¹In the year 1609, as a relaxation from abstruse speculations, he published in Latin his interesting little work, _De Sapientia Veterum_. ²⁸²This tract seems, in former times, to have been much valued. ²⁸³The fables, abounding with a union of deep thought and poetic beauty, are thirty-one in number, of which a part of The Sirens, or Pleasures, may be selected as a specimen. ²⁸⁴In this fable he explains the common but erroneous supposition that knowledge and the conformity of the will, knowing and acting, are convertible terms. ²⁸⁵Of this error, he, in his essay of Custom and Education, admonishes his readers, by saying: “Men’s thoughts are much according to their inclination; their discourse and speeches according to their learning and infused opinions, but their deeds are after as they have been accustomed; Æsop’s Damsel, transformed from a cat to a woman, sat very demurely at the board-end till a mouse ran before her.” ²⁸⁶In the fable of the Sirens he exhibits the same truth, saying: “The habitation of the Sirens was in certain pleasant islands, from whence, as soon as out of their watchtower they discovered any ships approaching, with their sweet tunes they would first entice and stay them, and, having them in their power, would destroy them; and, so great were the mischiefs they did, that these isles of the Sirens, even as far off as man can ken them, appeared all over white with the bones of unburied carcasses; by which it is signified that albeit the examples of afflictions be manifest and eminent, yet they do not sufficiently deter us from the wicked enticements of pleasure.” ²⁸⁷The following is the account of the different editions of this work: The first was published in 1609. ²⁸⁸In February 27, 1610, Lord Bacon wrote to Mr. ²⁸⁹Mathew, upon sending his book _De Sapientia Veterum_:— “MR. ²⁹⁰MATHEW: I do very heartily thank you for your letter of the 24th of August, from Salamanca; and in recompense therefore I send you a little work of mine that hath begun to pass the world. ²⁹¹They tell me my Latin is turned into silver, and become current: had you been here, you should have been my inquisitor before it came forth; but, I think, the greatest inquisitor in Spain will allow it. ²⁹²But one thing you must pardon me if I make no haste to believe, that the world should be grown to such an ecstasy as to reject truth in philosophy, because the author dissenteth in religion; no more than they do by Aristotle or Averroes. ²⁹³My great work goeth forward; and after my manner, I alter even when I add; so that nothing is finished till all be finished. ²⁹⁴This I have written in the midst of a term and parliament; thinking no time so possessed, but that I should talk of these matters with so good and dear a friend. ²⁹⁵And so with my wonted wishes I leave you to God’s goodness. ²⁹⁶“From Gray’s Inn, Feb. ²⁹⁷27, 1610.” ²⁹⁸And in his letter to Father Fulgentio, giving some account of his writings, he says: “My Essays will not only be enlarged in number, but still more in substance. ²⁹⁹Along with them goes the little piece _De Sapientia Veterum_.” ³⁰⁰In the Advancement of Learning he says:— “There remaineth yet another use of poesy parabolical, opposite to that which we last mentioned; for that tendeth to demonstrate and illustrate that which is taught or delivered, and this other to retire and obscure it; that is, when the secrets and mysteries of religion, policy, or philosophy are involved in fables or parables. ³⁰¹Of this in divine poesy we see the use is authorized. ³⁰²In heathen poesy we see the exposition of fables doth fall out sometimes with great felicity; as in the fable that the giants being overthrown in their war against the gods, the earth, their mother, in revenge thereof brought forth Fame,— _Illam Terra parens, irâ irritata Deorum,_ _Extremam, ut perhibent, Cœo Enceladoque sororem_ _Progenuit,_ expounded, that when princes and monarchs have suppressed actual and open rebels, then the malignity of the people, which is the mother of rebellion, doth bring forth libels and slanders, and taxations of the State, which is of the same kind with rebellion, but more feminine. ³⁰³So in the fable, that the rest of the gods having conspired to bind Jupiter, Pallas called Briareus, with his hundred hands, to his aid; expounded, that monarchies need not fear any curbing of their absoluteness by mighty subjects, as long as by wisdom they keep the hearts of the people, who will be sure to come in on their side. ³⁰⁴So in the fable, that Achilles was brought up under Chiron, the centaur, who was part a man and part a beast, expounded ingeniously, but corruptly by Machiavel, that it belongeth to the education and discipline of princes to know as well how to play the part of the lion in violence, and the fox in guile, as of the man in virtue and justice. ³⁰⁵Nevertheless, in many the like encounters, I do rather think that the fable was first, and the exposition then devised, than that the moral was first, and thereupon the fable framed. ³⁰⁶For I find it was an ancient vanity in Chrysippus, that troubled himself with great contention to fasten the assertions of the stoics upon the fictions of the ancient poets; but yet that all the fables and fictions of the poets were but pleasure, and not figure, I interpose no opinion. ³⁰⁷Surely, of those poets which are now extant, even Homer himself (notwithstanding he was made a kind of Scripture by the latter schools of the Grecians), yet I should without any difficulty pronounce that his fables had no such inwardness in his own meaning; but what they might have upon a more original tradition, is not easy to affirm; for he was not the inventor of many of them.” ³⁰⁸In the treatise _De Augmentis_ the same sentiments will be found, with a slight alteration in the expressions. ³⁰⁹He says:— “There is another use of parabolical poesy opposite to the former, which tendeth to the folding up of those things, the dignity whereof deserves to be retired and distinguished, as with a drawn curtain; that is, when the secrets and mysteries of religion, policy, and philosophy are veiled and invested with fables and parables. ³¹⁰But whether there be any mystical sense couched under the ancient fables of the poets, may admit some doubt; and, indeed, for our part, we incline to this opinion, as to think that there was an infused mystery in many of the ancient fables of the poets. ³¹¹Neither doth it move us that these matters are left commonly to school-boys and grammarians, and so are embased, that we should therefore make a slight judgment upon them, but contrariwise, because it is clear that the writings which recite those fables, of all the writings of men, next to sacred writ, are the most ancient; and that the fables themselves are far more ancient than they (being they are alleged by those writers, not as excogitated by them, but as credited and recepted before) seem to be, like a thin rarefied air, which, from the traditions of more ancient nations, fell into the flutes of the Grecians.” ³¹²Of this tract, Archbishop Tenison, in his _Baconiana_, says:— “In the seventh place, I may reckon his book _De Sapientia Veterum_, written by him in Latin, and set forth a second time with enlargement; and translated into English by Sir Arthur Gorges; a book in which the sages of former times are rendered more wise than it may be they were, by so dexterous an interpreter of their fables. ³¹³It is this book which Mr. ³¹⁴Sandys means, in those words which he hath put before his notes on the Metamorphosis of Ovid. ³¹⁵‘Of modern writers, I have received the greatest light from Geraldus, Pontanus, Ficinus, Vives, Comes, Scaliger, Sabinus, Pierius, and the crown of the latter, the Viscount of St. ³¹⁶Albans.’ ³¹⁷“It is true, the design of this book was instruction in natural and civil matters, either couched by the ancients under those fictions, or rather made to seem to be so by his lordship’s wit, in the opening and applying of them. ³¹⁸But because the first ground of it is poetical story, therefore, let it have this place till a fitter be found for it.” ³¹⁹The author of Bacon’s Life, in the _Biographia Britannica_, says:— “That he might relieve himself a little from the severity of these studies, and, as it were, amuse himself with erecting a magnificent pavilion, while his great palace of philosophy was building, he composed and sent abroad, in 1610, his celebrated treatise of the Wisdom of the Ancients, in which he showed that none had studied them more closely, was better acquainted with their beauties, or had pierced deeper into their meaning. ³²⁰There have been very few books published, either in this or any other nation, which either deserved or met with more general applause than this, and scarce any that are like to retain it longer, for in this performance Sir Francis Bacon gave a singular proof of his capacity to please all parties in literature, as in his political conduct he stood fair with all the parties in the nation. ³²¹The admirers of antiquity were charmed with this discourse, which seems expressly calculated to justify their admiration; and, on the other hand, their opposites were no less pleased with a piece from which they thought they could demonstrate that the sagacity of a modern genius had found out much better meanings for the ancients than ever were meant by them.” ³²²And Mallet, in his Life of Bacon, says:— “In 1610 he published another treatise, entitled, Of the Wisdom of the Ancients. ³²³This work bears the same stamp of an original and inventive genius with his other performances. ³²⁴Resolving not to tread in the steps of those who had gone before him, men, according to his own expression, not learned beyond certain commonplaces, he strikes out a new tract for himself, and enters into the most secret recesses of this wild and shadowy region, so as to appear new on a known and beaten subject. ³²⁵Upon the whole, if we cannot bring ourselves readily to believe that there is all the physical, moral, and political meaning veiled under those fables of antiquity, which he has discovered in them, we must own that it required no common penetration to be mistaken with so great an appearance of probability on his side. ³²⁶Though it still remains doubtful whether the ancients were so knowing as he attempts to show they were, the variety and depth of his own knowledge are, in that very attempt, unquestionable.” ³²⁷In the year 1619 this tract was translated by Sir Arthur Gorges. ³²⁸Prefixed to the work are two letters; the one to the Earl of Salisbury, the other to the University of Cambridge, which Gorges omits, and dedicates his translation to the high and illustrious princess the Lady Elizabeth of Great Britain, Duchess of Baviare, Countess Palatine of Rheine, and chief electress of the empire. ³²⁹This translation, it should be noted, was published during the life of Lord Bacon by a great admirer of his works. ³³⁰The editions of this work with which I am acquainted are:— Year. ³³¹Language. ³³²Printer. ³³³Place. ³³⁴Size. ³³⁵1609 Latin, R. ³³⁶Barker, London, 12mo. ³³⁷1617 ” J. ³³⁸Bill, ” ” 1618 Italian, G. ³³⁹Bill, ” ” 1619 English, J. ³⁴⁰Bill, ” ” 1620 ” ” ” ” 1633 Latin, F. ³⁴¹Maire, Lug. ³⁴²Bat., ” 1634 ” F. ³⁴³Kingston, London, ” 1638 ” E. ³⁴⁴Griffin, ” Folio. ³⁴⁵1691 ” H. ³⁴⁶Wetstein, Amsterdam, 12mo. ³⁴⁷1804 French, H. ³⁴⁸Frantin, Dijon, 8vo. ³⁴⁹NOTICE OF FRANCIS BACON. ³⁵⁰Francis Bacon, the subject of the following memoir, was the youngest son of highly remarkable parents. ³⁵¹His father, Sir Nicholas Bacon, was an eminent lawyer, and for twenty years Keeper of the Seals and Privy Counsellor to Queen Elizabeth. ³⁵²Sir Nicholas was styled by Camden _sacris conciliis alterum columen_; he was the author of some unpublished discourses on law and politics, and of a commentary on the minor prophets. ³⁵³He discharged the duties of his high office with exemplary propriety and wisdom; he preserved through life the integrity of a good man, and the moderation and simplicity of a great one. ³⁵⁴He had inscribed over the entrance of his hall, at Gorhambury, the motto, _mediocria firma_; and when the Queen, in a progress, paid him a visit there, she remarked to him that his house was too small for him. ³⁵⁵“Madam,” answered the Lord Keeper, “my house is well, but it is you that have made me too great for my house.” ³⁵⁶This anecdote has been preserved by his son,[3] who, had he as carefully retained the lesson of practical wisdom it contained, might have avoided the misfortunes and sorrows of his checkered life. ³⁵⁷Bacon’s mother, Anne Cooke, was the daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke, tutor to King Edward the Sixth; like the young ladies of her time, like Lady Jane Grey, like Queen Elizabeth, she received an excellent classical education; her sister, Lady Burleigh, was pronounced by Roger Ascham, Queen Elizabeth’s preceptor, to be, with the exception of Lady Jane Grey, the best Greek scholar among the young women of England.[ ³⁵⁸4] Anne Cooke, the future Lady Bacon, corresponded in Greek with Bishop Jewel, and translated from the Latin this divine’s _Apologia_; a task which she performed so well that it is said the good prelate could not discover an inaccuracy or suggest an alteration. ³⁵⁹She also translated from the Italian a volume of sermons on fate and freewill, written by Bernardo Ochino, an Italian reformer. ³⁶⁰Francis Bacon, the youngest of five sons, inherited the classical learning and taste of both his parents. ³⁶¹He was born at York House, in the Strand, London, on the 22d of January, 1560-61. ³⁶²His health, when he was a boy, was delicate; a circumstance which may perhaps account for his early love of sedentary pursuits, and probably the early gravity of his demeanor. ³⁶³Queen Elizabeth, he tells us, took particular delight in “trying him with questions,” when he was quite a child, and was so much pleased with the sense and manliness of his answers that she used jocularly to call him “her young Lord Keeper of the Seals.” ³⁶⁴Bacon himself relates that while he was a boy, the Queen once