{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_36650/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_36650","id":"gutenberg_36650","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36650","summary":null,"tags":["Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626 -- Cipher","Category: Biographies","Category: History - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750)","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Authorship -- Baconian theory"],"text":"\n\n\n\nProduced by David Edwards and the Online Distributed\nProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was\nproduced from images generously made available by The\nInternet Archive)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n The Mystery\n of\n Francis Bacon\n\n _WILLIAM T. SMEDLEY_\n\n\n\n [Illustration: FRANCIS BACON AT 9 YEARS OF AGE.\n _From the bust at Gorhambury._]\n\n\n\n THE MYSTERY\n OF\n FRANCIS BACON\n\n\n BY\n WILLIAM T. SMEDLEY.\n\n\n Ad D.B.\n\n \"Si bene qui latuit, bene vixit, tu bene vivis:\n Ingeniumque tuum grande latendo patet.\"\n --_John Owen's Epigrammatum_, 1612.\n\n\n LONDON:\n ROBERT BANKS & SON,\n RACQUET COURT, FLEET STREET E.C.\n\n 1912.\n\n\n\n\n \"_But such is the infelicity and unhappy disposition\n of the human mind in the course of invention that it\n first distrusts and then despises itself: first will\n not believe that any such thing can be found out; and\n when it is found out, cannot understand how the world\n should have missed it so long._\"\n\n --\"NOVUM ORGANUM,\" Chap. CX.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\n PAGE\n Preface 5\n CHAPTER\n I.--Sources of Information 9\n II.--The Stock from which Bacon Came 14\n III.--Francis Bacon, 1560 to 1572 19\n IV.--At Cambridge 25\n V.--Early Compositions 29\n VI.--Bacon's \"Temporis Partus Maximus\" 36\n VII.--Bacon's First Allegorical Romance 47\n VIII.--Bacon in France, 1576-1579 52\n IX.--Bacon's Suit on His Return to England, 1580 62\n X.--The \"Rare and Unaccustomed Suit\" 76\n XI.--Bacon's Second Visit to the Continent and After 82\n XII.--Is it Probable that Bacon left Manuscripts Hidden Away? 94\n XIII.--How the Elizabethan Literature was Produced 98\n XIV.--The Clue to the Mystery of Bacon's Life 103\n XV.--Burghley and Bacon 114\n XVI.--The 1623 Folio Edition of Shakespeare's Plays 123\n XVII.--The Authorised Version of the Bible, 1611 126\n XVIII.--How Bacon Marked Books with the Publication of\n Which He Was Connected 132\n XIX.--Bacon and Emblemata 140\n XX.--Shakespeare's Sonnets 148\n XXI.--Bacon's Library 156\n XXII.--Two German Opinions on Shakespeare and Bacon 161\n XXIII.--The Testimony of Bacon's Contemporaries 170\n XXIV.--The Missing Fourth Part of \"The Great Instauration\" 177\n XXV.--The Philosophy of Bacon 187\n Appendix 193\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nIs there a mystery connected with the life of Francis Bacon? The average\nstudent of history or literature will unhesitatingly reply in the\nnegative, perhaps qualifying his answer by adding:--Unless it be a\nmystery that a man with such magnificent intellectual attainments could\nhave fallen so low as to prove a faithless friend to a generous\nbenefactor in the hour of his trial, and, upon being raised to one of\nthe highest positions of honour and influence in the State, to become a\ncorrupt public servant and a receiver of bribes to pervert justice.--It\nis one of the most remarkable circumstances to be found in the history\nof any country that a man admittedly pre-eminent in his intellectual\npowers, spoken of by his contemporaries in the highest terms for his\nvirtues and his goodness, should, in subsequent ages, be held up to\nobloquy and scorn and seldom be referred to except as an example of a\ncorrupt judge, a standing warning to those who must take heed how they\nstand lest they fall. Truly the treatment which Francis Bacon has\nreceived confirms the truth of the aphorism, \"The evil that men do lives\nafter them; the good is oft interred with their bones.\"\n\nIt is not the intention in the following brief survey of Bacon's life to\nenter upon any attempt to vindicate his character. Since his works and\nlife have come prominently before the reading public, he has never been\nwithout a defender. Montagu, Hepworth Dixon, and Spedding have, one\nafter the other, raised their voices against the injustice which has\nbeen done to the memory of this great Englishman; and although\nMacaulay, in his misleading and inaccurate essay,[1] abounding in\nparadoxes and inconsistencies, produced the most powerful, though\nprejudiced, attack which has been made on Bacon's fame, he may almost be\nforgiven, because it provided the occasion for James Spedding in\n\"Evenings with a Reviewer,\" to respond with a thorough and complete\nvindication of the man to whose memory he devoted his life. There rests\non every member of the Anglo-Saxon race an obligation--imposed upon him\nby the benefits which he enjoys as the result of Francis Bacon's\nlife-work--to read this vindication of his character. Nor should mention\nbe omitted of the essay by Mr. J. M. Robertson on \"Francis Bacon\" in his\nexcellent work \"Pioneer Humanists.\" All these defenders of Bacon treat\ntheir subject from what may be termed the orthodox point of view. They\nfollow in the beaten track. They do not look for Bacon outside his\nacknowledged works and letters. Since 1857, however, there has been\nsteadily growing a belief that Bacon was associated with the literature\nof the Elizabethan and early Jacobean periods, and that he deliberately\nconcealed his connection with it. That this view is scouted by what are\ntermed the men of letters is well-known. They will have none of it. They\nrefuse its claim to a rational hearing. But, in spite of this, as years\ngo on, the number of adherents to the new theory steadily increases. The\nscornful epithets that are hurled at them only appear to whet their\nappetite, and increase their determination. Men and women devote their\nlives with enthusiasm to the quest for further knowledge. They dig and\ndelve in the records of the period, and in the byeways of literature.\nTheories which appear extravagant and untenable are propounded. Whether\nany of these theories will come to be accepted and established beyond\ncavil, time alone can prove. But, at any rate, it is certain that in\nthis quest many forgotten facts are brought to light, and the general\nstock of information as to the literature of the period is augmented.\n\nIn the following pages it is sought to establish what may be termed one\nof these extravagant theories. How far this attempt is successful, it is\nfor the reader to judge. Notwithstanding all that may be said to the\ncontrary, by far the greater part of Francis Bacon's life is unknown. An\nattempt will be made by the aid of accredited documents and books to\nrepresent in a new light his youth and early manhood. It is contended\nthat he deliberately sought to conceal his movements and work, although,\nat the same time, he left the landmarks by which a diligent student\nmight follow them. In his youth he conceived the idea that the man\nFrancis Bacon should be concealed, and be revealed only by his works.\nThe motto, \"_Mente videbor_\"--by the mind I shall be seen--became the\nguiding principle of his life.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] Attention is drawn to one of the inaccuracies in \"An Introduction to\nMathematics,\" by A. W. Whithead, Sc.D., F.R.S., published in the Home\nUniversity Library of Modern Knowledge. The author says: \"Macaulay in\nhis essay on Bacon contrasts the certainty of mathematics with the\nuncertainty of philosophy, and by way of a rhetorical example he says,\n'There has been no re-action against Taylor's theorem.' He could not\nhave chosen a worse example. For, without having made an examination of\nEnglish text-books on mathematics contemporary with the publication of\nthis essay, the assumption is a fairly safe one that Taylor's theorem\nwas enunciated and proved wrongly in every one of them.\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE MYSTERY\n\nOF\n\nFRANCIS BACON.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nSOURCES OF INFORMATION.\n\n\nThe standard work is \"The Life and Letters of Francis Bacon,\" by James\nSpedding, which was published from 1858-1869. It comprises seven\nvolumes, with 3,033 pages. The first twenty years of Bacon's life are\ndisposed of in 8 pages, and the next ten years in 95 pages, of which 43\npages are taken up with three tracts attributed to him. There is\npractically no information given as to what should be the most important\nyears of his life. The two first volumes carry the narrative to the end\nof Elizabeth's reign, when Bacon had passed his fortieth year. There is\nin them a considerable contribution to the history of the times, but a\ncritical perusal will establish the fact that they add very little to\nour knowledge of the man, and they fail to give any adequate idea of how\nhe was occupied during those years. In the seven volumes 513 letters of\nBacon's are printed, and of these no less than 238 are addressed to\nJames I. and the Duke of Buckingham, and were written during the last\nyears of his life. The biographies by Montagu and Hepworth Dixon are\nless pretentious, but contain little more information.