,,bacon ,,by ,r4,w4 ,,church ,,dean ,,of ,,st4 ,,paul',s ,,honorary ,,fellow ,,of ,,oriel ,,college ,,english ,,men ,,of ,,letters4 ,,edited ,,by ,,john ,,morley4 ,,johnson ,leslie ,stephen4 ,,gibbon ,j4,c4 ,morison4 ,,scott ,r4,h4 ,hutton4 ,,shelley ,j4,a4 ,symonds4 ,,hume ,t4,h4 ,huxley4 ,,goldsmith ,william ,black4 ,,defoe ,william ,minto4 ,,burns ,j4,c4 ,shairp4 ,,spenser ,r4,w4 ,church4 ,,thackeray ,anthony ,trollope4 ,,burke ,john ,morley4 ,,milton ,mark ,pattison4 ,,hawthorne ,henry ,james1 ,jr4 ,,southey ,e4 ,dowden4 ,,chaucer ,a4,w4 ,ward4 ,,bunyan ,j4,a4 ,froude4 ,,cowper ,goldwin ,smith4 ,,pope ,leslie ,stephen4 ,,byron ,john ,nichol4 ,,locke ,thomas ,fowler4 ,,wordsworth ,f4 ,myers4 ,,dryden ,g4 ,saintsbury4 ,,landor ,sidney ,colvin4 ,,de ,,quincey ,david ,masson4 ,,lamb ,alfred ,ainger4 ,,bentley ,r4,c4 ,jebb4 ,,dickens ,a4,w4 ,ward4 ,,gray ,e4,w4 ,gosse4 ,,swift ,leslie ,stephen4 ,,sterne ,h4,d4 ,traill4 ,,macaulay ,j4 ,cotter ,morison4 ,,fielding ,austin ,dobson4 ,,sheridan ,mrs4 ,oliphant ,,addison ,w4,j4 ,courthope4 ,,bacon ,r4,w4 ,church4 ,,coleridge ,h4,d4 ,traill4 ,,sir ,,philip ,,sidney ,j4,a4 ,symonds4 ,,keats ,sidney ,colvin4 #abmo1 ,cloth1 #ge cents per volume4 ,other volumes in preparation4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,published ,,by ,,harper ,,brothers1 ,,new ,,york4 ,any of the above works will be sent by mail1 postage prepaid1 to any part of the ,united ,states or ,canada1 on receipt of the price4 ,,preface4 ,in preparing this sketch it is needless to say how deeply ,i am indebted to ,mr4 ,spedding and ,mr4 ,ellis1 the last editors of ,bacon's writings1 the very able and painstaking commentators1 the one on ,bacon's life1 the other on his philosophy4 ,it is impossible to overstate the affectionate care and high intelligence and honesty with which ,mr4 ,spedding has brought together and arranged the materials for an estimate of ,bacon's character4 ,in the result1 in spite of the force and ingenuity of much of his pleading1 ,i find myself most reluctantly obliged to differ from him2 it seems to me to be a case where the ,french saying1 cited by ,bacon in one of his commonplace books1 holds good--,par trop se dbattre1 la vrit se perd4#a ,but this does not diminish the debt of gratitude which all who are interested about ,bacon must owe to ,mr4 ,spedding4 ,i wish also to acknowledge the assistance which ,i have received from ,mr4 ,gardiner's ,history of ,england and ,mr4 ,fowler's edition of the ,novum ,organum2 and not least from ,m4 de ,rmusat's work on ,bacon1 which seems to me the most complete and the most just estimate both of ,bacon's character and work which has yet appeared2 though even in this clear and dispassionate survey we are reminded by some misconceptions1 strange in ,m4 de ,rmusat1 how what one nation takes for granted is incomprehensible to its neighbour2 and what a gap there is still1 even in matters of philosophy and literature1 between the whole ,continent and ourselves-- ,penitus toto divisos orbe ,britannos4 ,,footnotes3 #a ,promus3 edited by ,mrs4 ,h4 ,pott1 p4 #dge4 ,,contents4 ,,chapter ,i4 ,,page ,,early ,,life #a ,,chapter ,,ii4 ,,bacon ,,and ,,elizabeth #bf ,,chapter ,,iii4 ,,bacon ,,and ,,james ,i4 #ee ,,chapter ,,iv4 ,,bacon ,,solicitor-,,general #gg ,,chapter ,v4 ,,bacon ,,attorney-,,general ,,and ,,chancellor #ie ,,chapter ,,vi4 ,,bacon',s ,,fall #aah ,,chapter ,,vii4 ,,bacon',s ,,last ,,years--#afba-afbf #adi ,,chapter ,,viii4 ,,bacon',s ,,philosophy #afh ,,chapter ,,ix4 ,,bacon ,,as ,a ,,writer #aih ,,bacon4 ,,chapter ,i4 ,,early ,,life4 ,the life of ,francis ,bacon is one which it is a pain to write or to read4 ,it is the life of a man endowed with as rare a combination of noble gifts as ever was bestowed on a human intellect2 the life of one with whom the whole purpose of living and of every day's work was to do great things to enlighten and elevate his race1 to enrich it with new powers1 to lay up in store for all ages to come a source of blessings which should never fail or dry up2 it was the life of a man who had high thoughts of the ends and methods of law and government1 and with whom the general and public good was regarded as the standard by which the use of public power was to be measured2 the life of a man who had struggled hard and successfully for the material prosperity and opulence which makes work easy and gives a man room and force for carrying out his purposes4 ,all his life long his first and never-sleeping passion was the romantic and splendid ambition after knowledge1 for the conquest of nature and for the service of man2 gathering up in himself the spirit and longings and efforts of all discoverers and inventors of the arts1 as they are symbolised in the mythical ,prometheus4 ,he rose to the highest place and honour2 and yet that place and honour were but the fringe and adornment of all that made him great4 ,it is difficult to imagine a grander and more magnificent career2 and his name ranks among the few chosen examples of human achievement4 ,and yet it was not only an unhappy life2 it was a poor life4 ,we expect that such an overwhelming weight of glory should be borne up by a character corresponding to it in strength and nobleness4 ,but that is not what we find4 ,no one ever had a greater idea of what he was made for1 or was fired with a greater desire to devote himself to it4 ,he was all this4 ,and yet being all this1 seeing deep into man's worth1 his capacities1 his greatness1 his weakness1 his sins1 he was not true to what he knew4 ,he cringed to such a man as ,buckingham4 ,he sold himself to the corrupt and ignominious ,government of ,james ,i4 ,he was willing to be employed to hunt to death a friend like ,essex1 guilty1 deeply guilty1 to the ,state1 but to ,bacon the most loving and generous of benefactors4 ,with his eyes open he gave himself up without resistance to a system unworthy of him2 he would not see what was evil in it1 and chose to call its evil good2 and he was its first and most signal victim4 ,bacon has been judged with merciless severity4 ,but he has also been defended by an advocate whose name alone is almost a guarantee for the justness of the cause which he takes up1 and the innocency of the client for whom he argues4 ,mr4 ,spedding devoted nearly a lifetime1 and all the resources of a fine intellect and an earnest conviction1 to make us revere as well as admire ,bacon4 ,but it is vain4 ,it is vain to fight against the facts of his life3 his words1 his letters4 ,men are made up1 says a keen observer1 of professions1 gifts1 and talents2 and also of themselves4#b ,with all his greatness1 his splendid genius1 his magnificent ideas1 his enthusiasm for truth1 his passion to be the benefactor of his kind2 with all the charm that made him loved by good and worthy friends1 amiable1 courteous1 patient1 delightful as a companion1 ready to take any trouble--there was in ,bacon's self a deep and fatal flaw4 ,he was a pleaser of men4 ,there was in him that subtle fault1 noted and named both by philosophy and religion in the ,greek3 areskos of ,aristotle1 the ,greek3 anthrpareskos of ,st4 ,paul1 which is more common than it is pleasant to think1 even in good people1 but which if it becomes dominant in a character is ruinous to truth and power4 ,he was one of the men--there are many of them--who are unable to release their imagination from the impression of present and immediate power1 face to face with themselves4 ,it seems as if he carried into conduct the leading rule of his philosophy of nature1 parendo vincitur4 ,in both worlds1 moral and physical1 he felt himself encompassed by vast forces1 irresistible by direct opposition4 ,men whom he wanted to bring round to his purposes were as strange1 as refractory1 as obstinate1 as impenetrable as the phenomena of the natural world4 ,it was no use attacking in front1 and by a direct trial of strength1 people like ,elizabeth or ,cecil or ,james2 he might as well think of forcing some natural power in defiance of natural law4 ,the first word of his teaching about nature is that she must be won by observation of her tendencies and demands2 the same radical disposition of temper reveals itself in his dealings with men3 they1 too1 must be won by yielding to them1 by adapting himself to their moods and ends2 by spying into the drift of their humour1 by subtly and pliantly falling in with it1 by circuitous and indirect processes1 the fruit of vigilance and patient thought4 ,he thought to direct1 while submitting apparently to be directed4 ,but he mistook his strength4 ,nature and man are different powers1 and under different laws4 ,he chose to please man1 and not to follow what his soul must have told him was the better way4 ,he wanted1 in his dealings with men1 that sincerity on which he insisted so strongly in his dealings with nature and knowledge4 ,and the ruin of a great life was the consequence4 ,francis ,bacon was born in ,london on the #bb;d of ,january1 #aefj_/fa1 three years before ,galileo4 ,he was born at ,york ,house1 in the ,strand2 the house which1 though it belonged to the ,archbishops of ,york1 had been lately tenanted by ,lord ,keepers and ,lord ,chancellors1 in which ,bacon himself afterwards lived as ,lord ,chancellor1 and which passed after his fall into the hands of the ,duke of ,buckingham1 who has left his mark in the ,water ,gate which is now seen1 far from the river1 in the garden of the ,thames ,embankment4 ,his father was ,sir ,nicholas ,bacon1 ,elizabeth's first ,lord ,keeper1 the fragment of whose effigy in the ,crypt of ,st4 ,paul's is one of the few relics of the old ,cathedral before the fire4 ,his uncle by marriage was that ,william ,cecil who was to be ,lord ,burghley4 ,his mother1 the sister of ,lady ,cecil1 was one of the daughters of ,sir ,antony ,cook1 a person deep in the confidence of the reforming party1 who had been tutor of ,edward ,,vi4 ,she was a remarkable woman1 highly accomplished after the fashion of the ladies of her party1 and as would become her father's daughter and the austere and laborious family to which she belonged4 ,she was exquisitely skilled in the ,greek and ,latin tongues2 she was passionately religious1 according to the uncompromising religion which the exiles had brought back with them from ,geneva1 ,strasburg1 and ,zurich1 and which saw in ,calvin's theology a solution of all the difficulties1 and in his discipline a remedy for all the evils1 of mankind4 ,this means that his boyhood from the first was passed among the high places of the world--at one of the greatest crises of ,english history--in the very centre and focus of its agitations4 ,he was brought up among the chiefs and leaders of the rising religion1 in the houses of the greatest and most powerful persons of the ,state1 and naturally1 as their child1 at times in the ,court of the ,queen1 who joked with him1 and called him her young ,lord ,keeper4 ,it means also that the religious atmosphere in which he was brought up was that of the nascent and aggressive ,puritanism1 which was not satisfied with the compromises of the ,elizabethan ,reformation1 and which saw in the moral poverty and incapacity of many of its chiefs a proof against the great traditional system of the ,church which ,elizabeth was loath to part with1 and which1 in spite of all its present and inevitable shortcomings1 her political sagacity taught her to reverence and trust4 ,at the age of twelve he was sent to ,cambridge1 and put under ,whitgift at ,trinity4 ,it is a question which recurs continually to readers about those times and their precocious boys1 what boys were then8 ,for whatever was the learning of the universities1 these boys took their place with men and consorted with them1 sharing such knowledge as men had1 and performing exercises and hearing lectures according to the standard of men4 ,grotius at eleven was the pupil and companion of ,scaliger and the learned band of ,leyden2 at fourteen he was part of the company which went with the ambassadors of the ,states-,general to ,henry ,,iv42 at sixteen he was called to the bar1 he published an out-of-the-way ,latin writer1 ,martianus ,capella1 with a learned commentary1 and he was the correspondent of ,de ,thou4 ,when ,bacon was hardly sixteen he was admitted to the ,society of ,ancients of ,gray's ,inn1 and he went in the household of ,sir ,amyas ,paulet1 the ,queen's ,ambassador1 to ,france4 ,he thus spent two years in ,france1 not in ,paris alone1 but at ,blois1 ,tours1 and ,poitiers4 ,if this was precocious1 there is no indication that it was thought precocious4 ,it only meant that clever and promising boys were earlier associated with men in important business than is customary now4 ,the old and the young heads began to work together sooner4 ,perhaps they felt that there was less time to spare4 ,in spite of instances of longevity1 life was shorter for the average of busy men1 for the conditions of life were worse4 ,two recollections only have been preserved of his early years4 ,one is that1 as he told his chaplain1 ,dr4 ,rawley1 late in life1 he had discovered1 as far back as his ,cambridge days1 the unfruitfulness of ,aristotle's method4 ,it is easy to make too much of this4 ,it is not uncommon for undergraduates to criticise their text-books2 it was the fashion with clever men1 as1 for instance1 ,montaigne1 to talk against ,aristotle without knowing anything about him2 it is not uncommon for men who have worked out a great idea to find traces of it1 on precarious grounds1 in their boyish thinking4 ,still1 it is worth noting that ,bacon himself believed that his fundamental quarrel with ,aristotle had begun with the first efforts of thought1 and that this is the one recollection remaining of his early tendency in speculation4 ,the other is more trustworthy1 and exhibits that inventiveness which was characteristic of his mind4 ,he tells us in the ,de ,augmentis that when he was in ,france he occupied himself with devising an improved system of cypher-writing--a thing of daily and indispensable use for rival statesmen and rival intriguers4 ,but the investigation1 with its call on the calculating and combining faculties1 would also interest him1 as an example of the discovery of new powers by the human mind4 ,in the beginning of #aegi ,bacon1 at eighteen1 was called home by his father's death4 ,this was a great blow to his prospects4 ,his father had not accomplished what he had intended for him1 and ,francis ,bacon was left with only a younger son's narrow portion4 ,what was worse1 he lost one whose credit would have served him in high places4 ,he entered on life1 not as he might have expected1 independent and with court favour on his side1 but with his very livelihood to gain--a competitor at the bottom of the ladder for patronage and countenance4 ,this great change in his fortunes told very unfavourably on his happiness1 his usefulness1 and1 it must be added1 on his character4 ,he accepted it1 indeed1 manfully1 and at once threw himself into the study of the law as the profession by which he was to live4 ,but the law1 though it was the only path open to him1 was not the one which suited his genius1 or his object in life4 ,to the last he worked hard and faithfully1 but with doubtful reputation as to his success1 and certainly against the grain4 ,and this was not the worst4 ,to make up for the loss of that start in life of which his father's untimely death had deprived him1 he became1 for almost the rest of his life1 the most importunate and most untiring of suitors4 ,in #aegi or #aehj ,bacon took up his abode at ,gray's ,inn1 which for a long time was his home4 ,he went through the various steps of his profession4 ,he began1 what he never discontinued1 his earnest and humble appeals to his relative the great ,lord ,burghley1 to employ him in the ,queen's service1 or to put him in some place of independence3 through ,lord ,burghley's favour he seems to have been pushed on at his ,inn1 where1 in #aehf1 he was a ,bencher2 and in #aehd he came into ,parliament for ,melcombe ,regis4 ,he took some small part in ,parliament2 but the only record of his speeches is contained in a surly note of ,recorder ,fleetwood1 who writes as an old member might do of a young one talking nonsense4 ,he sat again for ,liverpool in the year of the ,armada 7#aehh71 and his name begins to appear in the proceedings4 ,these early years1 we know1 were busy ones4 ,in them ,bacon laid the foundation of his observations and judgments on men and affairs2 and in them the great purpose and work of his life was conceived and shaped4 ,but they are more obscure years than might have been expected in the case of a man of ,bacon's genius and family1 and of such eager and unconcealed desire to rise and be at work4 ,no doubt he was often pinched in his means2 his health was weak1 and he was delicate and fastidious in his care of it4 ,plunged in work1 he lived very much as a recluse in his chambers1 and was thought to be reserved1 and what those who disliked him called arrogant4 ,but ,bacon was ambitious--ambitious1 in the first place1 of the ,queen's notice and favour4 ,he was versatile1 brilliant1 courtly1 besides being his father's son2 and considering how rapidly bold and brilliant men were able to push their way and take the ,queen's favour by storm1 it seems strange that ,bacon should have remained fixedly in the shade4 ,something must have kept him back4 ,burghley was not the man to neglect a useful instrument with such good will to serve him4 ,but all that ,mr4 ,spedding's industry and profound interest in the subject has brought together throws but an uncertain light on ,bacon's long disappointment4 ,was it the rooted misgiving of a man of affairs like ,burghley at that passionate contempt of all existing knowledge1 and that undoubting confidence in his own power to make men know1 as they never had known1 which ,bacon was even now professing8 ,or was it something soft and over-obsequious in character which made the uncle1 who knew well what men he wanted1 disinclined to encourage and employ the nephew8 ,was ,francis not hard enough1 not narrow enough1 too full of ideas1 too much alive to the shakiness of current doctrines and arguments on religion and policy8 ,was he too open to new impressions1 made by objections or rival views8 ,or did he show signs of wanting backbone to stand amid difficulties and threatening prospects8 ,did ,burghley see something in him of the pliability which he could remember as the serviceable quality of his own young days--which suited those days of rapid change1 but not days when change was supposed to be over1 and when the qualities which were wanted were those which resist and defy it8 ,the only thing that is clear is that ,burghley1 in spite of ,bacon's continual applications1 abstained to the last from advancing his fortunes4 ,whether employed by government or not1 ,bacon began at this time to prepare those carefully-written papers on the public affairs of the day1 of which he has left a good many4 ,in our day they would have been pamphlets or magazine articles4 ,in his they were circulated in manuscript1 and only occasionally printed4 ,the first of any importance is a letter of advice to the ,queen1 about the year #aehe1 on the policy to be followed with a view to keeping in check the ,roman ,catholic interest at home and abroad4 ,it is calm1 sagacious1 and1 according to the fashion of the age1 slightly ,machiavellian4 ,but the first subject on which ,bacon exhibited his characteristic qualities1 his appreciation of facts1 his balance of thought1 and his power1 when not personally committed1 of standing aloof from the ordinary prejudices and assumptions of men round him1 was the religious condition and prospects of the ,english ,church4 ,bacon had been brought up in a ,puritan household of the straitest sect4 ,his mother was an earnest1 severe1 and intolerant ,calvinist1 deep in the interests and cause of her party1 bitterly resenting all attempts to keep in order its pretensions4 ,she was a masterful woman1 claiming to meddle with her brother-in-law's policy1 and though a most affectionate mother she was a woman of violent and ungovernable temper4 ,her letters to her son ,antony1 whom she loved passionately1 but whom she suspected of keeping dangerous and papistical company1 show us the imperious spirit in which she claimed to interfere with her sons2 and they show also that in ,francis she did not find all the deference which she looked for4 ,recommending ,antony to frequent the religious exercises of the sincerer sort1 she warns him not to follow his brother's advice or example4 ,antony was advised to use prayer twice a day with his servants4 ,your brother1 she adds1 is too negligent therein4 ,she is anxious about ,antony's health1 and warns him not to fall into his brother's ill-ordered habits3 ,i verily think your brother's weak stomach to digest hath been much caused and confirmed by untimely going to bed1 and then musing nescio quid when he should sleep1 and then in consequent by late rising and long lying in bed1 whereby his men are made slothful and himself continueth sickly4 ,but my sons haste not to hearken to their mother's good counsel in time to prevent4 ,it seems clear that ,francis ,bacon had shown his mother that not only in the care of his health1 but in his judgment on religious matters1 he meant to go his own way4 ,mr4 ,spedding thinks that she must have had much influence on him2 it seems more likely that he resented her interference1 and that the hard and narrow arrogance which she read into the ,gospel produced in him a strong reaction4 ,bacon was obsequious to the tyranny of power1 but he was never inclined to bow to the tyranny of opinion2 and the tyranny of ,puritan infallibility was the last thing to which he was likely to submit4 ,his mother would have wished him to sit under ,cartwright and ,travers4 ,the friend of his choice was the ,anglican preacher1 ,dr4 ,andrewes1 to whom he submitted all his works1 and whom he called his inquisitor general2 and he was proud to sign himself the pupil of ,whitgift1 and to write for him--the archbishop of whom ,lady ,bacon wrote to her son ,antony1 veiling the dangerous sentiment in ,greek1 that he was the ruin of the ,church1 for he loved his own glory more than ,christ's4 ,certainly1 in the remarkable paper on ,controversies in the ,church 7#aehi71 ,bacon had ceased to feel or to speak as a ,puritan4 ,the paper is an attempt to compose the controversy by pointing out the mistakes in judgment1 in temper1 and in method on both sides4 ,it is entirely unlike what a ,puritan would have written3 it is too moderate1 too tolerant1 too neutral1 though like most essays of conciliation it is open to the rejoinder from both sides--certainly from the ,puritan--that it begs the question by assuming the unimportance of the matters about which each contended with so much zeal4 ,it is the confirmation1 but also the complement1 and in some ways the correction of ,hooker's contemporary view of the quarrel which was threatening the life of the ,english ,church1 and not even ,hooker could be so comprehensive and so fair4 ,for ,hooker had to defend much that was indefensible3 he had to defend a great traditional system1 just convulsed by a most tremendous shock--a shock and alteration1 as ,bacon says1 the greatest and most dangerous that can be in a ,state1 in which old clews and habits and rules were confused and all but lost2 in which a frightful amount of personal incapacity and worthlessness had1 from sheer want of men1 risen to the high places of the ,church2 and in which force and violence1 sometimes of the most hateful kind1 had come to be accepted as ordinary instruments in the government of souls4 ,hooker felt too strongly the unfairness1 the folly1 the intolerant aggressiveness1 the malignity of his opponents--he was too much alive to the wrongs inflicted by them on his own side1 and to the incredible absurdity of their arguments--to do justice to what was only too real in the charges and complaints of those opponents4 ,but ,bacon came from the very heart of the ,puritan camp4 ,he had seen the inside of ,puritanism--its best as well as its worst side4 ,he witnesses to the humility1 the conscientiousness1 the labour1 the learning1 the hatred of sin and wrong1 of many of its preachers4 ,he had heard1 and heard with sympathy1 all that could be urged against the bishops' administration1 and against a system of legal oppression in the name of the ,church4 ,where religious elements were so confusedly mixed1 and where each side had apparently so much to urge on behalf of its claims1 he saw the deep mistake of loftily ignoring facts1 and of want of patience and forbearance with those who were scandalised at abuses1 while the abuses1 in some cases monstrous1 were tolerated and turned to profit4 ,towards the bishops and their policy1 though his language is very respectful1 for the government was implicated1 he is very severe4 ,they punish and restrain1 but they do not themselves mend their ways or supply what was wanting2 and theirs are injuri potentiorum--injuries come from them that have the upperhand4 ,but ,hooker himself did not put his finger more truly and more surely on the real mischief of the ,puritan movement3 on the immense outbreak in it of unreasonable party spirit and visible personal ambition--these are the true successors of ,diotrephes and not my lord bishops--on the gradual development of the ,puritan theory till it came at last to claim a supremacy as unquestionable and intolerant as that of the ,papacy2 on the servile affectation of the fashions of ,geneva and ,strasburg2 on the poverty and foolishness of much of the ,puritan teaching--its inability to satisfy the great questions which it raised in the soul1 its unworthy dealing with ,scripture--naked examples1 conceited inferences1 and forced allusions1 which mine into all certainty of religion--the word1 the bread of life1 they toss up and down1 they break it not2 on their undervaluing of moral worth1 if it did not speak in their phraseology--as they censure virtuous men by the names of civil and moral1 so do they censure men truly and godly wise1 who see into the vanity of their assertions1 by the name of politiques1 saying that their wisdom is but carnal and savouring of man's brain4 ,bacon saw that the ,puritans were aiming at a tyranny which1 if they established it1 would be more comprehensive1 more searching1 and more cruel than that of the older systems2 but he thought it a remote and improbable danger1 and that they might safely be tolerated for the work they did in education and preaching1 because the work of exhortation doth chiefly rest upon these men1 and they have a zeal and hate of sin4 ,but he ends by warning them lest that be true which one of their adversaries said1 that they have but two small wants--knowledge and love4 ,one complaint that he makes of them is a curious instance of the changes of feeling1 or at least of language1 on moral subjects4 ,he accuses them of having pronounced generally1 and without difference1 all untruths unlawful1 forgetful of the ,egyptian midwives1 and ,rahab1 and ,solomon1 and even of ,him who1 the more to touch the hearts of the disciples with a holy dalliance1 made as though he would have passed ,emmaus4 ,he is thinking of their failure to apply a principle which was characteristic of his mode of thought1 that even a statement about a virtue like veracity hath limit as all things else have2 but it is odd to find ,bacon bringing against the ,puritans the converse of the charge which his age1 and ,pascal afterwards1 brought against the ,jesuits4 ,the essay1 besides being a picture of the times as regards religion1 is an example of what was to be ,bacon's characteristic strength and weakness3 his strength in lifting up a subject which had been degraded by mean and wrangling disputations1 into a higher and larger light1 and bringing to bear on it great principles and the results of the best human wisdom and experience1 expressed in weighty and pregnant maxims2 his weakness in forgetting1 as1 in spite of his philosophy1 he so often did1 that the grandest major premises need well-proved and ascertained minors1 and that the enunciation of a principle is not the same thing as the application of it4 ,doubtless there is truth in his closing words2 but each party would have made the comment that what he had to prove1 and had not proved1 was that by following his counsel they would love the whole world better than a part4 ,let them not fear 444 the fond calumny of neutrality2 but let them know that is true which is said by a wise man1 that neuters in contentions are either better or worse than either side4 ,these things have ,i in all sincerity and simplicity set down touching the controversies which now trouble the ,church of ,england2 and that without all art and insinuation1 and therefore not like to be grateful to either part4 ,notwithstanding1 ,i trust what has been said shall find a correspondence in their minds which are not embarked in partiality1 and which love the whole letter than a part ,up to this time1 though ,bacon had showed himself capable of taking a broad and calm view of questions which it was the fashion among good men1 and men who were in possession of the popular ear1 to treat with narrowness and heat1 there was nothing to disclose his deeper thoughts--nothing foreshadowed the purpose which was to fill his life4 ,he had1 indeed1 at the age of twenty-five1 written a youthful philosophical essay1 to which he gave the pompous title ,temporis ,partus ,maximus1 the ,greatest ,birth of ,time4 ,but he was thirty-one when we first find an indication of the great idea and the great projects which were to make his name famous4 ,this indication is contained in an earnest appeal to ,lord ,burghley for some help which should not be illusory4 ,its words are distinct and far-reaching1 and they are the first words from him which tell us what was in his heart4 ,the letter has the interest to us of the first announcement of a promise which1 to ordinary minds1 must have appeared visionary and extravagant1 but which was so splendidly fulfilled2 the first distant sight of that sea of knowledge which henceforth was opened to mankind1 but on which no man1 as he thought1 had yet entered4 ,it contains the famous avowal--,i have taken all knowledge to be my province--made in the confidence born of long and silent meditations and questionings1 but made in a simple good faith which is as far as possible from vain boastfulness4 ,,my ,,lord1--,with as much confidence as mine own honest and faithful devotion unto your service and your honourable correspondence unto me and my poor estate can breed in a man1 do ,i commend myself unto your ,lordship4 ,i wax now somewhat ancient3 one and thirty years is a great deal of sand in the hour glass4 ,my health1 ,i thank ,god1 ,i find confirmed2 and ,i do not fear that action shall impair it1 because ,i account my ordinary course of study and meditation to be more painful than most parts of action are4 ,i ever bare a mind 7in some middle place that ,i could discharge7 to serve her ,majesty1 not as a man born under ,sol1 that loveth honour1 nor under ,jupiter1 that loveth business 7for the contemplative planet carrieth me away wholly71 but as a man born under an excellent sovereign that deserveth the dedication of all men's abilities4 ,besides1 ,i do not find in myself so much self-love1 but that the greater parts of my thoughts are to deserve well 7if ,i be able7 of my friends1 and namely of your ,lordship2 who1 being the ,atlas of this commonwealth1 the honour of my house1 and the second founder of my poor estate1 ,i am tied by all duties1 both of a good patriot1 and of an unworthy kinsman1 and of an obliged servant1 to employ whatsoever ,i am to do you service4 ,again1 the meanness of my estate doth somewhat move me2 for though ,i cannot accuse myself that ,i am either prodigal or slothful1 yet my health is not to spend1 nor my course to get4 ,lastly1 ,i confess that ,i have as vast contemplative ends as ,i have moderate civil ends2 for ,i have taken all knowledge to be my province2 and if ,i could purge it of two sorts of rovers1 whereof the one with frivolous disputations1 confutations1 and verbosities1 the other with blind experiments and auricular traditions and impostures1 hath committed so many spoils1 ,i hope ,i should bring in industrious observations1 grounded conclusions1 and profitable inventions and discoveries3 the best state of that province4 ,this1 whether it be curiosity or vain glory1 or nature1 or 7if one take it favourably7 philanthropia1 is so fixed in my mind as it cannot be removed4 ,and ,i do easily see1 that place of any reasonable countenance doth bring commandment of more wits than of a man's own2 which is the thing ,i greatly affect4 ,and for your ,lordship1 perhaps you shall not find more strength and less encounter in any other4 ,and if your ,lordship shall find now1 or at any time1 that ,i do seek or affect any place whereunto any that is nearer unto your ,lordship shall be concurrent1 say then that ,i am a most dishonest man4 ,and if your ,lordship will not carry me on1 ,i will not do as ,anaxagoras did1 who reduced himself with contemplation unto voluntary poverty1 but this ,i will do--,i will sell the inheritance ,i have1 and purchase some lease of quick revenue1 or some office of gain that shall be executed by deputy1 and so give over all care of service1 and become some sorry book-maker1 or a true pioneer in that mine of truth which 7he said7 lay so deep4 ,this which ,i have writ unto your ,lordship is rather thoughts than words1 being set down without all art1 disguising1 or reservation4 ,wherein ,i have done honour both to your ,lordship's wisdom1 in judging that that will be best believed of your ,lordship which is truest1 and to your ,lordship's good nature1 in retaining nothing from you4 ,and even so ,i wish your ,lordship all happiness1 and to myself means and occasions to be added to my faithful desire to do you service4 ,from my lodgings at ,gray's ,inn4 ,this letter to his unsympathetic and suspicious1 but probably not unfriendly relative1 is the key to ,bacon's plan of life2 which1 with numberless changes of form1 he followed to the end4 ,that is1 a profession1 steadily1 seriously1 and laboriously kept to1 in order to provide the means of living2 and beyond that1 as the ultimate and real end of his life1 the pursuit1 in a way unattempted before1 of all possible human knowledge1 and of the methods to improve it and make it sure and fruitful4 ,and so his life was carried out4 ,on the one hand it was a continual and pertinacious seeking after government employment1 which could give credit to his name and put money in his pocket--attempts by general behaviour1 by professional services when the occasion offered1 by putting his original and fertile pen at the service of the government1 to win confidence1 and to overcome the manifest indisposition of those in power to think that a man who cherished the chimera of universal knowledge could be a useful public servant4 ,on the other hand1 all the while1 in the crises of his disappointment or triumph1 the one great subject lay next his heart1 filling him with fire and passion--how really to know1 and to teach men to know indeed1 and to use their knowledge so as to command nature2 the great hope to be the reformer and restorer of knowledge in a more wonderful sense than the world had yet seen in the reformation of learning and religion1 and in the spread of civilised order in the great states of the ,renaissance time4 ,to this he gave his best and deepest thoughts2 for this he was for ever accumulating1 and for ever rearranging and reshaping those masses of observation and inquiry and invention and mental criticism which were to come in as parts of the great design which he had seen in the visions of his imagination1 and of which at last he was only able to leave noble fragments1 incomplete after numberless recastings4 ,this was not indeed the only1 but it was the predominant and governing1 interest of his life4 ,whether as solicitor for ,court favour or public office2 whether drudging at the work of the law or managing ,state prosecutions2 whether writing an opportune pamphlet against ,spain or ,father ,parsons1 or inventing a device for his ,inn or for ,lord ,essex to give amusement to ,queen ,elizabeth2 whether fulfilling his duties as member of ,parliament or rising step by step to the highest places in the ,council ,board and the ,state2 whether in the pride of success or under the amazement of unexpected and irreparable overthrow1 while it seemed as if he was only measuring his strength against the rival ambitions of the day1 in the same spirit and with the same object as his competitors1 the true motive of all his eagerness and all his labours was not theirs4 ,he wanted to be powerful1 and still more to be rich2 but he wanted to be so1 because without power and without money he could not follow what was to him the only thing worth following on earth--a real knowledge of the amazing and hitherto almost unknown world in which he had to live4 ,bacon1 to us1 at least1 at this distance1 who can only judge him from partial and imperfect knowledge1 often seems to fall far short of what a man should be4 ,he was not one of the high-minded and proud searchers after knowledge and truth1 like ,descartes1 who were content to accept a frugal independence so that their time and their thoughts might be their own4 ,bacon was a man of the world1 and wished to live in and with the world4 ,he threatened sometimes retirement1 but never with any very serious intention4 ,in the ,court was his element1 and there were his hopes4 ,often there seems little to distinguish him from the ordinary place-hunters1 obsequious and selfish1 of every age2 little to distinguish him from the servile and insincere flatterers1 of whom he himself complains1 who crowded the antechambers of the great ,queen1 content to submit with smiling face and thankful words to the insolence of her waywardness and temper1 in the hope1 more often disappointed than not1 of hitting her taste on some lucky occasion1 and being rewarded for the accident by a place of gain or honour4 ,bacon's history1 as read in his letters1 is not an agreeable one2 after every allowance made for the fashions of language and the necessities of a suitor1 there is too much of insincere profession of disinterestedness1 too much of exaggerated profession of admiration and devoted service1 too much of disparagement and insinuation against others1 for a man who respected himself4 ,he submitted too much to the miserable conditions of rising which he found4 ,but1 nevertheless1 it must be said that it was for no mean object1 for no mere private selfishness or vanity1 that he endured all this4 ,he strove hard to be a great man and a rich man4 ,but it was that he might have his hands free and strong and well furnished to carry forward the double task of overthrowing ignorance and building up the new and solid knowledge on which his heart was set--that immense conquest of nature on behalf of man which he believed to be possible1 and of which he believed himself to have the key4 ,the letter to ,lord ,burghley did not help him much4 ,he received the reversion of a place1 the ,clerkship of the ,council1 which did not become vacant for twenty years4 ,but these years of service declined and place withheld were busy and useful ones4 ,what he was most intent upon1 and what occupied his deepest and most serious thought1 was unknown to the world round him1 and probably not very intelligible to his few intimate friends1 such as his brother ,antony and ,dr4 ,andrewes4 ,meanwhile he placed his pen at the disposal of the authorities1 and though they regarded him more as a man of study than of practice and experience1 they were glad to make use of it4 ,his versatile genius found another employment4 ,besides his affluence in topics1 he had the liveliest fancy and most active imagination4 ,but that he wanted the sense of poetic fitness and melody1 he might almost be supposed1 with his reach and play of thought1 to have been capable1 as is maintained in some eccentric modern theories1 of writing ,shakespeare's plays4 ,no man ever had a more imaginative power of illustration drawn from the most remote and most unlikely analogies2 analogies often of the quaintest and most unexpected kind1 but often also not only felicitous in application but profound and true4 ,his powers were early called upon for some of those sportive compositions in which that age delighted on occasions of rejoicing or festival4 ,three of his contributions to these devices have been preserved--two of them composed in honour of the ,queen1 as triumphs1 offered by ,lord ,essex1 one probably in #aeib and another in #aeie2 a third for a ,gray's ,inn revel in #aeid4 ,the devices themselves were of the common type of the time1 extravagant1 odd1 full of awkward allegory and absurd flattery1 and running to a prolixity which must make modern lovers of amusement wonder at the patience of those days2 but the discourses furnished by ,bacon are full of fine observation and brilliant thought and wit and happy illustration1 which1 fantastic as the general conception is1 raises them far above the level of such fugitive trifles4 ,among the fragmentary papers belonging to this time which have come down1 not the least curious are those which throw light on his manner of working4 ,while he was following out the great ideas which were to be the basis of his philosophy1 he was as busy and as painstaking in fashioning the instruments by which they were to be expressed2 and in these papers we have the records and specimens of this preparation4 ,he was a great collector of sentences1 proverbs1 quotations1 sayings1 illustrations1 anecdotes1 and he seems to have read sometimes simply to gather phrases and apt words4 ,he jots down at random any good and pointed remark which comes into his thought or his memory2 at another time he groups a set of stock quotations with a special drift1 bearing on some subject1 such as the faults of universities or the habits of lawyers4 ,nothing is too minute for his notice4 ,he brings together in great profusion mere forms1 varied turns of expression1 heads and tails of clauses and paragraphs1 transitions1 connections2 he notes down fashions of compliment1 of excuse or repartee1 even morning and evening salutations2 he records neat and convenient opening and concluding sentences1 ways of speaking more adapted than others to give a special colour or direction to what the speaker or writer has to say--all that hook-and-eye work which seems so trivial and passes so unnoticed as a matter of course1 and which yet is often hard to reach1 and which makes all the difference between tameness and liveliness1 between clearness and obscurity--all the difference1 not merely to the ease and naturalness1 but often to the logical force of speech4 ,these collections it was his way to sift and transcribe again and again1 adding as well as omitting4 ,from one of these1 belonging to #aeid and the following years1 the ,promus of ,formularies and ,elegancies1 ,mr4 ,spedding has given curious extracts2 and the whole collection has been recently edited by ,mrs4 ,henry ,pott4 ,thus it was that he prepared himself for what1 as we read it1 or as his audience heard it1 seems the suggestion or recollection of the moment4 ,bacon was always much more careful of the value or aptness of a thought than of its appearing new and original4 ,of all great writers he least minds repeating himself1 perhaps in the very same words2 so that a simile1 an illustration1 a quotation pleases him1 he returns to it--he is never tired of it2 it obviously gives him satisfaction to introduce it again and again4 ,these collections of odds and ends illustrate another point in his literary habits4 ,his was a mind keenly sensitive to all analogies and affinities1 impatient of a strict and rigid logical groove1 but spreading as it were tentacles on all sides in quest of chance prey1 and quickened into a whole system of imagination by the electric quiver imparted by a single word1 at once the key and symbol of the thinking it had led to4 ,and so he puts down word or phrase1 so enigmatical to us who see it by itself1 which to him would wake up a whole train of ideas1 as he remembered the occasion of it--how at a certain time and place this word set the whole moving1 seemed to breathe new life and shed new light1 and has remained the token1 meaningless in itself1 which reminds him of so much4 ,when we come to read his letters1 his speeches1 his works1 we come continually on the results and proofs of this early labour4 ,some of the most memorable and familiar passages of his writings are to be traced from the storehouses which he filled in these years of preparation4 ,an example of this correspondence between the note-book and the composition is to be seen in a paper belonging to this period1 written apparently to form part of a masque1 or as he himself calls it1 a ,conference of ,pleasure1 and entitled the ,praise of ,knowledge4 ,it is interesting because it is the first draught which we have from him of some of the leading ideas and most characteristic language about the defects and the improvement of knowledge1 which were afterwards embodied in the ,advancement and the ,novum ,organum4 ,the whole spirit and aim of his great reform is summed up in the following fine passage3 ,facility to believe1 impatience to doubt1 temerity to assever1 glory to know1 doubt to contradict1 end to gain1 sloth to search1 seeking things in words1 resting in a part of nature--these and the like have been the things which have forbidden the happy match between the mind of man and the nature of things1 and in place thereof have married it to vain notions and blind experiments4444 ,therefore1 no doubt1 the sovereignty of man lieth hid in knowledge2 wherein many things are reserved which kings with their treasures cannot buy nor with their force command2 their spials and intelligencers can give no news of them2 their seamen and discoverers cannot sail where they grow4 ,now we govern nature in opinions1 but we are thrall unto her in necessity2 but if we could be led by her in invention1 we should command her in action4 ,to the same occasion as the discourse on the ,praise of ,knowledge belongs1 also1 one in ,praise of the ,queen4 ,as one is an early specimen of his manner of writing on philosophy1 so this is a specimen of what was equally characteristic of him--his political and historical writing4 ,it is1 in form1 necessarily a panegyric1 as high-flown and adulatory as such performances in those days were bound to be4 ,but it is not only flattery4 ,it fixes with true discrimination on the points in ,elizabeth's character and reign which were really subjects of admiration and homage4 ,thus of her unquailing spirit at the time of the ,spanish invasion-- ,lastly1 see a ,queen1 that when her realm was to have been invaded by an army1 the preparation whereof was like the travail of an elephant1 the provisions infinite1 the setting forth whereof was the terror and wonder of ,europe2 it was not seen that her cheer1 her fashion1 her ordinary manner was anything altered2 not a cloud of that storm did appear in that countenance wherein peace doth ever shine2 but with excellent assurance and advised security she inspired her council1 animated her nobility1 redoubled the courage of her people2 still having this noble apprehension1 not only that she would communicate her fortune with them1 but that it was she that would protect them1 and not they her2 which she testified by no less demonstration than her presence in camp4 ,therefore that magnanimity that neither feareth greatness of alteration1 nor the vows of conspirators1 nor the power of the enemy1 is more than heroical4 ,these papers1 though he put his best workmanship into them1 as he invariably did with whatever he touched1 were of an ornamental kind4 ,but he did more serious work4 ,in the year #aeib a pamphlet had been published on the ,continent in ,latin and ,english1 ,responsio ad ,edictum ,regin ,angli1 with reference to the severe legislation which followed on the ,armada1 making such charges against the ,queen and the ,government as it was natural for the ,roman ,catholic party to make1 and making them with the utmost virulence and unscrupulousness4 ,it was supposed to be written by the ablest of the ,roman pamphleteers1 ,father ,parsons4 ,the ,government felt it to be a dangerous indictment1 and ,bacon was chosen to write the answer to it4 ,he had additional interest in the matter1 for the pamphlet made a special and bitter attack on ,burghley1 as the person mainly responsible for the ,queen's policy4 ,bacon's reply is long and elaborate1 taking up every charge1 and reviewing from his own point of view the whole course of the struggle between the ,queen and the supporters of the ,roman ,catholic interest abroad and at home4 ,it cannot be considered an impartial review2 besides that it was written to order1 no man in ,england could then write impartially in that quarrel2 but it is not more one-sided and uncandid than the pamphlet which it answers1 and ,bacon is able to recriminate with effect1 and to show gross credulity and looseness of assertion on the part of the ,roman ,catholic advocate4 ,but religion had too much to do with the politics of both sides for either to be able to come into the dispute with clean hands3 the ,roman ,catholics meant much more than toleration1 and the sanguinary punishments of the ,english law against priests and ,jesuits were edged by something even keener than the fear of treason4 ,but the paper contains some large surveys of public affairs1 which probably no one at that time could write but ,bacon4 ,bacon never liked to waste anything good which he had written2 and much of what he had written in the panegyric in ,praise of the ,queen is made use of again1 and transferred with little change to the pages of the ,observations on a ,libel4 ,,footnotes3 #b ,dr4 ,mozley4 ,,chapter ,,ii4 ,,bacon ,,and ,,elizabeth4 ,the last decade of the century1 and almost of ,elizabeth's reign 7#aeij-afjj71 was an eventful one to ,bacon's fortunes4 ,in it the vision of his great