asked him his age; the precocious courtier readily replied that he “was just two years younger than her happy reign.” ³⁶⁵He is said, also, when very young, to have stolen away from his playfellows in order to investigate the cause of a singular echo in St. ³⁶⁶James’s Fields, which attracted his attention. ³⁶⁷Until the age of thirteen he remained under the tuition of his accomplished mother, aided by a private tutor only; under their care he attained the elements of the classics, that education preliminary to the studies of the University. ³⁶⁸At thirteen he was sent to Trinity College, Cambridge, where his father had been educated. ³⁶⁹Here he studied diligently the great models of antiquity, mathematics, and philosophy, worshipped, however, but indevoutly at the shrine of Aristotle, whom, according to Rawley, his chaplain and biographer, he already derided “for the unfruitfulness of the way,—being only strong for disputation, but barren of the production of works for the life of man.” ³⁷⁰He remained three years at this seat of learning, without, however, taking a degree at his departure. ³⁷¹When he was but sixteen years old he began his travels, the indispensable end of every finished education in England. ³⁷²He repaired to Paris, where he resided some time under the care of Sir Amyas Paulet, the English minister at the court of France. ³⁷³Here he invented an ingenious method of writing in cipher; an art which he probably cultivated with a view to a diplomatic career. ³⁷⁴He visited several of the provinces of France and of the towns of Italy. ³⁷⁵Italy was then the country in which human knowledge in all its branches was most successfully cultivated. ³⁷⁶It is related by Signor Cancellieri that Bacon, when at Rome, presented himself as a candidate to the Academy of the _Lincei_, and was not admitted.[ ³⁷⁷5] He remained on the continent for three years, until his father’s death, in 1580. ³⁷⁸The melancholy event, which bereft him of his parent, at the age of nineteen, was fatal to his prospects. ³⁷⁹His father had intended to purchase an estate for his youngest son, as he had done for his other sons; but he dying before this intention was realized, the money was equally divided between all the children; so that Francis inherited but one fifth of that fortune intended for him alone. ³⁸⁰He was the only one of the sons that was left unprovided for. ³⁸¹He had now “to study to live,” instead of “living to study.” ³⁸²He wished, to use his own language, “to become a true pioneer in that mine of truth which lies so deep.” ³⁸³He applied to the government for a provision which his father’s interest would easily have secured him, and by which he might dispense with a profession. ³⁸⁴The Queen must have looked with favor upon the son of a minister, who had served her faithfully for twenty long years, and upon a young man whom, when he was a child, she had caressed, she had distinguished by the appellation of her “young Lord Keeper.” ³⁸⁵But Francis Bacon was abandoned, and perhaps opposed by the colleague and nearest friend of his father, the brother-in-law of his mother, his maternal uncle, Lord Burleigh, then Prime Minister, who feared for his son the rivalry of his all-talented nephew. ³⁸⁶It is a trick common to envy and detraction, to convert a man’s very qualities into their concomitant defects; and because Bacon was a great thinker, he was represented as unfit for the active duties of business, as “a man rather of show than of depth,” as “a speculative man, indulging himself in philosophical reveries, and calculated more to perplex than to promote public business.”[ ³⁸⁷6] Thus was the future ornament of his country and of mankind sacrificed to Robert, afterwards Sir Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, of whose history fame has learned but little, save the execution of Essex and Mary Queen of Scots, the name, and this petty act of mean jealousy of his father! ³⁸⁸In the disposal of patronage and place, acts and even motives of this species are not so unfrequent as the world would appear to imagine. ³⁸⁹In all ages, it is to be feared, many and great, as in Shakspeare’s time, are, the spurns That patient merit of th’ unworthy takes. ³⁹⁰It is, however, but justice to the morals of Lord Burleigh, to add that he was insensible to literary merit; he thought a hundred pounds too great a reward to be given to Spenser for what he termed “an old song,” for so he denominated the _Faery Queen_. ³⁹¹Bacon then selected the law as his profession; and in 1580 he was entered of Gray’s Inn;[7] he resisted the temptations of his companions and friends, (for his company was much courted), and diligently pursued the study he had chosen; but he did not at this time entirely lose sight of his philosophical speculations, for he then published his _Temporis partus maximus_, or _The Greatest Birth of Time_. ³⁹²This work, notwithstanding its pompous title, was unnoticed or rather fell stillborn from the press; the sole trace of it is found in one of his letters to Father Fulgentio. ³⁹³In 1586, he was called to the bar; his practice there appears to have been limited, although not without success; for the Queen and the Court are said to have gone to hear him when he was engaged in any celebrated cause. ³⁹⁴He was, at this period of his life, frequently admitted to the Queen’s presence and conversation. ³⁹⁵He was appointed her Majesty’s Counsel Extraordinary,[8] but he had no salary and small fees. ³⁹⁶In 1592, his uncle, the Lord Treasurer, procured for him the reversion of the registrarship of the Star Chamber, worth sixteen hundred pounds (forty thousand francs) a year; but the office did not become vacant till twenty years after, so that, as Bacon justly observes, “it might mend his prospects, but did not fill his barns.” ³⁹⁷A parliament was summoned in 1593, and Bacon was returned to the House of Commons, for the County of Middlesex; he distinguished himself here as a speaker. ³⁹⁸“The fear of every man who heard him,” says his contemporary, Ben Jonson, “was lest he should make an end.” ³⁹⁹He made, however, on one occasion a speech which much displeased the Queen and Court. ⁴⁰⁰Elizabeth directed the Lord Keeper to intimate to him that he must expect neither favor nor promotion; the repentant courtier replied in writing, that “her Majesty’s favor was dearer to him than his life.”[ ⁴⁰¹9] In the following year the situation of Solicitor-General[10] became vacant. ⁴⁰²Bacon ardently aspired to it. ⁴⁰³He applied successively to Lord Burleigh, his uncle, to Lord Puckering, his father’s successor, to the Earl of Essex, their rival, and finally to the Queen herself, accompanying his letters, as was the custom of the times, with a present, a jewel.