\n\nThe first published Life of Bacon appears to have been unknown to all\nthese writers. In 1631 was published in Paris a translation of the\n\"Sylva Sylvarum,\" as the \"Histoire Naturelle de Mre. Francois Bacon.\"\nPrefixed to it is a chapter entitled \"Discours sur la vie de Mre.\nFrancois Bacon, Chancelier D'Angleterre.\" Reference will be made to this\nimportant discourse hereafter. It is sufficient for the present to say\nthat it definitely states that during his youth Bacon travelled in Italy\nand Spain, which fact is to-day unrecognised by those who are accepted\nas authorities on his life. In 1647 there was published at Leyden a\nDutch translation of forty-six of Bacon's Essays--the \"Wisdom of the\nAncients\" and the \"Religious Meditations.\" The translation is by Peter\nBoener, an apothecary of Nymegen, Holland, who was in Bacon's service\nfor some years as domestic apothecary, and occasional amanuensis, and\nquitted his employment in 1623. Boener added a Life of Bacon which is a\nmere fragment, but contains testimony by a personal attendant which is\nof value. In 1657 William Rawley issued a volume of unpublished\nmanuscripts under the title of \"Resuscitatio,\" and to these he added a\nLife of the great Philosopher. Rawley is only once mentioned by Bacon.\nHis will contains the sentence: \"I give to my chaplain, Dr. Rawleigh,\none hundred pounds.\" Rawley was born in 1590. When he became associated\nwith his master is not known, but it could only have been towards the\nclose of his life. Bacon appears to have reposed great confidence in\nhim. In 1627,[2] the year following Bacon's death, he published the\n\"Sylva Sylvarum.\" This must have been in the press before Bacon's death.\nRawley subsequently published other works, and was associated with Isaac\nGruter during the seventeenth century in producing on the continent\nvarious editions of Bacon's works.\n\nRawley's account of Bacon's life is meagre, and, having regard to the\nwealth of information which must have been at his disposal, it is a very\ndisappointing production. Still, it contains information which is not to\nbe found elsewhere. How incomplete it is may be gathered from the fact\nthat there is no reference in it to Bacon's fall.\n\nIn 1665 was published a volume, \"The Statesmen and Favourites of England\nsince the Reformation.\" It was compiled by David Lloyd. The biographies\nof the Elizabethan statesmen were written by someone who was closely\nassociated with them, and who appears to have had exceptional\nopportunities of obtaining information as to their opinions and\ncharacters.[3] As to how these lives came into Lloyd's possession\nnothing is known. Prefixed to the biographies are two pages containing\n\"The Lord Bacon's judgment in a work of this nature.\" The chapter on\nBacon is a most important contribution to the subject, but it also\nappears to have escaped the notice of Spedding, Hepworth Dixon, and\nMontagu. In 1658 Francis Osborn, in Letters to his son, gives a graphic\ndescription of the Lord Chancellor. Perhaps one can better picture Bacon\nas he was in the strength of his manhood from Osborne's account of him\nthan from any other source. Thomas Bushell, another of Bacon's household\ndependents, published in 1628 \"The First Part of Youth's Errors.\" In a\nletter therein addressed to Mr. John Eliot, he has left contributions to\nour stock of knowledge. There are also some miscellaneous tracts written\nby him, and published about the year 1660, which contain references to\nBacon.\n\nFuller's Worthies (1660) gives a short account of his life and\ncharacter, eulogistic but sparse. In 1679 was published \"Baconiana,\" or\nCertain Genuine Remains of Sir Francis Bacon, &c., by Bishop Tennison,\nbut it contains no better account of his life. Winstanley's Worthies\n(1684) relies entirely on Rawley's Life, which is reproduced in it.\nAubrey's brief Lives were written about 1680. There are references to\nBacon in Arthur Wilson's \"History of the Reign of James I.\"; in \"The\nCourt of James I.,\" by Sir W. A.; in \"Simeon D'Ewes' Diary\"; and,\nlastly, in his \"Discoveries,\" Ben Jonson contributes a high eulogy on\nBacon's character and attainments.\n\nIn 1702 Robert Stephens, the Court historiographer, published a volume\nof Bacon's letters, with an introduction giving some account of his\nlife; and there was a second edition in 1736. In 1740 David Mallet\npublished an edition of Bacon's works, and wrote a Life to accompany it.\nThis was subsequently printed as a separate volume. As a biography it is\nwithout interest, as it contains no new facts as to his life.\n\nIn 1754 memoirs of the reign of Queen Elizabeth from the year 1581 to\nher death appeared, edited by Dr. Thomas Birch. These memoirs are\nfounded upon the letters of the various members of the Bacon family. In\n1763 a volume of letters of Francis Bacon was issued under the same\neditor.\n\nSuch are the sources of information which have come down to us in\nbiographical notices.\n\nIn the British Museum, the Record Office, and elsewhere are the\noriginals of the letters and the manuscripts of some of the tracts which\nSpedding has printed.\n\nThe British Museum also possesses two books of Memoranda used by Bacon.\nThe Transportat is entirely, and the Promus is partly, in his\nhandwriting. Beyond his published works, that is all that so far has\nbeen available.\n\nSpedding remarks[4]: \"What became of his books which were left to Sir\nJohn Constable and must have contained traces of his reading, we do not\nknow, but very few appear to have survived.\"\n\nHappily, Spedding was wrong. During the past ten years nearly 2,000\nbooks which have passed through Bacon's hands have been gathered\ntogether. These are copiously annotated by him, and from these\nannotations the wide range and the methodical character of his reading\nmay be gathered. Manuscripts which were in his library, and at least\nfour common-place books in his handwriting, have also been recovered.\nParticulars of these have not yet been made public, but the advantage of\naccess to them has been available in the preparation this volume.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[2] There are copies of this work bearing date 1626, the year in which\nBacon died.\n\n[3] The concluding paragraph of the Epistle to the Reader is as follows:\n\"It's easily imaginable how unconcerned I am as to the fate of this Book\neither in the History, or the Observations, since I have been so\nfaithful in the first, that it is not my own, but the Historians; and so\ncareful in the second that they are not mine, but the Histories.\"\n\n[4] \"Life and Letters,\" Vol. VII., page 552.\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nTHE STOCK FROM WHICH BACON CAME.\n\n\n\"A prodigy of parts he must be who was begot by wise Sir Nicholas Bacon,\nborn of the accomplished Mrs. Ann Cooke,\" says an early biographer.\n\nNicholas Bacon is said to have been born at Chislehurst, in Kent, in\n1509. He was the second son of Robert Bacon, of Drinkstone, in Suffolk,\nEsquire and Sheep-reeve to the Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds. It is believed\nthat he was educated at the abbey school. He speaks of his intimacy with\nEdmund Rougham, a monk of that house, who was noted for his wonderful\nproficiency in memory. He was admitted to the College of Corpus Christi,\nCambridge, and took the degree of B.A. in 1526-7. He went to Paris soon\nafterwards, and on his return studied law at Gray's Inn, being called to\nthe Bar in 1533, and admitted ancient in 1536. He was appointed, in\n1537, Clerk to the Court of Augmentations. In 1546 he was made Attorney\nof the Court of Wards and Liveries, and continued as such under Edward\nVI. Upon the accession of Mary he conformed to the change of religion\nand retained his office during her reign. Nicholas Bacon and William\nCecil, each being a widower, had married sisters. When Elizabeth came to\nthe throne Cecil became her adviser. He was well acquainted with\nNicholas Bacon's sterling worth and great capacity for business, and\navailed himself of his advice and assistance. The Queen delivered to\nBacon the great seal, with the title of Lord Keeper, on the 22nd\nDecember, 1558, and he was sworn of the Privy Council and knighted. By\nletters patent, dated 14th April, 1559, the full powers of a Chancellor\nwere conferred upon him. In 1563 he narrowly escaped the loss of his\noffice for alleged complicity in the issue of a pamphlet espousing the\ncause of the House of Suffolk to the succession. He was restored to\nfavour, and continued as Lord Keeper until his death in 1579. The Queen\nvisited him at Gorhambury on several occasions. Sir Nicholas Bacon, in\naddition to performing the important duties of his high office in the\nCourt of Chancery and in the Star Chamber, took an important part in all\npublic affairs, both domestic and foreign, from the accession of\nElizabeth until his death. He first married Jane, daughter of William\nFernley, of West Creting, Suffolk, by whom he had three sons and three\ndaughters. For his second wife he married Anne, daughter of Sir Anthony\nCooke, by whom he had two sons, Anthony and Francis. It is of more\nimportance for the present purpose to know what type of man was the\nfather of Francis Bacon. The author of the \"Arte of English Poesie\"\n(1589) relates that he came upon Sir Nicholas sitting in his gallery\nwith the works of Quintillian before him, and adds: \"In deede he was a\nmost eloquent man and of rare learning and wisdome as ever I knew\nEngland to breed, and one that joyed as much in learned men and good\nwitts.