design disclosed itself more and more to his imagination and hopes1 and with more and more irresistible fascination4 ,in it he made his first literary venture1 the first edition of his ,essays 7#aeig71 ten in number1 the first-fruits of his early and ever watchful observation of men and affairs4 ,these years1 too1 saw his first steps in public life1 the first efforts to bring him into importance1 the first great trials and tests of his character4 ,they saw the beginning and they saw the end of his relations with the only friend who1 at that time1 recognised his genius and his purposes1 certainly the only friend who ever pushed his claims2 they saw the growth of a friendship which was to have so tragical a close1 and they saw the beginnings and causes of a bitter personal rivalry which was to last through life1 and which was to be a potent element hereafter in ,bacon's ruin4 ,the friend was the ,earl of ,essex4 ,the competitor was the ablest1 and also the most truculent and unscrupulous of ,english lawyers1 ,edward ,coke4 ,while ,bacon1 in the shade1 had been laying the foundations of his philosophy of nature1 and vainly suing for legal or political employment1 another man had been steadily rising in the ,queen's favour and carrying all before him at ,court--,robert ,devereux1 ,lord ,essex2 and with ,essex ,bacon had formed an acquaintance which had ripened into an intimate and affectionate friendship4 ,we commonly think of ,essex as a vain and insolent favourite1 who did ill the greatest work given him to do--the reduction of ,ireland2 who did it ill from some unexplained reason of spite and mischief2 and who1 when called to account for it1 broke out into senseless and idle rebellion4 ,this was the end4 ,but he was not always thus4 ,he began life with great gifts and noble ends2 he was a serious1 modest1 and large-minded student both of books and things1 and he turned his studies to full account4 ,he had imagination and love of enterprise1 which gave him an insight into ,bacon's ideas such as none of ,bacon's contemporaries had4 ,he was a man of simple and earnest religion2 he sympathized most with the ,puritans1 because they were serious and because they were hardly used4 ,those who most condemn him acknowledge his nobleness and generosity of nature4 ,bacon in after days1 when all was over between them1 spoke of him as a man always patientissimus veri2 the more plainly and frankly you shall deal with my lord1 he writes elsewhere1 not only in disclosing particulars1 but in giving him caveats and admonishing him of any error which in this action he may commit 7such is his lordship's nature71 the better he will take it4 ,he must have seemed1 says ,mr4 ,spedding1 a little too grandly1 in the eyes of ,bacon like the hope of the world4 ,the two men1 certainly1 became warmly attached4 ,their friendship came to be one of the closest kind1 full of mutual services1 and of genuine affection on both sides4 ,it was not the relation of a great patron and useful dependant2 it was1 what might be expected in the two men1 that of affectionate equality4 ,each man was equally capable of seeing what the other was1 and saw it4 ,what ,essex's feelings were towards ,bacon the results showed4 ,bacon1 in after years1 repeatedly claimed to have devoted his whole time and labour to ,essex's service4 ,holding him1 he says1 to be the fittest instrument to do good to the ,state1 ,i applied myself to him in a manner which ,i think rarely happeneth among men2 neglecting the ,queen's service1 mine own fortune1 and1 in a sort1 my vocation1 ,i did nothing but advise and ruminate with myself 444 anything that might concern his lordship's honour1 fortune1 or service4 ,the claim is far too wide4 ,the ,queen's service had hardly as yet come much in ,bacon's way1 and he never neglected it when it did come1 nor his own fortune or vocation2 his letters remain to attest his care in these respects4 ,but no doubt ,bacon was then as ready to be of use to ,essex1 the one man who seemed to understand and value him1 as ,essex was desirous to be of use to ,bacon4 ,and it seemed as if ,essex would have the ability as well as the wish4 ,essex was1 without exception1 the most brilliant man who ever appeared at ,elizabeth's ,court1 and it seemed as if he were going to be the most powerful4 ,leicester was dead4 ,burghley was growing old1 and indisposed for the adventures and levity which1 with all her grand power of ruling1 ,elizabeth loved4 ,she needed a favourite1 and ,essex was unfortunately marked out for what she wanted4 ,he had ,leicester's fascination1 without his mean and cruel selfishness4 ,he was as generous1 as gallant1 as quick to descry all great things in art and life1 as ,philip ,sidney1 with more vigour and fitness for active life than ,sidney4 ,he had not ,raleigh's sad1 dark depths of thought1 but he had a daring courage equal to ,raleigh's1 without ,raleigh's cynical contempt for mercy and honour4 ,he had every personal advantage requisite for a time when intellect1 and ready wit1 and high-tempered valour1 and personal beauty1 and skill in affairs1 with equal skill in amusements1 were expected to go together in the accomplished courtier4 ,and ,essex was a man not merely to be courted and admired1 to shine and dazzle1 but to be loved4 ,elizabeth1 with her strange and perverse emotional constitution1 loved him1 if she ever loved any one4 ,every one who served him loved him2 and he was1 as much as any one could be in those days1 a popular favourite4 ,under better fortune he might have risen to a great height of character2 in ,elizabeth's ,court he was fated to be ruined4 ,for in that ,court all the qualities in him which needed control received daily stimulus1 and his ardour and high-aiming temper turned into impatience and restless irritability4 ,he had a mistress who was at one time in the humour to be treated as a tender woman1 at another as an outrageous flirt1 at another as the haughtiest and most imperious of queens2 her mood varied1 no one could tell how1 and it was most dangerous to mistake it4 ,it was part of her pleasure to find in her favourite a spirit as high1 a humour as contradictory and determined1 as her own2 it was the charming contrast to the obsequiousness or the prudence of the rest2 but no one could be sure at what unlooked-for moment1 and how fiercely1 she might resent in earnest a display of what she had herself encouraged4 ,essex was ruined for all real greatness by having to suit himself to this bewildering and most unwholesome and degrading waywardness4 ,she taught him to think himself irresistible in opinion and in claims2 she amused herself in teaching him how completely he was mistaken4 ,alternately spoiled and crossed1 he learned to be exacting1 unreasonable1 absurd in his pettish resentments or brooding sullenness4 ,he learned to think that she must be dealt with by the same methods which she herself employed4 ,the effect was not produced in a moment2 it was the result of a courtiership of sixteen years4 ,but it ended in corrupting a noble nature4 ,essex came to believe that she who cowed others must be frightened herself2 that the stinging injustice which led a proud man to expect1 only to see how he would behave when refused1 deserved to be brought to reason by a counter-buffet as rough as her own insolent caprice4 ,he drifted into discontent1 into disaffection1 into neglect of duty1 into questionable schemings for the future of a reign that must shortly end1 into criminal methods of guarding himself1 of humbling his rivals and regaining influence4 ,a fatal impatience1 as ,bacon calls it1 gave his rivals an advantage which1 perhaps in self-defence1 they could not fail to take2 and that career1 so brilliant1 so full of promise of good1 ended in misery1 in dishonour1 in remorse1 on the scaffold of the ,tower4 ,with this attractive and powerful person ,bacon's fortunes1 in the last years of the century1 became more and more knit up4 ,bacon was now past thirty1 ,essex a few years younger4 ,in spite of ,bacon's apparent advantage and interest at ,court1 in spite of abilities1 which1 though his genius was not yet known1 his contemporaries clearly recognised1 he was still a struggling and unsuccessful man3 ambitious to rise1 for no unworthy reasons1 but needy1 in weak health1 with careless and expensive habits1 and embarrassed with debt4 ,he had hoped to rise by the favour of the ,queen and for the sake of his father4 ,for some ill-explained reason he was to the last disappointed4 ,though she used him for matters of state and revenue1 she either did not like him1 or did not see in him the servant she wanted to advance4 ,he went on to the last pressing his uncle1 ,lord ,burghley4 ,he applied in the humblest terms1 he made himself useful with his pen1 he got his mother to write for him2 but ,lord ,burghley1 probably because he thought his nephew more of a man of letters than a sound lawyer and practical public servant1 did not care to bring him forward4 ,from his cousin1 ,robert ,cecil1 ,bacon received polite words and friendly assurances4 ,cecil may have undervalued him1 or have been jealous of him1 or suspected him as a friend of ,essex2 he certainly gave ,bacon good reason to think that his words meant nothing4 ,except ,essex1 and perhaps his brother ,antony--the most affectionate and devoted of brothers--no one had yet recognised all that ,bacon was4 ,meanwhile time was passing4 ,the vastness1 the difficulties1 the attractions of that conquest of all knowledge which he dreamed of1 were becoming greater every day to his thoughts4 ,the law1 without which he could not live1 took up time and brought in little4 ,attendance on the ,court was expensive1 yet indispensable1 if he wished for place4 ,his mother was never very friendly1 and thought him absurd and extravagant4 ,debts increased and creditors grumbled4 ,the outlook was discouraging1 when his friendship with ,essex opened to him a more hopeful prospect4 ,in the year #aeic the ,attorney-,general's place was vacant1 and ,essex1 who in that year became a ,privy ,councillor1 determined that ,bacon should be ,attorney-,general4 ,bacon's reputation as a lawyer was overshadowed by his philosophical and literary pursuits4 ,he was thought young for the office1 and he had not yet served in any subordinate place4 ,and there was another man1 who was supposed to carry all ,english law in his head1 full of rude force and endless precedents1 hard of heart and voluble of tongue1 who also wanted it4 ,an ,attorney-,general was one who would bring all the resources and hidden subtleties of ,english law to the service of the ,crown1 and use them with thorough-going and unflinching resolution against those whom the ,crown accused of treason1 sedition1 or invasion of the prerogative4 ,it is no wonder that the ,cecils1 and the ,queen herself1 thought ,coke likely to be a more useful public servant than ,bacon3 it is certain what ,coke himself thought about it1 and what his estimate was of the man whom ,essex was pushing against him4 ,but ,essex did not take up his friend's cause in the lukewarm fashion in which ,burghley had patronised his nephew4 ,there was nothing that ,essex pursued with greater pertinacity4 ,he importuned the ,queen4 ,he risked without scruple offending her4 ,she apparently long shrank from directly refusing his request4 ,the ,cecils were for ,coke--the ,huddler as ,bacon calls him1 in a letter to ,essex2 but the appointment was delayed4 ,all through #aeic1 and until ,april1 #aeid1 the struggle went on4 ,when ,robert ,cecil suggested that ,essex should be content with the ,solicitor's place for ,bacon1 praying him to be well advised1 for if his ,lordship had spoken of that it might have been of easier digestion to the ,queen1 he turned round on ,cecil-- ,digest me no digesting1 said the ,earl2 for the ,attorneyship is that ,i must have for ,francis ,bacon2 and in that ,i will spend my uttermost credit1 friendship1 and authority against whomsoever1 and that whosoever went about to procure it to others1 that it should cost both the mediators and the suitors the setting on before they came by it4 ,and this be you assured of1 ,sir ,robert1 quoth the ,earl1 for now do ,i fully declare myself2 and for your own part1 ,sir ,robert1 ,i do think much and strange both of my ,lord your father and you1 that can have the mind to seek the preferment of a stranger before so near a kinsman2 namely1 considering if you weigh in a balance his parts and sufficiency in any respect with those of his competitor1 excepting only four poor years of admittance1 which ,francis ,bacon hath more than recompensed with the priority of his reading2 in all other respects you shall find no comparison between them4 ,but the ,queen's disgust at some very slight show of independence on ,bacon's part in ,parliament1 unforgiven in spite of repeated apologies1 together with the influence of the ,cecils and the pressure of so formidable and so useful a man as ,coke1 turned the scale against ,essex4 ,in ,april1 #aeid1 ,coke was made ,attorney4 ,coke did not forget the pretender to law1 as he would think him1 who had dared so long to dispute his claims2 and ,bacon was deeply wounded4 ,no man1 he thought1 had ever received a more exquisite disgrace1 and he spoke of retiring to ,cambridge to spend the rest of his life in his studies and contemplations4 ,but ,essex was not discouraged4 ,he next pressed eagerly for the ,solicitorship4 ,again1 after much waiting1 he was foiled4 ,an inferior man was put over ,bacon's head4 ,bacon found that ,essex1 who could do most things1 for some reason could not do this4 ,he himself1 too1 had pressed his suit with the greatest importunity on the ,queen1 on ,burghley1 on ,cecil1 on every one who could help him2 he reminded the ,queen how many years ago it was since he first kissed her hand in her service1 and ever since had used his wits to please2 but it was all in vain4 ,for once he lost patience4 ,he was angry with ,essex2 the ,queen's anger with ,essex had1 he thought1 recoiled on his friend4 ,he was angry with the ,queen2 she held his long waiting cheap2 she played with him and amused herself with delay2 he would go abroad1 and he knew her ,majesty's nature1 that she neither careth though the whole surname of the ,bacons travelled1 nor of the ,cecils neither4 ,he was very angry with ,robert ,cecil2 affecting not to believe them1 he tells him stories he has heard of his corrupt and underhand dealing4 ,he writes almost a farewell letter of ceremonious but ambiguous thanks to ,lord ,burghley1 hoping that he would impute any offence that ,bacon might have given to the complexion of a suitor1 and a tired sea-sick suitor1 and speaking despairingly of his future success in the law4 ,the humiliations of what a suitor has to go through torment him3 ,it is my luck1 he writes to ,cecil1 still to be akin to such things as ,i neither like in nature nor would willingly meet with in my course1 but yet cannot avoid without show of base timorousness or else of unkind or suspicious strangeness4 ,and to his friend ,fulke ,greville he thus unburdens himself3 ,,sir1--,i understand of your pains to have visited me1 for which ,i thank you4 ,my matter is an endless question4 ,i assure you ,i had said ,requiesce anima mea2 but ,i now am otherwise put to my psalter2 ,nolite confidere4 ,i dare go no further4 ,her ,majesty had by set speech more than once assured me of her intention to call me to her service1 which ,i could not understand but of the place ,i had been named to4 ,and now whether invidus homo hoc fecit2 or whether my matter must be an appendix to my ,lord of ,essex suit2 or whether her ,majesty1 pretending to prove my ability1 meaneth but to take advantage of some errors which1 like enough1 at one time or other ,i may commit2 or what is it8 but her ,majesty is not ready to despatch it4 ,and what though the ,master of the ,rolls1 and my ,lord of ,essex1 and yourself1 and others1 think my case without doubt1 yet in the meantime ,i have a hard condition1 to stand so that whatsoever service ,i do to her ,majesty it shall be thought to be but servitium viscatum1 lime-twigs and fetches to place myself2 and so ,i shall have envy1 not thanks4 ,this is a course to quench all good spirits1 and to corrupt every man's nature1 which will1 ,i fear1 much hurt her ,majesty's service in the end4 ,i have been like a piece of stuff bespoken in the shop2 and if her ,majesty will not take me1 it may be the selling by parcels will be more gainful4 ,for to be1 as ,i told you1 like a child following a bird1 which when he is nearest flieth away and lighteth a little before1 and then the child after it again1 and so in infinitum1 ,i am weary of it2 as also of wearying my good friends1 of whom1 nevertheless1 ,i hope in one course or other gratefully to deserve4 ,and so1 not forgetting your business1 ,i leave to trouble you with this idle letter2 being but justa et moderata querimonia2 for indeed ,i do confess1 primus amor will not easily be cast off4 ,and thus again ,i commend me to you4 ,after one more effort the chase was given up1 at least for the moment2 for it was soon resumed4 ,but just now ,bacon felt that all the world was against him4 ,he would retire out of the sunshine into the shade4 ,one friend only encouraged him4 ,he did more4 ,he helped him when ,bacon most wanted help1 in his straitened and embarrassed estate4 ,essex1 when he could do nothing more1 gave ,bacon an estate worth at least #ahjj4 ,bacon's resolution is recorded in the following letter3 ,,it ,,may ,,please ,,your ,,good ,,lordship1--,i pray ,god her ,majesty's weighing be not like the weight of a balance1 gravia deorsum levia sursum4 ,but ,i am as far from being altered in devotion towards her1 as ,i am from distrust that she will be altered in opinion towards me1 when she knoweth me better4 ,for myself1 ,i have lost some opinion1 some time1 and some means2 this is my account2 but then for opinion1 it is a blast that goeth and cometh2 for time1 it is true it goeth and cometh not2 but yet ,i have learned that it may be redeemed4 ,for means1 ,i value that most2 and the rather1 because ,i am purposed not to follow the practice of the law 7if her ,majesty command me in any particular1 ,i shall be ready to do her willing service72 and my reason is only1 because it drinketh too much time1 which ,i have dedicated to better purposes4 ,but even for that point of estate and means1 ,i partly lean to ,thales' opinion1 ,that a philosopher may be rich if he will4 ,thus your ,lordship seeth how ,i comfort myself2 to the increase whereof ,i would fain please myself to believe that to be true which my ,lord ,treasurer writeth2 which is1 that it is more than a philosopher morally can disgest4 ,but without any such high conceit1 ,i esteem it like the pulling out of an aching tooth1 which1 ,i remember1 when ,i was a child1 and had little philosophy1 ,i was glad of when it was done4 ,for your ,lordship1 ,i do think myself more beholding to you than to any man4 ,and ,i say1 ,i reckon myself as a common 7not popular but common72 and as much as is lawful to be enclosed of a common1 so much your ,lordship shall be sure to have4--,your ,lordship's to obey your honourable commands1 more settled than ever4 ,it may be that1 as ,bacon afterwards maintained1 the closing sentences of this letter implied a significant reserve of his devotion4 ,but during the brilliant and stormy years of ,essex's career which followed1 ,bacon's relations to him continued unaltered4 ,essex pressed ,bacon's claims whenever a chance offered4 ,he did his best to get ,bacon a rich wife--the young widow of ,sir ,christopher ,hatton--but in vain4 ,instead of ,bacon she accepted ,coke1 and became famous afterwards in the great family quarrel1 in which ,coke and ,bacon again found themselves face to face1 and which nearly ruined ,bacon before the time4 ,bacon worked for ,essex when he was wanted1 and gave the advice which a shrewd and cautious friend would give to a man who1 by his success and increasing pride and self-confidence1 was running into serious dangers1 arming against himself deadly foes1 and exposing himself to the chances of fortune4 ,bacon was nervous about ,essex's capacity for war1 a capacity which perhaps was not proved1 even by the most brilliant exploit of the time1 the capture of ,cadiz1 in which ,essex foreshadowed the heroic but well-calculated audacities of ,nelson and ,cochrane1 and showed himself as little able as they to bear the intoxication of success1 and to work in concert with envious and unfriendly associates4 ,at the end of the year #aeif1 the year in which ,essex had won such reputation at ,cadiz1 ,bacon wrote him a letter of advice and remonstrance4 ,it is a lively picture of the defects and dangers of ,essex's behaviour as the ,queen's favourite2 and it is a most characteristic and worldly-wise summary of the ways which ,bacon would have him take1 to cure the one and escape the other4 ,bacon had1 as he says1 good reason to think that the ,earl's fortune comprehended his own4 ,and the letter may perhaps be taken as an indirect warning to ,essex that ,bacon must1 at any rate1 take care of his own fortune1 if the ,earl persisted in dangerous courses4 ,bacon shows how he is to remove the impressions1 strong in the ,queen's mind1 of ,essex's defects2 how he is1 by due submissions and stratagems1 to catch her humour-- ,but whether ,i counsel you the best1 or for the best1 duty bindeth me to offer to you my wishes4 ,i said to your ,lordship last time1 ,martha1 ,martha1 attendis ad plurima1 unum sufficit2 win the ,queen3 if this be not the beginning1 of any other course ,i see no end4 ,bacon gives a series of minute directions how ,essex is to disarm the ,queen's suspicions1 and to neutralize the advantage which his rivals take of them2 how he is to remove the opinion of his nature being opiniastre and not rulable2 how1 avoiding the faults of ,leicester and ,hatton1 he is1 as far as he can1 to allege them for authors and patterns4 ,especially1 he must give up that show of soldier-like distinction1 which the ,queen so disliked1 and take some quiet post at ,court4 ,he must not alarm the ,queen by seeking popularity2 he must take care of his estate2 he must get rid of some of his officers2 and he must not be disquieted by other favourites4 ,bacon wished1 as he said afterwards1 to see him with a white staff in his hand1 as my ,lord of ,leicester had1 an honour and ornament to the ,court in the eyes of the people and foreign ambassadors4 ,but ,essex was not fit for the part which ,bacon urged upon him1 that of an obsequious and vigilant observer of the ,queen's moods and humours4 ,as time went on1 things became more and more difficult between him and his strange mistress2 and there were never wanting men who1 like ,cecil and ,raleigh1 for good and bad reasons1 feared and hated ,essex1 and who had the craft and the skill to make the most of his inexcusable errors4 ,at last he allowed himself1 from ambition1 from the spirit of contradiction1 from the blind passion for doing what he thought would show defiance to his enemies1 to be tempted into the ,irish campaign of #aeii4 ,bacon at a later time claimed credit for having foreseen and foretold its issue4 ,i did as plainly see his overthrow1 chained as it were by destiny to that journey1 as it is possible for any man to ground a judgment on future contingents4 ,he warned ,essex1 so he thought in after years1 of the difficulty of the work2 he warned him that he would leave the ,queen in the hands of his enemies3 ,it would be ill for her1 ill for him1 ill for the ,state4 ,i am sure1 he adds1 ,i never in anything in my life dealt with him in like earnestness by speech1 by writing1 and by all the means ,i could devise4 ,but ,bacon's memory was mistaken4 ,we have his letters4 ,when ,essex went to ,ireland1 ,bacon wrote only in the language of sanguine hope--so little did he see overthrow chained by destiny to that journey1 that some good spirit led his pen to presage to his ,lordship success2 he saw in the enterprise a great occasion of honour to his friend2 he gave prudent counsels1 but he looked forward confidently to ,essex being as fatal a captain to that war1 as ,africanus was to the war of ,carthage4 ,indeed1 however anxious he may have been1 he could not have foreseen ,essex's unaccountable and to this day unintelligible failure4 ,but failure was the end1 from whatever cause2 failure1 disgraceful and complete4 ,then followed wild and guilty but abortive projects for retrieving his failure1 by using his power in ,ireland to make himself formidable to his enemies at ,court1 and even to the ,queen herself4 ,he intrigued with ,tyrone2 he intrigued with ,james of ,scotland2 he plunged into a whirl of angry and baseless projects1 which came to nothing the moment they were discussed4 ,how empty and idle they were was shown by his return against orders to tell his own story at ,nonsuch1 and by thus placing himself alone and undeniably in the wrong1 in the power of the hostile ,council4 ,of course it was not to be thought of that ,cecil should not use his advantage in the game4 ,it was too early1 irritated though the ,queen was1 to strike the final blow4 ,but it is impossible not to see1 looking back over the miserable history1 that ,essex was treated in a way which was certain1 sooner or later1 to make him1 being what he was1 plunge into a fatal and irretrievable mistake4 ,he was treated as a cat treats a mouse2 he was worried1 confined1 disgraced1 publicly reprimanded1 brought just within verge of the charge of treason1 but not quite1 just enough to discredit and alarm him1 but to leave him still a certain amount of play4 ,he was made to see that the ,queen's favour was not quite hopeless2 but that nothing but the most absolute and unreserved humiliation could recover it4 ,it was plain to any one who knew ,essex that this treatment would drive ,essex to madness4 ,these same gradations of yours--so ,bacon represents himself expostulating with the ,queen on her caprices--are fitter to corrupt than to correct any mind of greatness4 ,they made ,essex desperate2 he became frightened for his life1 and he had reason to be so1 though not in the way which he feared4 ,at length came the stupid and ridiculous outbreak of the #hth of ,february1 #afjj_/afja1 a plot to seize the palace and raise the city against the ministers1 by the help of a few gentlemen armed only with their rapiers4 ,as ,bacon himself told the ,queen1 if some base and cruel-minded persons had entered into such an action1 it might have caused much blow and combustion2 but it appeared well that they were such as knew not how to play the malefactors6 ,but it was sufficient to bring ,essex within the doom of treason4 ,essex knew well what the stake was4 ,he lost it1 and deserved to lose it1 little as his enemies deserved to win it2 for they1 too1 were doing what would have cost them their heads if ,elizabeth had known it--corresponding1 as ,essex was accused of doing1 with ,scotland about the succession1 and possibly with ,spain4 ,but they were playing cautiously and craftily2 he with bungling passion4 ,he had been so long accustomed to power and place1 that he could not endure that rivals should keep him out of it4 ,they were content to have their own way1 while affecting to be the humblest of servants2 he would be nothing less than a ,mayor of the ,palace4 ,he was guilty of a great public crime1 as every man is who appeals to arms for anything short of the most sacred cause4 ,he was bringing into ,england1 which had settled down into peaceable ways1 an imitation of the violent methods of ,france and the ,guises4 ,but the crime as well as the penalty belonged to the age1 and crimes legally said to be against the ,state mean morally very different things1 according to the state of society and opinion4 ,it is an unfairness verging on the ridiculous1 when the ground is elaborately laid for keeping up the impression that ,essex was preparing a real treason against the ,queen like that of ,norfolk4 ,it was a treason of the same sort and order as that for which ,northumberland sent ,somerset to the block3 the treason of being an unsuccessful rival4 ,meanwhile ,bacon had been getting gradually into the unofficial employ of the ,government4 ,he had become one of the ,learned ,counsel--lawyers with subordinate and intermittent work1 used when wanted1 but without patent or salary1 and not ranking with the regular law officers4 ,the ,government had found him useful in affairs of the revenue1 in framing interrogatories for prisoners in the ,tower1 in drawing up reports of plots against the ,queen4 ,he did not in this way earn enough to support himself2 but he had thus come to have some degree of access to the ,queen1 which he represents as being familiar and confidential1 though he still perceived1 as he says himself1 that she did not like him4 ,at the first news of ,essex's return to ,england1 ,bacon greeted him-- ,,my ,,lord1--,conceiving that your ,lordship came now up in the person of a good servant to see your sovereign mistress1 which kind of compliments are many times instar magnorum meritorum1 and therefore it would be hard for me to find you1 ,i have committed to this poor paper the humble salutations of him that is more yours than any man's1 and more yours than any man4 ,to these salutations ,i add a due and joyful gratulation1 confessing that your ,lordship1 in your last conference with me before your journey1 spake not in vain1 ,god making it good1 ,that you trusted we should say ,quis putasset6 ,which as it is found true in a happy sense1 so ,i wish you do not find another ,quis putasset in the manner of taking this so great a service4 ,but ,i hope it is1 as he said1 ,nubecula est1 cito transibit1 and that your ,lordship's wisdom and obsequious circumspection and patience will turn all to the best4 ,so referring all to some time that ,i may attend you1 ,i commit you to ,god's best preservation4 ,but when ,essex's conduct in ,ireland had to be dealt with1 ,bacon's services were called for2 and from this time his relations towards ,essex were altered4 ,every one1 no one better than the ,queen herself1 knew all that he owed to ,essex4 ,it is strangely illustrative of the time1 that especially as ,bacon held so subordinate a position1 he should have been required1 and should have been trusted1 to act against his only and most generous benefactor4 ,it is strange1 too1 that however great his loyalty to the ,queen1 however much and sincerely he might condemn his friend's conduct1 he should think it possible to accept the task4 ,he says that he made some remonstrance2 and he says1 no doubt truly1 that during the first stage of the business he used the ambiguous position in which he was placed to soften ,essex's inevitable punishment1 and to bring about a reconciliation between him and the ,queen4 ,but he was required1 as the ,queen's lawyer1 to set forth in public ,essex's offences2 and he admits that he did so not over tenderly4 ,yet all this1 even if we have misgivings about it1 is intelligible4 ,if he had declined1 he could not1 perhaps1 have done the service which he assures us that he tried to do for ,essex2 and it is certain that he would have had to reckon with the terrible lady who in her old age still ruled ,england from the throne of ,henry ,,viii41 and who had certainly no great love for ,bacon himself4 ,she had already shown him in a much smaller matter what was the forfeit to be paid for any resistance to her will4 ,all the hopes of his life must perish2 all the grudging and suspicious favours which he had won with such unremitting toil and patient waiting would be sacrificed1 and he would henceforth live under the wrath of those who never forgave4 ,and whatever he did for himself1 he believed that he was serving ,essex4 ,his scheming imagination and his indefatigable pen were at work4 ,he tried strange indirect methods2 he invented a correspondence between his brother and ,essex1 which was to fall into the ,queen's hands in order to soften her wrath and show her ,essex's most secret feelings4 ,when the ,queen proposed to dine with him at his lodge in ,twickenham ,park1 though ,i profess not to be a poet1 he prepared a sonnet tending and alluding to draw on her ,majesty's reconcilement to my ,lord4 ,it was an awkward thing for one who had been so intimate with ,essex to be so deep in the counsels of those who hated him4 ,he complains that many people thought him ungrateful and disloyal to his friend1 and that stories circulated to his disadvantage1 as if he were poisoning the ,queen's ear against ,essex4 ,but he might argue fairly enough that1 wilful and wrong-headed as ,essex had been1 it was the best that he could now do for him2 and as long as it was only a question of ,essex's disgrace and enforced absence from ,court1 ,bacon could not be bound to give up the prospects of his life--indeed1 his public duty as a subordinate servant of government--on account of his friend's inexcusable and dangerous follies4 ,essex did not see it so1 and in the subjoined correspondence had the advantage2 but ,bacon's position1 though a higher one might be imagined1 where men had been such friends as these two men had been1 is quite a defensible one3 ,,my ,,lord1--,no man can better expound my doings than your ,lordship1 which maketh me need to say the less4 ,only ,i humbly pray you to believe that ,i aspire to the conscience and commendation first of bonus civis1 which with us is a good and true servant to the ,queen1 and next of bonus vir1 that is an honest man4 ,i desire your ,lordship also to think that though ,i confess ,i love some things much better than ,i love your ,lordship--as the ,queen's service1 her quiet and contentment1 her honour1 her favour1 the good of my country1 and the like--yet ,i love few persons better than yourself1 both for gratitude's sake and for your own virtues1 which cannot hurt but by accident or abuse4 ,of which my good affection ,i was ever ready and am ready to yield testimony by any good offices1 but with such reservations as yourself cannot but allow2 for as ,i was ever sorry that your ,lordship should fly with waxen wings1 doubting ,icarus's fortune1 so for the growing up of your own feathers1 specially ostrich's1 or any other save of a bird of prey1 no man shall be more glad4 ,and this is the axletree whereupon ,i have turned and shall turn1 which to signify to you1 though ,i think you are of yourself persuaded as much1 is the cause of my writing2 and so ,i commend your ,lordship to ,god's goodness4 ,from ,gray's ,inn1 this #bjth day of ,july1 #afjj4 ,your ,lordship's most humbly1 ,,fr4 ,,bacon4 ,to this letter ,essex returned an answer of dignified reserve1 such as ,bacon might himself have dictated-- ,,mr4 ,,bacon1--,i can neither expound nor censure your late actions1 being ignorant of all of them1 save one1 and having directed my sight inward only1 to examine myself4 ,you do pray me to believe that you only aspire to the conscience and commendation of bonus civis and bonus vir2 and ,i do faithfully assure you1 that while that is your ambition 7though your course be active and mine contemplative71 yet we shall both convenire in codem tertio and convenire inter nosipsos4 ,your profession of affection and offer of good offices are welcome to me4 ,for answer to them ,i will say but this1 that you have believed ,i have been kind to you1 and you may believe that ,i cannot be other1 either upon humour or my own election4 ,i am a stranger to all poetical conceits1 or else ,i should say somewhat of your poetical example4 ,but this ,i must say1 that ,i never flew with other wings than desire to merit and confidence in my ,sovereign's favour2 and when one of these wings failed me ,i would light nowhere but at my ,sovereign's feet1 though she suffered me to be bruised with my fall4 ,and till her ,majesty1 that knows ,i was never bird of prey1 finds it to agree with her will and her service that my wings should be imped again1 ,i have committed myself to the mire4 ,no power but my ,god's and my ,sovereign's can alter this resolution of ,your retired friend1 ,,essex4 ,but after ,essex's mad attempt in the city a new state of things arose4 ,the inevitable result was a trial for high treason1 a trial of which no one could doubt the purpose and end4 ,the examination of accomplices revealed speeches1 proposals1 projects1 not very intelligible to us in the still imperfectly understood game of intrigue that was going on among all parties at the end of ,elizabeth's reign1 but quite enough to place ,essex at the mercy of the ,government and the offended ,queen4 ,the new information1 says ,mr4 ,spedding1 had been immediately communicated to ,coke and ,bacon4 ,coke1 as ,attorney-,general1 of course conducted the prosecution2 and the next prominent person on the side of the ,crown was not the ,solicitor1 or any other regular law officer1 but ,bacon1 though holding the very subordinate place of one of the ,learned ,counsel4 ,it does not appear that he thought it strange1 that he showed any pain or reluctance1 that he sought to be excused4 ,he took it as a matter of course4 ,the part assigned to ,bacon in the prosecution was as important as that of ,coke2 and he played it more skilfully and effectively4 ,trials in those days were confused affairs1 often passing into a mere wrangle between the judges1 lawyers1 and lookers-on1 and the prisoner at the bar4 ,it was so in this case4 ,coke is said to have blundered in his way of presenting the evidence1 and to have been led away from the point into an altercation with ,essex4 ,probably it really did not much matter2 but the trial was getting out of its course and inclining in favour of the prisoner1 till ,bacon--,mr4 ,spedding thinks1 out of his regular turn--stepped forward and retrieved matters4 ,this is ,mr4 ,spedding's account of what ,bacon said and did3 ,by this time the argument had drifted so far away from the point that it must have been difficult for a listener to remember what it was that the prisoners were charged with1 or how much of the charge had been proved4 ,and ,coke1 who was all this time the sole speaker on behalf of the ,crown1 was still following each fresh topic that rose before him1 without the sign of an intention or the intimation of a wish to return to the main question and reform the broken ranks of his evidence4 ,luckily he seems to have been now at a loss what point to take next1 and the pause gave ,bacon an opportunity of rising4 ,it can hardly have been in pursuance of previous arrangements2 for though it was customary in those days to distribute the evidence into parts and to assign several parts to several counsel1 there had been no appearance as yet of any part being concluded4 ,it is probable that the course of the trial had upset previous arrangements and confused the parts4 ,at any rate so it was1 however it came to pass1 that when ,cecil and ,essex had at last finished their expostulation and parted with charitable prayers1 each that the other might be forgiven1 then 7says our reporter7 ,mr4 ,bacon entered into a speech much after this fashion3 ',in speaking of this late and horrible rebellion which hath been in the eyes and ears of all men1 ,i shall save myself much labour in opening and enforcing the points thereof1 insomuch as ,i speak not before a country jury of ignorant men1 but before a most honourable assembly of the greatest ,peers of the land1 whose wisdoms conceive far more than my tongue can utter2 yet with your gracious and honourable favours ,i will presume1 if not for information of your ,honours1 yet for the discharge of my duty1 to say thus much4 ,no man can be ignorant1 that knows matters of former ages--and all history makes it plain--that there was never any traitor heard of that durst directly attempt the seat of his liege prince but he always coloured his practices with some plausible pretence4 ,for ,god hath imprinted such a majesty in the face of a prince that no private man dare approach the person of his sovereign with a traitorous intent4 ,and therefore they run another side course1 oblique et latere3 some to reform corruptions of the ,state and religion2 some to reduce the ancient liberties and customs pretended to be lost and worn out2 some to remove those persons that being in high places make themselves subject to envy2 but all of them aim at the overthrow of the ,state and destruction of the present rulers4 ,and this likewise is the use of those that work mischief of another quality2 as ,cain1 that first murderer1 took up an excuse for his fact1 shaming to outface it with impudency1 thus the ,earl made his colour the severing some great men and councillors from her ,majesty's favour1 and the fear he stood in of his pretended enemies lest they should murder him in his house4 ,therefore he saith he was compelled to fly into the ,city for succour and assistance2 not much unlike ,pisistratus1 of whom it was so anciently written how he gashed and wounded himself1 and in that sort ran crying into ,athens that his life was sought and like to have been taken away2 thinking to have moved the people to have pitied him and taken his part by such counterfeited harm and danger2 whereas his aim and drift was to take the government of the city into his hands and alter the form thereof4 ,with like pretences of dangers and assaults the ,earl of ,essex entered the ,city of ,london and passed through the bowels thereof1 blanching rumours that he should have been murdered and that the ,state was sold2 whereas he had no such enemies1 no such dangers3 persuading themselves that if they could prevail all would have done well4 ,but now magna scelera terminantur in hresin2 for you1 my ,lord1 should know that though princes give their subjects cause of discontent1 though they take away the honours they have heaped upon them1 though they bring them to a lower estate than they raised them from1 yet ought they not to be so forgetful of their allegiance that they should enter into any undutiful act2 much less upon rebellion1 as you1 my ,lord1 have done4 ,all whatsoever you have or can say in answer hereof are but shadows4 ,and therefore methinks it were best for you to confess1 not to justify4' ,essex was provoked by ,bacon's incredulous sneer about enemies and dangers--,i call forth ,mr4 ,bacon against ,mr4 ,bacon1 and referred to the letters which ,bacon had written in his name1 and in which these dangerous enmities were taken for granted4 ,bacon1 in answer1 repeated what he said so often--,that he had spent more time in vain in studying how to make the ,earl a good servant to the ,queen and ,state than he had done in anything else4 ,once more ,coke got the proceedings into a tangle1 and once more ,bacon came forward to repair the miscarriage of his leader4 ',i have never yet seen in any case such favour shown to any prisoner2 so many digressions1 such delivering of evidence by fractions1 and so silly a defence of such great and notorious treasons4 ,may it please your ,grace1 you have seen how weakly he hath shadowed his purpose and how slenderly he hath answered the objections against him4 ,but1 my ,lord1 ,i doubt the variety of matters and the many digressions may minister occasion of forgetfulness1 and may have severed the judgments of the ,lords2 and therefore ,i hold it necessary briefly to recite the ,judges' opinions4' ,that being done1 he proceeded to this effect3 ',now put the case that the ,earl of ,essex's intents were1 as he would have it believed1 to go only as a suppliant to her ,majesty4 ,shall their petitions be presented by armed petitioners8 ,this must needs bring loss of property to the prince4 ,neither is it any point of law1 as my ,lord of ,southampton would have it believed1 that condemns them of treason4 ,to take secret counsel1 to execute it1 to run together in numbers armed with weapons--what can be the excuse8 ,warned by the ,lord ,keeper1 by a herald1 and yet persist6 ,will any simple man take this to be less than treason8' ,the ,earl of ,essex answered that if he had purposed anything against others than those his private enemies1 he would not have stirred with so slender a company4 ,whereunto ,mr4 ,bacon answered3 ',it was not the company you carried with you but the assistance you hoped for in the ,city which you trusted unto4 ,the ,duke of ,guise thrust himself into the streets of ,paris on the day of the ,barricades in his doublet and hose1 attended only with eight gentlemen1 and found that help in the city which 7thanks be to ,god7 you failed of here4 ,and what followed8 ,the ,king was forced to put himself into a pilgrim's weeds1 and in that disguise to steal away to scape their fury4 ,even such was my ,lord's confidence too1 and his pretence the same--an all-hail and a kiss to the ,city4 ,but the end was treason1 as hath been sufficiently proved4 ,but when he had once delivered and engaged himself so far into that which the shallowness of his conceit could not accomplish as he expected1 the ,queen for her defence taking arms against him1 he was glad to yield himself2 and thinking to colour his practices1 turned his pretexts1 and alleged the occasion thereof to proceed from a private quarrel4' ,to this 7adds the reporter7 the ,earl answered little4 ,nor was anything said afterwards by either of the prisoners1 either in the thrust-and-parry dialogue with ,coke that followed1 or when they spoke at large to the question why judgment should not be pronounced1 which at all altered the complexion of the case4 ,they were both found guilty and sentence passed in the usual form4 ,bacon's legal position was so subordinate a place that there must have been a special reason for his employment4 ,it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that1 on the part of the ,government1 ,bacon was thus used for the very reason that he had been the friend of ,essex4 ,he was not commonly called upon in such prosecutions4 ,he was not employed by ,cecil in the ,winchester trials of ,raleigh1 ,grey1 and ,cobham1 three years afterwards1 nor in those connected with the ,gunpowder ,plot4 ,he was called upon now because no one could so much damage ,essex2 and this last proof of his ready service was required by those whose favour1 since ,essex had gone hopelessly wrong1 he had been diligently seeking4 ,and ,bacon acquiesced in the demand1 apparently without surprise4 ,no record remains to show that he felt any difficulty in playing his part4 ,he had persuaded himself that his public duty1 his duty as a good citizen to the ,queen and the commonwealth1 demanded of him that he should obey the call to do his best to bring a traitor to punishment4 ,public duty has claims on a man as well as friendship1 and in many conceivable cases claims paramount to those of friendship4 ,and yet friendship1 too1 has claims1 at least on a man's memory4 ,essex had been a dear friend1 if words could mean anything4 ,he had done more than any man had done for ,bacon1 generously and nobly1 and ,bacon had acknowledged it in the amplest terms4 ,only a year before he had written1 ,i am as much yours as any man's1 and as much yours as any man4 ,it is not1 and it was not1 a question of ,essex's guilt4 ,it may be a question whether the whole matter was not exaggerated as to its purpose1 as it certainly was as to its real danger and mischief4 ,we at least know that his rivals dabbled in intrigue and foolish speeches as well as he2 that little more than two years afterwards ,raleigh and ,grey and ,cobham were condemned for treason in much the same fashion as he was2 that ,cecil to the end of his days--with whatever purpose--was a pensioner of ,spain4 ,the question was not whether ,essex was guilty4 ,the question for ,bacon was1 whether it was becoming in him1 having been what he had been to ,essex1 to take a leading part in proceedings which were to end in his ruin and death4 ,he was not a judge4 ,he was not a regular law officer like ,coke4 ,his only employment had been casual and occasional4 ,he might1 most naturally1 on the score of his old friendship1 have asked to be excused4 ,condemning1 as he did1 his friend's guilt and folly1 he might have refused to take part in a cause of blood1 in which his best friend must perish4 ,he might honestly have given up ,essex as incorrigible1 and have retired to stand apart in sorrow and silence while the inevitable tragedy was played out4 ,the only answer to this is1 that to have declined would have incurred the ,queen's displeasure3 he would have forfeited any chance of advancement2 nay1 closely connected as he had been with ,essex1 he might have been involved in his friend's ruin4 ,but inferior men have marred their fortunes by standing by their friends in not undeserved trouble1 and no one knew better than ,bacon what was worthy and noble in human action4 ,the choice lay before him4 ,he seems hardly to have gone through any struggle4 ,he persuaded himself that he could not help himself1 under the constraint of his duty to the ,queen1 and he did his best to get ,essex condemned4 ,and this was not all4 ,the death of ,essex was a shock to the popularity of ,elizabeth greater than anything that had happened in her long reign4 ,bacon's name also had come into men's mouths as that of a time-server who played fast and loose with ,essex and his enemies1 and who1 when he had got what he could from ,essex1 turned to see what he could get from those who put him to death4 ,a justification of the whole affair was felt to be necessary2 and ,bacon was fixed upon for the distinction and the dishonour of doing it4 ,no one could tell the story so well1 and it was felt that he would not shrink from it4 ,nor did he4 ,in cold blood he sat down to blacken ,essex1 using his intimate personal knowledge of the past to strengthen his statements against a friend who was in his grave1 and for whom none could answer but ,bacon himself4 ,it is a well-compacted and forcible account of ,essex's misdoings1 on which of course the colour of deliberate and dangerous treason was placed4 ,much of it1 no doubt1 was true2 but even of the facts1 and much more of the colour1 there was no check to be had1 and it is certain that it was an object to the ,government to make out the worst4 ,it is characteristic that ,bacon records that he did not lose sight of the claims of courtesy1 and studiously spoke of my ,lord of ,essex in the draft submitted for correction to the ,queen2 but she was more unceremonious1 and insisted that the rebel should be spoken of simply as ,essex4 ,after a business of this kind1 fines and forfeitures flowed in abundantly1 and were usually bestowed on deserving servants or favoured suitors by way of reward2 and ,bacon came in for his share4 ,out of one of the fines he received #abjj4 ,the ,queen hath done something for me1 he writes to a friendly creditor1 though not in the proportion ,i had hoped1 and he afterwards asked for something more4 ,it was rather under the value of ,essex's gift to him in #aeid4 ,but she still refused him all promotion4 ,he was without an official place in the ,queen's service1 and he never was allowed to have it4 ,it is clear that the ,declaration of the ,treason of the ,earl of ,essex1 if it justified the ,government1 did not remove the odium which had fallen on ,bacon4 ,mr4 ,spedding says that he can find no signs of it4 ,the proof of it is found in the ,apology which ,bacon found it expedient to write after ,elizabeth's death and early in ,james's reign4 ,he found that the recollection of the way in which he had dealt with his friend hung heavy upon him2 men hesitated to trust him in spite of his now recognised ability4 ,accordingly1 he drew up an apology1 which he addressed to ,lord ,mountjoy1 the friend1 in reality half the accomplice1 of ,essex1 in his wild1 ill-defined plan for putting pressure on ,elizabeth4 ,it is a clear1 able1 of course ex parte statement of the doings of the three chief actors1 two of whom could no longer answer for themselves1 or correct and contradict the third4 ,it represents the ,queen as implacable and cruel1 ,essex as incorrigibly and outrageously wilful1 proud1 and undutiful1 ,bacon himself as using every effort and device to appease the ,queen's anger and suspiciousness1 and to bring ,essex to a wiser and humbler mind4 ,the picture is indeed a vivid one1 and full of dramatic force1 of an unrelenting and merciless mistress bent on breaking and bowing down to the dust the haughty spirit of a once-loved but rebellious favourite1 whom1 though he has deeply offended1 she yet wishes to bring once more under her yoke2 and of the calm1 keen-witted looker-on1 watching the dangerous game1 not without personal interest1 but with undisturbed presence of mind1 and doing his best to avert an irreparable and fatal breach4 ,how far he honestly did his best for his misguided friend we can only know from his own report2 but there is no reason to think that he did ,essex ill service1 though he notices in passing an allegation that the ,queen in one of her angry fits had charged him with this4 ,but his interest clearly was to make up the quarrel between the ,queen and ,essex4 ,bacon would have been a greater man with both of them if he had been able to do so4 ,he had been too deeply in ,essex's intimacy to make his new position of mediator1 with a strong bias on the ,queen's side1 quite safe and easy for a man of honourable mind2 but a cool-judging and prudent man may well have acted as he represents himself acting without forgetting what he owed to his friend4 ,till the last great moment of trial there is a good deal to be said for ,bacon3 a man keenly alive to ,essex's faults1 with a strong sense of what he owed to the ,queen and the ,state1 and with his own reasonable chances of rising greatly prejudiced by ,essex's folly4 ,but at length came the crisis which showed the man1 and threw light on all that had passed before1 when he was picked out1 out of his regular place1 to be charged with the task of bringing home the capital charge against ,essex4 ,he does not say he hesitated4 ,he does not say that he asked to be excused the terrible office4 ,he did not flinch as the minister of vengeance for those who required that ,essex should die4 ,he did his work1 we are told by his admiring biographer1 better than ,coke1 and repaired the blunders of the prosecution4 ,he passes over very shortly this part of the business3 ,it was laid upon me with the rest of my fellows2 yet it is the knot and key of the whole1 as far as his own character is concerned4 ,bacon had his public duty3 his public duty may have compelled him to stand apart from ,essex4 ,but it was his interest1 it was no part of his public duty1 which required him to accept the task of accuser of his friend1 and in his friend's direst need calmly to drive home a well-directed stroke that should extinguish chances and hopes1 and make his ruin certain4 ,no one who reads his anxious letters about preferment and the ,queen's favour1 about his disappointed hopes1 about his straitened means and distress for money1 about his difficulties with his creditors--he was twice arrested for debt--can doubt that the question was between his own prospects and his friend2 and that to his own interest he sacrificed his friend and his own honour4 ,,chapter ,,iii4 ,,bacon ,,and ,,james ,i4 ,bacon's life was a double one4 ,there was the life of high thinking1 of disinterested aims1 of genuine enthusiasm1 of genuine desire to delight and benefit mankind1 by opening new paths to wonder and knowledge and power4 ,and there was the put on and worldly life1 the life of supposed necessities for the provision of daily bread1 the life of ambition and self-seeking1 which he followed1 not without interest and satisfaction1 but at bottom because he thought he must--must be a great man1 must be rich1 must live in the favour of the great1 because without it his great designs could not be accomplished4 ,his original plan of life was disclosed in his letter to ,lord ,burghley3 to get some office with an assured income and not much work1 and then to devote the best of his time to his own subjects4 ,but this1 if it was really his plan1 was gradually changed3 first1 because he could not get such a place2 and next because his connection with ,essex1 the efforts to gain him the ,attorney's place1 and the use which the ,queen made of him after ,essex could do no more for him1 drew him more and more into public work1 and specially the career of the law4 ,we know that he would not by preference have chosen the law1 and did not feel that his vocation lay that way2 but it was the only way open to him for mending his fortunes4 ,and so the two lives went on side by side1 the worldly one--he would have said1 the practical one--often interfering with the life of thought and discovery1 and partly obscuring it1 but yet always leaving it paramount in his own mind4 ,his dearest and most cherished ideas1 the thoughts with which he was most at home and happiest1 his deepest and truest ambitions1 were those of an enthusiastic and romantic believer in a great discovery just within his grasp4 ,they were such as the dreams and visions of his great ,franciscan namesake1 and of the imaginative seekers after knowledge in the middle ages1 real or mythical1 ,albert the ,great1 ,cornelius ,agrippa1 ,dr4 ,faustus2 they were the eager1 undoubting hopes of the physical students in ,italy and ,england in his own time1 ,giordano ,bruno1 ,telesio1 ,campanella1 ,gilbert1 ,galileo1 or the founders of the ,italian prototype of ,solomon's ,house in the ,new ,atlantis1 the precursor of our ,royal ,societies1 the ,academy of the ,lincei at ,rome4 ,among these meditations was his inner life4 ,but however he may have originally planned his course1 and though at times under the influence of disappointment he threatened to retire to ,cambridge or to travel abroad1 he had bound himself fast to public life1 and soon ceased to think of quitting it4 ,and he had a real taste for it--for its shows1 its prizes1 for the laws and turns of the game1 for its debates and vicissitudes4 ,he was no mere idealist or recluse to undervalue or despise the real grandeur of the world4 ,he took the keenest interest in the nature and ways of mankind2 he liked to observe1 to generalise in shrewd and sometimes cynical epigrams4 ,he liked to apply his powerful and fertile intellect to the practical problems of society and government1 to their curious anomalies1 to their paradoxical phenomena2 he liked to address himself1 either as an expounder or a reformer1 to the principles and entanglements of ,english law2 he aspired1 both as a lecturer and a legislator1 to improve and simplify it4 ,it was not beyond his hopes to shape a policy1 to improve administration1 to become powerful by bringing his sagacity and largeness of thought to the service of the ,state1 in reconciling conflicting forces1 in mediating between jealous parties and dangerous claims4 ,and he liked to enter into the humours of a ,court2 to devote his brilliant imagination and affluence of invention either to devising a pageant which should throw all others into the shade1 or a compromise which should get great persons out of some difficulty of temper or pique4 ,in all these things he was as industrious1 as laborious1 as calmly persevering and tenacious1 as he was in his pursuit of his philosophical speculations4 ,he was a compound of the most adventurous and most diversified ambition1 with a placid and patient temper1 such as we commonly associate with moderate desires and the love of retirement and an easy life4 ,to imagine and dare anything1 and never to let go the object of his pursuit1 is one side of him2 on the other he is obsequiously desirous to please and fearful of giving offence1 the humblest and most grateful and also the most importunate of suitors1 ready to bide his time with an even cheerfulness of spirit1 which yet it was not safe to provoke by ill offices and the wish to thwart him4 ,he never misses a chance of proffering his services2 he never lets pass an opportunity of recommending himself to those who could help him4 ,he is so bent on natural knowledge that we have a sense of incongruity when we see him engaging in politics as if he had no other interest4 ,he throws himself with such zest into the language of the moralist1 the theologian1 the historian1 that we forget we have before us the author of a new departure in physical inquiry1 and the unwearied compiler of tables of natural history4 ,when he is a lawyer1 he seems only a lawyer4 ,if he had not been the author of the ,instauratio1 his life would not have looked very different from that of any other of the shrewd and supple lawyers who hung on to the ,tudor and ,stuart ,courts1 and who unscrupulously pushed their way to preferment4 ,he claimed to be1 in spite of the misgivings of ,elizabeth and her ministers1 as devoted to public work and as capable of it as any of them4 ,he was ready for anything1 for any amount of business1 ready1 as in everything1 to take infinite trouble about it4 ,the law1 if he did not like it1 was yet no by-work with him2 he was as truly ambitious as the men with whom he maintained so keen and for long so unsuccessful a rivalry4 ,he felt bitterly the disappointment of seeing men like ,coke and ,fleming and ,doddridge and ,hobart pass before him2 he could not1 if he had been only a lawyer1 have coveted more eagerly the places1 refused to him1 which they got2 only1 he had besides a whole train of purposes1 an inner and supreme ambition1 of which they knew nothing4 ,and with all this there is no apparent consciousness of these manifold and varied interests4 ,he never affected to conceal from himself his superiority to other men in his aims and in the grasp of his intelligence4 ,but there is no trace that he prided himself on the variety and versatility of these powers1 or that he even distinctly realized to himself that it was anything remarkable that he should have so many dissimilar objects and be able so readily to pursue them in such different directions4 ,it is doubtful whether1 as long as ,elizabeth lived1 ,bacon could ever have risen above his position among the ,learned ,counsel1 an office without patent or salary or regular employment4 ,she used1 him1 and he was willing to be used2 but he plainly did not appear in her eyes to be the kind of man who would suit her in the more prominent posts of her ,government4 ,unusual and original ability is apt1 till it is generally recognised1 to carry with it suspicion and mistrust as to its being really all that it seems to be4 ,perhaps she thought of the possibility of his flying out unexpectedly at some inconvenient pinch1 and attempting to serve her interests1 not in her way1 but in his own2 perhaps she distrusted in business and state affairs so brilliant a discourser1 whose heart was known1 first and above all1 to be set on great dreams of knowledge2 perhaps those interviews with her in which he describes the counsels which he laid before her1 and in which his shrewdness and foresight are conspicuous1 may not have been so welcome to her as he imagined2 perhaps1 it is not impossible1 that he may have been too compliant for her capricious taste1 and too visibly anxious to please4 ,perhaps1 too1 she could not forget1 in spite of what had happened1 that he had been the friend1 and not the very generous friend1 of ,essex4 ,but1 except as to a share of the forfeitures1 with which he was not satisfied1 his fortunes did not rise under ,elizabeth4 ,whatever may have been the ,queen's feelings towards him1 there is no doubt that one powerful influence1 which lasted into the reign of ,james1 was steadily adverse to his advancement4 ,burghley had been strangely niggardly in what he did to help his brilliant nephew2 he was going off the scene1 and probably did not care to trouble himself about a younger and uncongenial aspirant to service4 ,but his place was taken by his son1 ,robert ,cecil2 and ,cecil might naturally have been expected to welcome the co-operation of one of his own family who was foremost among the rising men of ,cecil's own generation1 and who certainly was most desirous to do him service4 ,but it is plain that he early made up his mind to keep ,bacon in the background4 ,it is easy to imagine reasons1 though the apparent short-sightedness of the policy may surprise us2 but ,cecil was too reticent and self-controlled a man to let his reasons appear1 and his words1 in answer to his cousin's applications for his assistance1 were always kind1 encouraging1 and vague4 ,but we must judge by the event1 and that makes it clear that ,cecil did not care to see ,bacon in high position4 ,nothing can account for ,bacon's strange failure for so long a time to reach his due place in the public service but the secret hostility1 whatever may have been the cause1 of ,cecil4 ,there was also another difficulty4 ,coke was the great lawyer of the day1 a man whom the ,government could not dispense with1 and whom it was dangerous to offend4 ,and ,coke thoroughly disliked ,bacon4 ,he thought lightly of his law1 and he despised his refinement and his passion for knowledge4 ,he cannot but have resented the impertinence1 as he must have thought it1 of ,bacon having been for a whole year his rival for office4 ,it is possible that if people then agreed with ,mr4 ,spedding's opinion as to the management of ,essex's trial1 he may have been irritated by jealousy2 but a couple of months after the trial 7,april #bi1 #afja7 ,bacon sent to ,cecil1 with a letter of complaint1 the following account of a scene in ,court between ,coke and himself3 ,a true remembrance of the abuse ,i received of ,mr4 ,attorney-,general publicly in the ,exchequer the first day of term2 for the truth whereof ,i refer myself to all that were present4 ,i moved to have a reseizure of the lands of ,geo4 ,moore1 a relapsed recusant1 a fugitive and a practising traytor2 and showed better matter for the ,queen against the discharge by plea1 which is ever with a salvo jure4 ,and this ,i did in as gentle and reasonable terms as might be4 ,mr4 ,attorney kindled at it1 and said1 ',mr4 ,bacon1 if you have any tooth against me pluck it out2 for it will do you more hurt than all the teeth in your head will do you good4' ,i answered coldly in these very words3 ',mr4 ,attorney1 ,i respect you2 ,i fear you not2 and the less you speak of your own greatness1 the more ,i will think of it4' ,he replied1 ',i think scorn to stand upon terms of greatness towards you1 who are less than little2 less than the least2' and other such strange light terms he gave me1 with that insulting which cannot be expressed4 ,herewith stirred1 yet ,i said no more but this3 ',mr4 ,attorney1 do not depress me so far2 for ,i have been your better1 and may be again1 when it please the ,queen4' ,with this he spake1 neither ,i nor himself could tell what1 as if he had been born ,attorney-,general2 and in the end bade me not meddle with the ,queen's business1 but with mine own2 and that ,i was unsworn1 etc4 ,i told him1 sworn or unsworn was all one to an honest man2 and that ,i ever set my service first1 and myself second2 and wished to ,god that he would do the like4 ,then he said1 it were good to clap a cap4 ultegatum upon my back6 ,to which ,i only said he could not2 and that he was at fault1 for he hunted upon an old scent4 ,he gave me a number of disgraceful words besides1 which ,i answered with silence1 and showing that ,i was not moved with them4 ,the threat of the capias ultegatum was probably in reference to the arrest of ,bacon for debt in ,september1 #aeic4 ,after this we are not surprised at ,bacon writing to ,coke1 who take to yourself a liberty to disgrace and disable my law1 my experience1 my discretion1 that1 since ,i missed the ,solicitor's place 7the rather ,i think by your means7 ,i cannot expect that you and ,i shall ever serve as ,attorney and ,solicitor together1 but either serve with another on your remove1 or step into some other course4 ,and ,coke1 no doubt1 took care that it should be so4 ,cecil1 too1 may possibly have thought that ,bacon gave no proof of his fitness for affairs in thus bringing before him a squabble in which both parties lost their tempers4 ,bacon was not behind the rest of the world in the posting of men of good quality towards the ,king1 in the rash which followed the ,queen's death1 of those who were eager to proffer their services to ,james1 for whose peaceful accession ,cecil had so skilfully prepared the way4 ,he wrote to every one who1 he thought1 could help him3 to ,cecil1 and to ,cecil's man--,i pray you1 as you find time let him know that he is the personage in the ,state which ,i love most2 to ,northumberland1 ,if ,i may be of any use to your ,lordship1 by my head1 tongue1 pen1 means1 or friends1 ,i humbly pray you to hold me your own2 to the ,king's ,scotch friends and servants1 even to ,southampton1 the friend of ,essex1 who had been shut up in the ,tower since his condemnation with ,essex1 and who was now released4 ,this great change1 ,bacon assured him1 hath wrought in me no other change towards your ,lordship than this1 that ,i may safely be now that which ,i truly was before4 ,bacon found in after years that ,southampton was not so easily conciliated4 ,but at present ,bacon was hopeful3 ,in mine own particular1 he writes1 ,i have many comforts and assurances2 but in mine own opinion the chief is1 that the canvassing world is gone1 and the deserving world is come4 ,he asks to be recommended to the ,king--,i commend myself to your love and to the well-using of my name1 as well in repressing and answering for me1 if there be any biting or nibbling at it in that place1 as in impressing a good conceit and opinion of me1 chiefly in the ,king1 as otherwise in that ,court4 ,his pen had been used under the government of the ,queen1 and he had offered a draft of a proclamation to the ,king's advisers4 ,but though he obtained an interview with the ,king1 ,james's arrival in ,england brought no immediate prospect of improvement in ,bacon's fortunes4 ,indeed1 his name was at first inadvertently passed over in the list of ,queen's servants who were to retain their places4 ,the first thing we hear of is his arrest a second time for debt2 and his letters of thanks to ,cecil1 who had rendered him assistance1 are written in deep depression4 ,for my purpose or course ,i desire to meddle as little as ,i can in the ,king's causes1 his ,majesty now abounding in counsel1 and to follow my private thrift and practice1 and to marry with some convenient advancement4 ,for as for any ambition1 ,i do assure your ,honour1 mine is quenched4 ,in the ,queen's1 my excellent ,mistress's1 time the quorum was small3 her service was a kind of freehold1 and it was a more solemn time4 ,all those points agreed with my nature and judgment4 ,my ambition now ,i shall only put upon my pen1 whereby ,i shall be able to maintain memory and merit of the times succeeding4 ,lastly1 for this divulged and almost prostituted title of knighthood1 ,i could without charge1 by your ,honour's mean1 be content to have it1 both because of this late disgrace and because ,i have three new knights in my mess in ,gray's ,inn's commons2 and because ,i have found out an alderman's daughter1 an handsome maiden1 to my liking4 ,cecil1 however1 seems to have required that the money should be repaid by the day2 and ,bacon only makes a humble request1 which1 it might be supposed1 could have been easily granted4 ,,it ,,may ,,please ,,your ,,good ,,lordship1--,in answer of your last letter1 your money shall be ready before your day3 principal1 interest1 and costs of suit4 ,so the sheriff promised1 when ,i released errors2 and a ,jew takes no more4 ,the rest cannot be forgotten1 for ,i cannot forget your ,lordship's dum memor ipse mei2 and if there have been aliquid nimis1 it shall be amended4 ,and1 to be plain with your ,lordship1 that will quicken me now which slackened me before4 ,then ,i thought you might have had more use of me than now ,i suppose you are like to have4 ,not but ,i think the impediment will be rather in my mind than in the matter or times4 ,but to do you service ,i will come out of my religion at any time4 ,for my knighthood1 ,i wish the manner might be such as might grace me1 since the matter will not2 ,i mean1 that ,i might not be merely gregarious in a troop4 ,the coronation is at hand4 ,it may please your ,lordship to let me hear from you speedily4 ,so ,i continue your ,lordship's ever much bounden1 ,,fr4 ,,bacon4 ,from ,gorhambury1 this #afth of ,july1 #afjc4 ,but it was not done4 ,he obtained his title1 but not in a manner to distinguish him4 ,he was knighted at ,whitehall two days before the coronation1 but had to share the honour with #cjj others4 ,it was not quite true that his ambition was quenched4 ,for the rest of ,cecil's life ,cecil was the first man at ,james's ,court2 and to the last there was one thing that ,bacon would not appear to believe--he did not choose to believe that it was ,cecil who kept him back from employment and honour4 ,to the last he persisted in assuming that ,cecil was the person who would help1 if he could1 a kinsman devoted to his interests and profoundly conscious of his worth4 ,to the last he commended his cause to ,cecil in terms of unstinted affection and confiding hope4 ,it is difficult to judge of the sincerity of such language4 ,the mere customary language of compliment employed by every one at this time was of a kind which to us sounds intolerable4 ,it seems as if nothing that ingenuity could devise was too extravagant for an honest man to use1 and for a man who respected himself to accept4 ,it must not1 indeed1 be forgotten that conventionalities1 as well as insincerity1 differ in their forms in different times2 and that insincerity may lurk behind frank and clear words1 when they are the fashion1 as much as in what is like mere fulsome adulation4 ,but words mean something1 in spite of forms and fashions4 ,when a man of great genius writes his private letters1 we wish generally to believe on the whole what he says2 and there are no limits to the esteem1 the honour1 the confidence1 which ,bacon continued to the end to express towards ,cecil4 ,bacon appeared to trust him--appeared1 in spite of continued disappointments1 to rely on his good-will and good offices4 ,but for one reason or another ,bacon still remained in the shade4 ,he was left to employ his time as he would1 and to work his way by himself4 ,he was not idle4 ,he prepared papers which he meant should come before the ,king1 on the pressing subjects of the day4 ,the ,hampton ,court conference between the ,bishops and the ,puritan leaders was at hand1 and he drew up a moderating paper on the ,pacification of the ,church4 ,the feeling against him for his conduct towards ,essex had not died away1 and he addressed to ,lord ,mountjoy that ,apology concerning the ,earl of ,essex1 so full of interest1 so skilfully and forcibly written1 so vivid a picture of the ,queen's ways with her servants1 which has every merit except that of clearing ,bacon from the charge of disloyalty to his best friend4 ,the various questions arising out of the relations of the two kingdoms1 now united under ,james1 were presenting themselves4 ,they were not of easy solution1 and great mischief would follow if they were solved wrongly4 ,bacon turned his attention to them4 ,he addressed a discourse to the ,king on the union of the two kingdoms1 the first of a series of discussions on the subject which ,bacon made peculiarly his own1 and which1 no doubt1 first drew the ,king's attention and favour to him4 ,but for the first year of ,james's reign he was unnoticed by the ,king1 and he was able to give his attention more freely to the great thought and hope of his life4 ,this time of neglect gave him the opportunity of leisurely calling together and examining the ideas which had long had hold of his mind about the state of human knowledge1 about the possibilities of extending it1 about the hopes and powers which that new knowledge opened1 and about the methods of realising this great prospect4 ,this1 the passion of his life1 never asleep even in the hottest days of business or the most hopeless days of defeat1 must have had full play during these days of suspended public employment4 ,he was a man who was not easily satisfied with his attempts to arrange the order and proportions of his plans for mastering that new world of unknown truth1 which he held to be within the grasp of man if he would only dare to seize it2 and he was much given to vary the shape of his work1 and to try experiments in composition and even style4 ,he wrote and rewrote4 ,besides what was finally published1 there remains a larger quantity of work which never reached the stage of publication4 ,he repeated over and over again the same thoughts1 the same images and characteristic sayings4 ,among these papers is one which sums up his convictions about the work before him1 and the vocation to which he had been called in respect of it4 ,it is in the form of a ,proem to a treatise on the ,interpretation of ,nature4 ,it was never used in his published works2 but1 as ,mr4 ,spedding says1 it has a peculiar value as an authentic statement of what he looked upon as his special business in life4 ,it is this mission which he states to himself in the following paper4 ,it is drawn up in stately ,latin4 ,mr4 ,spedding's translation is no unworthy representation of the words of the great ,prophet of ,knowledge3 ,believing that ,i was born for the service of mankind1 and regarding the care of the ,commonwealth as a kind of common property which1 like the air and water1 belongs to everybody1 ,i set myself to consider in what way mankind might be best served1 and what service ,i was myself best fitted by nature to perform4 ,now among all the benefits that could be conferred upon mankind1 ,i found none so great as the discovery of new arts1 endowments1 and commodities for the bettering of man's life4444 ,but if a man could succeed1 not in striking out some particular invention1 however useful1 but in kindling a light in nature--a light that should in its very rising touch and illuminate all the border regions that confine upon the circle of our present knowledge2 and so spreading further and further should presently disclose and bring into sight all that is most hidden and secret in the world--that man 7,i thought7 would be the benefactor indeed of the human race--the propagator of man's empire over the universe1 the champion of liberty1 the conqueror and subduer of necessities4 ,for myself1 ,i found that ,i was fitted for nothing so well as for the study of ,truth2 as having a mind nimble and versatile enough to catch the resemblances of things 7which is the chief point71 and at the same time steady enough to fix and distinguish their subtler differences2 as being gifted by nature with desire to seek1 patience to doubt1 fondness to meditate1 slowness to assert1 readiness to reconsider1 carefulness to dispose and set in order2 and as being a man that neither affects what is new nor admires what is old1 and that hates every kind of imposture4 ,so ,i thought my nature had a kind of familiarity and relationship with ,truth4 ,nevertheless1 because my birth and education had seasoned me in business of ,state2 and because opinions 7so young as ,i was7 would sometimes stagger me2 and because ,i thought that a man's own country has some special claims upon him more than the rest of the world2 and because ,i hoped that1 if ,i rose to any place of honour in the ,state1 ,i should have a larger command of industry and ability to help me in my work--for these reasons ,i both applied myself to acquire the arts of civil life1 and commended my service1 so far as in modesty and honesty ,i might1 to the favour of such friends as had any influence4 ,in which also ,i had another motive3 for ,i felt that those things ,i have spoken of--be they great or small--reach no further than the condition and culture of this mortal life2 and ,i was not without hope 7the condition of religion being at that time not very prosperous7 that if ,i came to hold office in the ,state1 ,i might get something done too for the good of men's souls4 ,when ,i found1 however1 that my zeal was mistaken for ambition1 and my life had already readied the turning-point1 and my breaking health reminded me how ill ,i could afford to be so slow1 and ,i reflected1 moreover1 that in leaving undone the good that ,i could do by myself alone1 and applying myself to that which could not be done without the help and consent of others1 ,i was by no means discharging the duty that lay upon me--,i put all those thoughts aside1 and 7in pursuance of my old determination7 betook myself wholly to this work4 ,nor am ,i discouraged from it because ,i see signs in the times of the decline and overthrow of that knowledge and erudition which is now in use4 ,not that ,i apprehend any more barbarian invasions 7unless possibly the ,spanish empire should recover its strength1 and having crushed other nations by arms should itself sink under its own weight72 but the civil wars which may be expected1 ,i think 7judging from certain fashions which have come in of late71 to spread through many countries--together with the malignity of sects1 and those compendious artifices and devices which have crept into the place of solid erudition--seem to portend for literature and the sciences a tempest not less fatal1 and one against which the ,printing-office will be no effectual security4 ,and no doubt but that fair-weather learning which is nursed by leisure1 blossoms under reward and praise1 which cannot withstand the shock of opinion1 and is liable to be abused by tricks and quackery1 will sink under such impediments as these4 ,far otherwise is it with that knowledge whose dignity is maintained by works of utility and power4 ,for the injuries1 therefore1 which should proceed from the times1 ,i am not afraid of them2 and for the injuries which proceed from men1 ,i am not concerned4 ,for if any one charge me with seeking to be wise over-much1 ,i answer simply that modesty and civil respect are fit for civil matters2 in contemplations nothing is to be respected but ,truth4 ,if any one call on me for works1 and that presently1 ,i tell him frankly1 without any imposture at all1 that for me--a man not old1 of weak health1 my hands full of civil business1 entering without guide or light upon an argument of all others the most obscure--,i hold it enough to have constructed the machine1 though ,i may not succeed in setting it on work4444 ,if1 again1 any one ask me1 not indeed for actual works1 yet for definite premises and forecasts of the works that are to be1 ,i would have him know that the knowledge which we now possess will not teach a man even what to wish4 ,lastly--though this is a matter of less moment--if any of our politicians1 who used to make their calculations and conjectures according to persons and precedents1 must needs interpose his judgment in a thing of this nature1 ,i would but remind him how 7according to the ancient fable7 the lame man keeping the course won the race of the swift man who left it2 and that there is no thought to be taken about precedents1 for the thing is without precedent4 ,for myself1 my heart is not set upon any of those things which depend upon external accidents4 ,i am not hunting for fame3 ,i have no desire to found a sect1 after the fashion of heresiarchs2 and to look for any private gain from such an undertaking as this ,i count both ridiculous and base4 ,enough for me the consciousness of well-deserving1 and those real and effectual results with which ,fortune itself cannot interfere4 ,in #afjd ,james's first ,parliament met1 and with it ,bacon returned to an industrious public life1 which was not to be interrupted till it finally came to an end with his strange and irretrievable fall4 ,the opportunity had come2 and ,bacon1 patient1 vigilant1 and conscious of great powers and indefatigable energy1 fully aware of all the conditions of the time1 pushed at once to the front in the ,house of ,commons4 ,he lost no time in showing that he meant to make himself felt4 ,the ,house of ,commons had no sooner met than it was involved in a contest with the ,chancery1 with the ,lords1 and finally with the ,king himself1 about its privileges--in this case its exclusive right to judge of the returns of its members4 ,bacon's time was come for showing the ,king both that he was willing to do him service1 and that he was worth being employed4 ,he took a leading part in the discussions1 and was trusted by the ,house as their spokesman and reporter in the various conferences4 ,the ,king1 in his overweening confidence in his absolute prerogative1 had1 indeed1 got himself into serious difficulty2 for the privilege was one which it was impossible for the ,commons to give up4 ,but ,bacon led the ,house to agree to an arrangement which saved their rights2 and under a cloud of words of extravagant flattery he put the ,king in good-humour1 and elicited from him the spontaneous proposal of a compromise which ended a very dangerous dispute4 ,the ,king's voice1 said ,bacon1 in his report to the ,house1 was the voice of ,god in man1 the good spirit of ,god in the mouth of man2 ,i do not say the voice of ,god and not of man2 ,i am not one of ,herod's flatterers2 a curse fell upon him that said it1 a curse on him that suffered it4 ,we might say1 as was said to ,solomon1 ,we are glad1 ,o ,king1 that we give account to you1 because you discern what is spoken4 ,the course of this ,parliament1 in which ,bacon was active and prominent1 showed the ,king1 probably for the first time1 what ,bacon was4 ,the session was not so stormy as some of the later ones2 but occasions arose which revealed to the ,king and to the ,house of ,commons the deeply discordant assumptions and purposes by which each party was influenced1 and which brought out ,bacon's powers of adjusting difficulties and harmonising claims4 ,he never wavered in his loyalty to his own ,house1 where it is clear that his authority was great4 ,but there was no limit to the submission and reverence which he expressed to the ,king1 and1 indeed1 to his desire to bring about what the ,king desired1 as far as it could be safely done4 ,dealing with the ,commons1 his policy was to be content with the substance and not to stand on the form4 ,dealing with the ,king1 he was forward to recognise all that ,james wanted recognised of his kingcraft and his absolute sovereignty4 ,bacon assailed with a force and keenness which showed what he could do as an opponent1 the amazing and intolerable grievances arising out of the survival of such feudal customs as ,wardship and ,purveyance2 customs which made over a man's eldest son and property1 during a minority1 to the keeping of the ,king1 that is1 to a ,king's favourite1 and allowed the ,king's servants to cut down a man's timber before the windows of his house4 ,but he urged that these grievances should be taken away with the utmost tenderness for the ,king's honour and the ,king's purse4 ,in the great and troublesome questions relating to the ,union he took care to be fully prepared4 ,he was equally strong on points of certain and substantial importance1 equally quick to suggest accommodations where nothing substantial was touched4 ,his attitude was one of friendly and respectful independence4 ,it was not misunderstood by the ,king4 ,bacon1 who had hitherto been an unsworn and unpaid member of the ,learned ,counsel1 now received his office by patent1 with a small salary1 and he was charged with the grave business of preparing the work for the ,commissioners for the ,union of the ,kingdoms1 in which1 when the ,commission met1 he took a foremost and successful part4 ,but the ,parliament before which their report was to be laid did not meet till ten months after the work of the ,commission was done 7,dec41 #afjd--,nov41 #afje74 ,for nearly another year ,bacon had no public work4 ,the leisure was used for his own objects4 ,he was interested in history in a degree only second to his interest in nature2 indeed1 but for the engrossing claims of his philosophy of nature1 he might have been the first and one of the greatest of our historians4 ,he addressed a letter to the ,chancellor ,ellesmere on the deficiencies of ,british history1 and on the opportunities which offered for supplying them4 ,he himself could at present do nothing2 but because there be so many good painters1 both for hand and colours1 it needeth but encouragement and instructions to give life and light unto it4 ,but he mistook1 in this as in other instances1 the way in which such things are done4 ,men do not accomplish such things to order1 but because their souls compel them1 as he himself was building up his great philosophical structure1 in the midst of his ambition and disappointment4 ,and this interval of quiet enabled him to bring out his first public appeal on the subject which most filled his mind4 ,he completed in ,english the ,two ,books of the ,advancement of ,knowledge1 which were published at a book-shop at the gateway of ,gray's ,inn in ,holborn 7,oct41 #afje74 ,he intended that it should be published in ,latin also2 but he was dissatisfied with the ornate translation sent him from ,cambridge1 and probably he was in a hurry to get the book out4 ,it was dedicated to the ,king1 not merely by way of compliment1 but with the serious hope that his interest might be awakened in the subjects which were nearest ,bacon's heart4 ,like other of ,bacon's hopes1 it was disappointed4 ,the ,king's studies and the ,king's humours were not of the kind to make him care for ,bacon's visions of the future1 or his eager desire to begin at once a novel method of investigating the facts and laws of nature2 and the appeal to him fell dead4 ,bacon sent the book about to his friends with explanatory letters4 ,to ,sir ,t4 ,bodley he writes3 ,i think no man may more truly say with the ,psalm1 ,multum incola fuit anima mea ,ps4 #abj than myself4 ,for ,i do confess since ,i was of any understanding1 my mind hath in effect been absent from that ,i have done2 and in absence are many errors which ,i willingly acknowledge2 and among them1 this great one which led the rest3 that knowing myself by inward calling to be fitter to hold a book than to play a part1 ,i have led my life in civil causes1 for which ,i was not very fit by nature1 and more unfit by the preoccupation of my mind4 ,therefore1 calling myself home1 ,i have now enjoyed myself2 whereof likewise ,i desire to make the world partaker4 ,to ,lord ,salisbury1 in a note of elaborate compliment1 he describes his purpose by an image which he repeats more than once4 ,i shall content myself to awake better spirits1 like a bell-ringer1 which is first up to call others to church4 ,but the two friends whose judgment he chiefly valued1 and who1 as on other occasions1 were taken into his most intimate literary confidence1 were ,bishop ,andrewes1 his inquisitor1 and ,toby ,matthews1 a son of the ,archbishop of ,york1 who had become a ,roman ,catholic1 and lived in ,italy1 seeing a good deal of learned men there1 apparently the most trusted of all ,bacon's friends4 ,when ,parliament met again in ,november1 #afje1 the ,gunpowder ,plot and its consequences filled all minds4 ,bacon was not employed about it by ,government1 and his work in the ,house was confined to carrying on matters left unfinished from the previous session4 ,on the rumour of legal promotions and vacancies ,bacon once more applied to ,salisbury for the ,solicitorship 7,march1 #afjf74 ,but no changes were made1 and ,bacon was still next the door4 ,in ,may1 #afjf1 he did what had for some time been in his thoughts3 he married2 not the lady whom ,essex had tried to win for him1 that ,lady ,hatton who became the wife of his rival ,coke1 but one whom ,salisbury helped him to gain1 an alderman's daughter1 ,alice ,barnham1 an handsome maiden1 with some money and a disagreeable mother1 by her second marriage1 ,lady ,packington4 ,bacon's curious love of pomp amused the gossips of the day4 ,sir ,francis ,bacon1 writes ,carleton to ,chamberlain1 was married yesterday to his young wench1 in ,maribone ,chapel4 ,he was clad from top to toe in purple1 and hath made himself and his wife such store of raiments of cloth of silver and gold that it draws deep into her portion4 ,of his married life we hear next to nothing3 in his ,essay on ,marriage he is not enthusiastic in its praise2 almost the only thing we know is that in his will1 twenty years afterwards1 he showed his dissatisfaction with his wife1 who after his death married again4 ,but it gave him an additional reason1 and an additional plea1 for pressing for preferment1 and in the summer of #afjf the opening came4 ,coke was made ,chief-,justice of the ,common ,pleas1 leaving the ,attorney's place vacant4 ,a favourite of ,salisbury's1 ,hobart1 became ,attorney1 and ,bacon hoped for some arrangement by which the ,solicitor ,doddridge might be otherwise provided for1 and he himself become ,solicitor4 ,hopeful as he was1 and patient of disappointments1 and of what other men would have thought injustice and faithlessness1 he felt keenly both the disgrace and the inconvenience of so often expecting place1 and being so often passed over4 ,while the question was pending1 he wrote to the ,king1 the ,chancellor1 and ,salisbury4 ,his letter to the ,king is a record in his own words of his public services4 ,to the ,chancellor1 whom he believed to be his supporter1 he represented the discredit which he suffered--he was a common gaze and a speech2 the little reputation which by his industry he gathered1 being scattered and taken away by continual disgraces1 every new man coming above me2 and his wife and his wife's friends were making him feel it4 ,the letters show what ,bacon thought to be his claims1 and how hard he found it to get them recognised4 ,to the ,chancellor he urged1 among other things1 that time was slipping by-- ,i humbly pray your ,lordship to consider that time groweth precious with me1 and that a married man is seven years elder in his thoughts the first day4444 ,and were it not to satisfy my wife's friends1 and to get myself out of being a common gaze and a speech1 ,i protest before ,god ,i would never speak word for it4 ,but to conclude1 as my honourable ,lady your wife was some mean to make me to change the name of another1 so if it please you to help me to change my own name1 ,i can be but more and more bounden to you2 and ,i am much deceived if your ,lordship find not the ,king well inclined1 and my ,lord of ,salisbury forward and affectionate4 ,to ,salisbury he writes3 ,i may say to your ,lordship1 in the confidence of your poor kinsman1 and of a man by you advanced1 ,tu idem fer opem1 qui spem dedisti2 for ,i am sure it was not possible for any living man to have received from another more significant and comfortable words of hope2 your ,lordship being pleased to tell me1 during the course of my last service1 that you would raise me2 and that when you had resolved to raise a man1 you were more careful of him than himself2 and that what you had done for me in my marriage was a benefit to me1 but of no use to your ,lordship4444 ,and ,i know1 and all the world knoweth1 that your ,lordship is no dealer of holy water1 but noble and real2 and on my part ,i am of a sure ground that ,i have committed nothing that may deserve alteration4 ,and therefore my hope is your ,lordship will finish a good work1 and consider that time groweth precious with me1 and that ,i am now vergentibus annis4 ,and although ,i know your fortune is not to need an hundred such as ,i am1 yet ,i shall be ever ready to give you my best and first fruits1 and to supply 7as much as in me lieth7 worthiness by thankfulness4 ,still the powers were deaf to his appeals2 at any rate he had to be content with another promise4 ,considering the ability which he had shown in ,parliament1 the wisdom and zeal with which he had supported the ,government1 and the important position which he held in the ,house of ,commons1 the neglect of him is unintelligible1 except on two suppositions3 that the ,government1 that is ,cecil1 were afraid of anything but the mere routine of law1 as represented by such men as ,hobart and ,doddridge2 or that ,coke's hostility to him was unabated1 and ,coke still too important to be offended4 ,bacon returned to work when the ,parliament met1 ,november1 #afjf4 ,the questions arising out of the ,union1 the question of naturalisation1 its grounds and limits1 the position of ,scotchmen born before or since the ,king's accession1 the ,antenati and ,postnati1 the question of a union of laws1 with its consequences1 were discussed with great keenness and much jealous feeling4 ,on the question of naturalisation ,bacon took the liberal and larger view4 ,the immediate union of laws he opposed as premature4 ,he was a willing servant of the ,house1 and the ,house readily made use of him4 ,he reported the result of conferences1 even when his own opinion was adverse to that of the ,house4 ,and he reported the speeches of such persons as ,lord ,salisbury1 probably throwing into them both form and matter of his own4 ,at length1 silently1 on the #beth of ,june1 #afjg1 he was appointed ,solicitor-,general4 ,he was then forty-seven4 ,it was also probably about this time1 writes ,mr4 ,spedding1 that ,bacon finally settled the plan of his ',great ,instauration1' and began to call it by that name4 ,,chapter ,,iv4 ,,bacon ,,solicitor-,,general4 ,the great thinker and idealist1 the great seer of a world of knowledge to which the men of his own generation were blind1 and which they could not1 even with his help1 imagine a possible one1 had now won the first step in that long and toilsome ascent to success in life1 in which for fourteen years he had been baffled4 ,he had made himself1 for good and for evil1 a servant of the ,government of ,james ,i4 ,he was prepared to discharge with zeal and care all his duties4 ,he was prepared to perform all the services which that ,government might claim from its servants4 ,he had sought1 he had passionately pressed to be admitted within that circle in which the will of the ,king was the supreme law2 after that1 it would have been ruin to have withdrawn or resisted4 ,but it does not appear that the thought or wish to resist or withdraw ever presented itself2 he had thoroughly convinced himself that in doing what the ,king required he was doing the part of a good citizen1 and a faithful servant of the ,state and ,commonwealth4 ,the two lives1 the two currents of purpose and effort1 were still there4 ,behind all the wrangle of the courts and the devising of questionable legal subtleties to support some unconstitutional encroachment1 or to outflank the defence of some obnoxious prisoner1 the high philosophical meditations still went on2 the remembrance of their sweetness and grandeur wrung more than once from the jaded lawyer or the baffled counsellor the complaint1 in words which had a great charm for him1 ,multum incola fuit anima mea--,my soul hath long dwelt where it would not be4 ,but opinion and ambition and the immense convenience of being great and rich and powerful1 and the supposed necessities of his condition1 were too strong even for his longings to be the interpreter and the servant of nature4 ,there is no trace of the faintest reluctance on his part to be the willing minister of a court of which not only the principal figure1 but the arbiter and governing spirit1 was to be ,george ,villiers1 ,duke of ,buckingham4 ,the first leisure that ,bacon had after he was appointed ,solicitor he used in a characteristic way4 ,he sat down to make a minute stock-taking of his position and its circumstances4 ,in the summer of #afjh he devoted a week of ,july to this survey of his life1 its objects and its appliances2 and he jotted down1 day by day1 through the week1 from his present reflections1 or he transcribed from former note-books1 a series of notes in loose order1 mostly very rough and not always intelligible1 about everything that could now concern him4 ,this curious and intimate record1 which he called ,commentarius ,solutus1 was discovered by ,mr4 ,spedding1 who not unnaturally had some misgivings about publishing so secret and so ambiguous a record of a man's most private confidences with himself4 ,but there it was1 and1 as it was known1 he no doubt decided wisely in publishing it as it stands2 he has done his best to make it intelligible1 and he has also done his best to remove any unfavourable impressions that might arise from it4 ,it is singularly interesting as an evidence