[ ⁴⁰⁴11] But once more he saw mediocrity preferred, and himself rejected. ⁴⁰⁵A Serjeant Fleming was appointed her Majesty’s Solicitor-General. ⁴⁰⁶Bacon, overwhelmed by this disappointment, wished to retire from public life, and to reside abroad. ⁴⁰⁷“I hoped,” said he in a letter to Sir Robert Cecil, “her Majesty would not be offended that, not able to endure the sun, I fled into the shade.” ⁴⁰⁸The Earl of Essex, whose mind, says Mr. ⁴⁰⁹Macaulay, “naturally disposed to admiration of all that is great and beautiful, was fascinated by the genius and the accomplishments of Bacon,”[12] had exerted every effort in Bacon’s behalf; to use his own language, he “spent all his power, might, authority, and amity;” he now sought to indemnify him, and, with royal munificence, presented him with an estate of the value of nearly two thousand pounds, a sum worth perhaps four or five times the amount in the money of our days. ⁴¹⁰If anything could enhance the benefaction, it was the delicacy with which it was conferred, or, as Bacon himself expresses it, “with so kind and noble circumstances as the manner was worth more than the matter.” ⁴¹¹Bacon published his _Essays_ in 1597; he considered them but as the “recreations of his other studies.” ⁴¹²The idea of them was probably first suggested by Montaigne’s _Essais_, but there is little resemblance between the two works beyond the titles. ⁴¹³The first edition contained but ten Essays, which were shorter than they now are. ⁴¹⁴The work was reprinted in 1598, with little or no variation; again in 1606; and in 1612 there was a fourth edition, etc. ⁴¹⁵However, he afterwards, he says, “enlarged it both in number and weight;” but it did not assume its present form until the ninth edition, in 1625, that is, twenty-eight years after its first publication, and one year before the death of the author. ⁴¹⁶It appeared under the new title of _The Essaies or Covnsels Civill and Morall, of Francis Lo. ⁴¹⁷Vervlam,_ _Viscovnt St. ⁴¹⁸Alban. ⁴¹⁹Newly enlarged. ⁴²⁰_ This is not followed by the _Religious Meditations, Places of Perswasion and Disswasion, seene and allowed_. ⁴²¹The _Essays_ were soon translated into Italian with the title of _Saggi Morali del Signore Francesco Bacono, Cavagliero Inglese, Gran Cancelliero d’ Inghilterra_. ⁴²²This translation was dedicated to Cosmo de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany; and was reprinted in London in 1618. ⁴²³Of the three Essays added after Bacon’s decease, two of them, _Of a King_ and _Of Death_, are not genuine; the _Fragment of an Essay on Fame_ alone is Bacon’s. ⁴²⁴In this same year (1597) he again took his seat in Parliament. ⁴²⁵He soon made ample amends for his opposition speech in the previous session; but this time he gained the favor of the Court without forfeiting his popularity in the House of Commons. ⁴²⁶He now thought of strengthening his interest, or increasing his fortune, by a matrimonial connection; and he sought the hand of a rich widow, Lady Hatton, his second cousin; but here he was again doomed to disappointment; a preference was given to his old rival, the Attorney-General, Sir Edward Coke, notwithstanding the “seven objections to him—his six children and himself.” ⁴²⁷But although Bacon was perhaps unaware of it, the rejection of his suit was one of the happiest events of his life; for the eccentric manners and violent temper of the lady rendered her a torment to all around her, and probably most of all to her husband. ⁴²⁸In reality, as has been wittily observed, the lady was doubly kind to him; “she rejected him, and she accepted his enemy.” ⁴²⁹Another mortification awaited him at this period. ⁴³⁰A relentless creditor, a usurer, had him arrested for a debt of three hundred pounds, and he was conveyed to a spunging-house, where he was confined for a few days, until arrangements could be made to satisfy the claim or the claimant. ⁴³¹We now arrive at a painfully sad point in the life of Bacon; a dark foul spot, which should be hidden forever, did not history, like the magistrate of Egypt that interrogated the dead, demand that the truth, the whole truth, should be told. ⁴³²We have seen that between Bacon and the Earl of Essex, all was disinterested affection on the part of the latter; the Earl employed his good offices for him, exerted heart and soul to insure his success as Solicitor-General, and, on Bacon’s failure, conferred on him a princely favor, a gift of no ordinary value. ⁴³³When Essex’s fortunes declined, and the Earl fell into disgrace, Bacon endeavored to mediate between the Queen and her favorite. ⁴³⁴The case became hopeless. ⁴³⁵Essex left his command in Ireland without leave, was ordered in confinement, and after a long imprisonment and trial before the Privy Council, he was liberated. ⁴³⁶Irritated by the refusal of a favor he solicited, he was betrayed into reflections on the Queen’s age and person, which were never to be forgiven, and he engaged in a conspiracy to seize on the Queen, and to settle a new plan of government. ⁴³⁷On the failure of this attempt, he was arrested, committed to the Tower, and brought to trial for high treason before the House of Peers. ⁴³⁸During his long captivity, who does not expect to see Bacon, his friend, a frequent visitor in his cell? ⁴³⁹Before the two tribunals, can we fail to meet Bacon, his counsel, at his side? ⁴⁴⁰We trace Bacon at Court, where, he assures us, after Elizabeth’s death, that he endeavored to appease and reconcile the Queen; but the place was too distant from the prison: for he never visited there his fallen friend. ⁴⁴¹At the first trial, Bacon did indeed make his appearance, but as “her Majesty’s Counsel extraordinary,” not for the defence, but for the prosecution of the prisoner. ⁴⁴²But he may be expected at least to have treated him leniently? ⁴⁴³He admits he did not, on account, as he tells us, of the “superior duty he owed to the Queen’s fame and honor in a public proceeding.” ⁴⁴⁴But hitherto, the Earl’s liberty alone had been endangered; now, his life is at stake. ⁴⁴⁵Do not the manifold favors, the munificent benefactions all arise in the generous mind of Bacon? ⁴⁴⁶Does he not waive all thought of interest and promotion and worldly honor to devote himself wholly to the sacred task of saving his patron, benefactor, and friend? ⁴⁴⁷Her Majesty’s Counsel extraordinary appeared in the place of the Solicitor-General, to reply to Essex’s defence; he compared the accused first to Cain, then to Pisistratus. ⁴⁴⁸The Earl made a pathetic appeal to his judges; Bacon showed he had not answered his objections, and compared him to the Duke of Guise, the most odious comparison he could have instituted. ⁴⁴⁹Essex was condemned; the Queen wavered in her resolution to execute him; his friend’s intercession might perhaps have been able to save Essex from an ignominious death. ⁴⁵⁰Did Bacon, in his turn, “spend all his power, might, and amity?” ⁴⁵¹The Queen’s Counsel extraordinary might have offended his sovereign by his importunity, and have been forgotten in the impending vacancy of the office of Solicitor-General! ⁴⁵²Essex died on the scaffold. ⁴⁵³But the execution rendered the Queen unpopular, and she was received with mournful silence when she appeared in public. ⁴⁵⁴She ordered a pamphlet to be written to justify the execution; she made choice of Bacon as the writer; the