\" This author, speaking of Sir Nicholas and Burleigh, remarks,\n\"From whose lippes I have seen to proceede more grave and naturall\neloquence then from all the oratours of Oxford and Cambridge.\"\n\nIn his \"Fragmenta Regalia\" Sir Robert Naunton describes him as \"an\narchpeece of wit and wisdom,\" stating that \"he was abundantly facetious\nwhich took much with the Queen when it was suited with the season as he\nwas well able to judge of his times.\" Fuller describes him as \"a man of\nrare wit and deep experience,\" and, again, as \"a good man, a grave\nstatesman, and a father to his country.\" Bishop Burnet speaks of him as\n\"not only one of the most learned and pious men, but one of the wisest\nministers this nation ever bred.\" The observations of the author of \"The\nStatesmen and Favourites of England in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth\" are\nvery illuminating. \"Sir Nicholas Bacon,\" he says, \"was a man full of wit\nand wisdome, a gentleman and a man of Law with great knowledge therein.\"\nHe proceeds: \"This gentleman understood his Mistress well and the times\nbetter: He could raise factions to serve the one and allay them to suit\nthe others. He had the deepest reach into affairs of any man that was at\nthe Council table: the knottiest Head to pierce into difficulties: the\nmost comprehensive Judgement to surround the merit of a cause: the\nstrongest memory to recollect all circumstances of a Business to one\nView: the greatest patience to debate and consider; (for it was he that\nfirst said, let us stay a little and we will have done the sooner:) and\nthe clearest reason to urge anything that came in his way in the Court\nof Chancery.... Leicester seemed wiser than he was, Bacon was wiser than\nhe seemed to be; Hunsden neither was nor seemed wise.... Great was this\nStateman's Wit, greater the Fame of it; which as he would say, _being\nnothing, made all things_. For Report, though but Fancy, begets Opinion;\nand Opinion begets substance.... He neither affected nor attained to\ngreatness: _Mediocria firma_, was his principle and his practice. When\nQueen Elizabeth asked him, _Why his house was so little?_ he answered,\n_Madam, my house is not too little for me, but you have made me too big\nfor my House. Give me_, said he, _a good Estate rather than a great one.\nHe had a very Quaint saying and he used it often to good purpose_, That\nhe loved the Jest well but not the loss of his Friend.... He was in a\nword, a Father of his country and of _Sir Francis Bacon_.\"\n\nBefore speaking of Lady Ann Bacon, it is necessary to give some account\nof her father, Sir Anthony Cooke. He was a great-grandson of Sir Thomas\nCooke, Lord Mayor of London, and was born at Giddy Hall, in Essex. Again\nthe most valuable observations on his character are to be found in \"The\nLives of Statesmen and Favourites\" before referred to. The author states\nthat Sir Anthony \"was one of the Governors to King Edward the sixth when\nPrince, and is charactered by Mr. Camden _Vir antiqua serenitate_. He\nobserveth him also to be happy in his Daughters, learned above their Sex\nin Greek and Latine: namely, Mildred who married William Cecil, Lord\nTreasurer of England; Anne who married Nichlas Bacon, Lord Chancellor of\nEngland; Katherine who married Henry Killigrew; Elizabeth who married\nThomas Hobby, and afterwards Lord Russell, and Margaret who married\nRalph Rowlet.\"\n\n\"Gravity,\" says this author, \"was the Ballast of Sir Anthony's Soul and\nGeneral Learning its leading.... Yet he was somebody in every Art, and\neminent in all, the whole circle of Arts lodging in his Soul. His\nLatine, fluent and proper; his Greek, critical and exact; his Philology\nand Observations upon each of these languages, deep, curious, various\nand pertinent: His Logic, rational; his History and Experience, general;\nhis Rhetorick and Poetry, copious and genuine; his Mathematiques,\npracticable and useful. Knowing that souls were equal, and that Women\nare as capable of Learning as Men, he instilled that to his Daughters at\nnight, which he had taught the Prince in the day, being resolved to have\nSons by education, for fear he should have none by birth; and lest he\nwanted an Heir of his body, he made five of his minde, for whom he had\nat once a _Gavel-kind_ of affection and of Estate.\"\n\n\"Three things there are before whom (was Sir Anthony's saying) I cannot\ndo amis: 1, My Prince; 2, my conscience; 3, my children. Seneca told his\nsister, That though he could not leave her a good portion, he would\nleave her a good pattern. Sir Anthony would write to his Daughter\n_Mildred, My example is your inheritance and my life is your\nportion_....\n\n\"He said first, and his Grandchilde my Lord Bacon after him, That the\nJoys of Parents are Secrets, and so are their Griefs and Fears.... Very\nprovidently did he secure his eternity, by leaving the image of his\nnature in his children and of his mind in his Pupil.... The books he\nadvised were not _many_ but _choice_: the business he pressed was not\nreading, but digesting.... Sir John Checke talked merrily, Dr. Coxe\nsolidly and Sir Anthony Cooke weighingly: A faculty that was derived\nwith his blood to his Grandchilde Bacon.\"\n\nSuch then was the father of Lady Anne Bacon. She and her sisters were\nfamous as a family of accomplished classical scholars. She had a\nthorough knowledge of Greek and Latin. An Apologie ... in defence of the\nChurche of England by Dr. Jewel, Bishop of Salisbury, was translated by\nher from the Latin and published in 1564. Sir Anthony had been exiled\nduring Mary's reign, for his adherence to the Protestant faith. His\ndaughter, Anne, inherited, not only his classical accomplishments, but\nhis strong Puritan faith and his hatred of Popery. Francis Bacon\ndescribes her as \"A Saint of God.\" There is a portrait of her painted by\nNathaniel Bacon, her stepson, in which she appears standing in her\npantry habited as a cook. In feature Francis appears to have resembled\nhis mother. He \"had the same pouting lip, the same round head, the same\nstraight nose and Hebe chin.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nFRANCIS BACON, 1560 TO 1572.\n\n\nIn the registry of St. Martin's will be found this entry: Mr. Franciscus\nBacon 1560 Jan 25 (_filius D'm Nicho Bacon Magni Angliae sigilli\ncustodis_).\" Rawley in his \"Life of the Honourable Author\" says:\n\"Francis Bacon, the glory of his age and nation, was born in York House\nor York Place, in the Strand, on the two and twentieth day of January in\nthe year of our Lord 1560.\" He relates that \"His first and childish\nyears were not without some mark of eminency; at which time he was\nendued with that pregnancy and towardness of wit, as they were pressages\nof that deep and universal apprehension which was manifest in him\nafterward.\" \"The Queen then delighted much to confer with him, and to\nprove him with questions unto whom he delivered himself with that\ngravity and maturity above his years that Her Majesty would often term\nhim '_Her young Lord Keeper_.' Being asked by the Queen how old he was\nhe answered with much discretion, being then but a boy[5] that he was\ntwo years younger than Her Majesty's happy reign, with which answer the\nqueen was much taken.\" In the \"Lives of the Statesmen and Favourites of\nQueen Elizabeth\" there is reference to the early development of his\nmental and intellectual faculties. The author writes:--\"He had a large\nmind from his Father and great abilities from his Mother; His parts\nimproved more than his years, his great fixed and methodical memory, his\nsolide judgement, his quick fancy, his ready expression, gave assurance\nof that profound and universal comprehension of things which then\nrendered him the observation of great and wise men; and afterwards the\nwonder of all.\" The historian continues:--\"He never saw anything that\nwas not noble and becoming,\" \"at twelve his industry was above the\ncapacity and his minde beyond the reache of his contemporaries.