of ,bacon's way of working1 of his watchfulness1 his industry1 his care in preparing himself long beforehand for possible occasions1 his readiness to take any amount of trouble about his present duties1 his self-reliant desire for more important and difficult ones4 ,it exhibits his habit of self-observation and self-correction1 his care to mend his natural defects of voice1 manner1 and delivery2 it is even more curious in showing him watching his own physical constitution and health1 in the most minute details of symptoms and remedies1 equally with a scientific and a practical object4 ,it contains his estimate of his income1 his expenditure1 his debts1 schedules of lands and jewels1 his rules for the economy of his estate1 his plans for his new gardens and terraces and ponds and buildings at ,gorhambury4 ,he was now a rich man1 valuing his property at #bd1aee and his income at #dige1 burdened with a considerable debt1 but not more than he might easily look to wipe out4 ,but1 besides all these points1 there appear the two large interests of his life--the reform of philosophy1 and his ideal of a great national policy4 ,the greatness of ,britain was one of his favourite subjects of meditation4 ,he puts down in his notes the outline of what should be aimed at to secure and increase it2 it is to make the various forces of the great and growing empire work together in harmonious order1 without waste1 without jealousy1 without encroachment and collision2 to unite not only the interests but the sympathies and aims of the ,crown with those of the people and ,parliament2 and so to make ,britain1 now in peril from nothing but from the strength of its own discordant elements1 that ,monarchy of the ,west in reality1 which ,spain was in show1 and1 as ,bacon always maintained1 only in show4 ,the survey of the condition of his philosophical enterprise takes more space4 ,he notes the stages and points to which his plans have reached2 he indicates1 with a favourite quotation or apophthegm--,plus ultra--ausus vana contemnere--aditus non nisi sub persona infantis soon to be familiar to the world in his published writings--the lines of argument1 sometimes alternative ones1 which were before him2 he draws out schemes of inquiry1 specimen tables1 distinctions and classifications about the subject of ,motion1 in ,english interlarded with ,latin1 or in ,latin interlarded with ,english1 of his characteristic and practical sort2 he notes the various sources from which he might look for help and co-operation--of learned men beyond the seas--to begin first in ,france to print it--laying for a place to command wits and pens2 he has his eye on rich and childless bishops1 on the enforced idleness of ,state prisoners in the ,tower1 like ,northumberland and ,raleigh1 on the great schools and universities1 where he might perhaps get hold of some college for ,inventors--as we should say1 for the endowment of research4 ,these matters fill up a large space of his notes4 ,but his thoughts were also busy about his own advancement4 ,and to these sheets of miscellaneous memoranda ,bacon confided not only his occupations and his philosophical and political ideas1 but1 with a curious innocent unreserve1 the arts and methods which he proposed to use in order to win the favour of the great and to pull down the reputation of his rivals4 ,he puts down in detail how he is to recommend himself to the ,king and the ,king's favourites-- ,to set on foot and maintain access with his ,majesty1 ,dean of the ,chapel1 ,may1 ,murray4 ,keeping a course of access at the beginning of every term and vacation1 with a memorial4 ,to attend some time his repasts1 or to fall into a course of familiar discourse4 ,to find means to win a conceit1 not open1 but private1 of being affectionate and assured to the ,scotch1 and fit to succeed ,salisbury in his manage in that kind2 ,lord ,dunbar1 ,duke of ,lennox1 and ,daubiny3 secret4 ,then1 again1 of ,salisbury-- ,insinuate myself to become privy to my ,lord of ,salisbury's estate4 ,to correspond with ,salisbury in a habit of natural but no ways perilous boldness1 and in vivacity1 invention1 care to cast and enterprise 7but with due caution71 for this manner ,i judge both in his nature freeth the stands1 and in his ends pleaseth him best1 and promiseth more use of me4 ,i judge my standing out1 and not favoured by ,northampton1 must needs do me good with ,salisbury1 especially comparative to the ,attorney4 ,the ,attorney ,hobart filled the place to which ,bacon had so long aspired1 and which he thought1 perhaps reasonably1 that he could fill much better4 ,at any rate1 one of the points to which he recurs frequently in his notes is to exhort himself to make his own service a continual contrast to the ,attorney's--to have in mind and use the ,attorney's weakness1 enumerating a list of instances3 ,too full of cases and distinctions4 ,nibbling solemnly1 he distinguisheth but apprehends not2 ,no gift with his pen in proclamations and the like2 and at last he draws out in a series of epigrams his view of ,hubbard's disadvantages-- ,better at shift than at drift4444 ,subtilitas sine acrimonia4444 ,no power with the judge4444 ,he will alter a thing but not mend4444 ,he puts into patents and deeds words not of law but of common sense and discourse4444 ,sociable save in profit4444 ,he doth depopulate mine office2 otherwise called inclose4444 ,i never knew any one of so good a speech with a worse pen4 444 ,then in a marginal note--,solemn goose4 ,stately1 leastwise nodd 787 crafty4 ,they have made him believe that he is wondrous wise4 ,and1 finally1 he draws up a paper of counsels and rules for his own conduct--,custum apt ad ,individuum--which might supply an outline for an essay on the arts of behaviour proper for a rising official1 a sequel to the biting irony of the essays on ,cunning and ,wisdom for a ,man's ,self4 ,to furnish my ,l4 of ,s4 with ornaments for public speeches4 ,to make him think how he should be reverenced by a ,lord ,chancellor1 if ,i were2 ,princelike4 ,to prepare him for matters to be handled in ,council or before the ,king aforehand1 and to show him and yield him the fruits of my care4 ,to take notes in tables1 when ,i attend the ,council1 and sometimes to move out of a memorial shewed and seen4 ,to have particular occasions1 fit and graceful and continual1 to maintain private speech with every the great persons1 and sometimes drawing more than one together4 ,ex imitatione ,att4 ,this specially in public places1 and without care or affectation4 ,at ,council table to make good my ,l4 of ,salisb4 motions and speeches1 and for the rest sometimes one sometimes another2 chiefly his1 that is most earnest and in affection4 ,to suppress at once my speaking1 with panting and labour of breath and voice4 ,not to fall upon the main too sudden1 but to induce and intermingle speech of good fashion4 ,to use at once upon entrance given of speech1 though abrupt1 to compose and draw in myself4 ,to free myself at once from payt4 787 of formality and compliment1 though with some show of carelessness1 pride1 and rudeness4 7,and then follows a long list of matters of business to be attended to47 ,these arts of a court were not new2 it was not new for men to observe them in their neighbours and rivals4 ,what was new was the writing them down1 with deliberate candour1 among a man's private memoranda1 as things to be done and with the intention of practising them4 ,this of itself1 it has been suggested1 shows that they were unfamiliar and uncongenial to ,bacon2 for a man reminds himself of what he is apt to forget4 ,but a man reminds himself also of what seems to him1 at the moment1 most important1 and what he lays most stress upon4 ,and it is clear that these are the rules1 rhetorical and ethical1 which ,bacon laid down for himself in pursuing the second great object of his life--his official advancement2 and that1 whatever we think of them1 they were the means which he deliberately approved4 ,as long as ,salisbury lived1 the distrust which had kept ,bacon so long in the shade kept him at a distance from the ,king's ear1 and from influence on his counsels4 ,salisbury was the one ,englishman in whom the ,king had become accustomed to confide1 in his own conscious strangeness to ,english ways and real dislike and suspicion of them2 ,salisbury had an authority which no one else had1 both from his relations with ,james at the end of ,elizabeth's reign1 and as the representative of her policy and the depositary of its traditions2 and if he had lived1 things might not1 perhaps1 have been better in ,james's government1 but many things1 probably1 would have been different4 ,but while ,salisbury was supreme1 ,bacon1 though very alert and zealous1 was mainly busied with his official work2 and the ,solicitor's place had become1 as he says1 a mean thing compared with the ,attorney's1 and also an extremely laborious place--one of the painfullest places in the kingdom4 ,much of it was routine1 but responsible and fatiguing routine4 ,but if he was not in ,salisbury's confidence1 he was prominent in the ,house of ,commons4 ,the great and pressing subject of the time was the increasing difficulties of the revenue1 created partly by the inevitable changes of a growing state1 but much more by the ,king's incorrigible wastefulness4 ,it was impossible to realise completely the great dream and longing of the ,stuart kings and their ministers to make the ,crown independent of parliamentary supplies2 but to dispense with these supplies as much as possible1 and to make as much as possible of the revenue permanent1 was the continued and fatal policy of the ,court4 ,the ,great ,contract--a scheme by which1 in return for the surrender by the ,crown of certain burdensome and dangerous claims of the ,prerogative1 the ,commons were to assure a large compensating yearly income to the ,crown--was ,salisbury's favourite device during the last two years of his life4 ,it was not a prosperous one4 ,the bargain was an ill-imagined and not very decorous transaction between the ,king and his people4 ,both parties were naturally jealous of one another1 suspicious of underhand dealing and tacit changes of terms1 prompt to resent and take offence1 and not easy to pacify when they thought advantage had been taken2 and ,salisbury1 either by his own fault1 or by yielding to the ,king's canny shiftiness1 gave the business a more haggling and huckstering look than it need have had4 ,bacon1 a subordinate of the ,government1 but a very important person in the ,commons1 did his part1 loyally1 as it seems1 and skilfully in smoothing differences and keeping awkward questions from making their appearance4 ,thus he tried to stave off the risk of bringing definitely to a point the ,king's cherished claim to levy impositions1 or custom duties1 on merchandise1 by virtue of his prerogative--a claim which he warned the ,commons not to dispute1 and which ,bacon1 maintaining it as legal in theory1 did his best to prevent them from discussing1 and to persuade them to be content with restraining4 ,whatever he thought of the ,great ,contract1 he did what was expected of him in trying to gain for it fair play4 ,but he made time for other things also4 ,he advised1 and advised soundly1 on the plantation and finance of ,ireland4 ,it was a subject in which he took deep interest4 ,a few years later1 with only too sure a foresight1 he gave the warning1 lest ,ireland civil become more dangerous to us than ,ireland savage4 ,he advised--not soundly in point of law1 but curiously in accordance with modern notions--about endowments2 though1 in this instance1 in the famous will case of ,thomas ,sutton1 the founder of the ,charter ,house1 his argument probably covered the scheme of a monstrous job in favour of the needy ,court4 ,and his own work went on in spite of the pressure of the ,solicitor's place4 ,to the first years of his official life belong three very interesting fragments1 intended to find a provisional place in the plan of the ,great ,instauration4 ,to his friend ,toby ,matthews1 at ,florence1 he sent in manuscript the great attack on the old teachers of knowledge1 which is perhaps the most brilliant1 and also the most insolently unjust and unthinking piece of rhetoric ever composed by him--the ,redargutio ,philosophiarum4 ,i send you at this time the only part which hath any harshness2 and yet ,i framed to myself an opinion1 that whosoever allowed well of that preface which you so much commend1 will not dislike1 or at least ought not to dislike1 this other speech of preparation2 for it is written out of the same spirit1 and out of the same necessity4 ,nay it doth more fully lay open that the question between me and the ancients is not of the virtue of the race1 but of the rightness of the way4 ,and to speak truth1 it is to the other but as palma to pugnus1 part of the same thing more large4444 ,myself am like the miller of ,huntingdon1 that was wont to pray for peace amongst the willows2 for while the winds blew1 the wind-mills wrought1 and the water-mill was less customed4 ,so ,i see that controversies of religion must hinder the advancement of sciences4 ,let me conclude with my perpetual wish towards yourself1 that the approbation of yourself by your own discreet and temperate carriage1 may restore you to your country1 and your friends to your society4 ,and so ,i commend you to ,god's goodness4 ,gray's ,inn1 this #ajth of ,october1 #afji4 ,to ,bishop ,andrewes he sent1 also in manuscript1 another piece1 belonging to the same plan--the deeply impressive treatise called ,visa et ,cogitata--what ,francis ,bacon had seen of nature and knowledge1 and what he had come by meditation to think of what he had seen4 ,the letter is not less interesting than the last1 in respect to the writer's purposes1 his manner of writing1 and his relations to his correspondent4 ,,my ,,very ,,good ,,lord1--,now your ,lordship hath been so long in the church and the palace disputing between kings and popes1 methinks you should take pleasure to look into the field1 and refresh your mind with some matter of philosophy1 though that science be now through age waxed a child again1 and left to boys and young men2 and because you were wont to make me believe you took liking to my writings1 ,i send you some of this vacation's fruits1 and thus much more of my mind and purpose4 ,i hasten not to publish2 perishing ,i would prevent4 ,and ,i am forced to respect as well my times as the matter4 ,for with me it is thus1 and ,i think with all men in my case1 if ,i bind myself to an argument1 it loadeth my mind2 but if ,i rid my mind of the present cogitation1 it is rather a recreation4 ,this hath put me into these miscellanies1 which ,i purpose to suppress1 if ,god give me leave to write a just and perfect volume of philosophy1 which ,i go on with1 though slowly4 ,i send not your ,lordship too much1 lest it may glut you4 ,now let me tell you what my desire is4 ,if your ,lordship be so good now as when you were the good ,dean of ,westminster1 my request to you is1 that not by pricks1 but by notes1 you would mark unto me whatsoever shall seem unto you either not current in the style1 or harsh to credit and opinion1 or inconvenient for the person of the writer2 for no man can be judge and party1 and when our minds judge by reflection of ourselves1 they are more subject to error4 ,and though for the matter itself my judgement be in some things fixed1 and not accessible by any man's judgement that goeth not my way1 yet even in those things the admonition of a friend may make me express myself diversly4 ,i would have come to your ,lordship1 but that ,i am hastening to my house in the country4 ,and so ,i commend your ,lordship to ,god's goodness4 ,there was yet another production of this time1 of which we have a notice from himself in a letter to ,toby ,matthews1 the curious and ingenious little treatise on the ,wisdom of the ,ancients1 one of the most popular of his works1 says ,mr4 ,spedding1 in his own and in the next generation1 but of value to us mainly for its quaint poetical colour1 and the unexpected turns1 like answers to a riddle1 given to the ancient fables4 ,when this work was published1 it was the third time that he had appeared as an author in print4 ,he thus writes about it and himself3 ,,mr4 ,,matthews1--,i do heartily thank you for your letter of the #bdth of ,august from ,salamanca2 and in recompense thereof ,i send you a little work of mine that hath begun to pass the world4 ,they tell me my ,latin is turned into silver1 and become current4 ,had you been here1 you should have been my inquisitor before it came forth2 but ,i think the greatest inquisitor in ,spain will allow it4444 ,my great work goeth forward1 and1 after my manner1 ,i alter ever when ,i add4 ,so that nothing is finished till all be finished4 ,from ,gray's ,inn1 the #agth of ,february1 #afaj4 ,in the autumn of #afaa the ,attorney-,general was ill1 and ,bacon reminded both the ,king and ,salisbury of his claim4 ,he was afraid1 he writes to the ,king1 with an odd forgetfulness of the persistency and earnestness of his applications1 that by reason of my slowness to sue1 and apprehend occasions upon the sudden1 keeping one plain course of painful service1 ,i may in fine dierum be in danger to be neglected and forgotten4 ,the ,attorney recovered1 but ,bacon1 on ,new ,year's ,tide of #afaa_/ab1 wrote to ,salisbury to thank him for his good-will4 ,it is the last letter of ,bacon's to ,salisbury which has come down to us4 ,,it ,,may ,,please ,,your ,,good ,,lordship1--,i would entreat the new year to answer for the old1 in my humble thanks to your ,lordship1 both for many your favours1 and chiefly that upon the occasion of ,mr4 ,attorney's infirmity ,i found your ,lordship even as ,i would wish4 ,this doth increase a desire in me to express my thankful mind to your ,lordship2 hoping that though ,i find age and decays grow upon me1 yet ,i may have a flash or two of spirit left to do you service4 ,and ,i do protest before ,god1 without compliment or any light vein of mind1 that if ,i knew in what course of life to do you best service1 ,i would take it1 and make my thoughts1 which now fly to many pieces1 be reduced to that center4 ,but all this is no more than ,i am1 which is not much1 but yet the entire of him that is-- ,in the following ,may 7,may #bd1 #afab7 ,salisbury died4 ,from this date ,james passed from government by a minister1 who1 whatever may have been his faults1 was laborious1 public-spirited1 and a statesman1 into his own keeping and into the hands of favourites1 who cared only for themselves4 ,with ,cecil ceased the traditions of the days of ,elizabeth and ,burghley1 in many ways evil and cruel traditions1 but not ignoble and sordid ones2 and ,james was left without the stay1 and also without the check1 which ,cecil's power had been to him4 ,the field was open for new men and new ways2 the fashions and ideas of the time had altered during the last ten years1 and those of the ,queen's days had gone out of date4 ,would the new turn out for the better or the worse8 ,bacon1 at any rate1 saw the significance of the change and the critical eventfulness of the moment4 ,it was his habit of old to send memorials of advice to the heads of the ,government1 apparently without such suggestions seeming more intrusive or officious than a leading article seems now1 and perhaps with much the same effect4 ,it was now a time to do so1 if ever2 and he was in an official relation to the ,king which entitled him to proffer advice4 ,he at once prepared to lay his thoughts before the ,king1 and to suggest that he could do far better service than ,cecil1 and was ready to take his place4 ,the policy of the ,great ,contract had certainly broken down1 and the ,king1 under ,cecil's guidance1 had certainly not known how to manage an ,english parliament4 ,in writing to the ,king he found it hard to satisfy himself4 ,several draft letters remain1 and it is not certain which of them1 if any1 was sent4 ,but immediately on ,salisbury's death he began1 ,may #bith1 a letter in which he said that he had never yet been able to show his affection to the ,king1 having been as a hawk tied to another's fist2 and if1 as was said to one that spake great words1 ,amice1 verba tua desiderant civitatem1 your ,majesty say to me1 ,bacon1 your words require a place to speak them1 yet that place or not place was with the ,king4 ,but the draft breaks off abruptly1 and with the date of the #cast we have the following3 ,your ,majesty hath lost a great subject and a great servant4 ,but if ,i should praise him in propriety1 ,i should say that he was a fit man to keep things from growing worse1 but no very fit man to reduce things to be much better4 ,for he loved to have the eyes of all ,israel a little too much upon himself1 and to have all business still under the hammer1 and like clay in the hands of the potter1 to mould it as he thought good2 so that he was more in operatione than in opere4 ,and though he had fine passages of action1 yet the real conclusions came slowly on4 ,so that although your ,majesty hath grave counsellors and worthy persons left1 yet you do as it were turn a leaf1 wherein if your ,majesty shall give a frame and constitution to matters1 before you place the persons1 in my simple opinion it were not amiss4 ,but the great matter and most instant for the present1 is the consideration of a ,parliament1 for two effects3 the one for the supply of your estate1 the other for the better knitting of the hearts of your subjects unto your ,majesty1 according to your infinite merit2 for both which1 ,parliaments have been and are the antient and honourable remedy4 ,now because ,i take myself to have a little skill in that region1 as one that ever affected that your ,majesty mought in all your causes not only prevail1 but prevail with satisfaction of the inner man2 and though no man can say but ,i was a perfect and peremptory royalist1 yet every man makes me believe that ,i was never one hour out of credit with the ,lower ,house2 my desire is to know whether your ,majesty will give me leave to meditate and propound unto you some preparative remembrances touching the future ,parliament4 ,whether he sent this or not1 he prepared another draft4 ,what had happened in the mean while we know not1 but ,bacon was in a bitter mood1 and the letter reveals1 for the first time1 what was really in ,bacon's heart about the great subject and great servant1 of whom he had just written so respectfully1 and with whom he had been so closely connected for most of his life4 ,the fierceness which had been gathering for years of neglect and hindrance under that placid and patient exterior broke out4 ,he offered himself as ,cecil's successor in business of ,state4 ,he gave his reason for being hopeful of success4 ,cecil's bitterest enemy could not have given it more bitterly4 ,my principal end being to do your ,majesty service1 ,i crave leave to make at this time to your ,majesty this most humble oblation of myself4 ,i may truly say with the psalm1 ,multum incola fuit anima mea1 for my life hath been conversant in things wherein ,i take little pleasure4 ,your ,majesty may have heard somewhat that my father was an honest man1 and somewhat you may have seen of myself1 though not to make any true judgement by1 because ,i have hitherto had only potestatem verborum1 nor that neither4 ,i was three of my young years bred with an ambassador in ,france1 and since ,i have been an old truant in the school-house of your council-chamber1 though on the second form1 yet longer than any that now sitteth hath been upon the head form4 ,if your ,majesty find any aptness in me1 or if you find any scarcity in others1 whereby you may think it fit for your service to remove me to business of ,state1 although ,i have a fair way before me for profit 7and by your ,majesty's grace and favour for honour and advancement71 and in a course less exposed to the blasts of fortune1 yet now that he is gone1 quo vivente virtutibus certissimum exitium1 ,i will be ready as a chessman to be wherever your ,majesty's royal hand shall set me4 ,your ,majesty will bear me witness1 ,i have not suddenly opened myself thus far4 ,i have looked upon others1 ,i see the exceptions1 ,i see the distractions1 and ,i fear ,tacitus will be a prophet1 magis alii homines quam alii mores4 ,i know mine own heart1 and ,i know not whether ,god that hath touched my heart with the affection may not touch your royal heart to discern it4 ,howsoever1 ,i shall at least go on honestly in mine ordinary course1 and supply the rest in prayers for you1 remaining1 etc4 ,this is no hasty outburst4 ,in a later paper on the true way of retrieving the disorders of the ,king's finances1 full of large and wise counsel1 after advising the ,king not to be impatient1 and assuring him that a state of debt is not so intolerable--for it is no new thing for the greatest ,kings to be in debt1 and all the great men of the ,court had been in debt without any manner of diminution of their greatness--he returns to the charge in detail against ,salisbury and the ,great ,contract4 ,my second prayer is1 that your ,majesty--in respect to the hasty freeing of your state--would not descend to any means1 or degree of means1 which carrieth not a symmetry with your ,majesty and greatness4 ,he is gone from whom those courses did wholly flow4 ,to have your wants and necessities in particular as it were hanged up in two tablets before the eyes of your lords and commons1 to be talked of for four months together2 ,to have all your courses to help yourself in revenue or profit put into printed books1 which were wont to be held arcana imperii2 ,to have such worms of aldermen to lend for ten in the hundred upon good assurance1 and with such entreaty 787 as if it should save the bark of your fortune2 ,to contract still where mought be had the readiest payment1 and not the best bargain2 ,to stir a number of projects for your profit1 and then to blast them1 and leave your ,majesty nothing but the scandal of them2 ,to pretend even carriage between your ,majesty's rights and ease of the people1 and to satisfy neither4 ,these courses and others the like ,i hope are gone with the deviser of them2 which have turned your ,majesty to inestimable prejudice4 ,and what he thought of saying1 but on further consideration struck out1 was the following4 ,it is no wonder that he struck it out1 but it shows what he felt towards ,cecil4 ,i protest to ,god1 though ,i be not superstitious1 when ,i saw your ,m4's book against ,vorstius and ,arminius1 and noted your zeal to deliver the majesty of ,god from the vain and indign comprehensions of heresy and degenerate philosophy1 as you had by your pen formerly endeavoured to deliver kings from the usurpation of ,rome1 perculsit illico animum that ,god would set shortly upon you some visible favour1 and let me not live if ,i thought not of the taking away of that man4 ,and from this time onwards he scarcely ever mentions ,cecil's name in his correspondence with ,james but with words of condemnation1 which imply that ,cecil's mischievous policy was the result of private ends4 ,yet this was the man to whom he had written the ,new ,year's ,tide letter six months before2 a letter which is but an echo to the last of all that he had been accustomed to write to ,cecil when asking assistance or offering congratulation4 ,cecil had1 indeed1 little claim on ,bacon's gratitude2 he had spoken him fair in public1 and no doubt in secret distrusted and thwarted him4 ,but to the last ,bacon did not choose to acknowledge this4 ,had ,james disclosed something of his dead servant1 who left some strange secrets behind him1 which showed his unsuspected hostility to ,bacon8 ,except on this supposition 7but there is nothing to support it71 no exaggeration of the liberty allowed to the language of compliment is enough to clear ,bacon of an insincerity which is almost inconceivable in any but the meanest tools of power4 ,i assure myself1 wrote ,bacon to the ,king1 your ,majesty taketh not me for one of a busy nature2 for my estate being free from all difficulties1 and ,i having such a large field for contemplation1 as ,i have partly and shall much more make manifest unto your ,majesty and the world1 to occupy my thoughts1 nothing could make me active but love and affection4 ,so ,bacon described his position with questionable accuracy--for his estate was not free from difficulties--in the new time coming4 ,he was still kept out of the inner circle of the ,council2 but from the moment of ,salisbury's death he became a much more important person4 ,he still sued for advancement1 and still met with disappointment2 the mean men still rose above him4 ,the lucrative place of ,master of the ,wards was vacated by ,salisbury's death4 ,bacon was talked of for it1 and probably expected it1 for he drew up new rules for it1 and a speech for the new master2 but the office and the speech went to ,sir ,george ,carey4 ,soon after ,sir ,george ,carey died4 ,bacon then applied for it through the new favourite1 ,rochester4 ,he was so confident of the place that he put most of his men into new cloaks2 and the world of the day amused itself at his disappointment1 when the place was given to another mean man1 ,sir ,walter ,cope1 of whom the gossips wrote that if the last two ,treasurers could look out of their graves to see those successors in that place1 they would be out of countenance with themselves1 and say to the world quantum mutatus4 ,but ,bacon's hand and counsel appear more and more in important matters--the improvement of the revenue2 the defence of extreme rights of the prerogative in the case against ,whitelocke2 the great question of calling a parliament1 and of the true and princely way of dealing with it4 ,his confidential advice to the ,king about calling a parliament was marked by his keen perception of the facts of the situation2 it was marked too by his confident reliance on skilful indirect methods and trust in the look of things2 it bears traces also of his bitter feeling against ,salisbury1 whom he charges with treacherously fomenting the opposition of the last ,parliament4 ,there was no want of worldly wisdom in it2 certainly it was more adapted to ,james's ideas of state-craft than the simpler plan of ,sir ,henry ,nevill1 that the ,king should throw himself frankly on the loyalty and good-will of ,parliament4 ,and thus he came to be on easy terms with ,james1 who was quite capable of understanding ,bacon's resource and nimbleness of wit4 ,in the autumn of #afac the ,chief-,justiceship of the ,king's ,bench became vacant4 ,bacon at once gave the ,king reasons for sending ,coke from the ,common ,pleas--where he was a check on the prerogative--to the ,king's ,bench1 where he could do less harm2 while ,hobart went to the ,common ,pleas4 ,the promotion was obvious1 but the ,common ,pleas suited ,coke better1 and the place was more lucrative4 ,bacon's advice was followed4 ,coke1 very reluctantly1 knowing well who had given it1 and why1 not only weeping himself but followed by the tears of all the ,court of ,common ,pleas1 moved up to the higher post4 ,the ,attorney ,hobart succeeded1 and ,bacon at last became ,attorney 7,october #bg1 #afac74 ,in ,chamberlain's gossip we have an indication1 such as occurs only accidentally1 of the view of outsiders3 ,there is a strong apprehension that little good is to be expected by this change1 and that ,bacon may prove a dangerous instrument4 ,,chapter ,v4 ,,bacon ,,attorney-,,general ,,and ,,chancellor4 ,thus1 at last1 at the age of fifty-two1 ,bacon had gained the place which ,essex had tried to get for him at thirty-two4 ,the time of waiting had been a weary one1 and it is impossible not to see that it had been hurtful to ,bacon4 ,a strong and able man1 very eager to have a field for his strength and ability1 who is kept out of it1 as he thinks unfairly1 and is driven to an attitude of suppliant dependency in pressing his claim on great persons who amuse him with words1 can hardly help suffering in the humiliating process4 ,it does a man no good to learn to beg1 and to have a long training in the art4 ,and further1 this long delay kept up the distraction of his mind between the noble work on which his soul was bent1 and the necessities of that civil or professional and political life by which he had to maintain his estate4 ,all the time that he was canvassing 7it is his own word7 for office1 and giving up his time and thoughts to the work which it involved1 the great ,instauration had to wait his hours of leisure2 and his exclamation1 so often repeated1 ,multum incola fuit anima mea1 bears witness to the longings that haunted him in his hours of legal drudgery1 or in the service of his not very thankful employers4 ,not but that he found compensation in the interest of public questions1 in the company of the great1 in the excitement of state-craft and state employment1 in the pomp and enjoyment of court life4 ,he found too much compensation2 it was one of his misfortunes4 ,but his heart was always sound in its allegiance to knowledge2 and if he had been fortunate enough to have risen earlier to the greatness which he aimed at as a vantage-ground for his true work1 or if he had had self-control to have dispensed with wealth and position--if he had escaped the long necessity of being a persistent and still baffled suitor--we might have had as a completed whole what we have now only in great fragments1 and we should have been spared the blots which mar a career which ought to have been a noble one4 ,the first important matter that happened after ,bacon's new appointment was the ,essex divorce case1 and the marriage of ,lady ,essex with the favourite whom ,cecil's death had left at the height of power1 and who from ,lord ,rochester was now made ,earl of ,somerset4 ,with the divorce1 the beginning of the scandals and tragedies of ,james's reign1 ,bacon had nothing to do4 ,at the marriage which followed ,bacon presented as his offering a masque1 performed by the members of ,gray's ,inn1 of which he bore the charges1 and which cost him the enormous sum of #bjjj4 ,whether it were to repay his obligations to the ,howards1 or in lieu of a fee to ,rochester1 who levied toll on all favours from the ,king1 it can hardly be said1 as has been suggested1 to be a protest against the great abuse of the times1 the sale of offices for money4 ,the very splendid trifle1 the ,masque of ,flowers1 was one form of the many extravagant tributes paid but too willingly to high-handed worthlessness1 of which the deeper and darker guilt was to fill all faces with shame two years afterwards4 ,as ,attorney1 ,bacon had to take a much more prominent part in affairs1 legal1 criminal1 constitutional1 administrative1 than he had yet been allowed to have4 ,we know that it was his great object to show how much more active and useful an ,attorney he could be than either ,coke or ,hobart2 and as far as unflagging energy and high ability could make a good public servant1 he fully carried out his purpose4 ,in ,parliament1 the addled ,parliament of #afad1 in which he sat for the ,university of ,cambridge1 he did his best to reconcile what were fast becoming irreconcilable1 the claims and prerogatives of an absolute king1 irritable1 suspicious1 exacting1 prodigal1 with the ancient rights and liberties1 growing stronger in their demands by being denied1 resisted1 or outwitted1 of the popular element in the ,state4 ,in the trials1 which are so large and disagreeable a part of the history of these years--trials arising out of violent words provoked by the violent acts of power1 one of which1 ,peacham's1 became famous1 because in the course of it torture was resorted to1 or trials which witnessed to the corruption of the high society of the day1 like the astounding series of arraignments and condemnations following on the discoveries relating to ,overbury's murder1 which had happened just before the ,somerset marriage--,bacon had to make the best that he could for the cruel and often unequal policy of the ,court2 and ,bacon must take his share in the responsibility for it4 ,an effort on ,james's part to stop duelling brought from ,bacon a worthier piece of service1 in the shape of an earnest and elaborate argument against it1 full of good sense and good feeling1 but hopelessly in advance of the time4 ,on the many questions which touched the prerogative1 ,james found in his ,attorney a ready and skilful advocate of his claims1 who knew no limit to them but in the consideration of what was safe and prudent to assert4 ,he was a better and more statesmanlike counsellor1 in his unceasing endeavours to reconcile ,james to the expediency of establishing solid and good relations with his ,parliament1 and in his advice as to the wise and hopeful ways of dealing with it4 ,bacon had no sympathy with popular wants and claims2 of popularity1 of all that was called popular1 he had the deepest suspicion and dislike2 the opinions and the judgment of average men he despised1 as a thinker1 a politician1 and a courtier2 the malignity of the people he thought great4 ,i do not love1 he says1 the word people4 ,but he had a high idea of what was worthy of a king1 and was due to the public interests1 and he saw the folly of the petty acts and haughty words1 the use of which ,james could not resist4 ,in his new office he once more urged on1 and urged in vain1 his favourite project for revising1 simplifying1 and codifying the law4 ,this was a project which would find little favour with ,coke1 and the crowd of lawyers who venerated him--men whom ,bacon viewed with mingled contempt and apprehension both in the courts and in ,parliament where they were numerous1 and whom he more than once advised the ,king to bridle and keep in awe4 ,bacon presented his scheme to the ,king in a ,proposition1 or1 as we should call it1 a ,report4 ,it is very able and interesting2 marked with his characteristic comprehensiveness and sense of practical needs1 and with a confidence in his own knowledge of law which contrasts curiously with the current opinion about it4 ,he speaks with the utmost honour of ,coke's work1 but he is not afraid of a comparison with him4 ,i do assure your ,majesty1 he says1 ,i am in good hope that when ,sir ,edward ,coke's ,reports and my ,rules and ,decisions shall come to posterity1 there will be 7whatever is now thought7 question who was the greater lawyer4 ,but the project1 though it was entertained and discussed in ,parliament1 came to nothing4 ,no one really cared about it except ,bacon4 ,but in these years 7#afae and #afaf7 two things happened of the utmost consequence to him4 ,one was the rise1 more extravagant than anything that ,england had seen for centuries1 and in the end more fatal1 of the new favourite1 who from plain ,george ,villiers became the all-powerful ,duke of ,buckingham4 ,bacon1 like the rest of the world1 saw the necessity of bowing before him2 and ,bacon persuaded himself that ,villiers was pre-eminently endowed with all the gifts and virtues which a man in his place would need4 ,we have a series of his letters to ,villiers2 they are of course in the complimentary vein which was expected2 but if their language is only compliment1 there is no language left for expressing what a man wishes to be taken for truth4 ,the other matter was the humiliation1 by ,bacon's means and in his presence1 of his old rival ,coke4 ,in the dispute about jurisdiction1 always slumbering and lately awakened and aggravated by ,coke1 between the ,common ,law ,courts and the ,chancery1 ,coke had threatened the ,chancery with ,prmunire4 ,the ,king's jealousy took alarm1 and the ,chief-,justice was called before the ,council4 ,there a decree1 based on ,bacon's advice and probably drawn up by him1 peremptorily overruled the legal doctrine maintained by the greatest and most self-confident judge whom the ,english courts had seen4 ,the ,chief-,justice had to acquiesce in this reading of the law2 and then1 as if such an affront were not enough1 ,coke was suspended from his office1 and1 further1 enjoined to review and amend his published reports1 where they were inconsistent with the view of law which on ,bacon's authority the ,star ,chamber had adopted 7,june1 #afaf74 ,this he affected to do1 but the corrections were manifestly only colourable2 his explanations of his legal heresies against the prerogative1 as these heresies were formulated by the ,chancellor and ,bacon1 and presented to him for recantation1 were judged insufficient2 and in a decree1 prefaced by reasons drawn up by ,bacon1 in which1 besides ,coke's errors of law1 his deceit1 contempt1 and slander of the ,government1 his perpetual turbulent carriage1 and his affectation of popularity1 were noted--he was removed from his office 7,nov41 #afaf74 ,so1 for the present1 the old rivalry had ended in a triumph for ,bacon4 ,bacon1 whom ,coke had so long headed in the race1 whom he had sneered at as a superficial pretender to law1 and whose accomplishments and enthusiasm for knowledge he utterly despised1 had not only defeated him1 but driven him from his seat with dishonour4 ,when we remember what ,coke was1 what he had thought of ,bacon1 and how he prized his own unique reputation as a representative of ,english law1 the effects of such a disgrace on a man of his temper cannot easily be exaggerated4 ,but for the present ,bacon had broken through the spell which had so long kept him back4 ,he won a great deal of the ,king's confidence1 and the ,king was more and more ready to make use of him1 though by no means equally willing to think that ,bacon knew better than himself4 ,bacon's view of the law1 and his resources of argument and expression to make it good1 could be depended upon in the keen struggle to secure and enlarge the prerogative which was now beginning4 ,in the prerogative both ,james and ,bacon saw the safety of the ,state and the only reasonable hope of good government2 but in ,bacon's larger and more elevated views of policy--of a policy worthy of a great king1 and a king of ,england--,james was not likely to take much interest4 ,the memorials which it was ,bacon's habit to present on public affairs were wasted on one who had so little to learn from others--so he thought and so all assured him--about the secrets of empire4 ,still they were proofs of ,bacon's ready mind2 and ,james1 even when he disagreed with ,bacon's opinion and arguments1 was too clever not to see their difference from the work of other men4 ,bacon rose in favour2 and from the first he was on the best of terms with ,villiers4 ,he professed to ,villiers the most sincere devotion4 ,according to his custom he presented him with a letter of wise advice on the duties and behaviour of a favourite4 ,he at once began1 and kept up with him to the end1 a confidential correspondence on matters of public importance4 ,he made it clear that he depended upon ,villiers for his own personal prospects1 and it had now become the most natural thing that ,bacon should look forward to succeeding the ,lord ,chancellor1 ,ellesmere1 who was fast failing4 ,bacon had already 7,feb4 #ab1 #afae_/af74 in terms which seem strange to us1 but were less strange then1 set forth in a letter to the ,king the reasons why he should be ,chancellor2 criticising justly enough1 only that he was a party interested1 the qualifications of other possible candidates1 ,coke1 ,hobart1 and the ,archbishop ,abbott4 ,coke would be an overruling nature in an overruling place1 and popular men were no sure mounters for your ,majesty's saddle4 ,hobart was incompetent4 ,as to ,abbott1 the ,chancellor's place required a whole man1 and to have both jurisdiction1 spiritual and temporal1 was fit only for a king4 ,the promise that ,bacon should have the place came to him three days afterwards through ,villiers4 ,he acknowledged it in a burst of gratitude 7,feb4 #ae1 #afae_/af74 ,i will now wholly rely on your excellent and happy self4444 ,i am yours surer to you than my own life4 ,for1 as they speak of the ,turquoise stone in a ring1 ,i will break into twenty pieces before you bear the least fall4 ,they were unconsciously prophetic words4 ,but ,ellesmere lasted longer than was expected4 ,it was not till a year after this promise that he resigned4 ,on the #gth of ,march1 #afaf_/ag1 ,bacon received the seals4 ,he expresses his obligations to ,villiers1 now ,lord ,buckingham1 in the following letter3 ,,my ,,dearest ,,lord1--,it is both in cares and kindness that small ones float up to the tongue1 and great ones sink down into the heart with silence4 ,therefore ,i could speak little to your ,lordship to-day1 neither had ,i fit time2 but ,i must profess thus much1 that in this day's work you are the truest and perfectest mirror and example of firm and generous friendship that ever was in court4 ,and ,i shall count every day lost1 wherein ,i shall not either study your well-doing in thought1 or do your name honour in speech1 or perform you service in deed4 ,good my ,lord1 account and accept me your most bounden and devoted friend and servant of all men living1 ,march #g1 #afaf 7i4e4 #afaf_/afag74 ,,fr4 ,,bacon1 ,c4,s4 ,he himself believed the appointment to be a popular one4 ,i know ,i am come in1 he writes to the ,king soon after1 with as strong an envy of some particulars as with the love of the general4 ,on the #gth of ,may1 #afag1 he took his seat in ,chancery with unusual pomp and magnificence1 and set forth1 in an opening speech1 with all his dignity and force1 the duties of his great office and his sense of their obligation4 ,but there was a curious hesitation in treating him as other men were treated in like cases4 ,he was only ,lord ,keeper4 ,it was not till the following ,january 7#afag_/ah7 that he received the office of ,lord ,chancellor4 ,it was not till half a year afterwards that he was made a ,peer4 ,then he became ,baron ,verulam 7,july1 #afah71 and in ,january1 #afbj_/ba1 ,viscount ,st4 ,alban's4 ,from this time ,bacon must be thought of1 first and foremost1 as a ,judge in the great seat which he had so earnestly sought4 ,it was the place not merely of law1 which often tied the judge's hands painfully1 but of true justice1 when law failed to give it4 ,bacon's ideas of the duties of a judge were clear and strong1 as he showed in various admirable speeches and charges3 his duties as regards his own conduct and reputation2 his duties in keeping his subordinates free from the taint of corruption4 ,he was not ignorant of the subtle and unacknowledged ways in which unlawful gains may be covered by custom1 and an abuse goes on because men will not choose to look at it4 ,he entered on his office with the full purpose of doing its work better than it had ever been done4 ,he saw where it wanted reforming1 and set himself at once to reform4 ,the accumulation and delay of suits had become grievous2 at once he threw his whole energy into the task of wiping out the arrears which the bad health of his predecessor and the traditional sluggishness of the court had heaped up4 ,in exactly three months from his appointment he was able to report that these arrears had been cleared off4 ,this day 7,june #h1 #afag71 he writes to ,buckingham1 ,i have made even with the business of the kingdom for common justice4 ,not one cause unheard4 ,the lawyers drawn dry of all the motions they were to make4 ,not one petition unheard4 ,and this ,i think could not be said in our time before4 ,the performance was splendid1 and there is no reason to think that the work so rapidly done was not well done4 ,we are assured that ,bacon's decisions were unquestioned1 and were not complained of4 ,at the same time1 before this allegation is accepted as conclusive proof of the public satisfaction1 it must be remembered that the question of his administration of justice1 which was at last to assume such strange proportions1 has never been so thoroughly sifted as1 to enable us to pronounce upon it1 it should be4 ,the natural tendency of ,bacon's mind would undoubtedly be to judge rightly and justly2 but the negative argument of the silence at the time of complainants1 in days when it was so dangerous to question authority1 and when we have so little evidence of what men said at their firesides1 is not enough to show that he never failed4 ,but the serious thing is that ,bacon subjected himself to two of the most dangerous influences which can act on the mind of a judge--the influence of the most powerful and most formidable man in ,england1 and the influence of presents1 in money and other gifts4 ,from first to last he allowed ,buckingham1 whom no man1 as ,bacon soon found1 could displease except at his own peril1 to write letters to him on behalf of suitors whose causes were before him2 and he allowed suitors1 not often while the cause was pending1 but sometimes even then1 to send him directly1 or through his servants1 large sums of money4 ,both these things are explained4 ,it would have been characteristic of ,bacon to be confident that he could defy temptation3 these habits were the fashion of the time1 and everybody took them for granted2 ,buckingham never asked his good offices beyond what ,bacon thought just and right1 and asked them rather for the sake of expedition than to influence his judgment4 ,and as to the money presents--every office was underpaid2 this was the common way of acknowledging pains and trouble3 it was analogous to a doctor's or a lawyer's fee now4 ,and there is no proof that either influence ever led ,bacon to do wrong4 ,this has been said1 and said with some degree of force4 ,but if it shows that ,bacon was not in this matter below his age1 it shows that he was not above it4 ,no one knew better than ,bacon that there were no more certain dangers to honesty and justice than the interference and solicitation of the great1 and the old famous pest of bribes1 of which all histories and laws were full4 ,and yet on the highest seat of justice in the realm he1 the great reformer of its abuses1 allowed them to make their customary haunt4 ,he did not mean to do wrong3 his conscience was clear2 he had not given thought to the mischief they must do1 sooner or later1 to all concerned with the ,court of ,chancery4 ,with a magnificent carelessness he could afford to run safely a course closely bordering on crime1 in which meaner men would