courtier did not decline the task, but published _A Declaration of the Practices and Treasons attempted and committed by Robert, late Earle of Essex and his Complices, against her Maiestie and her Kingdoms_. ⁴⁵⁵This faithless friend, to use the language of Macaulay, “exerted his professional talents to shed the Earl’s blood, and his literary talents to blacken the Earl’s memory.” ⁴⁵⁶The memory of Essex suffered but little from the attack of the pamphlet; the base pamphleteer’s memory is blackened forever, and to his fair name of “the wisest, brightest,” has been appended the “meanest of mankind.” ⁴⁵⁷But let us cast a pall over this act, this moral murder, perpetrated by the now degraded orator, degraded philosopher, the now most degraded of men. ⁴⁵⁸Elizabeth died in 1601; and before the arrival of James, in England, Bacon wrote him a pedantic letter, probably to gratify the taste of the pedant king; but he did not forget in it, “his late dear sovereign Mistress—a princess happy in all things, but most happy—in such a successor.” ⁴⁵⁹Bacon solicited the honor of knighthood, a distinction much lavished at this period. ⁴⁶⁰At the King’s coronation, he knelt down in company with above three hundred gentlemen; but “he rose Sir Francis.” ⁴⁶¹He sought the hand of a rich alderman’s daughter, Miss Barnham, who consented to become Lady Bacon. ⁴⁶²The Earl of Southampton, Shakspeare’s generous patron and friend, who had been convicted of high treason in the late reign, now received the King’s pardon. ⁴⁶³This called to all men’s minds the fate of the unhappy Earl of Essex, and of his odiously ungrateful accuser; the latter unadvisedly published the _Sir Francis Bacon, his Apologie in certaine imputations concerning the late Earle of Essex_; a defence which, in the estimation of one of his biographers, Lord Campbell, has injured him more with posterity than all the attacks of his enemies. ⁴⁶⁴In the new Parliament, he represented the borough of Ipswich; he spoke frequently, and obtained the good graces of the King by the support he gave to James’s favorite plan of a union of England and Scotland; a measure by no means palatable to the King’s new subjects. ⁴⁶⁵The object of all his hopes, the price, perhaps, of his conduct to Essex, seemed in 1606 to be within his reach; but he was once more to be disappointed. ⁴⁶⁶His old enemy, Sir Edward Coke, prevented the vacancy. ⁴⁶⁷The following year, however, after long and humiliating solicitation, he attained the office to which he had so long aspired, and was appointed Solicitor-General to the Crown. ⁴⁶⁸Official advancement was now the object nearest his heart, and he longed to be Attorney-General.[ ⁴⁶⁹13] In 1613, by a master stroke of policy, he created a vacancy for himself as Attorney-General, and managed at the same time to disserve his old enemy, Coke, by getting him preferred in rank, but at the expense of considerable pecuniary loss. ⁴⁷⁰After his new appointment, he was reëlected to his seat in the House of Commons; he had gained so much popularity there, that the House admitted him, although it resolved to exclude future Attorneys-General; a resolution rescinded by later Parliaments. ⁴⁷¹The Attorney-General, as may be supposed, did not lack zeal in his master’s service and for his master’s prerogative. ⁴⁷²One case, in particular, was atrocious. ⁴⁷³An aged clergyman, named Peacham, was prosecuted for high treason for a sermon which he had neither preached nor published; the unfortunate old man was apprehended, put to the torture in presence of the Attorney-General, and as the latter himself tells us, was examined “before torture, between torture, and after torture,” although Bacon must have been fully aware that the laws of England did not sanction torture to extort confession. ⁴⁷⁴Bacon tampered with the judges, and obtained a conviction; but the government durst not carry the sentence into execution. ⁴⁷⁵Peacham languished in prison till the ensuing year, when Providence rescued him from the hands of human justice. ⁴⁷⁶In 1616, Bacon was offered the formal promise of the Chancellorship, or an actual appointment as Privy Councillor; he was too prudent not to prefer an appointment to a promise, and he was accordingly nominated to the functions of member of the Privy Council. ⁴⁷⁷His present leisure enabled him to prosecute vigorously his _Novum Organum_, but he turned aside to occupy himself with a proposition for the amendment of the laws of England, on which Lord Campbell, assuredly the most competent of judges, passes a high encomium. ⁴⁷⁸At length, in 1617, Sir Francis Bacon attained the end of the ambition of his life, he became Lord Keeper of the Seals, with the functions, though not the title, of Lord High Chancellor of England. ⁴⁷⁹His promotion to this dignity gave general satisfaction; his own university, Cambridge, congratulated him; Oxford imitated the example; the world expected a perfect judge, formed from his own model in his Essay of Judicature. ⁴⁸⁰He took his seat in the Court of Chancery with the utmost pomp and parade. ⁴⁸¹The Lord Keeper now endeavored to “feed fat the ancient grudge” he bore Coke. ⁴⁸²He deprived him of the office of Chief Justice, and erased his name from the list of privy councillors. ⁴⁸³Coke imagined a plan of raising his falling fortunes; he projected a marriage between his daughter by his second wife, a very rich heiress, and Sir John Villiers, the brother of Buckingham, the King’s favorite. ⁴⁸⁴Bacon was alarmed, wrote to the King, and used expressions of disparagement towards the favorite, his new patron, to whom he was indebted for the Seals he held. ⁴⁸⁵The King and his minion were equally indignant; and they did not conceal from him their resentment. ⁴⁸⁶On the return of the court, Bacon hastened to the residence of Buckingham; being denied admittance, he waited two whole days in the ante-chamber with the Great Seal of England in his hand. ⁴⁸⁷When at length he obtained access, the Lord Keeper threw himself and the Great Seal on the ground, kissed the favorite’s feet, and vowed never to rise till he was forgiven! ⁴⁸⁸It must after this have been difficult indeed for him to rise again in the world’s esteem or his own. ⁴⁸⁹Bacon was made to purchase at a dear price his reinstatement in the good graces of Buckingham. ⁴⁹⁰The favorite constantly wrote to the judge in behalf of one of the parties, and in the end, says Lord Campbell, intimated that he was to dictate the decree. ⁴⁹¹Nor did Bacon once remonstrate against this unwarrantable interference on the part of the man to whom he had himself recommended “by no means to interpose himself, either by word or letter in any cause depending on any court of justice.” ⁴⁹²The Lord Keeper received soon after, in 1618, the reward of his “many faithful services” by the higher title of Lord High Chancellor of England, and by the peerage with the name of Baron of Verulam. ⁴⁹³The new Minister of Justice lent himself with his wonted complaisance to a most outrageous act of injustice, which Macaulay stigmatizes as