\"\n\nThis boy so marvellously endowed was brought up in surroundings which\nwere ideal for his development. His father, a man of erudition, a wit\nand orator, occupying one of the highest positions in the country, his\nmother a lady of great classical accomplishments, who had enjoyed the\nbenefits of an education and training by her father, that eminent\nscholar, Sir Anthony Cooke, and, lastly, there was this man--his\ngrandfather--living within riding distance from his home. It seems\ninevitable that the natural powers of young Francis must have excited a\nkeen interest in the old tutor of Edward VI., who had devoted his\nevenings to imparting to his daughters what he had taught the Prince\nduring the day, so that if he left behind him no heirs of his body, he\nmight leave heirs of his mind. The boy Francis was, indeed, a worthy\nheir of his mind, and it is impossible to believe otherwise than that\nSir Anthony Cooke would throw himself heart and soul into the education\nof his grandchild, but no statement or tradition has come down to this\neffect. It may be, however, that a sentence which has already been\nquoted from \"The Lives of Statesmen and Favourites\" is intended to imply\nthat Francis was the pupil of Sir Anthony: \"He said first and his\nGrandchilde my Lord Bacon after him, That the Joys of Parents are\nSecrets, and so their Griefs and Fears.... Very providently did he\nsecure his Eternity, by leaving the image of his nature in his Children\nand of his mind in his Pupil.\" The pupil referred to was not Edward VI.,\nfor he died twenty-three years before Sir Anthony, and he could not,\ntherefore, have left the image of his mind in the young King. Following\ndirectly after the sentence \"He said first and his Grandchilde Lord\nBacon after him\" it is possible that the reference may be to the boy\nFrancis. Certainly Sir Anthony \"would secure his eternity\" if he left\nthe image of his mind in his \"Grandchilde.\" In any case the prodigious\nnatural powers of the boy were placed in an environment well suited for\ntheir full development.\n\nThe historian says that \"at twelve his industry was above the capacity\nand his mind beyond the reache of his Contemporaries.\" Who were the\ncontemporaries alluded to? Those of his own age, or those who were\nliving at the time? A boy of twelve, he excelled others in his great\nindustry and the wide range of his mind. This industry appears to have\naccompanied him through life, for Rawley states that \"he would ever\ninterlace a moderate relaxation of his mind with his studies, as walking\nor taking the air abroad in his coach or some other befitting\nrecreation; and yet he would lose no time, inasmuch as upon the first\nand immediate return he would fall to reading again, and so suffer no\nmovement of time to slip from him without some present improvement.\" It\nis a remarkable fact on which too much stress cannot be laid that in the\ntwo Lives of Bacon, scanty as they are, by contemporary writers, his\nexceptional industry is pointed out. There are certainly no visible\nfruits of this industry.\n\nAlthough there is no definite information as to what was the state of\nFrancis Bacon's education at twelve, there is testimony as to that of\nsome of his contemporaries. Three instances will suffice.\n\nPhilip Melancthon (whose family name was Schwartzerd) was born in 1497.\nHis education was at an early age directed by his maternal grandfather,\nJohn Reuter. After a short stay at a public school at Bretten he was\nremoved to the academy at Pforzheim. Here, under the tutorship of John\nReuchlin, an elegant scholar and teacher of languages, he acquired the\ntaste for Greek literature in which he subsequently became so\ndistinguished. Here his genius for composition asserted itself. Amongst\nother poetical essays in which he indulged when eleven years of age, he\nwrote a humorous piece in the form of a comedy, which he dedicated to\nhis kind friend and instructor, Reuchlin, in whose presence it was\nperformed by the schoolfellows of the youthful author. After a residence\nof two years at Pforzheim, Philip matriculated at the University of\nHeidelberg on the 13th October, 1509, being eleven years and nine months\nold. Young as he was, he appears to have been employed to compose most\nof the harangues that were delivered in the University, besides writing\nsome pieces for the professors themselves. Here, at this early age, he\ncomposed his \"Rudiments of the Greek Language,\" which were afterwards\npublished.\n\nAgrippa d'Aubigne was born in 1550 and died in 1630. At six years of age\nhe read Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. When ten years he translated the\nCrito. Italian and Spanish were at his command.\n\nThomas Bodley was born in 1544 and died in 1612. In the short\nautobiography which he left he makes the following statement as to how\nfar his education had advanced when his father decided to fix his abode\nin the city of Geneva in 1556:--\n\n \"I was at that time of twelve yeares age but through my fathers\n cost and care sufficiently instructed to become an auditour of\n _Chevalerius_ in Hebrew, of _Berealdus_ in Greeke, of _Calvin_ and\n _Beza_ in Divinity and of some other Professours in that\n University, (which was newly there erected) besides my domesticall\n teachers, in the house of Philibertus Saracenus, a famous Physitian\n in that City with whom I was boarded; when Robertus Constantinus\n that made the Greek Lexicon read Homer with me.\"\n\nBodley was undoubtedly proficient in French, for Calvin and Beza\nlectured in French. The \"Institution of the Christian Religion,\"\nCalvin's greatest work, although published in Latin in 1536, was\ntranslated by him into French, and issued in 1540 or 1541. This\ntranslation is one of the finest examples of French prose. Bodley's\nEnglish was probably very poor, and for a very good reason--there was no\nEnglish language worthy of comparison with the languages of France,\nItaly, or Spain. It had yet to be created.\n\nIt is fair to assume that at twelve years of age Francis Bacon was as\nproficient in languages as were Philip Melancthon, Agrippa d'Aubigne, or\nThomas Bodley at that age. He, therefore, had at least a good knowledge\nof Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, and such English as there was.\n\nAnother class of evidence is now available. It has already been stated\nthat a large number of Bacon's books have been recovered, copiously\nannotated by him. Some of these books bear the date when the annotations\nwere made. For the most part the marginal notes appear to be aids to\nmemory, but in many cases they are critical observations of the text.\nThese are, however, dealt with in a subsequent chapter.\n\nGilbert Wats, in dedicating to Charles I. his interpretation of \"The\nAdvancement of Proficiency of Learning\" (1640), makes a statement which\nthrows light on the course of Bacon's studies, and this strongly\nsupports the present contention. He says:--\n\n \"He (Bacon) after he had survaied all the Records of Antiquity,\n after the volume of men, betook himselfe to the study of the volume\n of the world; and having conquerd whatever books possest, set upon\n the Kingdome of Nature and carried that victory very farre.\"\n\nSpeaking of him as a boy his biographer[6] describes his memory as\n\"fixed and methodical,\" and in another place he says \"His judgment was\nsolid yet his memory was a wonder.\"\n\nThe extent of his reading at this time had been very wide. He had\nalready taken all knowledge to be his province, and was with that\nindustry which was beyond the capacity of his contemporaries rapidly\nlaying the foundations which subsequently justified this claim.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[5] Lloyd states that this occurred when he was seven years of age.\n\n[6] \"The Lives of Statesmen and Favourites of Elizabeth.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nAT CAMBRIDGE.\n\n\nFrancis Bacon went to reside at Trinity College, Cambridge, in April,\n1573, being 12 years and 3 months of age. While the plague raged he was\nabsent from the end of August, 1574, until the beginning of March\nfollowing. He finally left the University at Christmas, 1575, about one\nmonth before his fifteenth birthday.\n\nRawley says he was there educated and bred under the tuition of Dr. John\nWhitgift,[7] then master of the College, afterwards the renowned\nArchbishop of Canterbury, a prelate of the first magnitude for sanctity,\nlearning, patience, and humility; under whom he was observed to have\nbeen more than an ordinary proficient in the several arts and sciences.\n\nAmboise, in the \"Discours sur la vie de M. Bacon,\" prefixed to the\n\"Histoire Naturelle,\" Paris, 1631, says: \"Le jugement et la memoire ne\nfurent jamais en aucun home au degre qu'ils estoient en celuy-cy; de\nsorte qu'en bien peu de temps il se rendit fort habile en toutes les\nsciences qui s'apprennent au College. Et quoi que deslors il fust juge\ncapable des charges les plas importantes, nean-moins pour ne tomber\ndedans la mesme faute que sont d'ordinaire les jeunes gens de son\nestoffe, qui par une ambition trop precipitee portent souvent au\nmaniement des grandes affaires un esprit encore tout rempli des crudites\nde l'escole, Monsieur Bacon se voulut acquerir cette science, qui rendit\nautres-fois Ulysse si recommandable et luy fit meriter le nom de sage,\npar la connoissance des moeurs de tant de nations diverses.\" That is all\nthat can be said about his career at Cambridge except that Rawley adds:\n\n \"Whilst he was commorant in the University, about sixteen years of\n age (as his lordship hath been pleased to impart unto myself), he\n first fell into the dislike of the philosophy of Aristotle; not for\n the worthlessness of the author, to whom he would ever ascribe all\n high attributes, but for the unfruitfulness of the way; being a\n philosophy (as his lordship used to say) only strong for\n disputations and contentions, but barren of the production of works\n for the benefit of the life of man; in which mind he continued to\n his dying day.