sin and be ruined4 ,before six months were over ,bacon found on what terms he must stand with ,buckingham4 ,by a strange fatality1 quite unintentionally1 he became dragged into the thick of the scandalous and grotesque dissensions of the ,coke family4 ,the ,court was away from ,london in the ,north2 and ,coke had been trying1 not without hope of success1 to recover the ,king's favour4 ,coke was a rich man1 and ,lady ,compton1 the mother of the ,villiers1 thought that ,coke's daughter would be a good match for one of her younger sons4 ,it was really a great chance for ,coke2 but he haggled about the portion2 and the opportunity1 which might perhaps have led to his taking ,bacon's place1 passed4 ,but he found himself in trouble in other ways2 his friends1 especially ,secretary ,winwood1 contrived to bring the matter on again1 and he consented to the ,villiers's terms4 ,but his wife1 the young lady's mother1 ,lady ,hatton1 would not hear of it1 and a furious quarrel followed4 ,she carried off her daughter into the country4 ,coke1 with a warrant from ,secretary ,winwood1 which ,bacon had refused to give him1 pursued her3 with his son1 ',fighting ,clem1' and ten or eleven servants1 weaponed1 in a violent manner he repaired to the house where she was remaining1 and with a piece of timber or form broke open the door and dragged her along to his coach4 ,lady ,hatton rushed off the same afternoon for help to ,bacon4 ,after an overturn by the way1 at last to my ,lord ,keeper's they come1 but could not have instant access to him1 for that his people told them he was laid at rest1 being not well4 ,then my ,la4 ,hatton desired she might be in the next room where my ,lord lay1 that she might be the first that should speak with him after he was stirring4 ,the door-keeper fulfilled her desire1 and in the meantime gave her a chair to rest herself in1 and there left her alone2 but not long after1 she rose up and bounced against my ,lord ,keeper's door1 and waked him and affrighted him1 that he called his men to him2 and they opening the door1 she thrust in with them1 and desired his ,lp4 to pardon her boldness1 but she was like a cow that had lost her calf1 and so justified herself and pacified my ,lord's anger1 and got his warrant and my ,lo4 ,treasurer's warrant and others of the ,council to fetch her daughter from the father and bring them both to the ,council4 ,it was a chance that the late ,chief-,justice and his wife1 with their armed parties1 did not meet on the road1 in which case there were like to be strange tragedies4 ,at length the ,council compelled both sides to keep the peace1 and the young lady was taken for the present out of the hands of her raging parents4 ,bacon had assumed that the affair was the result of an intrigue between ,winwood and ,coke1 and that the ,court would take part against ,coke1 a man so deep in disgrace and so outrageously violent4 ,supposing that he had the ear of ,buckingham1 he wrote earnestly1 persuading him to put an end to the business2 and in the meantime the ,council ordered ,coke to be brought before the ,star ,chamber for riot and force1 to be heard and sentenced as justice shall appertain4 ,they had not the slightest doubt that they were doing what would please the ,king4 ,a few days after they met1 and then they learned the truth4 ,coke and his friends1 writes ,chamberlain1 complain of hard measure from some of the greatest at that board1 and that he was too much trampled upon with ill language4 ,and our friend i4e4 ,winwood passed out scot free for the warrant1 which the greatest word illegible there said was subject to a prmunire2 and withal told the ,lady ,compton that they wished well to her and her sons1 and would be ready to serve the ,earl of ,buckingham with all true affection1 whereas others did it out of faction and ambition--which words glancing directly at our good friend 7,winwood71 he was driven to make his apology1 and to show how it was put upon him from time to time by the ,queen and other parties2 and1 for conclusion1 showed a letter of approbation of all his courses from the ,king1 making the whole table judge what faction and ambition appeared in this carriage4 ,ad quod non fuit responsum4 ,none indeed1 but blank faces1 and thoughts of what might come next4 ,the ,council1 and ,bacon foremost1 had made a desperate mistake4 ,it is evident1 as ,mr4 ,spedding says1 that he had not divined ,buckingham's feelings on the subject4 ,he was now to learn them4 ,to his utter amazement and alarm he found that the ,king was strong for the match1 and that the proceeding of the ,council was condemned at ,court as gross misconduct4 ,in vain he protested that he was quite willing to forward the match2 that in fact he had helped it4 ,bacon's explanations1 and his warnings against ,coke the ,king rejected with some disdain2 he justified ,coke's action2 he charged ,bacon with disrespect and ingratitude to ,buckingham2 he put aside his arguments and apologies as worthless or insincere4 ,such reprimands had not often been addressed1 even to inferior servants4 ,bacon's letters to ,buckingham remained at first without notice2 when ,buckingham answered he did so with scornful and menacing curtness4 ,meanwhile ,bacon heard from ,yelverton how things were going at ,court4 ,sir ,e4 ,coke1 he wrote1 hath not forborne by any engine to heave at both your ,honour and myself1 and he works the weightiest instrument1 the ,earl of ,buckingham1 who1 as ,i see1 sets him as close to him as his shirt1 the ,earl speaking in ,sir ,edward's phrase1 and as it were menacing in his spirit4 ,buckingham1 he went on to say1 did nobly and plainly tell me he would not secretly bite1 but whosoever had had any interest1 or tasted of the opposition to his brother's marriage1 he would as openly oppose them to their faces1 and they should discern what favour he had by the power he would use4 ,the ,court1 like a pack of dogs1 had set upon ,bacon4 ,it is too common in every man's mouth in ,court that your greatness shall be abated1 and as your tongue hath been as a razor unto some1 so shall theirs be to you4 ,buckingham said to every one that ,bacon had been forgetful of his kindness and unfaithful to him3 not forbearing in open speech to tax you1 as if it were an inveterate custom with you1 to be unfaithful unto him1 as you were to the ,earls of ,essex and ,somerset4 ,all this while ,bacon had been clearly in the right4 ,he had thrust himself into no business that did not concern him4 ,he had not1 as ,buckingham accuses him of having done1 overtroubled himself with the marriage4 ,he had done his simple duty as a friend1 as a councillor1 as a judge4 ,he had been honestly zealous for the ,villiers's honour1 and warned ,buckingham of things that were beyond question4 ,he had curbed ,coke's scandalous violence1 perhaps with no great regret1 but with manifest reason4 ,but for this he was now on the very edge of losing his office2 it was clear to him1 as it is clear to us1 that nothing could save him but absolute submission4 ,he accepted the condition4 ,how this submission was made and received1 and with what gratitude he found that he was forgiven1 may be seen in the two following letters4 ,buckingham thus extends his grace to the ,lord ,keeper1 and exhorts him to better behaviour3 ,but his ,majesty's direction in answer of your letter hath given me occasion to join hereunto a discovery unto you of mine inward thoughts1 proceeding upon the discourse you had with me this day4 ,for ,i do freely confess that your offer of submission unto me1 and in writing 7if so ,i would have it71 battered so the unkindness that ,i had conceived in my heart for your behaviour towards me in my absence1 as out of the sparks of my old affection towards you ,i went to sound his ,majesty's intention how he means to behave himself towards you1 specially in any public meeting2 where ,i found on the one part his ,majesty so little satisfied with your late answer unto him1 which he counted 7for ,i protest ,i use his own terms7 confused and childish1 and his vigorous resolution on the other part so fixed1 that he would put some public exemplary mark upon you1 as ,i protest the sight of his deep-conceived indignation quenched my passion1 making me upon the instant change from the person of a party into a peace-maker2 so as ,i was forced upon my knees to beg of his ,majesty that he would put no public act of disgrace upon you1 and1 as ,i dare say1 no other person would have been patiently heard in this suit by his ,majesty but myself1 so did ,i 7though not without difficulty7 obtain thus much--that he would not so far disable you from the merit of your future service as to put any particular mark of disgrace upon your person4 ,only thus far his ,majesty protesteth1 that upon the conscience of his office he cannot omit 7though laying aside all passion7 to give a kingly reprimand at his first sitting in council to so many of his councillors as were then here behind1 and were actors in this business1 for their ill behaviour in it4 ,some of the particular errors committed in this business he will name1 but without accusing any particular persons by name4 ,thus your ,lordship seeth the fruits of my natural inclination2 and ,i protest all this time past it was no small grief unto me to hear the mouth of so many upon this occasion open to load you with innumerable malicious and detracting speeches1 as if no music were more pleasing to my ears than to rail of you1 which made me rather regret the ill nature of mankind1 that like dogs love to set upon him that they see once snatched at4 ,and to conclude1 my ,lord1 you have hereby a fair occasion so to make good hereafter your reputation by your sincere service to his ,majesty1 as also by your firm and constant kindness to your friends1 as ,i may 7your ,lordship's old friend7 participate of the comfort and honour that will thereby come to you4 ,thus ,i rest at last ,your ,lordship's faithful friend and servant1 ,g4,b4 ,,my ,,ever ,,best ,,lord1 now better than yourself1--,your ,lordship's pen1 or rather pencil1 hath pourtrayed towards me such magnanimity and nobleness and true kindness1 as methinketh ,i see the image of some ancient virtue1 and not anything of these times4 ,it is the line of my life1 and not the lines of my letter1 that must express my thankfulness2 wherein if ,i fail1 then ,god fail me1 and make me as miserable as ,i think myself at this time happy by this reviver1 through his ,majesty's singular clemency1 and your incomparable love and favour4 ,god preserve you1 prosper you1 and reward you for your kindness to ,your raised and infinitely obliged friend and servant1 ,sept4 #bb1 #afag4 ,,fr4 ,,bacon1 ,c4,s4 ,thus he had tried his strength with ,buckingham4 ,he had found that this1 a little parent-like manner of advising him1 and the doctrine that a true friend ought rather to go against his mind than his good1 was not what ,buckingham expected from him4 ,and he never ventured on it again4 ,it is not too much to say that a man who could write as he now did to ,buckingham1 could not trust himself in any matter in which ,buckingham1 was interested4 ,but the reconciliation was complete1 and ,bacon took his place more and more as one of the chief persons in the ,government4 ,james claimed so much to have his own way1 and had so little scruple in putting aside1 in his superior wisdom1 sometimes very curtly1 ,bacon's or any other person's recommendations1 that though his services were great1 and were not unrecognised1 he never had the power and influence in affairs to which his boundless devotion to the ,crown1 his grasp of business1 and his willing industry1 ought to have entitled him4 ,he was still a servant1 and made to feel it1 though a servant in the first form4 ,it was ,james and ,buckingham who determined the policy of the country1 or settled the course to be taken in particular transactions2 when this was settled1 it was ,bacon's business to carry it through successfully4 ,in this he was like all the other servants of the ,crown1 and like them he was satisfied with giving his advice1 whether it were taken or not2 but unlike many of them he was zealous in executing with the utmost vigour and skill the instructions which were given him4 ,thus he was required to find the legal means for punishing ,raleigh2 and1 as a matter of duty1 he found them4 ,he was required to tell the ,government side of the story of ,raleigh's crimes and punishment--which really was one side of the story1 only not by any means the whole2 and he told it1 as he had told the ,government story against ,essex1 with force1 moderation1 and good sense4 ,himself1 he never would have made ,james's miserable blunders about ,raleigh2 but the blunders being made1 it was his business to do his best to help the ,king out of them4 ,when ,suffolk1 the ,lord ,treasurer1 was disgraced and brought before the ,star ,chamber for corruption and embezzlement in his office1 ,bacon thought that he was doing no more than his duty in keeping ,buckingham informed day by day how the trial was going on2 how he had taken care that ,suffolk's submission should not stop it--for all would be but a play on the stage if justice went not on in the right course2 how he had taken care that the evidence went well--,i will not say ,i sometime holp it1 as far as was fit for a judge2 how1 a little to warm the business 444 ,i spake a word1 that he that did draw or milk treasure from ,ireland1 did not1 emulgere1 milk money1 but blood4 ,this1 and other little things like it1 while he was sitting as a judge to try1 if the word may be used1 a personal enemy of ,buckingham1 however bad the case might be against ,suffolk1 sound strange indeed to us2 and not less so when1 in reporting the sentence and the various opinions of the ,council about it1 he1 for once1 praises ,coke for the extravagance of his severity3 ,sir ,edward ,coke did his part--,i have not heard him do better--and began with a fine of #ajj1jjj2 but the judges first1 and most of the rest1 reduced it to #cj1jjj4 ,i do not dislike that thing passed moderately2 and all things considered1 it is not amiss1 and might easily have been worse4 ,in all this1 which would have been perfectly natural from an ,attorney-,general of the time1 ,bacon saw but his duty1 even as a judge between the ,crown and the subject4 ,it was what was expected of those whom the ,king chose to employ1 and whom ,buckingham chose to favour4 ,but a worse and more cruel case1 illustrating the system which a man like ,bacon could think reasonable and honourable1 was the disgrace and punishment of ,yelverton1 the ,attorney-,general1 the man who had stood by ,bacon1 and in his defence had faced ,buckingham1 knowing well ,buckingham's dislike of himself1 when all the ,court turned against ,bacon in his quarrel with ,coke and ,lady ,compton4 ,towards the end of the year #afbj1 on the eve of a probable meeting of ,parliament1 there was great questioning about what was to be done about certain patents and monopolies--monopolies for making gold and silk thread1 and for licensing inns and ale-houses--which were in the hands of ,buckingham's brothers and their agents4 ,the monopolies were very unpopular2 there was always doubt as to their legality2 they were enforced oppressively and vexatiously by men like ,michell and ,mompesson1 who acted for the ,villiers2 and the profits of them went1 for the most part1 not into the ,exchequer1 but into the pockets of the hangers-on of ,buckingham4 ,bacon defended them both in law and policy1 and his defence is thought by ,mr4 ,gardiner to be not without grounds2 but he saw the danger of obstinacy in maintaining what had become so hateful in the country1 and strongly recommended that the more indefensible and unpopular patents should be spontaneously given up1 the more so as they were of no great fruit4 ,but ,buckingham's insolent perversity refused to be convinced4 ,the ,council1 when the question was before them1 decided to maintain them4 ,bacon1 who had rightly voted in the minority1 thus explains his own vote to ,buckingham3 ,the ,king did wisely put it upon and consult1 whether the patents were at this time to be removed by ,act of ,council before ,parliament4 ,i opined 7but yet somewhat like ,ovid's mistress1 that strove1 but yet as one that would be overcome71 that yes6 ,but in the various disputes which had arisen about them1 ,yelverton had shown that he very much disliked the business of defending monopolies1 and sending ,london citizens to jail for infringing them4 ,he did it1 but he did it grudgingly4 ,it was a great offence in a man whom ,buckingham had always disliked2 and it is impossible to doubt that what followed was the consequence of his displeasure4 ,in drawing up a new charter for the city of ,london1 writes ,mr4 ,gardiner1 ,yelverton inserted clauses for which he was unable to produce a warrant4 ,the worst that could be said was that he had1 through inadvertence1 misunderstood the verbal directions of the ,king4 ,although no imputation of corruption was brought against him1 yet he was suspended from his office1 and prosecuted in the ,star ,chamber4 ,he was then sentenced to dismissal from his post1 to a fine of #djjj1 and to imprisonment during the ,royal pleasure4 ,in the management of this business ,bacon had the chief part4 ,yelverton1 on his suspension1 at once submitted4 ,the obnoxious clauses are not said to have been of serious importance1 but they were new clauses which the ,king had not sanctioned1 and it would be a bad precedent to pass over such unauthorised additions even by an ,attorney-,general4 ,i mistook many things1 said ,yelverton afterwards1 in words which come back into our minds at a later period1 ,i was improvident in some things1 and too credulous in all things4 ,it might have seemed that dismissal1 if not a severe reprimand1 was punishment enough4 ,but the submission was not enough1 in ,bacon's opinion1 for the ,king's honour4 ,he dwelt on the greatness of the offence1 and the necessity of making a severe example4 ,according to his advice1 ,yelverton was prosecuted in the ,star ,chamber4 ,it was not merely a mistake of judgment4 ,herein1 said ,bacon1 ,i note the wisdom of the law of ,england1 which termeth the highest contempt and excesses of authority ,misprisions2 which 7if you take the sound and derivation of the word7 is but mistaken2 but if you take the use and acception of the word1 it is high and heinous contempt and usurpation of authority2 whereof the reason ,i take to be and the name excellently imposed1 for that main mistaking1 it is ever joined with contempt2 for he that reveres will not easily mistake2 but he that slights1 and thinks more of the greatness of his place than of the duty of his place1 will soon commit misprisions4 ,the day would come when this doctrine would be pressed with ruinous effect against ,bacon himself4 ,but now he expounded with admirable clearness the wrongness of carelessness about warrants and of taking things for granted4 ,he acquitted his former colleague of corruption of reward2 but in truth that makes the offence rather divers than less2 for some offences are black1 and others scarlet1 some sordid1 some presumptuous4 ,he pronounced his sentence--the fine1 the imprisonment2 for his place1 ,i declare him unfit for it4 ,and the next day1 says ,mr4 ,spedding1 he reported to ,buckingham the result of the proceeding1 and takes no small credit for his own part in it4 ,it was thus that the ,court used ,bacon1 and that ,bacon submitted to be used4 ,he could have done1 if he had been listened to1 much nobler service4 ,he had from the first seen1 and urged as far as he could1 the paramount necessity of retrenchment in the ,king's profligate expenditure4 ,even ,buckingham had come to feel the necessity of it at last2 and now that ,bacon filled a seat at the ,council1 and that the prosecution of ,suffolk and an inquiry into the abuses of the ,navy had forced on those in power the urgency of economy1 there was a chance of something being done to bring order into the confusion of the finances4 ,retrenchment began at the ,king's kitchen and the tables of his servants2 an effort was made1 not unsuccessfully1 to extend it wider1 under the direction of ,lionel ,cranfield1 a self-made man of business from the city2 but with such a ,court the task was an impossible one4 ,it was not ,bacon's fault1 though he sadly mismanaged his own private affairs1 that the ,king's expenditure was not managed soberly and wisely4 ,nor was it ,bacon's fault1 as far as advice went1 that ,james was always trying either to evade or to outwit a ,parliament which he could not1 like the ,tudors1 overawe4 ,bacon's uniform counsel had been--,look on a ,parliament as a certain necessity1 but not only as a necessity1 as also a unique and most precious means for uniting the ,crown with the nation1 and proving to the world outside how ,englishmen love and honour their ,king1 and their ,king trusts his subjects4 ,deal with it frankly and nobly as becomes a king1 not suspiciously like a huckster in a bargain4 ,do not be afraid of ,parliament4 ,be skilful in calling it1 but don't attempt to pack it4 ,use all due adroitness and knowledge of human nature1 and necessary firmness and majesty1 in managing it2 keep unruly and mischievous people in their place1 but do not be too anxious to meddle--let nature work2 and above all1 though of course you want money from it1 do not let that appear as the chief or real cause of calling it4 ,take the lead in legislation4 ,be ready with some interesting or imposing points of reform1 or policy1 about which you ask your ,parliament to take counsel with you4 ,take care to frame and have ready some commonwealth bills1 that may add respect to the ,king's government and acknowledgment of his care2 not wooing bills to make the ,king and his graces cheap1 but good matter to set the ,parliament on work1 that an empty stomach do not feed on humour4 ,so from the first had ,bacon always thought2 so he thought when he watched1 as a spectator1 ,james's blunders with his first ,parliament of #afjd2 so had he earnestly counselled ,james1 when admitted to his confidence1 as to the ,parliaments of #afad and #afae2 so again1 but in vain1 as ,chancellor1 he advised him to meet the ,parliament of #afbj4 ,it was wise1 and from his point of view honest advice1 though there runs all through it too much reliance on appearances which were not all that they seemed2 there was too much thought of throwing dust in the eyes of troublesome and inconvenient people4 ,but whatever motives there might have been behind1 it would have been well if ,james had learned from ,bacon how to deal with ,englishmen4 ,but he could not4 ,i wonder1 said ,james one day to ,gondomar1 that my ancestors should ever have permitted such an institution as the ,house of ,commons to have come into existence4 ,i am a stranger1 and found it here when ,i arrived1 so that ,i am obliged to put up with what ,i cannot get rid of4 ,james was the only one of our many foreign kings who1 to the last1 struggled to avoid submitting himself to the conditions of an ,english throne4 ,,chapter ,,vi4 ,,bacon',s ,,fall4 ,when ,parliament met on ,january #cj1 #afbj_/ba1 and ,bacon1 as ,lord ,chancellor1 set forth in his ceremonial speeches to the ,king and to the ,speaker the glories and blessings of ,james's reign1 no man in ,england had more reason to think himself fortunate4 ,he had reached the age of sixty1 and had gained the object of his ambition4 ,more than that1 he was conscious that in his great office he was finding full play for his powers and his high public purposes4 ,he had won greatly on the confidence of the ,king4 ,he had just received a fresh mark of honour from him3 a few days before he had been raised a step in the peerage1 and he was now ,viscount ,st4 ,alban's4 ,with ,buckingham he seemed to be on terms of the most affectionate familiarity1 exchanging opinions freely with him on every subject4 ,and ,parliament met in good-humour4 ,they voted money at once4 ,one of the matters which interested ,bacon most--the revision of the ,statute ,book--they took up as one of their first measures1 and appointed a ,select ,committee to report upon it4 ,and what1 amid the apparent felicity of the time1 was of even greater personal happiness to ,bacon1 the first step of the ,great ,instauration had been taken4 ,during the previous autumn1 ,oct4 #ab1 #afbj1 the ,novum ,organum1 the first instalment of his vast design1 was published1 the result of the work of thirty years2 and copies were distributed to great people1 among others to ,coke4 ,he apprehended no evil2 he had nothing to fear1 and much to hope from the times4 ,his sudden and unexpected fall1 so astonishing and so irreparably complete1 is one of the strangest events of that still imperfectly comprehended time4 ,there had been1 and were still to be1 plenty of instances of the downfall of power1 as ruinous and even more tragic1 though scarcely any one more pathetic in its surprise and its shame4 ,but it is hard to find one of which so little warning was given1 and the causes of which are at once in part so clear1 and in part so obscure and unintelligible4 ,such disasters had to be reckoned upon as possible chances by any one who ventured into public life4 ,montaigne advises that the discipline of pain should be part of every boy's education1 for the reason that every one in his day might be called upon to undergo the torture4 ,and so every public man1 in the ,england of the ,tudors and ,stuarts1 entered on his career with the perfectly familiar expectation of possibly closing it--it might be in an honourable and ceremonious fashion1 in the ,tower and on the scaffold--just as he had to look forward to the possibility of closing it by small-pox or the plague4 ,so that when disaster came1 though it might be unexpected1 as death is unexpected1 it was a turn of things which ought not to take a man by surprise4 ,but some premonitory signs usually gave warning4 ,there was nothing to warn ,bacon that the work which he believed he was doing so well would be interrupted4 ,we look in vain for any threatenings of the storm4 ,what the men of his time thought and felt about ,bacon it is not easy to ascertain4 ,appearances are faint and contradictory2 he himself1 though scornful of judges who sought to be popular1 believed that he came in with the favour of the general2 that he had a little popular reputation1 which followeth me whether ,i will or no4 ,no one for years had discharged the duties of his office with greater efficiency4 ,scarcely a trace remains of any suspicion1 previous to the attack upon him1 of the justice of his decisions2 no instance was alleged that1 in fact1 impure motives had controlled the strength and lucidity of an intellect which loved to be true and right for the mere pleasure of being so4 ,nor was there anything in ,bacon's political position to make him specially obnoxious above all others of the ,king's ,council4 ,he maintained the highest doctrines of prerogative2 but they were current doctrines1 both at the ,council board and on the bench2 and they were not discredited nor extinguished by his fall4 ,to be on good terms with ,james and ,buckingham meant a degree of subservience which shocks us now2 but it did not shock people then1 and he did not differ from his fellows in regarding it as part of his duty as a public servant of the ,crown4 ,no doubt he had enemies--some with old grudges like ,southampton1 who had been condemned with ,essex2 some like ,suffolk1 smarting under recent reprimands and the biting edge of ,bacon's tongue2 some like ,coke1 hating him from constitutional antipathies and the strong antagonism of professional doctrines1 for a long course of rivalry and for mortifying defeats4 ,but there is no appearance of preconcerted efforts among them to bring about his overthrow4 ,he did not at the time seem to be identified with anything dangerous or odious4 ,there was no doubt a good deal of dissatisfaction with ,chancery--among the common lawyers1 because it interfered with their business2 in the public1 partly from the traditions of its slowness1 partly from its expensiveness1 partly because1 being intended for special redress of legal hardship1 it was sure to disappoint one party to a suit4 ,but ,bacon thought that he had reformed ,chancery4 ,he had also done a great deal to bring some kind of order1 or at least hopefulness of order1 into the ,king's desperate finances4 ,and he had never set himself against ,parliament4 ,on the contrary1 he had always been forward to declare that the ,king could not do without ,parliament1 and that ,parliament only needed to be dealt with generously1 and as became a ,king1 to be not a danger and hindrance to the ,crown but its most sincere and trustworthy support4 ,what was then to portend danger to ,bacon when the ,parliament of #afbj_/ba met8 ,the ,house of ,commons at its meeting was thoroughly loyal and respectful2 it meant to be benedictum et pacificum parliamentum4 ,every one knew that there would be grievances which would not be welcome to the ,court1 but they did not seem likely to touch him4 ,every one knew that there would be questions raised about unpopular patents and oppressive monopolies1 and about their legality2 and it was pretty well agreed upon at ,court that they should be given up as soon as complained of4 ,but ,bacon was not implicated more than the ,crown lawyers before him1 in what all the ,crown lawyers had always defended4 ,there was dissatisfaction about the ,king's extravagance and wastefulness1 about his indecision in the cause of the ,elector ,palatine1 about his supposed intrigues with ,papistical and tyrannical ,spain2 but ,bacon had nothing to do with all this except1 as far as he could1 to give wise counsel and warning4 ,the person who made the ,king despised and hated was the splendid and insolent favourite1 ,buckingham4 ,it might have been thought that the one thing to be set against much that was wrong in the ,state was the just and enlightened and speedy administration of equity in the ,chancery4 ,when ,parliament met1 though nothing seemed to threaten mischief1 it met with a sturdy purpose of bringing to account certain delinquents whose arrogance and vexations of the subjects had provoked the country1 and who were supposed to shelter themselves under the countenance of ,buckingham4 ,michell and ,mompesson were rascals whose misdemeanors might well try the patience of a less spirited body than an ,english ,house of ,commons4 ,buckingham could not protect them1 and hardly tried to do so4 ,but just as one electric current induces another by neighbourhood1 so all this deep indignation against ,buckingham's creatures created a fierce temper of suspicion about corruption all through the public service4 ,two ,committees were early appointed by the ,house of ,commons3 one a ,committee on ,grievances1 such as the monopolies2 the other1 a ,committee to inquire into abuses in the ,courts of ,justice and receive petitions about them4 ,in the course of the proceedings1 the question arose in the ,house as to the authorities or referees who had certified to the legality of the ,crown patents or grants which had been so grossly abused2 and among these referees were the ,lord ,chancellor and other high officers1 both legal and political4 ,it was the little cloud4 ,but lookers-on like ,chamberlain did not think much of it4 ,the referees1 he wrote on ,feb4 #bith1 who certified the legality of the patents are glanced at1 but they are chiefly above the reach of the ,house2 they attempt so much that they will accomplish little4 ,coke1 who was now the chief leader in ,parliament1 began to talk ominously of precedents1 and to lay down rules about the power of the ,house to punish--rules which were afterwards found to have no authority for them4 ,cranfield1 the representative of severe economy1 insisted that the honour of the ,king required that the referees1 whoever they were1 should be called to account4 ,the gathering clouds shifted a little1 when the sense of the ,house seemed to incline to giving up all retrospective action1 and to a limitation for the future by statute of the questionable prerogative--a limitation which was in fact attempted by a bill thrown out by the ,lords4 ,but they gathered again when the ,commons determined to bring the whole matter before the ,house of ,lords4 ,the ,king wrote to warn ,bacon of what was coming4 ,the proposed conference was staved off by management for a day or two1 but it could not be averted1 and the ,lords showed their eagerness for it4 ,and two things by this time--the beginning of ,march--seemed now to have become clear1 first1 that under the general attack on the referees was intended a blow against ,bacon2 next1 that the person whom he had most reason to fear was ,sir ,edward ,coke4 ,the storm was growing2 but ,bacon was still unalarmed1 though ,buckingham had been frightened into throwing the blame on the referees4 ,i do hear1 he writes to ,buckingham 7dating his letter on ,march #gth1 the day ,i received the seal71 from divers of judgement1 that to-morrow's conference is like to pass in a calm1 as to the referees4 ,sir ,lionel ,cranfield1 who hath been formerly the trumpet1 said yesterday that he did now incline unto ,sir ,john ,walter's opinion and motion not to have the referees meddled with1 otherwise than to discount it from the ,king2 and so not to look back1 but to the future4 ,and ,i do hear almost all men of judgement in the ,house wish now that way4 ,i woo nobody2 ,i do but listen1 and ,i have doubt only of ,sir ,edward ,coke1 who ,i wish had some round caveat given him from the ,king2 for your ,lordship hath no great power with him4 ,but a word from the ,king mates him4 ,but ,coke's opportunity had come4 ,the ,house of ,commons was disposed for gentler measures4 ,but he was able to make it listen to his harsher counsels1 and from this time his hand appears in all that was done4 ,the first conference was a tame and dull one4 ,the spokesmen had been slack in their disagreeable and perhaps dangerous duty4 ,but ,coke and his friends took them sharply to task4 ,the heart and tongue of ,sir ,edward ,coke are true relations1 said one of his fervent supporters2 but his pains hath not reaped that harvest of praise that he hath deserved4 ,for the referees1 they are as transcendent delinquents as any other1 and sure their souls made a wilful elopement from their bodies when they made these certificates4 ,a second conference was held with the ,lords1 and this time the charge was driven home4 ,the referees were named1 the ,chancellor at the head of them4 ,when ,bacon rose to explain and justify his acts he was sharply stopped1 and reminded that he was transgressing the orders of the ,house in speaking till the ,committees were named to examine the matter4 ,what was even more important1 the ,king had come to the ,house of ,lords 7,march #ajth71 and frightened1 perhaps1 about his subsidies1 told them that he was not guilty of those grievances which are now discovered1 but that he grounded his judgement upon others who have misled him4 ,the referees would be attacked1 people thought1 if the ,lower ,house had courage4 ,all this was serious4 ,as things were drifting1 it seemed as if ,bacon might have to fight the legal question of the prerogative in the form of a criminal charge1 and be called upon to answer the accusation of being the minister of a crown which legal language pronounced absolute1 and of a ,king who interpreted legal language to the letter2 and further1 to meet his accusers after the ,king himself had disavowed what his servant had done4 ,what passed between ,bacon and the ,king is confused and uncertain2 but after his speech the ,king could scarcely have thought of interfering with the inquiry4 ,the proceedings went on2 ,committees were named for the several points of inquiry2 and ,bacon took part in these arrangements4 ,it was a dangerous position to have to defend himself against an angry ,house of ,commons1 led and animated by ,coke and ,cranfield4 ,but though the storm had rapidly thickened1 the charges against the referees were not against him alone4 ,his mistake in law1 if it was a mistake1 was shared by some of the first lawyers and first councillors in ,england4 ,there was a battle before him1 but not a hopeless one4 ,modic fidei1 quare dubitasti he writes about this time to an anxious friend4 ,but in truth the thickening storm had been gathering over his head alone4 ,it was against him that the whole attack was directed2 as soon as it took a different shape1 the complaints against the other referees1 such as the ,chief-,justice1 who was now ,lord ,treasurer1 though some attempt was made to press them1 were quietly dropped4 ,what was the secret history of these weeks we do not know4 ,but the result of ,bacon's ruin was that ,buckingham was saved4 ,as they speak of the ,turquoise stone in a ring1 ,bacon had said to ,buckingham when he was made ,chancellor1 ,i will break into twenty pieces before you have the least fall4 ,without knowing what he pledged himself to1 he was taken at his word4 ,at length the lightning fell4 ,during the early part of ,march1 while these dangerous questions were mooted about the referees1 a ,committee1 appointed early in the session1 had also been sitting on abuses in courts of justice1 and as part of their business1 an inquiry had been going on into the ways of the subordinate officers of the ,court of ,chancery4 ,bacon had early 7,feb4 #agth7 sent a message to the ,committee courting full inquiry1 willingly consenting that any man might speak anything of his ,court4 ,on the #abth of ,march the chairman1 ,sir ,r4 ,philips1 reported that he had in his hands divers petitions1 many frivolous and clamorous1 many of weight and consequence4 ,cranfield1 who presided over the ,court of ,wards1 had quarrelled fiercely with the ,chancery1 where he said there was neither ,law1 ,equity1 nor ,conscience1 and pressed the inquiry1 partly1 it may be1 to screen his own ,court1 which was found fault with by the lawyers4 ,some scandalous abuses were brought to light in the ,chancery4 ,they showed that ,bacon was at fault in the art of government1 and did not know how to keep his servants in order4 ,one of them1 ,john ,churchill1 an infamous forger of ,chancery orders1 finding things going hard with him1 and resolved1 it is said1 not to sink alone1 offered his confessions of all that was going on wrong in the ,court4 ,but on the #aeth of ,march things took another turn4 ,it was no longer a matter of doubtful constitutional law2 no longer a question of slack discipline over his officers4 ,to the astonishment1 if not of the men of his own day1 at least to the unexhausted astonishment of times following1 a charge was suddenly reported from the ,committee to the ,commons against the ,lord ,chancellor1 not of straining the prerogative1 or of conniving at his servants' misdoings1 but of being himself a corrupt and venal judge4 ,two suitors charged him with receiving bribes4 ,bacon was beginning to feel worried and anxious1 and he wrote thus to ,buckingham4 ,at length he had begun to see the meaning of all these inquiries1 and to what they were driving4 ,,my ,,very ,,good ,,lord1--,your ,lordship spake of ,purgatory4 ,i am now in it1 but my mind is in a calm1 for my fortune is not my felicity4 ,i know ,i have clean hands and a clean heart1 and ,i hope a clean house for friends or servants4 ,but ,job himself1 or whosoever was the justest judge1 by such hunting for matters against him as hath been used against me1 may for a time seem foul1 specially in a time when greatness is the mark and accusation is the game4 ,and if this be to be a ,chancellor4 ,i think if the great seal lay upon ,hounslow ,heath nobody would take it up4 ,but the ,king and your ,lordship will1 ,i hope1 put an end to these miseries one way or other4 ,and in troth that which ,i fear most is lest continual attendance and business1 together with these cares1 and want of time to do my weak body right this spring by diet and physic1 will cast me down2 and then it will be thought feigning or fainting4 ,but ,i hope in ,god ,i shall hold out4 ,god prosper you4 ,the first charges attracted others1 which were made formal matters of complaint by the ,house of ,commons4 ,john ,churchill1 to save himself1 was busy setting down cases of misdoing2 and probably suitors of themselves became ready to volunteer evidence4 ,but of this ,bacon as yet knew nothing4 ,he was at this time only aware that there were persons who were hunting out complaints against him1 that the attack was changed from his law to his private character2 he had found an unfavourable feeling in the ,house of ,lords2 and he knew well enough what it was to have powerful enemies in those days when a sentence was often settled before a trial4 ,to any one1 such a state of things was as formidable as the first serious symptoms of a fever4 ,he was uneasy1 as a man might well be on whom the ,house of ,commons had fixed its eye1 and to whom the ,house of ,lords had shown itself unfriendly4 ,but he was as yet conscious of nothing fatal to his defence1 and he knew that if false accusations could be lightly made they could also be exposed4 ,a few days after the first mention of corruption the ,commons laid their complaints of him before the ,house of ,lords1 and on the same day 7,march #ai7 ,bacon1 finding himself too ill to go to the ,house1 wrote to the ,peers by ,buckingham1 requesting them that as some complaints of base bribery had come before them1 they would give him a fair opportunity of defending himself1 and of cross-examining witnesses2 especially begging1 that considering the number of decrees which he had to make in a year--more than two thousand--and the courses which had been taken in hunting out complaints against him1 they would not let their opinion of him be affected by the mere number of charges that might be made4 ,their short verbal answer1 moved by ,southampton 7,march #bj71 that they meant to proceed by right rule of justice1 and would be glad if he cleared his honour1 was not encouraging4 ,and now that the ,commons had brought the matter before them1 the ,lords took it entirely into their own hands1 appointing three ,committees1 and examining the witnesses themselves4 ,new witnesses came forward every day with fresh cases of gifts and presents1 bribes received by the ,lord ,chancellor4 ,when ,parliament rose for the ,easter vacation 7,march #bg-;,april #ag71 the ,committees continued sitting4 ,a good deal probably passed of which no record remains4 ,when the ,commons met again 7,april #ag7 ,coke was full of gibes about ,instauratio ,magna--the true ,instauratio was to restore laws--and two days after an ,act was brought in for review and reversal of decrees in ,courts of ,equity4 ,it was now clear that the case against ,bacon had assumed formidable dimensions1 and also a very strange1 and almost monstrous shape4 ,for the ,lords1 who were to be the judges1 had by their ,committees taken the matter out of the hands of the ,commons1 the original accusers1 and had become themselves the prosecutors1 collecting and arranging evidence1 accepting or rejecting depositions1 and doing all that counsel or the committing magistrate would do preliminary to a trial4 ,there appears to have been no cross-examining of witnesses on ,bacon's behalf1 or hearing witnesses for him--not unnaturally at this stage of business1 when the prosecutors were engaged in making out their own case2 but considering that the future judges had of their own accord turned themselves into the prosecutors1 the unfairness was great4 ,at the same time it does not appear that ,bacon did anything to watch how things went in the ,committees1 which had his friends in them as well as his enemies1 and are said to have been open courts4 ,towards the end of ,march1 ,chamberlain wrote to ,carleton that the ,houses were working hard at cleansing out the ,augan stable of monopolies1 and also extortions in ,courts of ,justice4 ,the petitions against the ,lord ,chancellor were too numerous to be got through3 his chief friends and brokers of bargains1 ,sir ,george ,hastings and ,sir ,richard ,young1 and others attacked1 are obliged to accuse him in their own defence1 though very reluctantly4 ,his ordinary bribes were #cjj1 #djj1 and even #ajjj4444 ,the ,lords admit no evidence except on oath4 ,one ,churchill1 who was dismissed from the ,chancery ,court for extortion1 is the chief cause of the ,chancellor's ruin4#c ,bacon was greatly alarmed4 ,he wrote to ,buckingham1 who was his anchor in these floods4 ,he wrote to the ,king2 he was at a loss to account for the tempest that had come on him2 he could not understand what he had done to offend the country or ,parliament2 he had never taken rewards to pervert justice1 however he might be frail1 and partake of the abuse of the time4 ,time hath been when ,i have brought unto you genitum columb1 from others4 ,now ,i bring it from myself4 ,i fly unto your ,majesty with the wings of a dove1 which once within these seven days ,i thought would have carried me a higher flight4 ,when ,i enter into myself1 ,i find not the materials of such a tempest as is comen upon me4 ,i have been 7as your ,majesty knoweth best7 never author of any immoderate counsel1 but always desired to have things carried suavibus modis4 ,i have been no avaricious oppressor of the people4 ,i have been no haughty or intolerable or hateful man1 in my conversation or carriage4 ,i have inherited no hatred from my father1 but am a good patriot born4 ,whence should this be8 ,for these are the things that use to raise dislikes abroad4 ,and he ended by entreating the ,king to help him3 ,that which ,i thirst after1 as the hart after the streams1 is that ,i may know by my matchless friend ,buckingham that presenteth to you this letter1 your ,majesty's heart 7which is an abyssus of goodness1 as ,i am an abyssus of misery7 towards me4 ,i have been ever your man1 and counted myself but an usufructuary of myself1 the property being yours2 and now making myself an oblation to do with me as may best conduce to the honour of your justice1 the honour of your mercy1 and the use of your service1 resting as ,clay in your ,majesty's gracious hands1 ,fr4 ,st4 ,aldan1 ,canc4 ,march #be1 #afba4 ,to the world he kept up an undismayed countenance3 he went down to ,gorhambury1 attended by troops of friends4 ,this man1 said ,prince ,charles1 when he met his company1 scorns to go out like a snuff4 ,but at ,gorhambury he made his will1 leaving his name to the next ages and to foreign nations2 and he wrote a prayer1 which is a touching evidence of his state of mind-- ,most gracious ,lord ,god1 my merciful ,father1 from my youth up1 my ,creator1 my ,redeemer1 my ,comforter4 ,thou 7,o ,lord7 soundest and searchest the depths and secrets of all hearts2 thou knowledgest the upright of heart1 thou judgest the hypocrite1 thou ponderest men's thoughts and doings as in a balance1 thou measurest their intentions as with a line1 vanity and crooked ways cannot be hid from thee4 ,remember 7,o ,lord7 how thy servant hath walked before thee2 remember what ,i have first sought1 and what hath been principal in mine intentions4 ,i have loved thy assemblies1 ,i have mourned for the divisions of thy ,church1 ,i have delighted in the brightness of thy sanctuary4 ,this vine which thy right hand hath planted in this nation1 ,i have ever prayed unto thee that it might have the first and the latter rain2 and that it might stretch her branches to the seas and to the floods4 ,the state and bread of the poor and oppressed have been precious in my eyes3 ,i have hated all cruelty and hardness of heart2 ,i have 7though in a despised weed7 procured the good of all men4 ,if any have been mine enemies1 ,i thought not of them2 neither hath the sun almost set upon my displeasure2 but ,i have been as a dove1 free from superfluity of maliciousness4 ,thy creatures have been my books1 but thy ,scriptures much more4 ,i have sought thee in the courts1 fields1 and gardens1 but ,i have found thee in thy temples4 ,thousand have been my sins1 and ten thousand my transgressions2 but thy sanctifications have remained with me1 and my heart1 through thy grace1 hath been an unquenched coal upon thy altar4 ,o ,lord1 my strength1 ,i have since my youth met with thee in all my ways1 by thy fatherly compassions1 by thy comfortable chastisements1 and by thy most visible providence4 ,as thy favours have increased upon me1 so have thy corrections2 so as thou hast been alway near me1 ,o ,lord2 and ever as my worldly blessings were exalted1 so secret darts from thee have pierced me2 and when ,i have ascended before men1 ,i have descended in humiliation before thee4 ,and now when ,i thought most of peace and honour1 thy hand is heavy upon me1 and hath humbled me1 according to thy former loving-kindness1 keeping me still in thy fatherly school1 not as a bastard1 but as a child4 ,just are thy judgements upon me for my sins1 which are more in number than the sands of the sea1 but have no proportion to thy mercies2 for what are the sands of the sea to the sea1 earth1 heavens8 and all these are nothing to thy mercies4 ,besides my innumerable sins1 ,i confess before thee that ,i am debtor to thee for the gracious talent of thy gifts and graces1 which ,i have misspent in things for which ,i was least fit2 so as ,i may truly say1 my soul hath been a stranger in the course of my pilgrimage4 ,be merciful unto me 7,o ,lord7 for my ,saviour's sake1 and receive me into thy bosom1 or guide me in thy ways4 ,bacon up to this time strangely1 if the ,committees were open ,courts1 was entirely ignorant of the particulars of the charge which was accumulating against him4 ,he had an interview with the ,king1 which was duly reported to the ,house1 and he placed his case before ,james1 distinguishing between the three cases of bribery supposed in a judge--a corrupt bargain2 carelessness in receiving a gift while the cause is going on2 and1 what is innocent1 receiving a gift after it is ended4 ,and he meant in such words as these to place himself at the ,king's disposal1 and ask his direction3 ,for my fortune1 summa summarum with me is1 that ,i may not be made altogether unprofitable to do your ,majesty service or honour4 ,if your ,majesty