a “dastardly murder,” that of the execution of Sir Walter Raleigh, under a sentence pronounced sixteen years before; Sir Walter having been in the interval invested with the high command of Admiral of the fleet. ⁴⁹⁴Such an act it was the imperative duty of the first magistrate of the realm not to promote, but to resist to the full extent of his power; and the Chancellor alone could issue the warrant for the execution! ⁴⁹⁵In 1620, he published what is usually considered his greatest work, his _Novum Organum_ (New Instrument or Method), which forms the second part of the _Instauratio Magna_ (Great Restoration of the Sciences). ⁴⁹⁶This work had occupied Bacon’s leisure for nearly thirty years. ⁴⁹⁷Such was the care he bestowed on it, that Rawley, his chaplain and biographer, states that he had seen about twelve autograph copies of it, corrected and improved until it assumed the shape in which it appeared. ⁴⁹⁸Previous to the publication of the _Novum Organum_, says the illustrious Sir John Herschel, “natural philosophy, in any legitimate and extensive sense of the word, could hardly be said to exist.”[ ⁴⁹⁹14] It cannot be expected that a work destined completely to change the state of science, we had almost said of nature, should not be assailed by that prejudice which is ever ready to raise its loud but unmeaning voice against whatever is new, how great or good soever it may be. ⁵⁰⁰Bacon’s doctrine was accused of being calculated to produce “dangerous revolutions,” to “subvert governments and the authority of religion.” ⁵⁰¹Some called on the present age and posterity to rise high in their resentment against “the Bacon-faced generation,” for so were the experimentalists termed. ⁵⁰²The old cry of irreligion, nay, even of atheism, was raised against the man who had said: “I would rather believe all the fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a mind.”[ ⁵⁰³15] But Bacon had to encounter the prejudices even of the learned. ⁵⁰⁴Cuffe, the Earl of Essex’s secretary, a man celebrated for his attainments, said of the _Instauratio Magna_, “a fool could not have written such a book, and a wise man would not.” ⁵⁰⁵King James said, it was “like the peace of God, that surpasseth all understanding.” ⁵⁰⁶And even Harvey, the discoverer of the circulation of the blood, said to Aubrey: “Bacon is no great philosopher; he writes philosophy like a Lord Chancellor.” ⁵⁰⁷Rawley, his secretary and his biographer, laments, some years after his friend’s death, that “his fame is greater and sounds louder in foreign parts abroad than at home in his own nation; thereby verifying that divine sentence: A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country and in his own house.” ⁵⁰⁸Bacon was for some time without honor “in his own country and in his own house.” ⁵⁰⁹But truth on this, as on all other occasions, triumphs in the end. ⁵¹⁰Bacon’s assailants are forgotten; Bacon will be remembered with gratitude and veneration forever. ⁵¹¹He was again, in 1621, promoted in the peerage to be Viscount Saint-Albans; his patent particularly celebrating his “integrity in the administration of justice.” ⁵¹²In this same year the Parliament assembled. ⁵¹³The House of Commons first voted the subsidies demanded by the Crown, and next proceeded, as was usual in those times, to the redress of grievances. ⁵¹⁴A committee of the House was appointed to inquire into “the abuses of Courts of Justice.” ⁵¹⁵A report of this committee charged the Lord Chancellor with corruption, and specified two cases; in the first of which Aubrey, a suitor in his court, stated that he had presented the Lord Chancellor with a hundred pounds; and Egerton, another suitor in his court, with four hundred pounds in addition to a former piece of plate of the value of fifty pounds; in both cases decisions had been given against the parties whose presents had been received. ⁵¹⁶(Lord Campbell asserts that in the case of Egerton both parties had made the Chancellor presents.)[ ⁵¹⁷16] His enemies, it is said, estimated his illicit gains at a hundred thousand pounds; a statement which, it is more than probable, is greatly exaggerated.[ ⁵¹⁸17] “I never had,” said Bacon in his defence, “bribe or reward in my eye or thought when I pronounced sentence or order.” ⁵¹⁹This is an acknowledgment of the fact, and perhaps an aggravation of the offence. ⁵²⁰He then addressed “an humble submission” to the House, a kind of general admission, in which he invoked as a plea of excuse _vitia temporis_. ⁵²¹How widely different from this is his own language! ⁵²²It is fair justice to appeal from the judge to the tribunal of the philosopher and moralist; it is appealing from Philip drunk to Philip sober; unhappily it is likewise to have the engineer Hoist with his own petar. ⁵²³He says, in his Essay of Great Place: “For corruption: do not only bind thine own hands, or thy servant’s hands from taking, but bind the hands of suitors from offering. ⁵²⁴For integrity used doth the one; but integrity professed, and with a manifest detestation of bribery, doth the other; and avoid not only the fault, but the suspicion.”[ ⁵²⁵18] He says again, in the same Essay: “Set it down to thyself, as well to create good precedents as to follow them.” ⁵²⁶But the allegation that it was a custom of the times requires examination. ⁵²⁷It was a custom of the times in reality to make presents to superiors. ⁵²⁸Queen Elizabeth received them as New Year’s gifts from functionaries of all ranks, from her prime minister down to Charles Smith, the dust-man (see note 1, page 7), and this custom probably continued under her successor, and may have been applied to other high functionaries, but it does not appear to have been in legitimate use in the courts of judicature. ⁵²⁹Coke, himself Chief Justice, was Bacon’s principal accuser; and, although an enemy, he has been said to have conducted himself with moderation and propriety on this occasion only. ⁵³⁰Lord Campbell, Chief Justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench, and author of the _Lives of the Chancellors and Chief Justices of England_, repels the plea, as inadmissible. ⁵³¹It cannot be denied that if Bacon extended the practice to the courts of justice, he has heaped coals of fire on his head; for applied to his own case personally it would be sufficiently odious; but what odium would not that man deserve who should systematize, nay, legitimize a practice that must inevitably poison the stream of justice at its fountain-head! ⁵³²What execration could be too great, if that man were the most intelligent, the wisest of his century, one of the most dignified in rank in the land, clad in spotless ermine, the emblem of purity, in short, the Minister of Justice! ⁵³³The Lords resolved that Bacon should be called upon to put in a particular answer to each of the special charges preferred against him. ⁵³⁴The formal articles with proofs in support were communicated to him. ⁵³⁵The House received the “confession and humble submission of me, the Lord Chancellor.” ⁵³⁶In this document, Bacon