\"\n\nAs Bacon left Cambridge at Christmas, 1575, before he was 15 years of\nage, Rawley's recollection must have been at fault when he mentions the\nage of 16 as that when Bacon formed this opinion.\n\nThere is another account of this incident in which it is stated that\nFrancis Bacon left Cambridge without taking a degree as a protest\nagainst the manner in which philosophy was taught there. In the preface\nto the \"Great Instauration\" Bacon repeats his protest: \"And for its\nvalue and utility, it must be plainly avowed that that wisdom which we\nhave derived principally from the Greeks is but like the boyhood of\nknowledge and has the characteristic property of boys: it can talk but\nit cannot generate: for it is fruitful of controversies but barren of\nworks.\"\n\nThis is merely a re-statement of the position he took up when at\nCambridge. So this boy set up his opinion against that of the recognised\nprofessors of philosophy of his day, against the whole authority of the\nstaff of the University, on a fundamental point on the most important\nquestion which could be raised as to the pursuit of knowledge. It is not\ntoo much to say that he had at this time covered the whole field of\nknowledge in a manner more thorough than it had ever been covered\nbefore, and with his mind, which was beyond the reach of his\ncontemporaries, he began to lay down those laws which revolutionised all\nthought and have become the accepted method by which the pursuit of\nknowledge is followed.\n\nIt is necessary again to seek for parallels to justify the position\nwhich will be claimed for Francis Bacon at this period.\n\nPhilip Melancthon affords one and James Crichton another. At Heidelberg\nMelancthon remained three years. He left when he was 15, the principal\ncause of his leaving being disappointment at being refused a higher\ndegree in the University solely, it is alleged, on account of his youth.\nIn September, 1512, he was entered at the University of Tubingen, where,\nin the following year, before he was 17 years of age, he was created\nDoctor in Philosophy or Master of Arts. He then commenced a course of\npublic lectures, embracing an extraordinary variety of subjects,\nincluding the learned languages, rhetoric, logic, ethics, mathematics,\nand theology. Here in 1516 he put forth his revision of the text of\nTerence. Besides he entered into an undertaking with Thomas Anshelmus to\nrevise all the books printed by him. He bestowed great labour on a large\nwork in folio by Nauclerus, which he appears to have almost entirely\nre-written.\n\nSo much romance has been thrown around James Crichton that it is\ndifficult to obtain the real facts of his life. Sir Thomas Urquhart, in\n\"Discovery of a Most Exquisite Jewel,\" published in 1652, gives a\nbiography which is, without doubt, mainly apocryphal. Certain facts,\nhowever, are well established. He was born in the same year as was Bacon\n(1560). At 10 years of age he entered St. Andrew's University, and in\n1575 (the year Bacon left Cambridge) took his degree, coming out third\nin the first class. In 1576 he went to France, as did Bacon--to Paris.\nIn the College of Navarre he issued a universal challenge. This he\nsubsequently repeated at Venice with equal success; that is, to all men,\nupon all things, in any of twelve languages named. The challenge is\nbroad and formal. He pledged himself to review the schoolmen, allowed\nhis opponents the privilege of selecting their topics--mathematics, no\nless than scholastic lore--either from branches publicly or privately\ntaught, and promised to return answers in logical figure or in numbers\nestimated according to their occult power, or in any of a hundred sorts\nof verse. He is said to have justified before many competent witnesses\nhis magnificent pretensions.\n\nWhat Philip Melancthon was at fifteen, what James Crichton was at\nsixteen, Francis Bacon may have been. All the testimony which his\ncontemporaries afford, especially having regard to his after life,\njustify the assertion that in knowledge and acquirements he was at least\ntheir equal.\n\nAbout eighteen months later his portrait was painted by Hilliard, the\nCourt miniature painter, who inscribed around it, as James Spedding\nsays, the significant words--the natural ejaculation, we may presume, of\nthe artist's own emotion--\"_Si tabula daretur digna animum mallem._\" If\none could only find materials worthy to paint his mind.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[7] Dr. Whitgift was a man of strong moral rectitude, yet in 1593 he\nbecame one of its sponsors on the publication of \"Venus and Adonis.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nEARLY COMPOSITIONS.\n\n\nIt is at this stage that the mystery of Francis Bacon begins to develop.\nEvery channel through which information might be expected appears to be\nblocked. Besides a few pamphlets, in the production of which little time\nwould be occupied, there came nothing from his pen until 1597 when, at\nthe age of 37, the first edition of the essays was published--only ten\nshort essays containing less than 6,000 words. In 1605, when 45, he\naddressed to James I. the \"Two Books on the Advancement of Learning,\"\ncontaining less than 60,000 words. It would require no effort on Bacon's\npart to write either of these volumes. He could turn out the \"Two Books\nof the Advancement of Learning\" with the same facility that a leader\nwriter of the _Times_ would write his daily articles. He was to all\nintents and purposes unoccupied. Until 1594 he had not held a brief, and\nhe never had any practice at the Bar worth considering. He was a member\nof Parliament, but the House seldom sat, and never for long periods.\nBacon's life is absolutely unaccounted for. It is now proposed, by the\naid of the literature of the period from 1576 to 1620, and with the help\nof information derived from his own handwriting, to trace, step by step,\nthe results of his industry, and to supply the reason for the\nconcealment which he pursued.\n\nThere is an entry in the Book of Orders of Gray's Inn under date 21st\nNovember, 1577, that Anthony and Francis Bacon (who had been admitted\nmembers 27th June, 1576, \"_de societate magistrorum_\") be admitted to\nthe Grand Company, _i.e._, to the Degree of Ancients, a privilege to\nwhich they were entitled as sons of a judge. From a letter subsequently\nwritten by Burghley, it is known that one Barker was appointed as their\ntutor of Law. Apparently it was intended that they should settle down to\na course of legal training, but this plan was abandoned, at any rate, as\nfar as Francis was concerned. Sir Amias Paulet, who was Chancellor of\nthe Garter, a Privy Counsellor, and held in high esteem by the Queen,[8]\nwas about to proceed to Paris to take the place of Dr. Dale as\nAmbassador at the Court of France. There is a letter written from\nCalais, dated 25th September, 1576, from Sir Amias to Lord Burghley, in\nwhich this paragraph appears: \"My ordinary train is no greater than of\nnecessity, being augmented by some young gentlemen, whereof one is Sir\nNicholas Throgmorton's son, who was recommended to me by her Majesty,\nand, therefore, I could not refuse him. The others are so dear to me and\nthe most part of them of such towardness, as my good hope of their doing\nwell, and thereafter they will be able to serve their Prince and\ncountry, persuades me to make so much to excuse my folly as to entreat\nyou to use your favour in my allowance for my transportations, my\ncharges being increased by these extraordinary occasions.\"\n\nFrancis Bacon was one of this group of young gentlemen. Rawley states\nthat \"after he had passed the circle of the liberal arts, his father\nthought fit to frame and mould him for the arts of state; and for that\nend sent him over into France with Sir Amyas Paulet then employed\nAmbassador lieger into France.\"\n\nThere are grounds for believing that Bacon's literary activity had\ncommenced before he left England. There is abundant evidence to prove\nthat it was the custom at this period for authors who desired to conceal\ntheir authorship to substitute for their own names, initials or the\nnames of others on the title-pages. Two instances will suffice: \"The\nArte of English Poesie\" was published in 1589, but written several years\npreviously. The author says:--\"I know very many notable Gentlemen in the\nCourt that have written commendably, and suppressed it agayne, or els\nsuffred it to be publisht without their owne names to it as if it were a\ndiscredit for a Gentleman to seeme learned, and to shew himself amorous\nof any learned Art.\" There is a bare-faced avowal of how names were\nplaced on title-pages in a letter which exists from Henry Cuffe to Mr.