continue me as ,i am1 ,i hope ,i shall be a new man1 and shall reform things out of feeling1 more than another can do out of example4 ,if ,i cast part of my burden1 ,i shall be more strong and delivr to bear the rest4 ,and1 to tell your ,majesty what my thoughts run upon1 ,i think of writing a story of ,england1 and of recompiling of your laws into a better digest4 ,the ,king referred him to the ,house2 and the ,house now 7,april #aith7 prepared to gather up into one brief the charges against the ,lord ,chancellor1 still1 however1 continuing open to receive fresh complaints4 ,meanwhile the chase after abuses of all kinds was growing hotter in the ,commons--abuses in patents and monopolies1 which revived the complaints against referees1 among whom ,bacon was frequently named1 and abuses in the ,courts of ,justice4 ,the attack passed by and spared the ,common ,law ,courts1 as was noticed in the course of the debates2 it spared ,cranfield's ,court1 the ,court of ,wards4 ,but it fell heavily on the ,chancery and the ,ecclesiastical ,courts4 ,i have neither power nor will to defend ,chancery1 said ,sir ,john ,bennett1 the judge of the ,prerogative ,court2 but a few weeks after his turn came1 and a series of as ugly charges as could well be preferred against a judge1 charges of extortion as well as bribery1 were reported to the ,house by its ,committee4 ,there can be no doubt of the grossness of many of these abuses1 and the zeal against them was honest1 though it would have shown more courage if it had flown at higher game2 but the daily discussion of them helped to keep alive and inflame the general feeling against so great a delinquent as the ,lord ,chancellor was supposed to be4 ,and1 indeed1 two of the worst charges against him were made before the ,commons4 ,one was a statement made in the ,house by ,sir ,george ,hastings1 a member of the ,house1 who had been the channel of ,awbry's gift1 that when he had told ,bacon that if questioned he must admit it1 ,bacon's answer was3 ,george1 if you do so1 ,i must deny it upon my honour--upon my oath4 ,the other was that he had given an opinion in favour of some claim of the ,masters in ,chancery for which he received #abjj1 and with which he said that all the judges agreed--an assertion which all the judges denied4 ,of these charges there is no contradiction4#d ,bacon made one more appeal to the ,king 7,april #ba74 ,he hoped that1 by resigning the seal1 he might be spared the sentence3 ,but now if not per omnipotentiam 7as the divines speak71 but per potestatem suaviter disponentem1 your ,majesty will graciously save me from a sentence with the good liking of the ,house1 and that cup may pass from me2 it is the utmost of my desires4 ,this ,i move with the more belief1 because ,i assure myself that if it be reformation that is sought1 the very taking away the seal1 upon my general submission1 will be as much in example for these four hundred years as any furder severity4 ,at length1 informally1 but for the first time distinctly1 the full nature of the accusation1 with its overwhelming list of cases1 came to ,bacon's knowledge 7,april #bj or #ba74 ,from the single charge1 made in the middle of ,march1 it had swelled in force and volume like a rising mountain torrent4 ,that all these charges should have sprung out of the ground from their long concealment is strange enough4 ,how is it that nothing was heard of them when the things happened8 ,and what is equally strange is that these charges were substantially true and undeniable2 that this great ,lord ,chancellor1 so admirable in his despatch of business1 hitherto so little complained of for wrong or unfair decisions1 had been in the habit of receiving large sums of money from suitors1 in some cases certainly while the suit was pending4 ,and further1 while receiving them1 while perfectly aware of the evil of receiving gifts on the seat of judgment1 while emphatically warning inferior judges against yielding to the temptation1 he seems really to have continued unconscious of any wrong-doing while gift after gift was offered and accepted4 ,but nothing is so strange as the way in which ,bacon met the charges4 ,tremendous as the accusation was1 he made not the slightest fight about it4 ,up to this time he had held himself innocent4 ,now1 overwhelmed and stunned1 he made no attempt at defence2 he threw up the game without a struggle1 and volunteered an absolute and unreserved confession of his guilt--that is to say1 he declined to stand his trial4 ,only1 he made an earnest application to the ,house of ,lords1 in proceeding to sentence1 to be content with a general admission of guilt1 and to spare him the humiliation of confessing the separate facts of alleged bribery which were contained in the twenty-eight ,articles of his accusation4 ,this submission1 grounded only on rumour1 for the ,articles of charge had not yet been communicated to him by the accusers1 took the ,house by surprise4 ,no ,lord spoke to it1 after it had been read1 for a long time4 ,but they did not mean that he should escape with this4 ,the ,house treated the suggestion with impatient scorn 7,april #bd74 ,it is too late1 said ,lord ,saye4 ,no word of confession of any corruption in the ,lord ,chancellor's submission1 said ,southampton2 it stands with the justice and honour of this ,house not to proceed without the parties' particular confession1 or to have the parties to hear the charge1 and we to hear the parties answer4 ,the demand of the ,lords was strictly just1 but cruel2 the ,articles were now sent to him2 he had been charged with definite offences2 he must answer yes or no1 confess them or defend himself4 ,a further question arose whether he should not be sent for to appear at the bar4 ,he still held the seals4 ,shall the ,great ,seal come to the bar8 asked ,lord ,pembroke4 ,it was agreed that he was to be asked whether he would acknowledge the particulars4 ,his answer was that he will make no manner of defence to the charge1 but meaneth to acknowledge corruption1 and to make a particular confession to every point1 and after that a humble submission4 ,but he humbly craves liberty that1 when the charge is more full than he finds the truth of the fact1 he may make a declaration of the truth in such particulars1 the charge being brief and containing not all the circumstances4 ,and such a confession he made4 ,my ,lords1 he said1 to those who were sent to ask whether he would stand to it1 it is my act1 my hand1 my heart4 ,i beseech your ,lordships be merciful to a broken reed4 ,this was1 of course1 followed by a request to the ,king from the ,house to sequester the ,great ,seal4 ,a commission was sent to receive it 7,may #a74 ,the worse1 the better1 he answered to the wish1 that it had been better with him4 ,by the ,king's great favour ,i received the ,great ,seal2 by my own great fault ,i have lost it4 ,they intended him now to come to the bar to receive his sentence4 ,but he was too ill to leave his bed4 ,they did not push this point farther1 but proceeded to settle the sentence 7,may #c74 ,he had asked for mercy1 but he did not get it4 ,there were men who talked of every extremity short of death4 ,coke1 indeed1 in the ,commons1 from his store of precedents1 had cited cases where judges had been hanged for bribery4 ,but the ,lords would not hear of this4 ,his offences foul1 said ,lord ,arundel2 his confession pitiful4 ,life not to be touched4 ,but ,southampton1 whom twenty years before he had helped to involve in ,essex's ruin1 urged that he should be degraded from the peerage2 and asked whether1 at any rate1 he whom this ,house thinks unfit to be a constable shall come to the ,parliament4 ,he was fined #dj1jjj4 ,he was to be imprisoned in the ,tower during the ,king's pleasure4 ,he was to be incapable of any office1 place1 or employment in the ,state or ,commonwealth4 ,he was never to sit in ,parliament or come within the verge of the ,court4 ,this was agreed to1 ,buckingham only dissenting4 ,the ,lord ,chancellor is so sick1 he said1 that he cannot live long4 ,what is the history of this tremendous catastrophe by which1 in less than two months1 ,bacon was cast down from the height of fortune to become a byword of shame8 ,he had enemies1 who certainly were glad1 but there is no appearance that it was the result of any plot or combination against him4 ,he was involved1 accidentally1 it may almost be said1 in the burst of anger excited by the intolerable dealings of others4 ,the indignation provoked by ,michell and ,mompesson and their associates at that particular moment found ,bacon in its path1 doing1 as it seemed1 in his great seat of justice1 even worse than they2 and when he threw up all attempt at defence1 and his judges had his hand to an unreserved confession of corruption1 both generally1 and in the long list of cases alleged against him1 it is not wonderful that they came to the conclusion1 as the rest of the world did1 that he was as bad as the accusation painted him--a dishonest and corrupt judge4 ,yet it is strange that they should not have observed that not a single charge of a definitely unjust decision was brought1 at any rate was proved1 against him4 ,he had taken money1 they argued1 and therefore he must be corrupt2 but if he had taken money to pervert judgment1 some instance of the iniquity would certainly have been brought forward and proved4 ,there is no such instance to be found2 though1 of course1 there were plenty of dissatisfied suitors2 of course the men who had paid their money and lost their cause were furious4 ,but in vain do we look for any case of proved injustice4 ,the utmost that can be said is that in some cases he showed favour in pushing forward and expediting suits4 ,so that the real charge against ,bacon assumes1 to us who have not to deal practically with dangerous abuses1 but to judge conduct and character1 a different complexion4 ,instead of being the wickedness of perverting justice and selling his judgments for bribes1 it takes the shape of allowing and sharing in a dishonourable and mischievous system of payment for service1 which could not fail to bring with it temptation and discredit1 and in which fair reward could not be distinguished from unlawful gain4 ,such a system it was high time to stop2 and in this rough and harsh way1 which also satisfied some personal enmities1 it was stopped4 ,we may put aside for good the charge on which he was condemned1 and which in words he admitted--of being corrupt as a judge4 ,his real fault--and it was a great one--was that he did not in time open his eyes to the wrongness and evil1 patent to every one1 and to himself as soon as pointed out1 of the traditional fashion in his court of eking out by irregular gifts the salary of such an office as his4 ,thus ,bacon was condemned both to suffering and to dishonour2 and1 as has been observed1 condemned without a trial4 ,but it must also be observed that it was entirely owing to his own act that he had not a trial1 and with a trial the opportunity of cross-examining witnesses and of explaining openly the matters urged against him4 ,the proceedings in the ,lords were preliminary to the trial2 when the time came1 ,bacon1 of his own choice1 stopped them from going farther1 by his confession and submission4 ,considering the view which he claimed to take of his own case1 his behaviour was wanting in courage and spirit4 ,from the moment that the attack on him shifted from a charge of authorising illegal monopolies to a charge of personal corruption1 he never fairly met his accusers4 ,the distress and anxiety1 no doubt1 broke down his health2 and twice1 when he was called upon to be in his place in the ,house of ,lords1 he was obliged to excuse himself on the ground that he was too ill to leave his bed4 ,but between the time of the first charge and his condemnation seven weeks elapsed2 and though he was able to go down to ,gorhambury1 he never in that time showed himself in the ,house of ,lords4 ,whether or not1 while the ,committees were busy in collecting the charges1 he would have been allowed to take part1 to put questions to the witnesses1 or to produce his own1 he never attempted to do so2 and by the course he took there was no other opportunity4 ,to have stood his trial could hardly have increased his danger1 or aggravated his punishment2 and it would only have been worthy of his name and place1 if not to have made a fight for his character and integrity1 at least to have bravely said what he had made up his mind to admit1 and what no one could have said more nobly and pathetically1 in open ,parliament4 ,but he was cowed at the fierceness of the disapprobation manifest in both ,houses4 ,he shrunk from looking his peers and his judges in the face4 ,his friends obtained for him that he should not be brought to the bar1 and that all should pass in writing4 ,but they saved his dignity at the expense of his substantial reputation4 ,the observation that the charges against him were not sifted by cross-examination applies equally to his answers to them4 ,the allegations of both sides would have come down to us in a more trustworthy shape if the case had gone on4 ,but to give up the struggle1 and to escape by any humiliation from a regular public trial1 seems to have been his only thought when he found that the ,king and ,buckingham could not or would not save him4 ,but the truth is that he knew that a trial of this kind was a trial only in name4 ,he knew that1 when a charge of this sort was brought1 it was not meant to be really investigated in open court1 but to be driven home by proofs carefully prepared beforehand1 against which the accused had little chance4 ,he knew1 too1 that in those days to resist in earnest an accusation was apt to be taken as an insult to the court which entertained it4 ,and further1 for the prosecutor to accept a submission and confession without pushing to the formality of a public trial1 and therefore a public exposure1 was a favour4 ,it was a favour which by his advice1 as against the ,king's honour1 had been refused to ,suffolk2 it was a favour which1 in a much lighter charge1 had by his advice been refused to his colleague ,yelverton only a few months before1 when ,bacon1 in sentencing him1 took occasion to expatiate on the heinous guilt of misprisions or mistakes in men in high places4 ,the humiliation was not complete without the trial1 but it was for humiliation and not fair investigation that the trial was wanted4 ,bacon knew that the trial would only prolong his agony1 and give a further triumph to his enemies4 ,that there was any plot against ,bacon1 and much more that ,buckingham to save himself was a party to it1 is of course absurd4 ,buckingham1 indeed1 was almost the only man in the ,lords who said anything for ,bacon1 and1 alone1 he voted against his punishment4 ,but considering what ,buckingham was1 and what he dared to do when he pleased1 he was singularly cool in helping ,bacon4 ,williams1 the astute ,dean of ,westminster1 who was to be ,bacon's successor as ,lord ,keeper1 had got his ear1 and advised him not to endanger himself by trying to save delinquents4 ,he did not4 ,indeed1 as the inquiry went on1 he began to take the high moral ground2 he was shocked at the ,chancellor's conduct2 he would not have believed that it could have been so bad2 his disgrace was richly deserved4 ,buckingham kept up appearances by saying a word for him from time to time in ,parliament1 which he knew would be useless1 and which he certainly took no measures to make effective4 ,it is sometimes said that ,buckingham never knew what dissimulation was4 ,he was capable1 at least1 of the perfidy and cowardice of utter selfishness4 ,bacon's conspicuous fall diverted men's thoughts from the far more scandalous wickedness of the great favourite4 ,but though there was no plot1 though the blow fell upon ,bacon almost accidentally1 there were many who rejoiced to be able to drive it home4 ,we can hardly wonder that foremost among them was ,coke4 ,this was the end of the long rivalry between ,bacon and ,coke1 from the time that ,essex pressed ,bacon against ,coke in vain to the day when ,bacon as ,chancellor drove ,coke from his seat for his bad law1 and as ,privy ,councillor ordered him to be prosecuted in the ,star ,chamber for riotously breaking open men's doors to get his daughter4 ,the two men thoroughly disliked and undervalued one another4 ,coke made light of ,bacon's law4 ,bacon saw clearly ,coke's narrowness and ignorance out of that limited legal sphere in which he was supposed to know everything1 his prejudiced and interested use of his knowledge1 his coarseness and insolence4 ,but now in ,parliament ,coke was supreme1 our ,hercules1 as his friends said4 ,he posed as the enemy of all abuses and corruption4 ,he brought his unrivalled1 though not always accurate1 knowledge of law and history to the service of the ,committees1 and took care that the ,chancellor's name should not be forgotten when it could be connected with some bad business of patent or ,chancery abuse4 ,it was the great revenge of the ,common ,law on the encroaching and insulting ,chancery which had now proved so foul4 ,and he could not resist the opportunity of marking the revenge of professional knowledge over ,bacon's airs of philosophical superiority4 ,to restore things to their original was his sneer in ,parliament1 this1 ,instauratio ,magna4 ,instaurare paras--,instaura leges justitiamque prius4#e ,the charge of corruption was as completely a surprise to ,bacon as it was to the rest of the world4 ,and yet1 as soon as the blot was hit1 he saw in a moment that his position was hopeless--he knew that he had been doing wrong2 though all the time he had never apparently given it a thought1 and he insisted1 what there is every reason to believe1 that no present had induced him to give an unjust decision4 ,it was the power of custom over a character naturally and by habit too pliant to circumstances4 ,custom made him insensible to the evil of receiving recommendations from ,buckingham in favour of suitors4 ,custom made him insensible to the evil of what it seems every one took for granted--receiving gifts from suitors4 ,in the ,court of ,james ,i4 the atmosphere which a man in office breathed was loaded with the taint of gifts and bribes4 ,presents were as much the rule1 as indispensable for those who hoped to get on1 as they are now in ,turkey4 ,even in ,elizabeth's days1 when ,bacon was struggling to win her favour1 and was in the greatest straits for money1 he borrowed #ejj to buy a jewel for the ,queen4 ,when he was ,james's servant the giving of gifts became a necessity4 ,new ,year's ,day brought round its tribute of gold vases and gold pieces to the ,king and ,buckingham4 ,and this was the least4 ,money was raised by the sale of officers and titles4 ,for #bj1jjj1 having previously offered #aj1jjj in vain1 the ,chief-,justice of ,england1 ,montague1 became ,lord ,mandeville and ,treasurer4 ,the bribe was sometimes disguised3 a man became a ,privy ,councillor1 like ,cranfield1 or a ,chief-,justice1 like ,ley 7afterwards the good ,earl1 unstained with gold or fee1 of ,milton's ,sonnet71 by marrying a cousin or a niece of ,buckingham4 ,when ,bacon was made a ,peer1 he had also given him the making of a ,baron2 that is to say1 he might raise money by bargaining with some one who wanted a peerage2 when1 however1 later on1 he asked ,buckingham for a repetition of the favour1 ,buckingham gave him a lecture on the impropriety of prodigality1 which should make it seem that while the ,king was asking money of ,parliament with one hand he was giving with the other4 ,how things were in ,chancery in the days of the ,queen1 and of ,bacon's predecessors1 we know little2 but ,bacon himself implies that there was nothing new in what he did4 ,all my lawyers1 said ,james1 are so bred and nursed in corruption that they cannot leave it4 ,bacon's ,chancellorship coincided with the full bloom of ,buckingham's favour2 and ,buckingham set the fashion1 beyond all before him1 of extravagance in receiving and spending4 ,encompassed by such assumptions and such customs1 ,bacon administered the ,chancery4 ,suitors did there what people did everywhere else2 they acknowledged by a present the trouble they gave1 or the benefit they gained4 ,it may be that ,bacon's known difficulties about money1 his expensive ways and love of pomp1 his easiness of nature1 his lax discipline over his servants1 encouraged this profuseness of giving4 ,and ,bacon let it be4 ,he asked no questions2 he knew that he worked hard and well2 he knew that it could go on without affecting his purpose to do justice from the greatest to the groom4 ,a stronger character1 a keener conscience1 would have faced the question1 not only whether he was not setting the most ruinous of precedents1 but whether any man could be so sure of himself as to go on dealing justly with gifts in his hands4 ,but ,bacon1 who never dared to face the question1 what ,james was1 what ,buckingham was1 let himself be spellbound by custom4 ,he knew in the abstract that judges ought to have nothing to do with gifts1 and had said so impressively in his charges to them4 ,yet he went on self-complacent1 secure1 almost innocent1 building up a great tradition of corruption in the very heart of ,english justice1 till the challenge of ,parliament1 which began in him its terrible and relentless1 but most unequal1 prosecution of justice against ministers who had betrayed the commonwealth in serving the ,crown1 woke him from his dream1 and made him see1 as others saw it1 the guilt of a great judge who1 under whatever extenuating pretext1 allowed the suspicion to arise that he might sell justice4 ,in the midst of a state of as great affliction as mortal man can endure1 he wrote to the ,lords of the ,parliament1 in making his submission1 ,i shall begin with the professing gladness in some things4 ,the first is that hereafter the greatness of a judge or magistrate shall be no sanctuary or protection of guiltiness1 which is the beginning of a golden world4 ,the next1 that after this example it is like that judges will fly from anything that is in the likeness of corruption as from a serpent4 ,bacon's own judgment on himself1 deliberately repeated1 is characteristic1 and probably comes near the truth4 ,howsoever1 ,i acknowledge the sentence just and for reformation's sake fit1 he writes to ,buckingham from the ,tower1 where1 for form's sake1 he was imprisoned for a few miserable days1 he yet had been the justest ,chancellor that hath been in the five changes that have been since ,sir ,nicolas ,bacon's time4 ,he repeated the same thing yet more deliberately in later times4 ,i was the justest judge that was in ,england these fifty years4 ,but it was the justest censure in ,parliament that was these two hundred years4 ,he might have gone on to add1 the ,wisest ,counsellor2 and yet none on whom rested heavier blame2 none of whom ,england might more justly complain4 ,good counsels given1 submissive acquiescence in the worst--this is the history of his statesmanship4 ,bacon1 whose eye was everywhere1 was not sparing of his counsels4 ,on all the great questions of the time he has left behind abundant evidence1 not only of what he thought1 but of what he advised4 ,and in every case these memorials are marked with the insight1 the independence1 the breadth of view1 and the moderation of a mind which is bent on truth4 ,he started1 of course1 from a basis which we are now hardly able to understand or allow for1 the idea of absolute royal power and prerogative which ,james had enlarged and hardened out of the ,kingship of the ,tudors1 itself imperious and arbitrary enough1 but always seeking1 with a tact of which ,james was incapable1 to be in touch and sympathy with popular feeling4 ,but it was a basis which in principle every one of any account as yet held or professed to hold1 and which ,bacon himself held on grounds of philosophy and reason4 ,he could see no hope for orderly and intelligent government except in a ruler whose wisdom had equal strength to assert itself2 and he looked down with incredulity and scorn on the notion of anything good coming out of what the world then knew or saw of popular opinion or parliamentary government4 ,but when it came to what was wise and fitting for absolute power to do in the way of general measures and policy1 he was for the most part right4 ,he saw the inexorable and pressing necessity of putting the finance of the kingdom on a safe footing4 ,he saw the necessity of a sound and honest policy in ,ireland4 ,he saw the mischief of the ,spanish alliance in spite of his curious friendship with ,gondomar1 and detected the real and increasing weakness of the ,spanish monarchy1 which still awed mankind4 ,he saw the growing danger of abuses in ,church and ,state which were left untouched1 and were protected by the punishment of those who dared to complain of them4 ,he saw the confusion and injustice of much of that common law of which the lawyers were so proud2 and would have attempted1 if he had been able1 to emulate ,justinian1 and anticipate the ,code ,napoleon1 by a rational and consistent digest4 ,above all1 he never ceased to impress on ,james the importance1 and1 if wisely used1 the immense advantages1 of his ,parliaments4 ,himself1 for great part of his life1 an active and popular member of the ,house of ,commons1 he saw that not only it was impossible to do without it1 but that1 if fairly1 honourably1 honestly dealt with1 it would become a source of power and confidence which would double the strength of the ,government both at home and abroad4 ,yet of all this wisdom nothing came4 ,the finance of the kingdom was still ruined by extravagance and corruption in a time of rapidly-developing prosperity and wealth4 ,the wounds of ,ireland were unhealed4 ,it was neither peace nor war with ,spain1 and hot infatuation for its friendship alternated with cold fits of distrust and estrangement4 ,abuses flourished and multiplied under great patronage4 ,the ,king's one thought about ,parliament was how to get as much money out of it as he could1 with as little other business as possible4 ,bacon's counsels were the prophecies of ,cassandra in that so prosperous but so disastrous reign4 ,all that he did was to lend the authority of his presence1 in ,james's most intimate counsels1 to policy and courses of which he saw the unwisdom and the perils4 ,james and ,buckingham made use of him when they wanted4 ,but they would have been very different in their measures and their statesmanship if they had listened to him4 ,mirabeau said1 what of course had been said before him1 ,on ne vaut1 dans la partie excutive de la vie humaine1 que par le caractre4 ,this is the key to ,bacon's failures as a judge and as a statesman1 and why1 knowing so much more and judging so much more wisely than ,james and ,buckingham1 he must be identified with the misdoings of that ignoble reign4 ,he had the courage of his opinions2 but a man wants more than that3 he needs the manliness and the public spirit to enforce them1 if they are true and salutary4 ,but this is what ,bacon had not4 ,he did not mind being rebuffed2 he knew that he was right1 and did not care4 ,but to stand up against the ,king1 to contradict him after he had spoken1 to press an opinion or a measure on a man whose belief in his own wisdom was infinite1 to risk not only being set down as a dreamer1 but the ,king's displeasure1 and the ruin of being given over to the will of his enemies1 this ,bacon had not the fibre or the stiffness or the self-assertion to do4 ,he did not do what a man of firm will and strength of purpose1 a man of high integrity1 of habitual resolution1 would have done4 ,such men insist when they are responsible1 and when they know that they are right2 and they prevail1 or accept the consequences4 ,bacon1 knowing all that he did1 thinking all that he thought1 was content to be the echo and the instrument of the cleverest1 the foolishest1 the vainest1 the most pitiably unmanly of ,english kings4 ,,footnotes3 #c ,calendar of ,state ,papers 7domestic71 ,march #bd1 #afba4 #d ,commons' ,journals1 ,march #ag1 ,april #bg2 iii4 #efj1 #eid-f4 #e ,commons' ,journals1 iii4 #egh4 ,in his copy of the ,novum ,organum1 received ex dono auctoris1 ,coke wrote the same words4 ,auctori consilium4 ,instaurare paras veterum documenta sophorum3 ,instaura leges justitiamque prius4 ,he added1 with allusion to the ship in the frontispiece of the ,novum ,organum1 ,it deserveth not to be read in schools1 ,but to be freighted in the ship of ,fools4 ,,chapter ,,vii4 ,,bacon',s ,,last ,,years4 #afba-afbf4 ,the tremendous sentences of those days1 with their crushing fines1 were often worse in sound than in reality4 ,they meant that for the moment a man was defeated and disgraced4 ,but it was quite understood that it did not necessarily follow that they would be enforced in all their severity4 ,the fine might be remitted1 the imprisonment shortened1 the ban of exclusion taken off4 ,at another turn of events or caprice the man himself might return to favour1 and take his place in ,parliament or the ,council as if nothing had happened4 ,but1 of course1 a man might have powerful enemies1 and the sentence might be pressed4 ,his fine might be assigned to some favourite2 and he might be mined1 even if in the long run he was pardoned2 or he might remain indefinitely a prisoner4 ,raleigh had remained to perish at last in dishonour4 ,northumberland1 ,raleigh's fellow-prisoner1 after fifteen years' captivity1 was released this year4 ,the year after ,bacon's condemnation such criminals as ,lord and ,lady ,somerset were released from the ,tower1 after a six years' imprisonment4 ,southampton1 the accomplice of ,essex1 ,suffolk1 sentenced as late as #afai by ,bacon for embezzlement1 sat in the ,house of ,peers which judged ,bacon1 and both of them took a prominent part in judging him4 ,to ,bacon the sentence was ruinous4 ,it proved an irretrievable overthrow as regards public life1 and1 though some parts of it were remitted and others lightened1 it plunged his private affairs into trouble which weighed heavily on him for his few remaining years4 ,to his deep distress and horror he had to go to the ,tower to satisfy the terms of his sentence4 ,good my ,lord1 he writes to ,buckingham1 ,may #ca1 procure my warrant for my discharge this day4 ,death is so far from being unwelcome to me1 as ,i have called for it as far as ,christian resolution would permit any time these two months4 ,but to die before the time of his ,majesty's grace1 in this disgraceful place1 is even the worst that could be4 ,he was released after two or three days1 and he thanks ,buckingham 7,june #d7 for getting him out to do him and the ,king faithful service--wherein1 by the grace of ,god1 your ,lordship shall find that my adversity hath neither spent nor pent my spirits4 ,in the autumn his fine was remitted--that is1 it was assigned to persons nominated by ,bacon1 who1 as the ,crown had the first claim on all his goods1 served as a protection against his other creditors1 who were many and some of them clamorous--and it was followed by his pardon4 ,his successor1 ,williams1 now ,bishop of ,lincoln1 who stood in great fear of ,parliament1 tried to stop the pardon4 ,the assignment of the fine1 he said to ,buckingham1 was a gross job--it is much spoken against1 not for the matter 7for no man objects to that71 but for the manner1 which is full of knavery1 and a wicked precedent4 ,for by this assignment he is protected from all his creditors1 which 7,i dare say7 was neither his ,majesty's nor your ,lordship's meaning4 ,it was an ill-natured and cowardly piece of official pedantry to plunge deeper a drowning man2 but in the end the pardon was passed4 ,it does not appear whether ,buckingham interfered to overrule the ,lord ,keeper's scruples4 ,buckingham was certainly about this time very much out of humour with ,bacon1 for a reason which1 more than anything else1 discloses the deep meanness which lurked under his show of magnanimity and pride4 ,he had chosen this moment to ask ,bacon for ,york ,house4 ,this meant that ,bacon would never more want it4 ,even ,bacon was stung by such a request to a friend in his condition1 and declined to part with it2 and ,buckingham accordingly was offended1 and made ,bacon feel it4 ,indeed1 there is reason to think with ,mr4 ,spedding that for the sealing of his pardon ,bacon was indebted to the good offices with the ,king1 not of ,buckingham1 but of the ,spaniard1 ,gondomar1 with whom ,bacon had always been on terms of cordiality and respect1 and who at this time certainly brought about something on his behalf1 which his other friends either had not dared to attempt or had not been able to obtain4 ,but1 though ,bacon had his pardon1 he had not received permission to come within the verge of the ,court1 which meant that he could not live in ,london4 ,his affairs were in great disorder1 his health was bad1 and he was cut off from books4 ,he wrote an appeal to the ,peers who had condemned him1 asking them to intercede with the ,king for the enlargement of his liberty4 ,i am old1 he wrote1 weak1 ruined1 in want1 a very subject of pity4 ,the ,tower at least gave him the neighbourhood of those who could help him4 ,there ,i could have company1 physicians1 conference with my creditors and friends about my debts and the necessities of my estate1 helps for my studies and the writings ,i have in hand4 ,here ,i live upon the sword-point of a sharp air1 endangered if ,i go abroad1 dulled if ,i stay within1 solitary and comfortless1 without company1 banished from all opportunities to treat with any to do myself good1 and to help out my wrecks4 ,if the ,lords would recommend his suit to the ,king1 ,you shall do a work of charity and nobility1 you shall do me good1 you shall do my creditors good1 and it may be you shall do posterity good1 if out of the carcase of dead and rotten greatness 7as out of ,samson's lion7 there may be honey gathered for the use of future times4 ,but ,parliament was dissolved before the touching appeal reached them2 and ,bacon had to have recourse to other expedients4 ,he consulted ,selden about the technical legality of the sentence4 ,he appealed to ,buckingham1 who vouchsafed to appear more placable4 ,once more he had recourse to ,gondomar1 in that solitude of friends1 which is the base-court of adversity1 as a man whom he had observed to have the magnanimity of his own nation and the cordiality of ours1 and ,i am sure the wit of both--and who had been equally kind to him in both his fortunes2 and he proposed through ,gondomar to present ,gorhambury to ,buckingham for nothing1 as a peace-offering4 ,but the purchase of his liberty was to come in another way4 ,bacon had reconciled himself to giving up ,york ,house2 but now ,buckingham would not have it3 he had found another house1 he said1 which suited him as well4 ,that is to say1 he did not now choose to have ,york ,house from ,bacon himself2 but he meant to have it4 ,accordingly1 ,buckingham let ,bacon know through a friend of ,bacon's1 ,sir ,edward ,sackville1 that the price of his liberty to live in ,london was the cession of ,york ,house--not to ,buckingham1 but of all men in the world1 to ,lionel ,cranfield1 the man who had been so bitter against ,bacon in the ,house of ,commons4 ,this is ,sir ,edward ,sackville's account to ,bacon of his talk with ,buckingham2 it is characteristic of every one concerned3 ,in the forenoon he laid the law1 but in the afternoon he preached the gospel2 when1 after some revivations of the old distaste concerning ,york ,house1 he most nobly opened his heart unto me2 wherein ,i read that which augured much good towards you4 ,after which revelation the book was again sealed up1 and must in his own time only by himself be again manifested unto you4 ,i have leave to remember some of the vision1 and am not forbidden to write it4 ,he vowed 7not court like71 but constantly to appear your friend so much1 as if his ,majesty should abandon the care of you1 you should share his fortune with him4 ,he pleased to tell me how much he had been beholden to you1 how well he loved you1 how unkindly he took the denial of your house 7for so he will needs understand it72 but the close for all this was harmonious1 since he protested he would seriously begin to study your ends1 now that the world should see he had no ends on you4 ,he is in hand with the work1 and therefore will by no means accept of your offer1 though ,i can assure you the tender hath much won upon him1 and mellowed his heart towards you1 and your genius directed you aright when you writ that letter of denial to the ,duke4 ,the ,king saw it1 and all the rest1 which made him say unto the ,marquis1 you played an after-game well2 and that now he had no reason to be much offended4 ,i have already talked of the ,revelation1 and now am to speak in apocalyptical language1 which ,i hope you will rightly comment3 whereof if you make difficulty1 the bearer can help you with the key of the cypher4 ,my ,lord ,falkland by this time hath showed you ,london from ,highgate4 ,if ,york ,house were gone1 the town were yours1 and all your straitest shackles clean off1 besides more comfort than the city air only4 ,the ,marquis would be exceeding glad the ,treasurer had it4 ,this ,i know2 yet this you must not know from me4 ,bargain with him presently1 upon as good conditions as you can procure1 so you have direct motion from the ,marquis to let him have it4 ,seem not to dive into the secret of it1 though you are purblind if you see not through it4 ,i have told ,mr4 ,meautys how ,i would wish your ,lordship now to make an end of it4 ,from him ,i beseech you take it1 and from me only the advice to perform it4 ,if you part not speedily with it1 you may defer the good which is approaching near you1 and disappointing other aims 7which must either shortly receive content or never71 perhaps anew yield matter of discontent1 though you may be indeed as innocent as before4 ,make the ,treasurer believe that since the ,marquis will by no means accept of it1 and that you must part with it1 you are more willing to pleasure him than anybody else1 because you are given to understand my ,lord ,marquis so inclines2 which inclination1 if the ,treasurer shortly send unto you about it1 desire may be more clearly manifested than as yet it hath been2 since as ,i remember none hitherto hath told you in terminis terminantibus that the ,marquis desires you should gratify the ,treasurer4 ,i know that way the hare runs1 and that my ,lord ,marquis longs until ,cranfield hath it2 and so ,i wish too1 for your good2 yet would not it were absolutely passed until my ,lord ,marquis did send or write unto you to let him have it2 for then his so disposing of it were but the next degree removed from the immediate acceptance of it1 and your ,lordship freed from doing it otherwise than to please him1 and to comply with his own will and way4 ,it need hardly be said that when ,cranfield got it1 it soon passed into ,buckingham's hands4 ,bacon consented to part with his house1 and ,buckingham in return consented to give him his liberty4 ,yet ,bacon could write to him1 low as ,i am1 ,i had rather sojourn in a college in ,cambridge than recover a good fortune by any other but yourself4 ,as for ,york ,house1 he bids ,toby ,matthews to let ,buckingham know1 that whether in a straight line or a compass line1 ,i meant it for his ,lordship1 in the way which ,i thought might please him best4 ,but liberty did not mean either money or recovered honour4 ,all his life long he had made light of being in debt2 but since his fall this was no longer a condition easy to bear4 ,he had to beg some kind of pension of the ,king4 ,he had to beg of ,buckingham2 a small matter for my debts would do me more good now than double a twelvemonth hence4 ,i have lost six thousand by the year1 besides caps and courtesies4 ,two things ,i may assure your ,lordship4 ,the one1 that ,i shall lead such a course of life as whatsoever the ,king doth for me shall rather sort to his ,majesty's and your ,lordship's honour than to envy2 the other1 that whatsoever men talk1 ,i can play the good husband1 and the ,king's bounty shall not be lost4 ,it might be supposed from the tone of these applications that ,bacon's mind was bowed down and crushed by the extremity of his misfortune4 ,nothing could be farther from the truth4 ,in his behaviour during his accusation there was little trace of that high spirit and fortitude shown by far inferior men under like disasters4 ,but the moment the tremendous strain of his misfortunes was taken off1 the vigour of his mind recovered itself4 ,the buoyancy of his hopefulness1 the elasticity of his energy1 are as remarkable as his profound depression4 ,when the end was approaching1 his thoughts turned at once to other work to be done1 ready in plan1 ready to be taken up and finished4 ,at the close of his last desperate letter to the ,king he cannot resist finishing at once with a jest1 and with the prospect of two great literary undertakings-- ,this is my last suit which ,i shall make to your ,majesty in this business1 prostrating myself at your mercy seat1 after fifteen years service1 wherein ,i have served your ,majesty in my poor endeavours with an entire heart1 and1 as ,i presumed to say unto your ,majesty1 am still a virgin for matters that concern your person and crown2 and now only craving that after eight steps of honour ,i be not precipitated altogether4 ,but because he that hath taken bribes is apt to give bribes1 ,i will go furder1 and present your ,majesty with a bribe4 ,for if your ,majesty will give me peace and leisure1 and ,god give me life1 ,i will present your ,majesty with a good history of ,england1 and a better digest of your laws4 ,the ,tower did1 indeed1 to use a word of the time1 mate him4 ,but the moment he was out of it1 his quick and fertile mind was immediately at work in all directions1 reaching after all kinds of plans1 making proof of all kinds of expedients to retrieve the past1 arranging all kinds of work according as events might point out the way4 ,his projects for history1 for law1 for philosophy1 for letters1 occupy quite as much of his thoughts as his pardon and his debts2 and they1 we have seen1 occupied a good deal4 ,if he was pusillanimous in the moment of the storm1 his spirit1 his force1 his varied interests1 returned the moment the storm was past4 ,his self-reliance1 which was boundless1 revived4 ,he never allowed himself to think1 however men of his own time might judge him1 that the future world would mistake him4 ,aliquis fui inter vivos1 he writes to ,gondomar1 neque omnino intermoriar apud posteros4 ,even in his time he did not give up the hope of being restored to honour and power4 ,he compared himself to ,demosthenes1 to ,cicero1 to ,seneca1 to ,marcus ,livius1 who had been condemned for corrupt dealings as he had been1 and had all recovered favour and position4 ,lookers-on were puzzled and shocked4 ,he has1 writes ,chamberlain1 no manner of feeling of his fall1 but continuing vain and idle in all his humours as when he was at the highest4 ,i am said1 ,bacon himself writes1 to have a feather in my head4 ,men were mistaken4 ,his thoughts were1 for the moment1 more than ever turned to the future2 but he had not given up hope of having a good deal to say yet to the affairs of the present4 ,strangely enough1 as it seems to us1 in the very summer after that fatal spring of #afba the ,king called for his opinion concerning the reformation of ,courts of ,justice2 and ,bacon1 just sentenced for corruption and still unpardoned1 proceeds to give his advice as if he were a ,privy ,councillor in confidential employment4 ,early in the following year he1 according to his fashion1 surveyed his position1 and drew up a paper of memoranda1 like the notes of the ,commentarius ,solutus of #afjh1 about points to be urged to the ,king at an interview4 ,why should not the ,king employ him again8 ,your ,majesty never chid me2 and as to his condemnation1 as the fault was not against your ,majesty1 so my fall was not your act4 ,therefore1 he goes on1 if your ,majesty do at any time find it fit for your affairs to employ me publicly upon the stage1 ,i shall so live and spend my time as neither discontinuance shall disable me nor adversity shall discourage me1 nor anything that ,i do give any new scandal or envy upon me4 ,he insists very strongly that the ,king's service never miscarried in his hands1 for he simply carried out the ,king's wise counsels4 ,that his ,majesty's business never miscarried in my hands ,i do not impute to any extraordinary ability in myself1 but to my freedom from any particular1 either friends or ends1 and my careful receipt of his directions1 being1 as ,i have formerly said to him1 but as a bucket and cistern to that fountain--a bucket to draw forth1 a cistern to preserve4 ,he is not afraid of the apparent slight to the censure passed on him by ,parliament4 ,for envy1 it is an almanack of the old year1 and as a friend of mine said1 ,parliament died penitent towards me4 ,what the ,king bestows on me will be further seen than on ,paul's steeple4 ,there be mountebanks1 as well in the civil body as in the natural2 ,i ever served his ,majesty with modesty2 no shouting1 no undertaking4 ,in the odd fashion of the time--a fashion in which no one more delighted than himself--he lays hold of sacred words to give point to his argument4 ,i may allude to the three petitions of the ,litany--,libera nos ,domine2 parce nobis1 ,domine2 exaudi nos1 ,domine4 ,in the first1 ,i am persuaded that his ,majesty had a mind to do it1 and could not conveniently in respect of his affairs4 ,in the second1 he hath done it in my fine and pardon4 ,in the third1 he hath likewise performed1 in restoring to the light of his countenance4 ,but if the ,king did not see fit to restore him to public employment1 he would be ready to give private counsel2 and he would apply himself to any literary province that the ,king appointed4 ,i am like ground fresh4 ,if ,i be left to myself ,i will graze and bear natural philosophy2 but if the ,king will plough me up again1 and sow me with anything1 ,i hope to give him some yield4 ,your ,majesty hath power2 ,i have faith4 ,therefore a miracle may be wrought4 ,and he proposes1 for matters in which his pen might be useful1 first1 as active works1 the recompiling of laws2 the disposing of wards1 and generally the education of youth2 the regulation of the jurisdiction of ,courts2 and the regulation of ,trade2 and for contemplative1 the continuation of the history of ,henry ,,viii42 a general treatise de ,legibus et ,justitia2 and the ,holy ,war against the ,ottomans4 ,when he wrote this he had already shown what his unquelled energy could accomplish4 ,in the summer and autumn after his condemnation1 amid all the worries and inconveniences of that time1 moving about from place to place1 without his books1 and without free access to papers and records1 he had written his ,history of ,henry ,,vii4 ,the theme had1 no doubt1 been long in his head4 ,but the book was the first attempt at philosophical history in the language1 and it at once takes rank with all that the world had yet seen1 in classical times and more recently in ,italy1 of such history4 ,he sent the book1 among other persons1 to the ,queen of ,bohemia1 with a phrase1 the translation of a trite ,latin commonplace1 which may have been the parent of one which became famous in our time2 and with an expression of absolute confidence in the goodness of his own work4 ,i have read in books that it is accounted a great bliss for a man to have ,leisure with ,honour4 ,that was never my fortune4 ,for time was1 ,i had ,honour without ,leisure2 and now ,i have ,leisure without ,honour4444 ,but my desire is now to have ,leisure without ,loitering1 and not to become an abbey-lubber1 as the old proverb was1 but to yield some fruit of my private life4444 ,if ,king ,henry were alive again1 ,i hope verily he would not be so angry with me for not flattering him1 as well pleased in seeing himself so truly described in colours that will last and be believed4 ,but the tide had turned against him for good4 ,a few fair words1 a few grudging doles of money to relieve his pressing wants1 and those sometimes intercepted and perhaps never rightly granted from an ,exchequer which even ,cranfield's finance could not keep filled1 were all the graces that descended upon him from those fountains of goodness in which he professed to trust with such boundless faith4 ,the ,king did not want him1 perhaps did not trust him1 perhaps did not really like him4 ,when the ,novum ,organum came out1 all that he had to say about it was in the shape of a profane jest that it was like the peace of ,god--it passed all understanding4 ,other men had the ear of ,buckingham2 shrewd1 practical men of business like ,cranfield1 who hated ,bacon's loose and careless ways1 or the clever ecclesiastic ,williams1 whose counsel had steered ,buckingham safely through the tempest that wrecked ,bacon1 and who1 with no legal training1 had been placed in ,bacon's seat4 ,i thought1 said ,bacon1 that ,i should have known my successor4 ,williams1 for his part1 charged ,bacon with trying to cheat his creditors1 when his fine was remitted4 ,with no open quarrel1 ,bacon's relations to ,buckingham became more ceremonious and guarded2 the ,my singular good ,lord of the former letters becomes1 now that ,buckingham had risen so high and ,bacon had sunk so low1 ,excellent ,lord4 ,the one friend to whom ,bacon had once wished to owe everything had become the great man1 now only to be approached with sweet meats and elaborate courtesy4 ,but it was no use4 ,his full pardon ,bacon did not get1 though earnestly suing for it1 that he might not die in ignominy4 ,he never sat again in ,parliament4 ,the ,provostship of ,eton fell vacant1 and ,bacon's hopes were kindled4 ,it were a pretty cell for my fortune4 ,the ,college and ,school ,i do not doubt but ,i shall make to flourish4 ,but ,buckingham had promised it to some nameless follower1 and by some process of exchange it went to ,sir ,henry ,wotton4 ,his ,english history was offered in vain4 ,his digest of the ,laws was offered in vain4 ,in vain he wrote a memorandum on the regulation of