acknowledges himself to be guilty of corruption; and in reply to each special charge admits in every instance the receipt of money or valuable things from the suitors in his court; but alleging in some cases that it was after judgment, or as New Year’s gifts, a custom of the times, or for prior services. ⁵³⁷A committee of nine temporal and three spiritual lords was appointed to ascertain whether it was he who had subscribed this document. ⁵³⁸The committee repaired to his residence, were received in the hall where he had been accustomed to sit as judge, and merely asked him if the signature affixed to the paper they exhibited to him was his. ⁵³⁹He passionately exclaimed: “My lords, it is my act, my hand, my heart. ⁵⁴⁰I beseech your lordships to be merciful to a broken reed.” ⁵⁴¹The committee withdrew, overwhelmed with grief at the sight of such greatness so fallen. ⁵⁴²Four commissioners dispatched by the King demanded the Great Seal of the Chancellor, confined to his bed by sickness and sorrow and want of sustenance; for he refused to take any food. ⁵⁴³He hid his face in his hand, and delivered up that Great Seal for the attainment of which he “had sullied his integrity, had resigned his independence, had violated the most sacred obligations of friendship and gratitude, had flattered the worthless, had persecuted the innocent, had tampered with judges, had tortured prisoners, had plundered suitors, had wasted on paltry intrigues all the powers of the most exquisitely constructed intellect that has ever been bestowed on any of the children of men.”[ ⁵⁴⁴19] All this he did to be Lord High Chancellor of England; and, had he not been the unworthy minister of James, he might have been, to use the beautiful language of Hallam, “the high-priest of nature.” ⁵⁴⁵On the 3d of May, he was unanimously declared to be guilty, and he was sentenced to a fine of forty thousand pounds, to be imprisoned in the Tower during the King’s pleasure, to be incapable of holding any public office, and of sitting in Parliament or of coming within the verge of the court.[ ⁵⁴⁶20] Such was the sentence pronounced on the man whom three months before the King _delighted to honor_ for “his integrity in the administration of justice.” ⁵⁴⁷The fatal verdict affected his health so materially that the judgment could not receive immediate execution; he could not be conveyed to the Tower until the 31st of May; the following day he was liberated. ⁵⁴⁸He repaired to the house of Sir John Vaughan, who held a situation in the prince’s household.[ ⁵⁴⁹21] He wished to retire to his own residence at York House; but this was refused. ⁵⁵⁰He was ordered to proceed to his seat at Gorhambury, whence he was not to remove, and where he remained, though very reluctantly, till the ensuing spring. ⁵⁵¹The heavy fine was remitted. ⁵⁵²But as he had lived in great pomp, he had economized naught from his legitimate or ill-gotten gains. ⁵⁵³As he was now insolvent, a pension of twelve hundred pounds a year was bestowed on him; from his estate and other revenues he derived thirteen hundred pounds per annum more. ⁵⁵⁴On the 17th of October, his remaining penalties were remitted. ⁵⁵⁵It cannot but strike the reader as a most remarkable circumstance that, within eighteen months of the condemnation, all the penalties were successively remitted. ⁵⁵⁶Would this induce the belief that he was but the scape-goat of the court, that the condemnation was purely political? ⁵⁵⁷It is, we believe, to be explained ostensibly by the advanced age of Bacon, but really by the circumstance that the King’s favorite, Buckingham, was an accomplice. ⁵⁵⁸Bacon discovered, alas! ⁵⁵⁹when it was too late, that the talent God had given him he had “misspent in things for which he was least fit;” or as Thomson has beautifully expressed it:[22]— Hapless in his choice, Unfit to stand the civil storm of state, And through the smooth barbarity of courts, With firm, but pliant virtue, forward still To urge his course; him for the studious shade Kind Nature form’d; deep, comprehensive, clear, Exact, and elegant; in one rich soul, Plato, the Stagyrite and Tully join’d. ⁵⁶⁰The great deliverer he! ⁵⁶¹It is gratifying to turn from the melancholy scenes exhibited by the political life of Bacon, to behold him in his study in the deep search of truth; no contrast is more striking than that between the chancellor and the philosopher, or, as Macaulay has well termed it, “Bacon seeking for truth, and Bacon seeking for the Seals—Bacon in speculation, and Bacon in action.” ⁵⁶²From amidst clouds and darkness we emerge into the full blaze and splendor of midday light. ⁵⁶³We now find Bacon wholly devoting himself to the pursuits for which nature adapted him, and from which no extent of occupation could entirely detach him. ⁵⁶⁴The author redeemed the man; in the philosopher and the poet there was no weakness, no corruption. ⁵⁶⁵Nothing is here for tears; nothing to wail Or knock the breast; no weakness, no contempt, Dispraise or blame, nothing but well and fair. ⁵⁶⁶Here the writer yielded not to _vitia temporis_; but combated them with might and main, with heart and soul. ⁵⁶⁷In 1623, he published the _Life of Henry VII. ⁵⁶⁸_ In a letter addressed to the Queen of Bohemia with a copy, he says pathetically: “’Time was I had honor without leisure, and now I have leisure without honor.” ⁵⁶⁹But his honor without leisure had precipitated him into “bottomless perdition;” his leisure without honor retrieved his name, and raised him again to an unattainable height. ⁵⁷⁰In the following year, he printed his Latin translation of the _Advancement of Learning_, under the title of _De Dignitate et Augmentis Scientiarum_. ⁵⁷¹This was not, however, a mere translation; for he made in it omissions and alterations; and appears to have added about one third new matter; in short, he remodelled it. ⁵⁷²His work, replete with poetry and beautiful imagery, was received with applause throughout Europe. ⁵⁷³It was reprinted in France in 1624, one year after its appearance in England. ⁵⁷⁴It was immediately translated into French and Italian, and was published in Holland, the great book-mart of that time, in 1645, 1650, and 1662. ⁵⁷⁵In 1624, he solicited of the King a remission of the sentence, to the end, says he, “that blot of ignominy may be removed from me and from my memory with posterity.” ⁵⁷⁶The King granted him a full pardon. ⁵⁷⁷But he never more took his seat in the House of Lords. ⁵⁷⁸When the new Parliament met, after the accession of Charles the First, age, infirmity, and tardy wisdom had extinguished the ambition of Baron Verulam, Viscount St. ⁵⁷⁹Albans. ⁵⁸⁰When the writ of summons to the Parliament reached him, he exclaimed: “I have done with such vanities!” ⁵⁸¹But the philosopher pursued his labor of love. ⁵⁸²He published new editions of his writings, and translated them into Latin, from the mistaken notion that in that language alone could they be rescued from oblivion. ⁵⁸³His crabbed latinity is now read but by few, or even may be said to be nearly