\nReynolds. Cuffe, an Oxford scholar of distinction, was a close companion\nand confidant of Essex. After the capture and sacking of Cadiz by Essex\nand Howard, the former deemed it important that his version of the\naffair should be the first to be published in England. Cuffe, therefore,\nstarted off post haste with the manuscript, but was taken ill on his\narrival at Portsmouth, and could not proceed. He despatched the\nmanuscript by a messenger with a letter to \"Good Mr. Reynoldes,\" who was\na private Secretary of Essex. He was to cause a transcript to be made\nand have it delivered to some good printer, in good characters and with\ndiligence to publish it. Reynoldes was to confer with Mr. Greville\n(Fulke Greville, afterwards Lord Brooke) \"whether he can be contented to\nsuffer the two first letters of his name to be used in the inscription.\"\n\"If he be unwilling,\" adds Cuffe, \"you may put R.B. which some no doubt\nwill interprete to be Beale, but it skills not.\" That this was a common\npractice is admitted by those acquainted with Elizabethan literature. If\nany of Bacon's writings were published prior to the trifle which\nappeared in 1597 as Essaies, his name was suppressed, and it would be\nprobable some other name would appear on the title-page. There is a\ntranslation of a classical author, bearing date 1572, which is in the\nBaconian style, but which need not be claimed for him without further\ninvestigation.\n\nThe following suggestion is put forward with all diffidence, but after\nlong and careful investigation. Francis Bacon was the author of two\nbooks which were published, one before he left England, and the other\nshortly after. The first is a philosophical discourse entitled \"The\nAnatomie of the Minde.\" Newlie made and set forth by T.R. Imprinted at\nLondon by I.C. for Andrew Maunsell, 1576, 12mo. The dedication is\naddressed to Master Christopher Hatton, and the name of Tho. Rogers is\nattached to it. There was a Thomas Rogers who was Chaplain to Archbishop\nBancroft, and the book has been attributed to him, apparently only\nbecause no other of the same name was known. There was published in 1577\na translation by Rogers of a Latin book \"Of the Ende of the World, etc.\"\nand there are other translations by him published between then and 1628.\nThere are several sermons, also, but the style of these, the matter, and\nthe manner of treatment are quite distinct from those of the book under\nconsideration. There is nothing of his which would support the\nassignment to him of \"The Anatomie of the Mind.\" It is foreign to his\nstyle.\n\nHaving regard to the acknowledged custom of the times of putting names\nother than the author's on title-pages, there is no need for any apology\nfor expressing doubt as to whether the book has been correctly placed to\nthe credit of the Bishop Bancroft's chaplain. In the address To the\nReader the author says: \"I dyd once for my profite in the Universitie,\ndraw into Latin tables, which since for thy profite (Christian Reader)\nat the request of a gentleman of good credite and worship, I have\nEnglished and published in these two books.\" There is in existence a\ncopy of the book with the printer's and other errors corrected in\nBacon's own handwriting.\n\nBearing date 1577, imprinted at London for Henri Cockyn, is an octavo\nbook styled, _\"Beautiful Blossoms\" gathered by John Byshop from the best\ntrees of all kyndes, Divine, Philosophicall, Astronomicall,\nCosmographical, Historical and Humane that are growing in Greece,\nLatium, and Arabia, and some also in vulgar orchards as wel fro these\nthat in auncient time were grafted, as also from them which with skilful\nhead and hand beene of late yeare's, yea, and in our dayes planted: to\nthe unspeakable, both pleasure and profite of all such as wil vouchsafe\nto use them._ On the title-page are the words, \"The First Tome,\" but no\nfurther volume was published. As to who or what John Byshop was there is\nno information available. His name appears on no other book. The preface\nis a gem of musical sounding words. It contains the sentence, \"let them\npass it over and read the rest which are all as plaine as Dunstable\nWay.\" Bacon's home was within a few miles of Dunstable Way, which was\nthe local term for the main road.\n\nIt is impracticable here to give at length the grounds upon which it is\nbelieved that Francis Bacon was the author of these two books. Each of\nthem is an outpouring of classical lore, and is evidently written by\nsome young man who had recently assimilated the writings of nearly every\nclassical author. In this respect both correspond with the manner of\n\"The French Academie,\" to which the attention of the reader will shortly\nbe directed, whilst in \"The Anatomie of the Minde\" the treatment of the\nsubject is identical with that in the latter. Failing actual proof, the\ncircumstantial evidence that the two books are from the same pen is\nalmost as strong as need be.\n\nSome time in October, 1576, Sir Amyas Paulet would reach Paris,\naccompanied by Bacon. The only fragment of information which is given by\nhis biographers of any occurrence during his stay there is obtained from\nRawley. He states that \"Sir Amias Paulet after a while held him fit to\nbe entrusted with some message, or advertisement to the Queen, which\nhaving performed with great approbation, he returned back into France\nagain with intention to continue for some years there.\" In his absence\nin France, his father, the Lord Keeper, died. This was in February,\n1578-9. If he returned shortly after news of his father's death reached\nhim, his stay on the Continent would cover about two and a-half years.\nAs to what he was doing nothing is known, but Pierre Amboise states that\n\"France, Italy, and Spain as the most civilised nations of the whole\nworld were those whither his desire for Knowledge carried him.\"\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[8] It was to Sir Amias that the custody of Mary Queen of Scots was\ncommitted.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nBACON'S \"TEMPORIS PARTUS MAXIMUS.\"\n\n\nFrancis Bacon was at Blois with Sir Amias Paulet in 1577. In the same\nyear was published the first edition of the first part of \"Academie\nFrancoise par Pierre de la Primaudaye Esceuyer, Seignor dudict lieu et\nde la Barree, Gentilhomme ordinaire de la chambre du Roy.\" The\ndedication, dated February, 1577 (_i.e._, 1578) is addressed, \"Au\nTres-chrestien Roy de France et de Polongne Henry III. de ce nom.\" The\nfirst English translation, by T. B., was \"published in 1586[9],\nimprinted at London by Edmund Bollifant for G. Bishop and Ralph\nNewbery.\" Other parts of \"The Academy\" followed at intervals of years,\nbut the first and only complete edition in English bears date 1618, and\nwas printed for Thomas Adams. Over the dedication is the well-known\narcher emblem. It is a thick folio volume, with 1,038 pages double\ncolumns. It may be termed the first Encyclopaedia which appeared in any\nlanguage, and is, perhaps, one of the most remarkable productions of the\nElizabethan era. Little is known of Pierre de la Primaudaye. The\nparticulars for his biography in the \"Biographie Nationale\" seem to have\nbeen taken from references made to the author in the \"French Academie\"\nitself. In the French Edition, 1580, there is a portrait of a man, and\nunder it the words \"Anag. de L'auth. Par la priere Dieu m'ayde.\" The\nfollowing is an extract from the dedication:--\n\n \"The dinner of that prince of famous memorie, was a second table of\n Salomon, vnto which resorted from euerie nation such as were best\n learned, that they might reape profit and instruction. Yours, Sir,\n being compassed about with those, who in your presence daily\n discourse of, and heare discoursed many graue and goodly matters,\n seemeth to be a schoole erected to teach men that are borne to\n vertue. And for myselfe, hauing so good hap during the assemblie of\n your Estates at Blois, as to be made partaker of the fruit gathered\n thereof, it came in my mind to offer vnto your Maiestie a dish of\n diuers fruits, which I gathered in a Platonicall garden or orchard,\n otherwise called an ACADEMIE, where I was not long since with\n certaine yoong Gentlemen of Aniou my companions, discoursing\n togither of the institution in good maners, and of the means how\n all estates and conditions may liue well and happily. And although\n a thousand thoughts came then into my mind to hinder my purpose, as\n the small authoritie, which youth may or ought to haue in counsell\n amongst ancient men: the greatnes of the matter subject, propounded\n to be handled by yeeres of so small experience; the forgetfulness\n of the best foundations of their discourses, which for want of a\n rich and happie memorie might be in me: my iudgement not sound\n ynough, and my profession vnfit to set them downe in good order:\n briefly, the consideration of your naturall disposition and rare\n vertue, and of the learning which you receiuve both by reading good\n authors, and by your familiar communication with learned and great\n personages that are neere about your Maiestie (whereby I seemed to\n oppose the light of an obscure day, full of clouds and darkness, to\n the bright beames of a very cleere shining sonne, and to take in\n hand, as we say, to teach Minerua). I say all these reasons being\n but of too great weight to make me change my opinion, yet calling\n to mind manie goodlie and graue sentences taken out of sundry\n Greeke and Latine Philosophers, as also the woorthie examples of\n the liues of ancient Sages and famous men, wherewith these\n discourses were inriched, which might in delighting your noble mind\n renew your memorie with those notable sayings in the praise of\n vertue and dispraise of vice, which you alwaies loued to heare: and\n considering also that the bounty of Artaxerxes that great Monarke\n of the Persians was reuiued in you, who receiued with a cheerfull\n countenance a present of water of a poore laborer, when he had no\n need of it, thinking to be as great an act of magnanimitie to take\n in good part, and to receiue cheerfully small presents offered with\n a hartie and good affection, as to giue great things liberally, I\n ouercame whatsoeuer would haue staied me in mine enterprise.