usury2 notes of advice to ,buckingham2 elaborate reports and notes of speeches about a war with ,spain1 when that for a while loomed before the country4 ,in vain he affected an interest which he could hardly have felt in the ,spanish marriage1 and the escapade of ,buckingham and ,prince ,charles1 which began1 he wrote1 like a fable of the poets1 but deserved all in a piece a worthy narration4 ,in vain1 when the ,spanish marriage was off and the ,french was on1 he proposed to offer to ,buckingham his service to live a summer as upon mine own delight at ,paris1 to settle a fast intelligence between ,france and us2 ,i have somewhat of the ,french1 he said1 ,i love birds1 as the ,king doth4 ,public patronage and public employment were at an end for him4 ,his petitions to the ,king and ,buckingham ceased to be for office1 but for the clearing of his name and for the means of living4 ,it is piteous to read the earnestness of his requests4 ,help me 7dear ,sovereign lord and master71 pity me so far as that ,i who have borne a bag be not now in my age forced in effect to bear a wallet4 ,the words are from a carefully-prepared and rhetorical letter which was not sent1 but they express what he added to a letter presenting the ,de ,augmentis2 det ,vestra ,majestas obolum ,belisario4 ,again1 ,i prostrate myself at your ,majesty's feet2 ,i your ancient servant1 now sixty-four years old in age1 and three years and five months old in misery4 ,i desire not from your ,majesty means1 nor place1 nor employment1 but only after so long a time of expiation1 a complete and total remission of the sentence of the ,upper ,house1 to the end that blot of ignominy may be removed from me1 and from my memory and posterity1 that ,i die not a condemned man1 but may be to your ,majesty1 as ,i am to ,god1 nova creatura4 ,but the pardon never came4 ,sir ,john ,bennett1 who had been condemned as a corrupt judge by the same ,parliament1 and between whose case and ,bacon's there was as much difference1 ,i will not say as between black and white1 but as between black and gray1 had got his full pardon1 and they say shall sit in ,parliament4 ,lord ,suffolk had been one of ,bacon's judges4 ,i hope ,i deserve not to be the only outcast4 ,but whether the ,court did not care1 or whether1 as he once suspected1 there was some old enemy like ,coke1 who had a tooth against him1 and was watching any favour shown him1 he died without his wish being fulfilled1 to live out of want and to die out of ignominy4 ,bacon was undoubtedly an impoverished man1 and straitened in his means2 but this must be understood as in relation to the rank and position which he still held1 and the work which he wanted done for the ,instauratio4 ,his will1 dated a few months before his death1 shows that it would be a mistake to suppose that he was in penury4 ,he no doubt often wanted ready money1 and might be vexed by creditors4 ,but he kept a large household1 and was able to live in comfort at ,gray's ,inn or at ,gorhambury4 ,a man who speaks in his will of his four coach geldings and his best caroache1 besides many legacies1 and who proposes to found two lectures at the universities1 may have troubles about debts and be cramped in his expenditure1 but it is only relatively to his station that he can be said to be poor4 ,and to subordinate officers of the ,treasury who kept him out of his rights1 he could still write a sharp letter1 full of his old force and edge4 ,a few months before his death he thus wrote to the ,lord ,treasurer ,ley1 who probably had made some difficulty about a claim for money3 ,,my ,,lord1--,i humbly entreat your ,lordship1 and 7if ,i may use the word7 advise your ,lordship to make me a better answer4 ,your ,lordship is interested in honour1 in the opinion of all that hear how ,i am dealt with4 ,if your ,lordship malice me for ,long's cause1 surely it was one of the justest businesses that ever was in ,chancery4 ,i will avouch it2 and how deeply ,i was tempted therein1 your ,lordship knoweth best4 ,your ,lordship may do well to think of your grave as ,i do of mine2 and to beware of hardness of heart4 ,and as for fair words1 it is a wind by which neither your ,lordship nor any man else can sail long4 ,howsoever1 ,i am the man that shall give all due respects and reverence to your great place4 #bjth ,june1 #afbe4 ,,fr4 ,,st4 ,,alban4 ,bacon always claimed that he was not vindicative4 ,but considering how ,bishop ,williams1 when he was ,lord ,keeper1 had charged ,bacon with knavery and deceiving his creditors in the arrangements about his fine1 it is not a little strange to find that at the end of his life ,bacon had so completely made friends with him that he chose him as the person to whom he meant to leave his speeches and letters1 which he was willing should not be lost1 and also the charge of superintending two foundations of #bjj a year for ,natural ,science at the universities4 ,and the ,bishop accepted the charge4 ,the end of this1 one of the most pathetic of histories1 was at hand2 the end was not the less pathetic because it came in so homely a fashion4 ,on a cold day in ,march he stopped his coach in the snow on his way to ,highgate1 to try the effect of cold in arresting putrefaction4 ,he bought a hen from a woman by the way1 and stuffed it with snow4 ,he was taken with a bad chill1 which forced him to stop at a strange house1 ,lord ,arundel's1 to whom he wrote his last letter--a letter of apology for using his house4 ,he did not write the letter as a dying man4 ,but disease had fastened on him4 ,a few days after1 early on ,easter morning1 ,april #i1 #afbf1 he passed away4 ,he was buried at ,st4 ,albans1 in the ,church of ,st4 ,michael1 the only ,christian church within the walls of old ,verulam4 ,for my name and memory1 he said in his will1 ,i leave it to men's charitable speeches1 and to foreign nations and the next ages4 ,so he died3 the brightest1 richest1 largest mind but one1 in the age which had seen ,shakespeare and his fellows2 so bright and rich and large that there have been found those who identify him with the writer of ,hamlet and ,othello4 ,that is idle4 ,bacon could no more have written the plays than ,shakespeare could have prophesied the triumphs of natural philosophy4 ,so ended a career1 than which no other in his time had grander and nobler aims--aims1 however mistaken1 for the greatness and good of ,england2 aims for the enlargement of knowledge and truth1 and for the benefit of mankind4 ,so ended a career which had mounted slowly and painfully1 but resolutely1 to the highest pinnacle of greatness--greatness full of honour and beneficent activity--suddenly to plunge down to depths where honour and hope were irrecoverable4 ,so closed1 in disgrace and disappointment and neglect1 the last sad chapter of a life which had begun so brightly1 which had achieved such permanent triumphs1 which had lost itself so often in the tangles of insincerity and evil custom1 which was disfigured and marred by great misfortunes1 and still more by great mistakes of his own1 which was in many ways misunderstood not only by his generation but by himself1 but which he left in the constant and almost unaccountable faith that it would be understood and greatly honoured by posterity4 ,with all its glories1 it was the greatest shipwreck1 the greatest tragedy1 of an age which saw many4 ,but in these gloomy and dreary days of depression and vain hope to which his letters bear witness--three years and five months old in misery1 again later1 a long cleansing week of five years' expiation and more--his interest in his great undertaking and his industry never flagged4 ,the ,king did not want what he offered1 did not want his histories1 did not want his help about law4 ,well1 then1 he had work of his own on which his heart was set2 and if the ,king did not want his time1 he had the more for himself4 ,even in the busy days of his ,chancellorship he had prepared and carried through the press the ,novum ,organum1 which he published on the very eve of his fall4 ,it was one of those works which quicken a man's powers1 and prove to him what he can do2 and it had its effect4 ,his mind was never more alert than in these years of adversity1 his labour never more indefatigable1 his powers of expression never more keen and versatile and strong4 ,besides the political writings of grave argument for which he found time1 these five years teem with the results of work4 ,in the year before his death he sketched out once more1 in a letter to a ,venetian correspondent1 ,fra ,fulgenzio1 the friend of ,sarpi1 the plan of his great work1 on which he was still busy1 though with fast diminishing hopes of seeing it finished4 ,to another foreign correspondent1 a professor of philosophy at ,annecy1 and a distinguished mathematician1 ,father ,baranzan1 who had raised some questions about ,bacon's method1 and had asked what was to be done with metaphysics1 he wrote in eager acknowledgment of the interest which his writings had excited1 and insisting on the paramount necessity1 above everything1 of the observation of facts and of natural history1 out of which philosophy may be built4 ,but the most comprehensive view of his intellectual projects in all directions1 the fullest account of his own personal feelings and designs as a writer which we have from his own pen1 is given in a letter to the venerable friend of his early days1 ,bishop ,andrewes1 who died a few months after him4 ,part1 he says1 of his ,instauratio1 the work in mine own judgement 7si nunquam fallit imago7 ,i do most esteem1 has been published2 but because he doubts that it flies too high over men's heads1 he proposes to draw it down to the sense by examples of ,natural ,history4 ,he has enlarged and translated the ,advancement into the ,de ,augmentis4 ,because he could not altogether desert the civil person that he had borne1 he had begun a work on ,laws1 intermediate between philosophical jurisprudence and technical law4 ,he had hoped to compile a digest of ,english law1 but found it more than he could do alone1 and had laid it aside4 ,the ,instauratio had contemplated the good of men in the dowries of nature2 the ,laws1 their good in society and the dowries of government4 ,as he owed duty to his country1 and could no longer do it service1 he meant to do it honour by his history of ,henry ,,vii4 ,his ,essays were but recreations2 and remembering that all his writings had hitherto gone all into the ,city and none into the ,temple1 he wished to make some poor oblation1 and therefore had chosen an argument mixed of religious and civil considerations1 the dialogue of an ,holy ,war against the ,ottoman1 which he never finished1 but which he intended to dedicate to ,andrewes1 in respect of our ancient and private acquaintance1 and because amongst the men of our times ,i hold you in special reverence4 ,the question naturally presents itself1 in regard to a friend of ,bishop ,andrewes1 ,what was ,bacon as regards religion8 ,and the answer1 it seems to me1 can admit of no doubt4 ,the obvious and superficial thing to say is that his religion was but an official one1 a tribute to custom and opinion4 ,but it was not so4 ,both in his philosophical thinking1 and in the feelings of his mind in the various accidents and occasions of life1 ,bacon was a religious man1 with a serious and genuine religion4 ,his sense of the truth and greatness of religion was as real as his sense of the truth and greatness of nature2 they were interlaced together1 and could not be separated1 though they were to be studied separately and independently4 ,the call1 repeated through all his works from the earliest to the last1 ,da ,fidel qu ,fidel sunt1 was a warning against confusing the two1 but was an earnest recognition of the claims of each4 ,the solemn religious words in which his prefaces and general statements often wind up with thanksgiving and hope and prayer1 are no mere words of course2 they breathe the spirit of the deepest conviction4 ,it is true that he takes the religion of ,christendom as he finds it4 ,the grounds of belief1 the relation of faith to reason1 the profounder inquiries into the basis of man's knowledge of the ,eternal and ,invisible1 are out of the circle within which he works4 ,what we now call the philosophy of religion is absent from his writings4 ,in truth1 his mind was not qualified to grapple with such questions4 ,there is no sign in his writings that he ever tried his strength against them2 that he ever cared to go below the surface into the hidden things of mind1 and what mind deals with above and beyond sense--those metaphysical difficulties and depths1 as we call them1 which there is no escaping1 and which are as hard to explore and as dangerous to mistake as the forces and combinations of external nature4 ,but it does not follow1 because he had not asked all the questions that others have asked1 that he had not thought out his reasonable faith4 ,his religion was not one of mere vague sentiment3 it was the result of reflection and deliberate judgment4 ,it was the discriminating and intelligent ,church of ,england religion of ,hooker and ,andrewes1 which had gone back to something deeper and nobler in ,christianity than the popular ,calvinism of the earlier ,reformation2 and though sternly hostile to the system of the ,papacy1 both on religious and political grounds1 attempted to judge it with knowledge and justice4 ,this deliberate character of his belief is shown in the remarkable ,confession of ,faith which he left behind him3 a closely-reasoned and nobly-expressed survey of ,christian theology--a summa theologi1 digested into seven pages of the finest ,english of the days when its tones were finest4 ,the entire scheme of ,christian theology1 as ,mr4 ,spedding says1 is constantly in his thoughts2 underlies everything2 defines for him the limits of human speculation2 and1 as often as the course of inquiry touches at any point the boundary line1 never fails to present itself4 ,there is hardly any occasion or any kind of argument into which it does not at one time or another incidentally introduce itself4 ,doubtless it was a religion which in him was compatible1 as it has been in others1 with grave faults of temperament and character4 ,but it is impossible to doubt that it was honest1 that it elevated his thoughts1 that it was a refuge and stay in the times of trouble4 ,,chapter ,,viii4 ,,bacon',s ,,philosophy4 ,bacon was one of those men to whom posterity forgives a great deal for the greatness of what he has done and attempted for posterity4 ,it is idle1 unless all honest judgment is foregone1 to disguise the many deplorable shortcomings of his life2 it is unjust to have one measure for him1 and another for those about him and opposed to him4 ,but it is not too much to say that in temper1 in honesty1 in labour1 in humility1 in reverence1 he was the most perfect example that the world had yet seen of the student of nature1 the enthusiast for knowledge4 ,that such a man was tempted and fell1 and suffered the ,nemesis of his fall1 is an instance of the awful truth embodied in the tragedy of ,faust4 ,but his genuine devotion1 so unwearied and so paramount1 to a great idea and a great purpose for the good of all generations to come1 must shield him from the insult of ,pope's famous and shallow epigram4 ,whatever may have been his sins1 and they were many1 he cannot have been the meanest of mankind1 who lived and died1 holding unaltered1 amid temptations and falls1 so noble a conception of the use and calling of his life3 the duty and service of helping his brethren to know as they had never yet learned to know4 ,that thought never left him2 the obligations it imposed were never forgotten in the crush and heat of business2 the toils1 thankless at the time1 which it heaped upon him in addition to the burdens of public life were never refused4 ,nothing diverted him1 nothing made him despair4 ,he was not discouraged because he was not understood4 ,there never was any one in whose life the ,souverainet du but was more certain and more apparent2 and that object was the second greatest that man can have4 ,to teach men to know is only next to making them good4 ,the ,baconian philosophy1 the reforms of the ,novum ,organum1 the method of experiment and induction1 are commonplaces1 and sometimes lead to a misconception of what ,bacon did4 ,bacon is1 and is not1 the founder of modern science4 ,what ,bacon believed could be done1 what he hoped and divined1 for the correction and development of human knowledge1 was one thing2 what his methods were1 and how far they were successful1 is another4 ,it would hardly be untrue to say that though ,bacon is the parent of modern science1 his methods contributed nothing to its actual discoveries2 neither by possibility could they have done so4 ,the great and wonderful work which the world owes to him was in the idea1 and not in the execution4 ,the idea was that the systematic and wide examination of facts was the first thing to be done in science1 and that till this had been done faithfully and impartially1 with all the appliances and all the safeguards that experience and forethought could suggest1 all generalisations1 all anticipations from mere reasoning1 must be adjourned and postponed2 and further1 that sought on these conditions1 knowledge1 certain and fruitful1 beyond all that men then imagined1 could be attained4 ,his was the faith of the discoverer1 the imagination of the poet1 the voice of the prophet4 ,but his was not the warrior's arm1 the engineer's skill1 the architect's creativeness4 ,i only sound the clarion1 he says1 but ,i enter not into the battle2 and with a ,greek quotation very rare with him1 he compares himself to one of ,homer's peaceful heralds1 ,greek3 chairete krukes1 ,dios angeloi de kai andrn4 ,even he knew not the full greatness of his own enterprise4 ,he underrated the vastness and the subtlety of nature4 ,he overrated his own appliances to bring it under his command4 ,he had not that incommunicable genius and instinct of the investigator which in such men as ,faraday close hand to hand with phenomena4 ,his weapons and instruments wanted precision2 they were powerful up to a certain point1 but they had the clumsiness of an unpractised time4 ,cowley compared him to ,moses on ,pisgah surveying the promised land2 it was but a distant survey1 and ,newton was the ,joshua who began to take possession of it4 ,the idea of the great enterprise1 in its essential outline1 and with a full sense of its originality and importance1 was early formed1 and was even sketched on paper with ,bacon's characteristic self-reliance when he was but twenty-five4 ,looking back1 in a letter written in the last year of his life1 on the ardour and constancy with which he had clung to his faith--in that purpose my mind never waxed old2 in that long interval of time it never cooled--he remarks that it was then forty years since he put together a youthful essay on these matters1 which with vast confidence ,i called by the high-sounding title1 ,the ,greatest ,birth of ,time4 ,the ,greatest ,birth of ,time1 whatever it was1 has perished1 though the name1 altered to ,partus ,temporis ,masculus has survived1 attached to some fragments of uncertain date and arrangement4 ,but in very truth the child was born1 and1 as ,bacon says1 for forty years grew and developed1 with many changes yet the same4 ,bacon was most tenacious1 not only of ideas1 but even of the phrases1 images1 and turns of speech in which they had once flashed on him and taken shape in his mind4 ,the features of his undertaking remained the same from first to last1 only expanded and enlarged as time went on and experience widened2 his conviction that the knowledge of nature1 and with it the power to command and to employ nature1 were within the capacity of mankind and might be restored to them2 the certainty that of this knowledge men had as yet acquired but the most insignificant part1 and that all existing claims to philosophical truth were as idle and precarious as the guesses and traditions of the vulgar2 his belief that no greater object could be aimed at than to sweep away once and for ever all this sham knowledge and all that supported it1 and to lay an entirely new and clear foundation to build on for the future2 his assurance that1 as it was easy to point out with fatal and luminous certainty the rottenness and hollowness of all existing knowledge and philosophy1 so it was equally easy to devise and practically apply new and natural methods of investigation and construction1 which should replace it by knowledge of infallible truth and boundless fruitfulness4 ,his object--to gain the key to the interpretation of nature2 his method--to gain it1 not by the means common to all previous schools of philosophy1 by untested reasonings and imposing and high-sounding generalisations1 but by a series and scale of rigorously verified inductions1 starting from the lowest facts of experience to discoveries which should prove and realise themselves by leading deductively to practical results--these1 in one form or another1 were the theme of his philosophical writings from the earliest sight of them that we gain4 ,he had disclosed what was in his mind in the letter to ,lord ,burghley1 written when he was thirty-one 7#aeij_/ia71 in which he announced that he had taken all knowledge for his province1 to purge it of 'frivolous disputations' and 'blind experiments1' and that whatever happened to him1 he meant to be a 'true pioneer in the mine of truth4' ,but the first public step in the opening of his great design was the publication in the autumn of #afje of the ,advancement of ,learning1 a careful and balanced report on the existing stock and deficiencies of human knowledge4 ,his endeavours1 as he says in the ,advancement itself1 are but as an image in a cross-way1 that may point out the way1 but cannot go it4 ,but from this image of his purpose1 his thoughts greatly widened as time went on4 ,the ,advancement1 in part at least1 was probably a hurried work4 ,it shadowed out1 but only shadowed out1 the lines of his proposed reform of philosophical thought2 it showed his dissatisfaction with much that was held to be sound and complete1 and showed the direction of his ideas and hopes4 ,but it was many years before he took a further step4 ,active life intervened4 ,in #afbj1 at the height of his prosperity1 on the eve of his fall1 he published the long meditated ,novum ,organum1 the avowed challenge to the old philosophies1 the engine and instrument of thought and discovery which was to put to shame and supersede all others1 containing1 in part at least1 the principles of that new method of the use of experience which was to be the key to the interpretation and command of nature1 and1 together with the method1 an elaborate but incomplete exemplification of its leading processes4 ,here were summed up1 and stated with the most solemn earnestness1 the conclusions to which long study and continual familiarity with the matters in question had led him4 ,and with the ,novum ,organum was at length disclosed1 though only in outline1 the whole of the vast scheme in all its parts1 object1 method1 materials1 results1 for the ,instauration of human knowledge1 the restoration of powers lost1 disused1 neglected1 latent1 but recoverable by honesty1 patience1 courage1 and industry4 ,the ,instauratio1 as he planned the work1 is to be divided1 says ,mr4 ,ellis1 into six portions1 of which the first is to contain a general survey of the present state of knowledge4 ,in the second1 men are to be taught how to use their understanding aright in the investigation of nature4 ,in the third1 all the phenomena of the universe are to be stored up as in a treasure-house1 as the materials on which the new method is to be employed4 ,in the fourth1 examples are to be given of its operation and of the results to which it leads4 ,the fifth is to contain what ,bacon had accomplished in natural philosophy without the aid of his own method1 ex eodem intellects usu quem alii in inquirendo et inveniendo adhibere consueverunt4 ,it is therefore less important than the rest1 and ,bacon declares that he will not bind himself to the conclusions which it contains4 ,moreover1 its value will altogether cease when the sixth part can be completed1 wherein will be set forth the new philosophy--the results of the application of the new method to all the phenomena of the universe4 ,but to complete this1 the last part of the ,instauratio1 ,bacon does not hope2 he speaks of it as a thing1 et supra vires et ultra spes nostras collocata4--,works1 i4 #ga4 ,the ,novum ,organum1 itself imperfect1 was the crown of all that he lived to do4 ,it was followed 7#afbb7 by the publication1 intended to be periodical1 of materials for the new philosophy to work upon1 particular sections and classes of observations on phenomena--the ,history of the ,winds1 the ,history of ,life and ,death4 ,others were partly prepared but not published by him4 ,and finally1 in #afbc1 he brought out in ,latin a greatly enlarged recasting of the ,advancement2 the nine books of the ,de ,augmentis4 ,but the great scheme was not completed2 portions were left more or less finished4 ,much that he purposed was left undone1 and could not have been yet done at that time4 ,but the works which he published represent imperfectly the labour spent on the undertaking4 ,besides these there remains a vast amount of unused or rejected work1 which shows how it was thought out1 rearranged1 tried first in one fashion and then in another1 recast1 developed4 ,separate chapters1 introductions1 experimental essays and discarded beginnings1 treatises with picturesque and imaginative titles1 succeeded one another in that busy work-shop2 and these first drafts and tentative essays have in them some of the freshest and most felicitous forms of his thoughts4 ,at one time his enterprise1 connecting itself with his own life and mission1 rose before his imagination and kindled his feelings1 and embodied itself in the lofty and stately ,proem already quoted4 ,his quick and brilliant imagination saw shadows and figures of his ideas in the ancient mythology1 which he worked out with curious ingenuity and often much poetry in his ,wisdom of the ,ancients4 ,towards the end of his life he began to embody his thoughts and plans in a philosophical tale1 which he did not finish--the ,new ,atlantis--a charming example of his graceful fancy and of his power of easy and natural story-telling4 ,between the ,advancement and the ,novum ,organum 7#afje-bj7 much underground work had been done4 ,he had finally 7about #afjg7 settled the plan of the ,great ,instauration1 and began to call it by that name4 ,the plan1 first in three or four divisions1 had been finally digested into six4 ,vague outlines had become definite and clear4 ,distinct portions had been worked out4 ,various modes of treatment had been tried1 abandoned1 modified4 ,prefaces were written to give the sketch and purpose of chapters not yet composed4 ,the ,novum ,organum had been written and rewritten twelve times over4 ,bacon kept his papers1 and we can trace in the unused portion of those left behind him much of the progress of his work1 and the shapes which much of it went through4 ,the ,advancement itself is the filling-out and perfecting of what is found in germ1 meagre and rudimentary1 in a ,discourse in ,praise of ,knowledge1 written in the days of ,elizabeth1 and in some ,latin chapters of an early date1 the ,cogitationes de ,scientia ,humana1 on the limits and use of knowledge1 and on the relation of natural history to natural philosophy4 ,these early essays1 with much of the same characteristic illustration1 and many of the favourite images and maxims and texts and phrases1 which continue to appear in his writings to the end1 contain the thoughts of a man long accustomed to meditate and to see his way on the new aspects of knowledge opening upon him4 ,and before the ,advancement he had already tried his hand on a work intended to be in two books1 which ,mr4 ,ellis describes as a great work on the ,interpretation of ,nature1 the earliest type of the ,instauratio1 and which ,bacon called by the enigmatical name of ,valerius ,terminus4 ,in it1 as in a second draft1 which in its turn was superseded by the ,advancement1 the line of thought of the ,latin ,cogitationes reappears1 expanded and more carefully ordered2 it contains also the first sketch of his certain and infallible method for what he calls the freeing of the direction in the search after ,truth1 and the first indications of the four classes of ,idols which were to be so memorable a portion of ,bacon's teaching4 ,and between the ,advancement and the ,novum ,organum at least one unpublished treatise of great interest intervened1 the ,visa et ,cogitata1 on which he was long employed1 and which he brought to a finished shape1 fit to be submitted to his friends and critics1 ,sir ,thomas ,bodley and ,bishop ,andrewes4 ,it is spoken of as a book to be imparted sicut videbitur1 in the review which he made of his life and objects soon after he was made ,solicitor in #afjh4 ,a number of fragments also bear witness to the fierce scorn and wrath which possessed him against the older and the received philosophies4 ,he tried his hand at declamatory onslaughts on the leaders of human wisdom1 from the early ,greeks and ,aristotle down to the latest novellists2 and he certainly succeeded in being magnificently abusive4 ,but he thought wisely that this was not the best way of doing what in the ,commentarius ,solutus he calls on himself to do--taking a greater confidence and authority in discourses of this nature1 tanquam sui certus et de alto despiciens2 and the rhetorical ,redargutio ,philosophiarum and writings of kindred nature were laid aside by his more serious judgment4 ,but all these fragments witness to the immense and unwearied labour bestowed in the midst of a busy life on his undertaking2 they suggest1 too1 the suspicion that there was much waste from interruption1 and the doubt whether his work would not have been better if it could have been more steadily continuous4 ,but if ever a man had a great object in life1 and pursued it through good and evil report1 through ardent hope and keen disappointment1 to the end1 with unwearied patience and unshaken faith1 it was ,bacon1 when he sought the improvement of human knowledge for the glory of ,god and the relief of man's estate4 ,it is not the least part of the pathetic fortune of his life that his own success was so imperfect4 ,when a reader first comes from the vague1 popular notions of ,bacon's work to his definite proposals the effect is startling4 ,every one has heard that he contemplated a complete reform of the existing conceptions of human knowledge1 and of the methods by which knowledge was to be sought2 that rejecting them as vitiated1 by the loose and untested way in which they had been formed1 he called men from verbal generalisations and unproved assumptions to come down face to face with the realities of experience2 that he substituted for formal reasoning1 from baseless premises and unmeaning principles1 a methodical system of cautious and sifting inference from wide observation and experiment2 and that he thus opened the path which modern science thenceforth followed1 with its amazing and unexhausted discoveries1 and its vast and beneficent practical results4 ,we credit all this to ,bacon1 and assuredly not without reason4 ,all this is what was embraced in his vision of a changed world of thought and achievement4 ,all this is what was meant by that ,regnum ,hominis1 which1 with a play on sacred words which his age did not shrink from1 and which he especially pleased himself with1 marked the coming of that hitherto unimagined empire of man over the powers and forces which encompassed him4 ,but the detail of all this is multifarious and complicated1 and is not always what we expect2 and when we come to see how his work is estimated by those who1 by greatest familiarity with scientific ideas and the history of scientific inquiries1 are best fitted to judge of it1 many a surprise awaits us4 ,for we find that the greatest differences of opinion exist on the value of what he did4 ,not only very unfavourable judgments have been passed upon it1 on general grounds--as an irreligious1 or a shallow and one-sided1 or a poor and utilitarian philosophy1 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 genius1 and with the deepest love and reverence have spared no pains to do it full justice1 have yet come to the conclusion that as an instrument and real method of work ,bacon's attempt was a failure4 ,it is not only ,de ,maistre and ,lord ,macaulay who dispute his philosophical eminence4 ,it is not only the depreciating opinion of a contemporary like ,harvey1 who was actually doing what ,bacon was writing about4 ,it is not only that men who after the long history of modern science have won their place among its leaders1 and are familiar by daily experience with the ways in which it works--a chemist like ,liebig1 a physiologist like ,claude ,bernard--say that they can find nothing to help them in ,bacon's methods4 ,it is not only that a clear and exact critic like ,m4 de ,rmusat looks at his attempt1 with its success and failure1 as characteristic of ,english1 massive1 practical good sense rather than as marked by real philosophical depth and refinement1 such as ,continental thinkers point to and are proud of in ,descartes and ,leibnitz4 ,it is not even that a competent master of the whole domain of knowledge1 ,whewell1 filled with the deepest sense of all that the world owes to ,bacon1 takes for granted that though ,bacon's general maxims are sagacious and animating1 his particular precepts failed in his hands1 and are now practically useless2 and assuming that ,bacon's method is not the right one1 and not complete as far as the progress of science up to his time could direct it1 proceeds to construct a ,novum ,organum ,renovatum4 ,but ,bacon's writings have recently undergone the closest examination by two editors1 whose care for his memory is as loyal and affectionate as their capacity is undoubted1 and their willingness to take trouble boundless4 ,and ,mr4 ,ellis and ,mr4 ,spedding1 with all their interest in every detail of ,bacon's work1 and admiration of the way in which he performed it1 make no secret of their conclusion that he failed in the very thing on which he was most bent--the discovery of practical and fruitful ways of scientific inquiry4 ,bacon1 says ,mr4 ,spedding1 failed to devise a practicable method for the discovery of the ,forms of ,nature1 because he misconceived the conditions of the case4444 ,for the same reason he failed to make any single discovery which holds its place as one of the steps by which science has in any direction really advanced4 ,the clew with which he entered the labyrinth did not reach far enough2 before he had nearly attained his end he was obliged either to come back or to go on without it4 ,his peculiar system of philosophy1 says ,mr4 ,spedding in another preface1 that is to say1 the peculiar method of investigation1 the organum1 the formula1 the clavis1 the ars ipsa interpretandi naturam1 the filum ,labyrinthi1 or by whatever of its many names we choose to call that artificial process by which alone he believed man could attain a knowledge of the laws and a command over the powers of nature--of this philosophy we can make nothing4 ,if we have not tried it1 it is because we feel confident that it would not answer4 ,we regard it as a curious piece of machinery1 very subtle1 elaborate1 and ingenious1 but not worth constructing1 because all the work it could do may be done more easily another way4--,works1 iii4 #aga4 ,what his method really was is itself a matter of question4 ,mr4 ,ellis speaks of it as a matter but imperfectly apprehended4 ,he differs from his fellow-labourer ,mr4 ,spedding1 in what he supposes to be its central and characteristic innovation4 ,mr4 ,ellis finds it in an improvement and perfection of logical machinery4 ,mr4 ,spedding finds it in the formation of a great natural and experimental history1 a vast collection of facts in every department of nature1 which was to be a more important part of his philosophy than the ,novum ,organum itself4 ,both of them think that as he went on1 the difficulties of the work grew upon him1 and caused alterations in his plans1 and we are reminded that there is no didactic exposition of his method in the whole of his writings1 and that this has not been sufficiently remarked by those who have spoken of his philosophy4 ,in the first place1 the kind of intellectual instrument which he proposed to construct was a mistake4 ,his great object was to place the human mind on a level with things and nature 7ut faciamus intellectum humanum rebus et natur parem71 and this could only be done by a revolution in methods4 ,the ancients had all that genius could do for man2 but it was a matter1 he said1 not of the strength and fleetness of the running1 but of the rightness of the way4 ,it was a new method1 absolutely different from anything known1 which he proposed to the world1 and which should lead men to knowledge1 with the certainty and with the impartial facility of a high-road4 ,the ,induction which he imagined to himself as the contrast to all that had yet been tried was to have two qualities4 ,it was to end1 by no very prolonged or difficult processes1 in absolute certainty4 ,and next1 it was to leave very little to the differences of intellectual power3 it was to level minds and capacities4 ,it was to give all men the same sort of power which a pair of compasses gives the hand in drawing a circle4 ,absolute certainty1 and a mechanical mode of procedure says ,mr4 ,ellis1 such that all men should be capable of employing it1 are the two great features of the ,baconian system4 ,this he thought possible1 and this he set himself to expound--a method universally applicable1 and in all cases infallible4 ,in this he saw the novelty and the vast importance of his discovery4 ,by this method all the knowledge which the human mind was capable of receiving might be attained1 and attained without unnecessary labour4 ,it was a method of a demonstrative character1 with the power of reducing all minds to nearly the same level4 ,the conception1 indeed1 of a great ,art of knowledge1 of an ,instauration of the sciences1 of a ,clavis which should unlock the difficulties which had hindered discovery1 was not a new one4 ,this attempt at a method which should be certain1 which should level capacities1 which should do its work in a short time1 had a special attraction for the imagination of the wild spirits of the ,south1 from ,raimond ,lulli in the thirteenth century to the audacious ,calabrians of the sixteenth4 ,with ,bacon it was something much more serious and reasonable and business-like4 ,but such a claim has never yet been verified2 there is no reason to think that it ever can be2 and to have made it shows a fundamental defect in ,bacon's conception of the possibilities of the human mind and the field it has to work in4 ,in the next place1 though the prominence which he gave to the doctrine of ,induction was one of those novelties which are so obvious after the event1 though so strange before it1 and was undoubtedly the element in his system which gave it life and power and influence on the course of human thought and discovery1 his account of ,induction was far from complete and satisfactory4 ,without troubling himself about the theory of ,induction1 as ,de ,rmusat has pointed out1 he contented himself with applying to its use the precepts of common-sense and a sagacious perception of the circumstances in which it was to be employed4 ,but even these precepts1 notable as they were1 wanted distinctness1 and the qualities needed for working rules4 ,the change is great when in fifty years we pass from the poetical science of ,bacon to the mathematical and precise science of ,newton4 ,his own time may well have been struck by the originality and comprehensiveness of such a discriminating arrangement of proofs as the ,prerogative ,instances of the ,novum ,organum1 so natural and real1 yet never before thus compared and systematized4 ,but there is a great interval between his method of experimenting1 his ,hunt of ,pan--the three tables of ,instances1 ,presence1 ,absence and ,degrees1 or ,comparisons1 leading to a process of sifting and exclusion1 and to the ,first ,vintage1 or beginnings of theory--and say1 for instance1 ,mill's four methods of experimental inquiry3 the method of agreement1 of differences1 of residues1 and of concomitant variations4 ,the course which he marked out so laboriously and so ingeniously for ,induction to follow was one which was found to be impracticable1 and as barren of results as those deductive philosophies on which he lavished his scorn4 ,he has left precepts and examples of what he meant by his cross-examining and sifting processes4 ,as admonitions to cross-examine and to sift facts and phenomena they are valuable4 ,many of the observations and classifications are subtle and instructive4 ,but in his hands nothing comes of them4 ,they lead at the utmost to mere negative conclusions2 they show what a thing is not4 ,but his attempt to elicit anything positive out of them breaks down1 or ends at best in divinations and guesses1 sometimes--as in connecting ,heat and ,motion--very near to later and more carefully-grounded theories1 but always unverified4 ,he had a radically false and mechanical conception1 though in words he earnestly disclaims it1 of the way to deal with the facts of nature4 ,he looked on them as things which told their own story1 and suggested the questions which ought to be put to them2 and with this idea half his time was spent in collecting huge masses of indigested facts of the most various authenticity and value1 and he thought he was collecting materials which his method had only to touch in order to bring forth from them light and truth and power4 ,he thought that1 not in certain sciences1 but in all1 one set of men could do the observing and collecting1 and another be set on the work of ,induction and the discovery of axioms4 ,doubtless in the arrangement and sorting of them his versatile and ingenious mind gave itself full play2 he divides and distinguishes them into their companies and groups1 different kinds of ,motion1 ,prerogative instances1 with their long tale of imaginative titles4 ,but we look in vain for any use that he was able to make of them1 or even to suggest4 ,bacon never adequately realised that no promiscuous assemblage of even the most certain facts could ever lead to knowledge1 could ever suggest their own interpretation1 without the action on them of the living mind1 without the initiative of an idea4 ,in truth he was so afraid of assumptions and anticipations and prejudices--his great bugbear was so much the intellectus sibi permissus the mind given liberty to guess and imagine and theorise1 instead of1 as it ought1 absolutely and servilely submitting itself to the control of facts--that he missed the true place of the rational and formative element in his account of ,induction4 ,he does tell us1 indeed1 that truth emerges sooner from error than from confusion4 ,he indulges the mind1 in the course of its investigation of ,instances1 with a first vintage of provisional generalisations4 ,but of the way in which the living mind of the discoverer works1 with its ideas and insight1 and thoughts that come no one knows whence1 working hand in hand with what comes before the eye or is tested by the instrument1 he gives us no picture4 ,compare his elaborate investigation of the ,form of ,heat in the ,novum ,organum1 with such a record of real inquiry as ,wells's ,treatise on ,dew1 or ,herschel's analysis of it in his ,introduction to ,natural ,philosophy4 ,and of the difference of genius between a ,faraday or a ,newton1 and the crowd of average men who have used and finished off their work1 he takes no account4 ,indeed1 he thinks that for the future such difference is to disappear4 ,that his method is impracticable1 says ,mr4 ,ellis1 cannot1 ,i think1 be denied1 if we reflect not only that it never has produced any result1 but also that the process by which scientific truths have been established cannot be so presented as even to appear to be in accordance with it4 ,in all cases this process involves an element to which nothing corresponds in the ,tables of ',comparence' and ',exclusion1' namely1 the application to the facts of observation of a principle of arrangement1 an idea1 existing in the mind of the discoverer antecedently to the act of induction4 ,it may be said that this idea is precisely one of the natur into which the facts of observation ought in ,bacon's system to be analysed4 ,and this is in one sense true2 but it must be added that this analysis1 if it be thought right so to call it1 is of the essence of the discovery which results from it4 ,in most cases the act of induction follows as a matter of course as soon as the appropriate idea has been introduced4--,ellis1 ,general ,preface1 i4 #ch4 ,lastly1 not only was ,bacon's conception of philosophy so narrow as to exclude one of its greatest domains2 for1 says ,mr4 ,ellis1 it cannot be denied that to ,bacon all sound philosophy seemed to be included in what we now call the natural sciences1 and in all its parts was claimed as the subject of his inductive method2 but ,bacon's scientific knowledge and scientific conceptions were often very imperfect--more imperfect than they ought to have been for his time4 ,of one large part of science1 which was just then beginning to be cultivated with high promise of success--the knowledge of the heavens--he speaks with a coldness and suspicion which contrasts remarkably with his eagerness about things belonging to the sphere of the earth and within reach of the senses4 ,he holds1 of course1 the unity of the world2 the laws of the whole visible universe are one order2 but the heavens1 wonderful as they are to him1 are--compared with other things--out of his track of inquiry4 ,he had his astronomical theories2 he expounded them in his ,descriptio ,globi ,intellectualis and his ,thema ,coeli ,he was not altogether ignorant of what was going on in days when ,copernicus1 ,kepler1 and ,galileo were at work4 ,but he did not know how to deal with it1 and there were men in ,england1 before and then1 who understood much better than he the problems and the methods of astronomy4 ,he had one conspicuous and strange defect for a man who undertook what he did4 ,he was not a mathematician3 he did not see the indispensable necessity of mathematics in the great ,instauration which he projected2 he did not much believe in what they could do4 ,he cared so little about them that he takes no notice of ,napier's invention of ,logarithms4 ,he was not able to trace how the direct information of the senses might be rightly subordinated to the rational1 but not self-evident results of geometry and arithmetic4 ,he was impatient of the subtleties of astronomical calculations2 they only attempted to satisfy problems about the motion of bodies in the sky1 and told us nothing of physical fact2 they gave us1 as ,prometheus gave to ,jove1 the outside skin of the offering1 which was stuffed inside with straw and rubbish4 ,he entirely failed to see that before dealing with physical astronomy1 it must be dealt with mathematically4 ,it is well to remark1 as ,mr4 ,ellis says1 that none of ,newton's astronomical discoveries could have been made if astronomers had not continued to render themselves liable to ,bacon's censure4 ,bacon little thought that in navigation the compass itself would become a subordinate instrument compared with the helps given by mathematical astronomy4 ,in this1 and in other ways1 ,bacon rose above his time in his conceptions of what might be1 but not of what was2 the list is a long one1 as given by ,mr4 ,spedding 7iii4 #eaa71 of the instances which show that he was ill-informed about the advances of knowledge in his own time4 ,and his mind was often not clear when he came to deal with complex phenomena4 ,thus1 though he constructed a table of specific gravities--the only collection1 says ,mr4 ,ellis1 of quantitative experiments that we find in his works1 and wonderfully accurate considering the manner in which they were obtained2 yet he failed to understand the real nature of the famous experiment of ,archimedes4 ,and so with the larger features of his teaching it is impossible not to feel how imperfectly he had emancipated himself from the power of words and of common prepossessions2 how for one reason or another he had failed to call himself to account in the terms he employed1 and the assumptions on which he argued4 ,the caution does not seem to have occurred to him that the statement of a fact may1 in nine cases out of ten1 involve a theory4 ,his whole doctrine of ,forms and ,simple natures1 which is so prominent in his method of investigation1 is an example of loose and slovenly use of unexamined and untested ideas4 ,he allowed himself to think that it would be possible to arrive at an alphabet of nature1 which1 once attained1 would suffice to spell out and constitute all its infinite combinations4 ,he accepted1 without thinking it worth a doubt1 the doctrine of appetites and passions and inclinations and dislikes and horrors in inorganic nature4 ,his whole physiology of life and death depends on a doctrine of animal spirits1 of which he traces the operations and qualities as if they were as certain as the nerves or the blood1 and of which he gives this account--that in every tangible body there is a spirit covered and enveloped in the grosser body2 not a virtue1 not an energy1 not an actuality1 nor any such idle matter1 but a body thin and invisible1 and yet having place and dimension1 and real4 444 a middle nature between flame1 which is momentary1 and air which is permanent4 ,yet these are the very things for which he holds up ,aristotle and the ,scholastics and the ,italian speculators to reprobation and scorn4 ,the clearness of his thinking was often overlaid by the immense profusion of decorative material which his meditation brought along with it4 ,the defect was greater than that which even his ablest