forgotten; while his noble, majestic English is read over the whole British empire, on which the sun never sets, is studied and admired throughout the old world and the new, and it will be so by generations still unborn; it will descend to posterity in company with his contemporary, Shakspeare (whose name he never mentions), and will endure as long as the great and glorious language itself; indeed, as he foretold of his Essays, it “will live as long as books last.” ⁵⁸⁴In the translation of his works into Latin, he was assisted by Rawley, his future biographer, and his two friends, Ben Jonson, the poet, and Hobbes, the philosopher. ⁵⁸⁵He wrote for his “own recreation,” amongst very serious studies, a _Collection of Apophthegms, New and Old_, said to have been dictated in one rainy day, but probably the result of several “rainy days.” ⁵⁸⁶This contains many excellent jocular anecdotes, and has been, perhaps, with too much indulgence, pronounced by Macaulay to be the best jest-book in the world. ⁵⁸⁷He commenced a _Digest of the Laws of England_, but he soon discontinued it, because it was “a work of assistance, and that which he could not master by his own forces and pen.” ⁵⁸⁸James the First had not sufficient elevation of mind to afford him the means of securing the assistance he required. ⁵⁸⁹He wrote his will with his own hand on the 19th of December, 1625. ⁵⁹⁰He directs that he shall be interred in St. ⁵⁹¹Michael’s Church, near St. ⁵⁹²Albans: “There was my mother buried, and it is the parish church of my mansion-house at Gorhambury.... ⁵⁹³For my name and memory, I leave it to men’s charitable speeches, and to foreign nations, and the next ages.” ⁵⁹⁴This supreme act of filial piety towards his gifted mother is affecting. ⁵⁹⁵Let no “uncharitable” word be uttered over his last solemn behest; foreign nations and all ages will not refuse a tribute of homage to his genius! ⁵⁹⁶Gassendi presents an analysis of his labors, and pays a tribute of admiration to their author; Descartes has mentioned him with encomium; Malebranche quotes him as an authority; Puffendorff expressed admiration of him; the University of Oxford presented to him, after his fall, an address, in which he is termed “a mighty Hercules, who had by his own hand greatly advanced those pillars in the learned world which by the rest of the world were supposed immovable.” ⁵⁹⁷Leibnitz ascribed to him the revival of true philosophy; Newton had studied him so closely that he adopted even his phraseology; Voltaire and D’Alembert have rendered him popular in France. ⁵⁹⁸The modern philosophers of all Europe regard him reverentially as the father of experimental philosophy. ⁵⁹⁹He attempted at this late period of his life a metrical translation into English of the Psalms of David; although his prose is full of poetry, his verse has but little of the divine art. ⁶⁰⁰He again declined to take his seat as a peer in Charles’s second Parliament; but the last stage of his life displayed more dignity and real greatness than the “pride, pomp, and circumstance” of his high offices and honors. ⁶⁰¹The public of England and of “foreign nations” forgot the necessity of “charitable speeches” and anticipated “the next ages.” ⁶⁰²The most distinguished foreigners repaired to Gray’s Inn to pay their respects to him. ⁶⁰³The Marquis d’Effiat, who brought over to England the Princess Henrietta Maria, the wife of Charles the First, went to see him. ⁶⁰⁴Bacon, confined to his bed, but unwilling to decline the visit, received him with the curtains drawn. ⁶⁰⁵“You resemble the angels,” said the French minister to him, “we hear those beings continually talked of; we believe them superior to mankind; and we never have the consolation to see them.” ⁶⁰⁶But in ill health and infirmity he continued his studies and experiments; as it occurred to him that snow might preserve animal substances from putrefaction as well as salt, he tried the experiment, and stuffed a fowl with snow with his own hands. ⁶⁰⁷“The great apostle of experimental philosophy was destined to become its martyr;” he took cold. ⁶⁰⁸From his bed he dictated a letter to the Earl of Arundel, to whose house he had been conveyed. ⁶⁰⁹“I was likely to have had the fortune of Caïus Plinius the Elder, who lost his life by trying an experiment about the burning of the Mount Vesuvius. ⁶¹⁰For I was also desirous to try an experiment or two touching the conservation and induration of bodies. ⁶¹¹As for the experiment itself, it succeeded excellently well.” ⁶¹²He had, indeed, the fortune of Pliny the Elder; for he never recovered from the effects of his cold, which brought on fever and a complaint of the chest; and he expired on the 9th of April, 1626, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. ⁶¹³Thus died, a victim to his devotion to science, Francis Bacon, whose noble death is an expiation of the errors of his life, and who was, as has been justly observed, notwithstanding all his faults, one of the greatest ornaments and benefactors of the human race. ⁶¹⁴No account has been preserved of his funeral; but probably it was private. ⁶¹⁵Sir Thomas Meautys, his faithful secretary, erected at his own expense a monument to Bacon’s memory. ⁶¹⁶Bacon is represented sitting, reclining on his hand, and absorbed in meditation. ⁶¹⁷The effigy bears the inscription: _sic sedebat_. ⁶¹⁸The singular fact ought not to be omitted, that notwithstanding the immense sums that had been received by him, legitimately or otherwise, he died insolvent. ⁶¹⁹The fault of his life had been that he never adapted his expenses to his income; perhaps even he never calculated them. ⁶²⁰To what irretrievable ruin did not this lead him? ⁶²¹To disgrace and dishonor, in the midst of his career; to insolvency at its end. ⁶²²His love of worldly grandeur was uncontrollable, or at least uncontrolled. ⁶²³“The virtue of prosperity is temperance,” says he himself; but this virtue he did not possess. ⁶²⁴His stately bark rode proudly over the waves, unmindful of the rocks; on one of these, alas! ⁶²⁵it split and foundered. ⁶²⁶Bacon was very prepossessing in his person; he was in stature above the middle size; his forehead was broad and high, of an intellectual appearance; his eye was lively and expressive; and his countenance bore early the marks of deep thought. ⁶²⁷It might be mentioned here with instruction to the reader, that few men were more impressed than Bacon with the value of time, the most precious element of life. ⁶²⁸He assiduously employed the smallest portions of it; considering justly that the days, the hours, nay minutes of existence require the greatest care at our hands; the weeks, months, and years have been wisely said to take care of themselves. ⁶²⁹His chaplain, Rawley, remarks: “_Nullum momentum aut temporis segmentum perire et intercidere passus est_,” he suffered no moment nor fragment of time to pass away unprofitably. ⁶³⁰It is this circumstance that explains to us the great things he accomplished even in the most busy

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