\"\n\nIt appears, therefore, that the author by good hap was a visitor at the\nCourt of Henry III. when at Blois; that he was there studying with\ncertain young gentlemen of Anjou, his companions; that he was a youth,\nand of years of small experience; that his memory might not be\nsufficiently rich and happy, his judgment not enough, and his profession\nunfit in recording the discourses of himself and his companions.\n\n\"The Author to the Reader\" is an essay on Philosophy, every sentence in\nwhich seems to have the same familiar sound as essays which subsequently\nappeared under another name. The contents of the several chapters are\nenumerated thus: \"Of Man,\" \"Of the Body and Soule,\" etc.\n\nThe first chapter contains a description of how the \"Academie\" came\nabout. An ancient wise gentleman of great calling having spent the\ngreater part of his years in the service of two kings, and of his\ncountry, France, for many and good causes had withdrawn himself to his\nhouse. He thought that to content his mind, which always delighted in\nhonest and vertuous things, he could not bring greater profit to the\nMonarchie of France, than to lay open and preserve and keep youth from\nthe corruption which resulted from the over great license and excessive\nliberty granted to them in the Universities. He took unto his house four\nyoung gentlemen, with the consent of their parents who were\ndistinguished noblemen. After he had shown these young men the first\ngrounds of true wisdom, and of all necessary things for their salvation,\nhe brought into his house a tutor of great learning and well reported of\nhis good life and conversation, to whom he committed their instruction.\nAfter teaching them the Latin tongue and some smattering of Greek he\npropounded for their chief studies the moral philosophy of ancient sages\nand wise men, together with the understanding and searching out of\nhistories which are the light of life. The four fathers, desiring to see\nwhat progress their sons had made, decided to visit them. And because\nthey had small skill in the Latin tongue, they determined to have their\nchildren discourse in their own natural tongue of all matters that might\nserve for the instruction and reformation of every estate and calling,\nin such order and method as they and their master might think best. It\nwas arranged that they should meet in a walking place covered over with\na goodly green arbour, and daily, except Sundays, for three weeks,\ndevote two hours in the morning and two hours after dinner to these\ndiscourses, the fathers being in attendance to listen to their sons. So\ninteresting did these discussions become that the period was often\nextended to three or four hours, and the young men were so intent upon\npreparation for them that they would not only bestow the rest of the\ndays, but oftentimes the whole night, upon the well studying of that\nwhich they proposed to handle. The author goes on to say:--\"During which\ntime it was my good hap to be one of the companie when they began their\ndiscourses, at which I so greatly wondered that I thought them worthy to\nbe published abroad.\" From this it would appear that the author was a\nvisitor, privileged, with the four fathers and the master, to listen to\nthe discourses of these four young men. But, a little further on the\nposition is changed; one of the four young men is, without any\nexplanation, ignored, and his father disappointed! For the author takes\nhis place, as will be seen from the following extract:--\n\n \"And thus all fower of us followed the same order daily until\n everie one in his course had intreated according to appointment,\n both by the precepts of doctrine, as also by the examples of the\n lives of ancient Sages and famous men, of all things necessary for\n the institution of manners and happie life of all estates and\n callings in this French Monarchie. But because I knowe not whether,\n in naming my companions by their proper names, supposing thereby to\n honour them as indeede they deserve it, I should displease them\n (which thing I would not so much as thinke) I have determined to do\n as they that play on a Theater, who under borrowed maskes and\n disguised apparell, do represent the true personages of those whom\n they have undertaken to bring on the stage. I will therefore call\n them by names very agreeable to their skill and nature: the first\n ASER which signifieth _Felicity_: the second AMANA which is as much\n to say as _Truth_: the third ARAM which noteth to us _Highness_;\n and to agree with them as well in name as in education and\n behaviour. I will name myself ACHITOB[10] which is all one with\n _Brother of goodness_. Further more I will call and honour the\n proceeding and finishing of our sundry treatises and discourses\n with this goodlie and excellent title of Academie, which was the\n ancient and renowned school amongst the Greek Philosophers, who\n were the first that were esteemed, and that the place where Plato,\n Xenophon, Poleman, Xenocrates, and many other excellent personages,\n afterward called Academicks, did propound & discourse of all things\n meet for the instruction and teaching of wisdome: wherein we\n purposed to followe them to our power, as the sequele of our\n discourses shall make good proofe.\"\n\nAnd then the discourses commence.\n\n\"Love's Labour's Lost\" was published in 1598, and was the first quarto\nupon which the name of Shakespeare was printed. The title-page states\nthat it is \"newly corrected and augmented,\" from which it may be\ninferred that there was a previous edition, but no copy of such is\nknown. The commentators are in practical agreement that it was probably\nthe first play written by the dramatist.\n\nThere are differences of opinion as to the probable date when it was\nwritten. Richard Grant White believes this to be not later than 1588,\nKnight gives 1589, but all this is conjecture.\n\nThe play opens with a speech by Ferdinand:--\n\n \"Let Fame that all hunt after in their lives,\n Live registred upon our brazen Tombes,\n And then grace us, in the disgrace of death:\n When spight of cormorant devouring time,\n Th' endevour of this present breath may buy:\n That honour which shall bate his sythes keene edge,\n And make us heyres of all eternitie.\n Therefore brave Conquerours, for so you are,\n That warre against your own affections,\n And the huge Armie of the worlds desires.\n Our late Edict shall strongly stand in force,\n Navar shall be the wonder of the world.\n Our Court shall be a little Achademe,\n Still and contemplative in living Art.\n You three, Berowne, Doumaine, and Longavill,\n Have sworne for three yeeres terme, to live with me,\n My fellow Schollers, and to keepe those statutes\n That are recorded in this schedule heere.\n Your oathes are past, and now subscribe your names;\n That his owne hand may strike his honour downe,\n That violates the smallest branch heerein:\n If you are arm'd to doe, as sworne to do,\n Subscribe to your deepe oathes, and keepe it to.\"\n\nFour young men in the French \"Academie\" associated together, as in\n\"Love's Labour Lost,\" to war against their own affections and the whole\narmy of the world's desires. Dumaine, in giving his acquiescence to\nFerdinand, ends:--\n\n \"To love, to wealth, to pompe, I pine and die\n With all these living in Philosophie.\"\n\nPhilosophie was the subject of study of the four young men to the\n\"Academie.\"\n\nBerowne was a visitor, for he says:--\n\n \"I only swore to study with your grace\n And stay heere in your Court for three yeeres' space.\"\n\nUpon his demurring to subscribe to the oath as drawn, Ferdinand\nretorts:--\n\n Well, sit you out: go home, Berowne: adue.\"\n\nTo which Berowne replies:--\n\n No, my good lord; I have sworn to stay with you.\"\n\nAchitob was a visitor at the Academie in France. There are other points\nof resemblance, but sufficient has been said to warrant consideration of\nthe suggestion that the French \"Academie\" contains the serious studies\nof the four young men whose experiences form the subject of the play.\n\nThe parallels between passages in the Shakespeare plays and the French\n\"Academie\" are numerous, but they form no part of the present\ncontention.