defenders admit4 ,it was more than that in that greatest and radical difference1 which he himself observes between minds1 the difference between minds which were apt to note distinctions1 and those which were apt to note likenesses1 he was1 without knowing it1 defective in the first4 ,it was that in many instances he exemplified in his own work the very faults which he charged on the older philosophies3 haste1 carelessness1 precipitancy1 using words without thinking them out1 assuming to know when he ought to have perceived his real ignorance4 ,what1 then1 with all these mistakes and failures1 not always creditable or pardonable1 has given ,bacon his preeminent place in the history of science8 #a4 ,the answer is that with all his mistakes and failures1 the principles on which his mode of attaining a knowledge of nature was based were the only true ones2 and they had never before been propounded so systematically1 so fully1 and so earnestly4 ,his was not the first mind on whom these principles had broken4 ,men were1 and had been for some time1 pursuing their inquiries into various departments of nature precisely on the general plan of careful and honest observation of real things which he enjoined4 ,they had seen1 as he saw1 the futility of all attempts at natural philosophy by mere thinking and arguing1 without coming into contact with the contradictions or corrections or verifications of experience4 ,in ,italy1 in ,germany1 in ,england there were laborious and successful workers1 who had long felt that to be in touch with nature was the only way to know4 ,but no one had yet come before the world to proclaim this on the house-tops1 as the key of the only certain path to the secrets of nature1 the watchword of a revolution in the methods of interpreting her2 and this ,bacon did with an imposing authority and power which enforced attention4 ,he spoke the thoughts of patient toilers like ,harvey with a largeness and richness which they could not command1 and which they perhaps smiled at4 ,he disentangled and spoke the vague thoughts of his age1 which other men had not the courage and clearness of mind to formulate4 ,what ,bacon did1 indeed1 and what he meant1 are separate matters4 ,he meant an infallible method by which man should be fully equipped for a struggle with nature2 he meant an irresistible and immediate conquest1 within a definite and not distant time4 ,it was too much4 ,he himself saw no more of what he meant than ,columbus did of ,america4 ,but what he did was to persuade men for the future that the intelligent1 patient1 persevering cross-examination of things1 and the thoughts about them1 was the only1 and was the successful road to know4 ,no one had yet done this1 and he did it4 ,his writings were a public recognition of real science1 in its humblest tasks about the commonplace facts before our feet1 as well as in its loftiest achievements4 ,the man who is growing great and happy by electrifying a bottle1 says ,dr4 ,johnson1 wonders to see the world engaged in the prattle about peace and war1 and the world was ready to smile at the simplicity or the impertinence of his enthusiasm4 ,bacon impressed upon the world for good1 with every resource of subtle observation and forcible statement1 that the man who is growing great by electrifying a bottle is as important a person in the world's affairs as the arbiter of peace and war4 #b4 ,yet this is not all4 ,an inferior man might have made himself the mouthpiece of the hopes and aspirations of his generation after a larger science4 ,but to ,bacon these aspirations embodied themselves in the form of a great and absorbing idea2 an idea which took possession of the whole man1 kindling in him a faith which nothing could quench1 and a passion which nothing could dull2 an idea which1 for forty years1 was his daily companion1 his daily delight1 his daily business2 an idea which he was never tired of placing in ever fresh and more attractive lights1 from which no trouble could wean him1 about which no disaster could make him despair2 an idea round which the instincts and intuitions and obstinate convictions of genius gathered1 which kindled his rich imagination and was invested by it with a splendour and magnificence like the dreams of fable4 ,it is this idea which finds its fitting expression in the grand and stately aphorisms of the ,novum ,organum1 in the varied fields of interest in the ,de ,augmentis1 in the romance of the ,new ,atlantis4 ,it is this idea1 this certainty of a new unexplored ,kingdom of ,knowledge within the reach and grasp of man1 if he will be humble enough and patient enough and truthful enough to occupy it--this announcement not only of a new system of thought1 but of a change in the condition of the world--a prize and possession such as man had not yet imagined2 this belief in the fortunes of the human race and its issue1 such an issue1 it may be1 as in the present condition of things and men's minds cannot easily be conceived or imagined1 yet more than verified in the wonders which our eyes have seen--it is this which gives its prerogative to ,bacon's work4 ,that he bungled about the processes of ,induction1 that he talked about an unintelligible doctrine of ,forms1 did not affect the weight and solemnity of his call to learn1 so full of wisdom and good-sense1 so sober and so solid1 yet so audaciously confident4 ,there had been nothing like it in its ardour of hope1 in the glory which it threw around the investigation of nature4 ,it was the presence and the power of a great idea--long become a commonplace to us1 but strange and perplexing at first to his own generation1 which probably shared ,coke's opinion that it qualified its champion for a place in the company of the ,ship of ,fools1 which expressed its opinion of the man who wrote the ,novum ,organum1 in the sentiment that a fool could not have written it1 and a wise man would not--it is this which has placed ,bacon among the great discoverers of the human race4 ,it is this imaginative yet serious assertion of the vast range and possibilities of human knowledge which1 as ,m4 de ,rmusat remarks--the keenest and fairest of ,bacon's judges--gives ,bacon his claim to the undefinable but very real character of greatness4 ,two men stand out1 the masters of those who know1 without equals up to their time1 among men--the ,greek ,aristotle and the ,englishman ,bacon4 ,they agree in the universality and comprehensiveness of their conception of human knowledge2 and they were absolutely alone in their serious practical ambition to work out this conception4 ,in the separate departments of thought1 of investigation1 of art1 each is left far behind by numbers of men1 who in these separate departments have gone far deeper than they1 have soared higher1 have been more successful in what they attempted4 ,but ,aristotle first1 and for his time more successfully1 and ,bacon after him1 ventured on the daring enterprise of taking all knowledge for their province2 and in this they stood alone4 ,this present scene of man's existence1 this that we call nature1 the stage on which mortal life begins and goes on and ends1 the faculties with which man is equipped to act1 to enjoy1 to create1 to hold his way amid or against the circumstances and forces round him--this is what each wants to know1 as thoroughly and really as can be4 ,it is not to reduce things to a theory or a system that they look around them on the place where they find themselves with life and thought and power2 that were easily done1 and has been done over and over again1 only to prove its futility4 ,it is to know1 as to the whole and its parts1 as men understand knowing in some one subject of successful handling1 whether art or science or practical craft4 ,this idea1 this effort1 distinguishes these two men4 ,the ,greeks--predecessors1 contemporaries1 successors of ,aristotle--were speculators1 full of clever and ingenious guesses1 in which the amount of clear and certain fact was in lamentable disproportion to the schemes blown up from it2 or they devoted themselves more profitably to some one or two subjects of inquiry1 moral or purely intellectual1 with absolute indifference to what might be asked1 or what might be known1 of the real conditions under which they were passing their existence4 ,some of the ,romans1 ,cicero and ,pliny1 had encyclopdic minds2 but the ,roman mind was the slave of precedent1 and was more than satisfied with partially understanding and neatly arranging what the ,greeks had left4 ,the ,arabians looked more widely about them2 but the ,arabians were essentially sceptics1 and resigned subjects to the inevitable and the inexplicable2 there was an irony1 open or covert1 in their philosophy1 their terminology1 their transcendental mysticism1 which showed how little they believed that they really knew4 ,the vast and mighty intellects of the schoolmen never came into a real grapple with the immensity of the facts of the natural or even of the moral world2 within the world of abstract thought1 the world of language1 with its infinite growths and consequences1 they have never had their match for keenness1 for patience1 for courage1 for inexhaustible toil2 but they were as much disconnected from the natural world1 which was their stage of life1 as if they had been disembodied spirits4 ,the ,renaissance brought with it not only the desire to know1 but to know comprehensively and in all possible directions2 it brought with it temptations to the awakened ,italian genius1 renewed1 enlarged1 refined1 if not strengthened by its passage through the ,middle ,ages1 to make thought deal with the real1 and to understand the scene in which men were doing such strange and wonderful things2 but ,giordano ,bruno1 ,telesio1 ,campanella1 and their fellows1 were not men capable of more than short flights1 though they might be daring and eager ones4 ,it required more thoroughness1 more humble-minded industry1 to match the magnitude of the task4 ,and there have been men of universal minds and comprehensive knowledge since ,bacon1 ,leibnitz1 ,goethe1 ,humboldt1 men whose thoughts were at home everywhere1 where there was something to be known4 ,but even for them the world of knowledge has grown too large4 ,we shall never again see an ,aristotle or a ,bacon1 because the conditions of knowledge have altered4 ,bacon1 like ,aristotle1 belonged to an age of adventure1 which went to sea little knowing whither it went1 and ill furnished with knowledge and instruments4 ,he entered with a vast and vague scheme of discovery on these unknown seas and new worlds which to us are familiar1 and daily traversed in every direction4 ,this new world of knowledge has turned out in many ways very different from what ,aristotle or ,bacon supposed1 and has been conquered by implements and weapons very different in precision and power from what they purposed to rely on4 ,but the combination of patient and careful industry1 with the courage and divination of genius1 in doing what none had done before1 makes it equally stupid and idle to impeach their greatness4 #c4 ,bacon has been charged with bringing philosophy down from the heights1 not as of old to make men know themselves1 and to be the teacher of the highest form of truth1 but to be the purveyor of material utility4 ,it contemplates only1 it is said1 the commoda vit2 about the deeper and more elevating problems of thought it does not trouble itself4 ,it concerns itself only about external and sensible nature1 about what is of the earth1 earthy4 ,but when it comes to the questions which have attracted the keenest and hardiest thinkers1 the question1 what it is that thinks and wills--what is the origin and guarantee of the faculties by which men know anything at all and form rational and true conceptions about nature and themselves1 whence it is that reason draws its powers and materials and rules--what is the meaning of words which all use but few can explain--,time and ,space1 and ,being and ,cause1 and consciousness and choice1 and the moral law--,bacon is content with a loose and superficial treatment of them4 ,bacon certainly was not a metaphysician1 nor an exact and lucid reasoner4 ,with wonderful flashes of sure intuition or happy anticipation1 his mind was deficient in the powers which deal with the deeper problems of thought1 just as it was deficient in the mathematical faculty4 ,the subtlety1 the intuition1 the penetration1 the severe precision1 even the force of imagination1 which make a man a great thinker on any abstract subject were not his2 the interest of questions which had interested metaphysicians had no interest for him3 he distrusted and undervalued them4 ,when he touches the ultimities of knowledge he is as obscure and hard to be understood as any of those restless ,southern ,italians of his own age1 who shared with him the ambition of reconstructing science4 ,certainly the science which most interested ,bacon1 the science which he found1 as he thought1 in so desperate a condition1 and to which he gave so great an impulse1 was physical science4 ,but physical science may be looked at and pursued in different ways1 in different tempers1 with different objects4 ,it may be followed in the spirit of ,newton1 of ,boyle1 of ,herschel1 of ,faraday2 or with a confined and low horizon it may be dwarfed and shrivelled into a mean utilitarianism4 ,but ,bacon's horizon was not a narrow one4 ,he believed in ,god and immortality and the ,christian creed and hope4 ,to him the restoration of the ,reign of ,man was a noble enterprise1 because man was so great and belonged to so great an order of things1 because the things which he was bid to search into with honesty and truthfulness were the works and laws of ,god1 because it was so shameful and so miserable that from an ignorance which industry and good-sense could remedy1 the tribes of mankind passed their days in self-imposed darkness and helplessness4 ,it was ,god's appointment that men should go through this earthly stage of their being4 ,each stage of man's mysterious existence had to be dealt with1 not according to his own fancies1 but according to the conditions imposed on it2 and it was one of man's first duties to arrange for his stay on earth according to the real laws which he could find out if he only sought for them4 ,doubtless it was one of ,bacon's highest hopes that from the growth of true knowledge would follow in surprising ways the relief of man's estate2 this1 as an end1 runs through all his yearning after a fuller and surer method of interpreting nature4 ,the desire to be a great benefactor1 the spirit of sympathy and pity for mankind1 reign through this portion of his work--pity for confidence so greatly abused by the teachers of man1 pity for ignorance which might be dispelled1 pity for pain and misery which might be relieved4 ,in the quaint but beautiful picture of courtesy1 kindness1 and wisdom1 which he imagines in the ,new ,atlantis1 the representative of true philosophy1 the ,father of ,solomon's ,house1 is introduced as one who had an aspect as if he pitied men4 ,but unless it is utilitarianism to be keenly alive to the needs and pains of life1 and to be eager and busy to lighten and assuage them1 ,bacon's philosophy was not utilitarian4 ,it may deserve many reproaches1 but not this one4 ,such a passage as the following--in which are combined the highest motives and graces and passions of the soul1 love of truth1 humility of mind1 purity of purpose1 reverence for ,god1 sympathy for man1 compassion for the sorrows of the world and longing to heal them1 depth of conviction and faith--fairly represents the spirit which runs through his works4 ,after urging the mistaken use of imagination and authority in science1 he goes on-- ,there is not and never will be an end or limit to this2 one catches at one thing1 another at another2 each has his favourite fancy2 pure and open light there is none2 every one philosophises out of the cells of his own imagination1 as out of ,plato's cave2 the higher wits with more acuteness and felicity1 the duller1 less happily1 but with equal pertinacity4 ,and now of late1 by the regulation of some learned and 7as things now are7 excellent men 7the former license having1 ,i suppose1 become wearisome71 the sciences are confined to certain and prescribed authors1 and thus restrained are imposed upon the old and instilled into the young2 so that now 7to use the sarcasm of ,cicero concerning ,csar's year7 the constellation of ,lyra rises by edict1 and authority is taken for truth1 not truth for authority4 ,which kind of institution and discipline is excellent for present use1 but precludes all prospect of improvement4 ,for we copy the sin of our first parents while we suffer for it4 ,they wished to be like ,god1 but their posterity wish to be even greater4 ,for we create worlds1 we direct and domineer over nature1 we will have it that all things are as in our folly we think they should be1 not as seems fittest to the ,divine wisdom1 or as they are found to be in fact2 and ,i know not whether we more distort the facts of nature or of our own wits2 but we clearly impress the stamp of our own image on the creatures and works of ,god1 instead of carefully examining and recognising in them the stamp of the ,creator himself4 ,wherefore our dominion over creatures is a second time forfeited1 not undeservedly2 and whereas after the fall of man some power over the resistance of creatures was still left to him--the power of subduing and managing them by true and solid arts--yet this too through our insolence1 and because we desire to be like ,god and to follow the dictates of our own reason1 we in great part lose4 ,if1 therefore1 there be any humility towards the ,creator1 any reverence for or disposition to magnify ,his works1 any charity for man and anxiety to relieve his sorrows and necessities1 any love of truth in nature1 any hatred of darkness1 any desire for the purification of the understanding1 we must entreat men again and again to discard1 or at least set apart for a while1 these volatile and preposterous philosophies which have preferred theses to hypotheses1 led experience captive1 and triumphed over the works of ,god2 and to approach with humility and veneration to unroll the volume of ,creation1 to linger and meditate therein1 and with minds washed clean from opinions to study it in purity and integrity4 ,for this is that sound and language which went forth into all lands1 and did not incur the confusion of ,babel2 this should men study to be perfect in1 and becoming again as little children condescend to take the alphabet of it into their hands1 and spare no pains to search and unravel the interpretation thereof1 but pursue it strenuously and persevere even unto death4--,preface to ,historia ,naturalis3 translated1 ,works1 v4 #acb-c4 ,,chapter ,,ix4 ,,bacon ,,as ,a ,,writer4 ,bacon's name belongs to letters as well as to philosophy4 ,in his own day1 whatever his contemporaries thought of his ,instauration of ,knowledge1 he was in the first rank as a speaker and a writer4 ,sir ,walter ,raleigh1 contrasting him with ,salisbury1 who could speak but not write1 and ,northampton1 who could write but not speak1 thought ,bacon eminent both as a speaker and a writer4 ,ben ,jonson1 passing in review the more famous names of his own and the preceding age1 from ,sir ,thomas ,more to ,sir ,philip ,sidney1 ,hooker1 ,essex1 and ,raleigh1 places ,bacon without a rival at the head of the company as the man who had fulfilled all numbers1 and stood as the mark and ,greek3 akm of our language4 ,and he also records ,bacon's power as a speaker4 ,no man1 he says1 ever spoke more neatly1 more pressly1 or suffered less emptiness1 less idleness1 in what he uttered4444,his hearers could not cough or look aside from him without loss4 ,he commanded when he spoke1 and had his judges angry and pleased at his devotion 444 the fear of every man that heard him was that he should make an end4 ,he notices one feature for which we are less prepared1 though we know that the edge of ,bacon's sarcastic tongue was felt and resented in ,james's ,court4 ,his speech1 says ,ben ,jonson1 was nobly censorious when he could spare and pass by a jest4 ,the unpopularity which certainly seems to have gathered round his name may have had something to do with this reputation4 ,yet as an ,english writer ,bacon did not expect to be remembered1 and he hardly cared to be4 ,he wrote much in ,latin1 and his first care was to have his books put into a ,latin dress4 ,for these modern languages1 he wrote to ,toby ,matthews towards the close of his life1 will at one time or another play the bank-rowte with books1 and since ,i have lost much time with this age1 ,i would be glad if ,god would give me leave to recover it with posterity4 ,he wanted to be read by the learned out of ,england1 who were supposed to appreciate his philosophical ideas better than his own countrymen1 and the only way to this was to have his books translated into the general language4 ,he sends ,prince ,charles the ,advancement in its new ,latin dress4 ,it is a book1 he says1 that will live1 and be a citizen of the world1 as ,english books are not4 ,and he fitted it for continental reading by carefully weeding it of all passages that might give offence to the censors at ,rome or ,paris4 ,i have been1 he writes to the ,king1 mine own ,index ,expurgatorius1 that it may be read in all places4 ,for since my end of putting it in ,latin was to have it read everywhere1 it had been an absurd contradiction to free it in the language and to pen it up in the matter4 ,even the ,essays and the ,history of ,henry ,,vii4 he had put into ,latin by some good pens that do not forsake me4 ,among these translators are said to have been ,george ,herbert and ,hobbes1 and on more doubtful authority1 ,ben ,jonson and ,selden4 ,the ,essays were also translated into ,latin and ,italian with ,bacon's sanction4 ,bacon's contemptuous and hopeless estimate of these modern languages1 forty years after ,spenser had proclaimed and justified his faith in his own language1 is only one of the proofs of the short-sightedness of the wisest and the limitations of the largest-minded4 ,perhaps we ought not to wonder at his silence about ,shakespeare4 ,it was the fashion1 except among a set of clever but not always very reputable people1 to think the stage1 as it was1 below the notice of scholars and statesmen2 and ,shakespeare took no trouble to save his works from neglect4 ,yet it is a curious defect in ,bacon that he should not have been more alive to the powers and future of his own language4 ,he early and all along was profoundly impressed with the contrast1 which the scholarship of the age so abundantly presented1 of words to things4 ,he dwells in the ,advancement on that first distemper of learning1 when men study words and not matter4 ,he illustrates it at large from the reaction of the new learning and of the popular teaching of the ,reformation against the utilitarian and unclassical terminology of the schoolmen2 a reaction which soon grew to excess1 and made men hunt more after choiceness of the phrase1 and the round and clean composition of the sentence1 and the sweet falling of the clauses1 than after worth of subject1 soundness of argument1 life of invention or depth of judgment4 ,i have represented this1 he says1 in an example of late times1 but it hath been and will be secundum majus et minus in all times2 and he likens this vanity to ,pygmalion's frenzy--for to fall in love with words which are but the images of matter1 is all one as to fall in love with a picture4 ,he was dissatisfied with the first attempt at translation into ,latin of the ,advancement by ,dr4 ,playfer of ,cambridge1 because he desired not so much neat and polite1 as clear1 masculine1 and apt expression4 ,yet1 with this hatred of circumlocution and prettiness1 of the cloudy amplifications1 and pompous flourishings1 and the flowing and watery vein1 which the scholars of his time affected1 it is strange that he should not have seen that the new ideas and widening thoughts of which he was the herald would want a much more elastic and more freely-working instrument than ,latin could ever become4 ,it is wonderful indeed what can be done with ,latin4 ,it was long after his day to be the language of the exact sciences4 ,in his ,history of the ,winds1 which is full of his irrepressible fancy and picturesqueness1 ,bacon describes in clear and intelligible ,latin the details of the rigging of a modern man-of-war1 and the mode of sailing her4 ,but such tasks impose a yoke1 sometimes a rough one1 on a language which has taken its ply in very different conditions1 and of which the genius is that of indirect and circuitous expression1 full of majesty and circumstance4 ,but it never1 even in those days of scholarship1 could lend itself to the frankness1 the straightforwardness1 the fulness and shades of suggestion and association1 with which1 in handling ideas of subtlety and difficulty1 a writer would wish to speak to his reader1 and which he could find only in his mother tongue4 ,it might have been thought that with ,bacon's contempt of form and ceremony in these matters1 his consciousness of the powers of ,english in his hands might have led him to anticipate that a flexible and rich and strong language might create a literature1 and that a literature1 if worth studying1 would be studied in its own language4 ,but so great a change was beyond even his daring thoughts4 ,to him1 as to his age1 the only safe language was the ,latin4 ,for familiar use ,english was well enough4 ,but it could not be trusted2 it would play the bankrupt with books4 ,and yet ,galileo was writing in ,italian as well as in ,latin2 only within twenty-five years later1 ,descartes was writing ,de la ,mthode1 and ,pascal was writing in the same ,french in which he wrote the ,provincial ,letters1 his ,nouvelles ,expriences touchant le ,vide1 and the controversial pamphlets which followed it2 showing how in that interval of five-and-twenty years an instrument had been fashioned out of a modern language such as for lucid expression and clear reasoning1 ,bacon had not yet dreamed of4 ,from ,bacon to ,pascal is the change from the old scientific way of writing to the modern2 from a modern language1 as learned and used in the #afth century1 to one learned in the #agth4 ,but the language of the age of ,elizabeth was a rich and noble one1 and it reached a high point in the hands of ,bacon4 ,in his hands it lent itself to many uses1 and assumed many forms1 and he valued it1 not because he thought highly of its qualities as a language1 but because it enabled him with least trouble to speak as he would1 in throwing off the abundant thoughts that rose within his mind1 and in going through the variety of business which could not be done in ,latin4 ,but in all his writing it is the matter1 the real thing that he wanted to say1 which was uppermost4 ,he cared how it was said1 not for the sake of form or ornament1 but because the force and clearness of what was said depended so much on how it was said4 ,of course1 what he wanted to say varied indefinitely with the various occasions of his life4 ,his business may merely be to write a device or panegyric for a pageant in the ,queen's honour1 or for the revels of ,gray's ,inn4 ,but even these trifles are the result of real thought1 and are full of ideas--ideas about the hopes of knowledge or about the policy of the ,state2 and though1 of course1 they have plenty of the flourishes and quaint absurdities indispensable on such occasions1 yet the rhetorical affectation is in the thing itself1 and not in the way it is handled2 he had an opportunity of saying some of the things which were to him of deep and perpetual interest1 and he used it to say them1 as forcibly1 as strikingly1 as attractively as he could4 ,his manner of writing depends1 not on a style1 or a studied or acquired habit1 but on the nature of the task which he has in hand4 ,everywhere his matter is close to his words1 and governs1 animates1 informs his words4 ,no one in ,england before had so much as he had the power to say what he wanted to say1 and exactly as he wanted to say it4 ,no one was so little at the mercy of conventional language or customary rhetoric1 except when he persuaded himself that he had to submit to those necessities of flattery1 which cost him at last so dear4 ,the book by which ,english readers1 from his own time to ours1 have known him best1 better than by the originality and the eloquence of the ,advancement1 or than by the political weight and historical imagination of the ,history of ,henry ,,vii41 is the first book which he published1 the volume of ,essays4 ,it is an instance of his self-willed but most skilful use of the freedom and ease which the modern language1 which he despised1 gave him4 ,it is obvious that he might have expanded these ,counsels1 moral and political1 to the size which such essays used to swell to after his time4 ,many people would have thanked him for doing so2 and some have thought it a good book on which to hang their own reflections and illustrations4 ,but he saw how much could be done by leaving the beaten track of set treatise and discourse1 and setting down unceremoniously the observations which he had made1 and the real rules which he had felt to be true1 on various practical matters which come home to men's business and bosoms4 ,he was very fond of these moral and political generalisations1 both of his own collecting and as found in writers who1 he thought1 had the right to make them1 like the ,latins of the ,empire and the ,italians and ,spaniards of the ,renaissance4 ,but a mere string of maxims and quotations would have been a poor thing and not new2 and he cast what he had to say into connected wholes4 ,but nothing can be more loose than the structure of the essays4 ,there is no art1 no style1 almost1 except in a few--the political ones--no order3 thoughts are put down and left unsupported1 unproved1 undeveloped4 ,in the first form of the ten1 which composed the first edition of #aeig1 they are more like notes of analysis or tables of contents2 they are austere even to meagreness4 ,but the general character continues in the enlarged and expanded ones of ,bacon's later years4 ,they are like chapters in ,aristotle's ,ethics and ,rhetoric on virtues and characters2 only ,bacon's takes ,aristotle's broad marking lines as drawn1 and proceeds with the subtler and more refined observations of a much longer and wider experience4 ,but these short papers say what they have to say without preface1 and in literary undress1 without a superfluous word1 without the joints and bands of structure2 they say it in brief1 rapid sentences1 which come down1 sentence after sentence1 like the strokes of a great hammer4 ,no wonder that in their disdainful brevity they seem rugged and abrupt1 and do not seem to end1 but fall4 ,but with their truth and piercingness and delicacy of observation1 their roughness gives a kind of flavour which no elaboration could give4 ,it is none the less that their wisdom is of a somewhat cynical kind1 fully alive to the slipperiness and self-deceits and faithlessness which are in the world and rather inclined to be amused at them4 ,in some we can see distinct records of the writer's own experience3 one contains the substance of a charge delivered to ,judge ,hutton on his appointment2 another of them is a sketch drawn from life of a character which had crossed ,bacon's path1 and in the essay on ,seeming ,wise we can trace from the impatient notes put down in his ,commentarius ,solutus1 the picture of the man who stood in his way1 the ,attorney-,general ,hobart4 ,some of them are memorable oracular utterances not inadequate to the subject1 on ,truth or ,death or ,unity4 ,others reveal an utter incapacity to come near a subject1 except as a strange external phenomena1 like the essay on ,love4 ,there is a distinct tendency in them to the ,italian school of political and moral wisdom1 the wisdom of distrust and of reliance on indirect and roundabout ways4 ,there is a group of them1 of ,delays1 of ,cunning1 of ,wisdom for a ,man's ,self1 of ,despatch1 which show how vigilantly and to what purpose he had watched the treasurers and secretaries and intriguers of ,elizabeth's and ,james's ,courts2 and there are curious self-revelations1 as in the essay on ,friendship4 ,but there are also currents of better and larger feeling1 such as those which show his own ideal of ,great ,place1 and what he felt of its dangers and duties4 ,and mixed with the fantastic taste and conceits of the time1 there is evidence in them of ,bacon's keen delight in nature1 in the beauty and scents of flowers1 in the charm of open-air life1 as in the essay on ,gardens1 ,the purest of human pleasures1 the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man4 ,but he had another manner of writing for what he held to be his more serious work4 ,in the philosophical and historical works there is no want of attention to the flow and order and ornament of composition4 ,when we come to the ,advancement of ,learning1 we come to a book which is one of the landmarks of what high thought and rich imagination have made of the ,english language4 ,it is the first great book in ,english prose of secular interest2 the first book which can claim a place beside the ,laws of ,ecclesiastical ,polity4 ,as regards its subject-matter1 it has been partly thrown into the shade by the greatly enlarged and elaborate form in which it ultimately appeared1 in a ,latin dress1 as the first portion of the scheme of the ,instauratio1 the ,de ,augmentis ,scientiarum4 ,bacon looked on it as a first effort1 a kind of call-bell to awaken and attract the interest of others in the thoughts and hopes which so interested himself4 ,but it contains some of his finest writing4 ,in the ,essays he writes as a looker-on at the game of human affairs1 who1 according to his frequent illustration1 sees more of it than the gamesters themselves1 and is able to give wiser and faithful counsel1 not without a touch of kindly irony at the mistakes which he observes4 ,in the ,advancement he is the enthusiast for a great cause and a great hope1 and all that he has of passion and power is enlisted in the effort to advance it4 ,the ,advancement is far from being a perfect book4 ,as a survey of the actual state of knowledge in his day1 of its deficiencies1 and what was wanted to supply them1 it is not even up to the materials of the time4 ,even the improved ,de ,augmentis is inadequate2 and there is reason to think the ,advancement was a hurried book1 at least in the later part1 and it is defective in arrangement and proportion of parts4 ,two of the great divisions of knowledge--history and poetry--are despatched in comparatively short chapters2 while in the division on ,civil ,knowledge1 human knowledge as it respects society1 he inserts a long essay1 obviously complete in itself and clumsily thrust in here1 on the ways of getting on in the world1 the means by which a man may be ,faber fortun su--the architect of his own success2 too lively a picture to be pleasant of the arts with which he had become acquainted in the process of rising4 ,the book1 too1 has the blemishes of its own time2 its want of simplicity1 its inevitable though very often amusing and curious pedantries4 ,but the ,advancement was the first of a long line of books which have attempted to teach ,english readers how to think of knowledge2 to make it really and intelligently the interest1 not of the school or the study or the laboratory only1 but of society at large4 ,it was a book with a purpose1 new then1 but of which we have seen the fulfilment4 ,he wanted to impress on his generation1 as a very practical matter1 all that knowledge might do in wise hands1 all that knowledge had lost by the faults and errors of men and the misfortunes of time1 all that knowledge might be pushed to in all directions by faithful and patient industry and well-planned methods for the elevation and benefit of man in his highest capacities as well as in his humblest4 ,and he further sought to teach them how to know2 to make them understand that difficult achievement of self-knowledge1 to know what it is to know2 to give the first attempted chart to guide them among the shallows and rocks and whirlpools which beset the course and action of thought and inquiry2 to reveal to them the idols which unconsciously haunt the minds of the strongest as well as the weakest1 and interpose their delusions when we are least aware--the fallacies and false appearances inseparable from our nature and our condition of life4 ,to induce men to believe not only that there was much to know that was not yet dreamed of1 but that the way of knowing needed real and thorough improvement2 that the knowing mind bore along with it all kinds of snares and disqualifications of which it is unconscious2 and that it needed training quite as much as materials to work on1 was the object of the ,advancement4 ,it was but a sketch2 but it was a sketch so truly and forcibly drawn1 that it made an impression which has never been weakened4 ,to us its use and almost its interest is passed4 ,but it is a book which we can never open without coming on some noble interpretation of the realities of nature or the mind2 some unexpected discovery of that quick and keen eye which arrests us by its truth2 some felicitous and unthought-of illustration1 yet so natural as almost to be doomed to become a commonplace2 some bright touch of his incorrigible imaginativeness1 ever ready to force itself in amid the driest details of his argument4 ,the ,advancement was only one shape out of many into which he cast his thoughts4 ,bacon was not easily satisfied with his work2 even when he published he did so1 not because he had brought his work to the desired point1 but lest anything should happen to him and it should perish4 ,easy and unstudied as his writing seems1 it was1 as we have seen1 the result of unintermitted trouble and varied modes of working4 ,he was quite as much a talker as a writer1 and beat out his thoughts into shape in talking4 ,in the essay on ,friendship he describes the process with a vividness which tells of his own experience-- ,but before you come to that the faithful counsel that a man receiveth from his friend1 certain it is that whosoever hath his mind fraught with many thoughts1 his wits and understanding do clarify and break up in the communicating and discoursing with another4 ,he tosseth his thoughts more easily2 he marshalleth them more orderly2 he seeth how they look when they are turned into words2 finally1 he waxeth wiser than himself1 and that more by an hour's discourse than by a day's meditation4 ,it was well said by ,themistocles to the ,king of ,persia1 ',that speech was like cloth of arras opened and put abroad1 whereby the imagery doth appear in figure2 whereas in thought they lie in packs4' ,neither is this second fruit of friendship1 in opening the understanding1 restrained only to such friends as are able to give a man counsel4 7,they are1 indeed1 best47 ,but even without that1 a man learneth of himself1 and bringeth his own thoughts to light1 and whetteth his wits against a stone which itself cuts not4 ,in a word1 a man were better relate himself to a statua or a picture1 than to suffer his thoughts to pass in smother4 ,bacon1 as has been said1 was a great maker of notes and note-books3 he was careful not of the thought only1 but of the very words in which it presented itself2 everything was collected that might turn out useful in his writing or speaking1 down to alternative modes of beginning or connecting or ending a sentence4 ,he watched over his intellectual appliances and resources much more strictly than over his money concerns4 ,he never threw away and never forgot what could be turned to account4 ,he was never afraid of repeating himself1 if he thought he had something apt to say4 ,he was never tired of recasting and rewriting1 from a mere fragment or preface to a finished paper4 ,he has favourite images1 favourite maxims1 favourite texts1 which he cannot do without4 ,da ,fidei qu sunt ,fidei comes in from his first book to his last4 ,the illustrations which he gets from the myth of ,scylla1 from ,atalanta's ball1 from ,borgia's saying about the ,french marking their lodgings with chalk1 the saying that ,god takes delight1 like the innocent play of children1 to hide his works in order to have them found out1 and to have kings as his playfellows in that game1 these1 with many others1 reappear1 however varied the context1 from the first to the last of his compositions4 ,an edition of ,bacon1 with marginal references and parallel passages1 would show a more persistent recurrence of characteristic illustrations and sentences than perhaps any other writer4 ,the ,advancement was followed by attempts to give serious effect to its lesson4 ,this was nearly all done in ,latin4 ,he did so1 because in these works he spoke to a larger and1 as he thought1 more interested audience2 the use of ,latin marked the gravity of his subject as one that touched all mankind2 and the majesty of ,latin suited his taste and his thoughts4 ,bacon spoke1 indeed1 impressively on the necessity of entering into the realm of knowledge in the spirit of a little child4 ,he dwelt on the paramount importance of beginning from the very bottom of the scale of fact1 of understanding the commonplace things at our feet1 so full of wonder and mystery and instruction1 before venturing on theories4 ,the sun is not polluted by shining on a dunghill1 and no facts were too ignoble to be beneath the notice of the true student of nature4 ,but his own genius was for the grandeur and pomp of general views4 ,the practical details of experimental science were1 except in partial instances1 yet a great way off2 and what there was1 he either did not care about or really understand1 and had no aptitude for handling4 ,he knew enough to give reality to his argument2 he knew1 and insisted on it1 that the labour of observation and experiment would have to be very heavy and quite indispensable4 ,but his own business was with great principles and new truths2 these were what had the real attraction for him2 it was the magnificent thoughts and boundless hopes of the approaching kingdom of man which kindled his imagination and fired his ambition4 ,he writes philosophy1 said ,harvey1 who had come to his own great discovery through patient and obscure experiments on frogs and monkeys--he writes philosophy like a ,lord ,chancellor4 ,and for this part of the work1 the stateliness and dignity of the ,latin corresponded to the proud claims which he made for his conception of the knowledge which was to be4 ,english seemed to him too homely to express the hopes of the world1 too unstable to be trusted with them4 ,latin was the language of command and law4 ,his ,latin1 without enslaving itself to ,ciceronian types1 and with a free infusion of barbarous but most convenient words from the vast and ingenious terminology of the schoolmen1 is singularly forcible and expressive4 ,it is almost always easy and clear2 it can be vague and general1 and it can be very precise where precision is wanted4 ,it can1 on occasion1 be magnificent1 and its gravity is continually enlivened by the play upon it1 as upon a background1 of his picturesque and unexpected fancies4 ,the exposition of his philosophical principles was attempted in two forms4 ,he began in ,english4 ,he began1 in the shape of a personal account1 a statement of a series of conclusions to which his thinking had brought him1 which he called the ,clue of the ,labyrinth1 ,filum ,labyrinthi4 ,but he laid this aside unfinished1 and rewrote and completed it in ,latin1 with the title ,cogitata et ,visa4 ,it gains by being in ,latin2 as ,mr4 ,spedding says1 it must certainly be reckoned among the most perfect of ,bacon's productions4 ,the personal form with each paragraph begins and ends4 ,franciscus ,bacon sic cogitavit 444 itaque visum est ei gives to it a special tone of serious conviction1 and brings the interest of the subject more keenly to the reader4 ,it has the same kind of personal interest1 only more solemn and commanding1 which there is in ,descartes's ,discours de la ,mthode4 ,in this form ,bacon meant at first to publish4 ,he sent it to his usual critics1 ,sir ,thomas ,bodley1 ,toby ,matthews1 and ,bishop ,andrewes4 ,and he meant to follow it up with a practical exemplification of his method4 ,but he changed his plan4 ,he had more than once expressed his preference for the form of aphorisms over the argumentative and didactic continuity of a set discourse4 ,he had1 indeed1 already twice begun a series of aphorisms on the true methods of interpreting nature1 and directing the mind in the true path of knowledge1 and had begun them with the same famous aphorism with which the ,novum ,organum opens4 ,he now reverted to the form of the aphorism1 and resolved to throw the materials of the ,cogitata et ,visa into this shape4 ,the result is the ,novum ,organum4 ,it contains1 with large additions1 the substance of the treatise1 but broken up and rearranged in the new form of separate impersonal generalised observations4 ,the points and assertions and issues which1 in a continuous discourse1 careful readers mark and careless ones miss1 are one by one picked out and brought separately to the light4 ,it begins with brief1 oracular1 unproved maxims and propositions1 and goes on gradually into larger developments and explanations4 ,the aphorisms are meant to strike1 to awaken questions1 to disturb prejudices1 to let in light into a nest of unsuspected intellectual confusions and self-misunderstandings1 to be the mottoes and watchwords of many a laborious and difficult inquiry4 ,they form a connected and ordered chain1 though the ties between each link are not given4 ,in this way ,bacon put forth his proclamation of war on all that then called itself science2 his announcement that the whole work of solid knowledge must be begun afresh1 and by a new1 and1 as he thought1 infallible method4 ,on this work ,bacon concentrated all his care4 ,it was twelve years in hand1 and twelve times underwent his revision4 ,in the first book especially1 says ,mr4 ,ellis1 every word seems to have been carefully weighed2 and it would be hard to omit or change anything without injuring the meaning which ,bacon intended to convey4 ,severe as it is1 it is instinct with enthusiasm1 sometimes with passion4 ,the ,latin in which it is written answers to it2 it has the conciseness1 the breadth1 the lordliness of a great piece of philosophical legislation4 ,the world has agreed to date from ,bacon the systematic reform of natural philosophy1 the beginning of an intelligent attempt1 which has been crowned by such signal success1 to place the investigation of nature on a solid foundation4 ,on purely scientific grounds his title to this great honour may require considerable qualification4 ,what one thing1 it is asked1 would not have been discovered in the age of ,galileo and ,harvey1 if ,bacon had never written8 ,what one scientific discovery can be traced to him1 or to the observance of his peculiar rules8 ,it was something1 indeed1 to have conceived1 as clearly as he conceived it1 the large and comprehensive idea of what natural knowledge must be1 and must rest upon1 even if he were not able to realise his idea1 and were mistaken in his practical methods of reform4 ,but great ideas and great principles need their adequate interpreter1 their vates sacer1 if they are to influence the history of mankind4 ,this was what ,bacon was to science1 to that great change in the thoughts and activity of men in relation to the world of nature around them3 and this is his title to the great place assigned to him4 ,he not only understood and felt what science might be1 but he was able to make others--and it was no easy task beforehand1 while the wonders of discovery were yet in the future--understand and feel it too4 ,and he was able to do this because he was one of the most wonderful of thinkers and one of the greatest of writers4 ,the disclosure1 the interpretation1 the development of that great intellectual revolution which was in the air1 and which was practically carried forward in obscurity1 day by day1 by the fathers of modern astronomy and chemistry and physiology1 had fallen to the task of a genius1 second only to ,shakespeare4 ,he had the power to tell the story of what they were doing and were to do with a force of imaginative reason of which they were utterly incapable4 ,he was able to justify their attempts and their hopes as they themselves could not4 ,he was able to interest the world in the great prospects opening on it1 but of which none but a few students had the key4 ,the calculations of the astronomer1 the investigations of the physician1 were more or less a subject of talk1 as curious or possibly useful employments4 ,but that which bound them together in the unity of science1 which gave them their meaning beyond themselves1 which raised them to a higher level and gave them their real dignity among the pursuits of men1 which forced all thinking men to see what new and unsuspected possibilities in the knowledge and in the condition of mankind were opened before them1 was not ,bacon's own attempts at science1 not even his collections of facts and his rules of method1 but that great idea of the reality and boundless worth of knowledge which ,bacon's penetrating and sure intuition had discerned1 and which had taken possession of his whole nature4 ,the impulse which he gave to the progress of science came from his magnificent and varied exposition of this idea2 from his series of grand and memorable generalisations on the habits and faults of the human mind--on the difficult and yet so obvious and so natural precautions necessary to guide it in the true and hopeful track4 ,it came from the attractiveness1 the enthusiasm1 and the persuasiveness of the pleading2 from the clear and forcible statements1 the sustained eloquence1 the generous hopes1 the deep and earnest purpose of the ,advancement and the ,de ,augmentis2 from the nobleness1 the originality1 the picturesqueness1 the impressive and irresistible truth of the great aphorisms of the ,novum ,organum4 ,,the ,,end