\n\nOne of these may, however, be mentioned. In the third Tome the following\npassage occurs[11]:--\n\n Psal. xix.: \"It is not without cause that the Prophet said (The\n heavens declare the glory of God, and the earth sheweth the workes\n of his handes) For thereby he evidently teacheth, as with the\n finger even to our eies, the great and admirable providence of God\n their Creator; even as if the heavens should speake to anyone. In\n another place it is written (Eccles. xliii.): (This high ornament,\n this cleere firmament, the beauty of the heaven so glorious to\n behold, tis a thing full of Majesty).\"\n\nOn turning to the revised version of the Bible it will be found that the\nfirst verse is thus translated: \"The pride of the height, the cleare\nfirmament the beauty of heaven with his glorious shew.\" The rendering of\nthe text in \"The French Academy\" is strongly suggestive of Hamlet's\nfamous soliloquy. \"This most excellent canopy, this brave o'erhanging\nfirmament, this majestical roof fritted with golden fire, why it appears\nto me no other than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.\" The\nauthor has forsaken the common-place rendering of the Apocrypha, and has\nadopted the same declamatory style which Shakespeare uses. It is\nstrongly reminiscent of Hamlet's famous speech, Act II., scene ii.\n\nOnly one of the Shakespeare commentators makes any reference to the\nwork. The Rev. Joseph Hunter, writing in 1844, points out that the\ndramatist in \"As You Like It,\" describing the seven ages of man, follows\nthe division made in the chapter on \"The Ages of Man\" in the\n\"Academie.\"[12]\n\nThe suggestion now made is that the French \"Academie\" was written by\nBacon, who is represented in the dialogues as Achitob--the first part\nwhen he was about 18 years of age, that he continued it until, in 1618,\nthe complete work was published. In the dedication the author describes\nhimself as a youth of immature experience, but the contents bear\nevidence of a wide knowledge of classical authors and their works, a\nclose acquaintance with the ancient philosophies, and a store of general\ninformation which it would be impossible for any ordinary youth of such\nan age to possess. But was not the boy who at 15 years of age left\nCambridge disagreeing with the teaching there of Aristotle's philosophy,\nand whose mental qualities and acquirements provoked as \"the natural\nejaculation of the artist's emotion\" the significant words, \"_Si tabula\ndaretur digna animum mallem_,\" altogether abnormal?\n\nWas the \"French Academie\" Bacon's _temporis partus maximus_? It is only\nin a letter written to Father Fulgentio about 1625 that this work is\nheard of. Bacon writes: \"Equidem memini me, quadraginta abhinc annis,\njuvenile opusculum circa has res confecisse, quod magna prorsus fiducia\net magnifico titulo 'Temporis Partum Maximum' inscripsi.\"[13]\n\nSpedding says: \"This was probably the work of which Henry Cuffe (the\ngreat Oxford scholar who was executed in 1601 as one of the chief\naccomplices in the Earl of Essex's treason) was speaking when he said\nthat 'a fool could not have written it and a wise man would not.'\nBacon's intimacy with Essex had begun about thirty-five years before\nthis letter was written.\"\n\nForty years from 1625 would carry back to 1585, the year preceding the\ndate of publication of the first edition in English. If Cuffe's remark\nwas intended to apply to the \"French Academy,\" it is just such a\ncriticism as the book might be expected to provoke.\n\nThe first edition of \"The French Academie\" in English appeared in 1586,\nthe second in 1589, the third (two parts) in 1594, the fourth (three\nparts) in 1602, the fifth in 1614 (all quartos), then, in 1618, the\nlarge folio edition containing the fourth part \"never before published\nin English.\" It appears to have been more popular in England than it was\nin France. Brunet in his 1838 edition mentions neither the book nor the\nauthor, Primaudaye. The question as to whether there was at this time a\nreading public in England sufficiently wide to absorb an edition in\nnumbers large enough to make the publication of this and similar works\npossible at a profit will be dealt with hereafter. In anticipation it\nmay be said that the balance of probabilities justifies the conjecture\nthat the issue of each of these editions involved someone in loss, and\nthe folio edition involved considerable loss.\n\nA comparison between the French and English publications points to both\nhaving been written by an author who was a master of each language\nrather than that the latter was a mere translation of the former. The\nversion is so natural in idiom and style that it appears to be an\noriginal rather than a translation. In 1586 how many men were there who\ncould write such English? The marginal notes are in the exact style of\nBacon. \"A similitude\"--\"A notable comparison\"--occur frequently just as\nthe writer finds them again and again in Bacon's handwriting in volumes\nwhich he possesses. The book abounds in statements, phrases, and\nquotations which are to be found in Bacon's letters and works.\n\nOne significant fact must be mentioned. The first letter of the text in\nthe dedication in the first English translation is the letter S. It is\nprinted from a wood block (Fig. I.). Thirty-nine years after (in 1625)\nwhen the last edition of Bacon's Essays--and, with the exception of the\nsmall pamphlet containing his versification of certain Psalms, the last\npublication during his life--was printed, that identical wood block\n(Fig. II.) was again used to print the first letter in the dedication\nof that book. Every defect and peculiarity in the one will be found in\nthe other. A search through many hundreds of books printed during these\nthirty-nine years--1586 to 1625--has failed to find it used elsewhere,\nexcept on one occasion, either then, before, or since.\n\nDid Bacon mark his first work on philosophy and his last book by\nprinting the first letter in each from the same block?[14]\n\n [Illustration: _Fig. I._\n\n The first letter in the text of the dedication of the 1st edition of\n the English translation of the \"French Academie,\" =1586=. Printed at\n London by G. Bollifant. The block is also used in a similar manner\n in the 2nd edition, =1589=. Londini Impensis, John Bishop.]\n\n [Illustration: _Fig. II._\n\n The first letter in the text of the dedication of the =1625= edition\n of Bacon's Essays, printed in London, by John Haviland.]\n\n _Both letters were printed from the same block._\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[9] In the \"Gesta Grayorum\" one of the articles which the Knights of the\nHelmet were required to vow to keep, each kissing his helmet as he took\nhis vow, was \"Item--every Knight of this Order shall endeavour to add\nconference and experiment to reading; and therefore shall not only read\nand peruse 'Guizo,' 'The French Academy,' 'Galiatto the Courtier,'\n'Plutarch,' 'The Arcadia,' and the Neoterical writers from time to\ntime,\" etc. The \"Gesta Grayorum,\" which was written in 1594, was not\npublished until 1687. The manuscript was probably incorrectly read as to\nthe titles of the books. \"Galiatto,\" apparently, should be \"Galateo,\"\ndescribed in a letter of Gabriel Harvey as \"The Italian Archbishop brave\nGalateo.\" The \"Courtier\" is the Italian work by Castiglione which was\nEnglished by Sir Thomas Hoby. \"Guizo\" should be \"Guazzo.\" Stefano\nGuazzo's \"Civil Conversation\"--four books--was Englished by G. Pettie\nand Young.\n\n[10] \"Hit\" is used by Chaucer as the past participle of \"Hide.\" The name\nthus yields a suggestive anagram, \"Bacohit.\"\n\n[11] 1618 Edition, page 712.\n\n[12] In addition to this and to the \"Gesta Grayorum\" (1692) I have only\nbeen able to find two references to \"The French Academy\" in the works of\nEnglish writers.\n\nJ. Payne Collier, in his \"Poetical Decameron,\" Vol. II., page 271, draws\nattention to the epistle \"to the Christian reader\" prefixed to the\nsecond part, and suggests that the initials T.B. which occur at the end\nof the dedicatory epistle stand for Thomas Beard, the author of \"Theatre\nof God's Judgments.\" Collier does not appear to have read \"The French\nAcademy.\" Dibdin, in \"Notes on More's Utopia,\" says, \"But I entreat the\nreader to examine (if he be fortunate enough to possess the book) \"The\nFrench Academy of Primaudaye,\" a work written in a style of peculiarly\nimpressive eloquence, and which, not very improbably, was the foundation\nof Derham's and Paley's \"Natural Theology.\"\n\n[13] \"It being now forty years as I remember, since I composed a\njuvenile work on this subject which with great confidence and a\nmagnificent title I named \"The greatest birth of Time.\"\n\n[14] The block was used on page 626 of the 1594 quarto edition of\nWilliam Camden's \"Britannia,\" published in London by George Bishop, who\nwas the publisher of the 1586, 1589, and 1594 editions of \"The French\nAcademy.\" There is a marginal note at the foot of the imprint of the\nblock commencing \"R. Bacons.\" Francis Bacon is known to have assisted\nCamden in the preparation of this work. The manuscript bears evidence of\nthe fact in his handwriting.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nBACON'S FIRST ALLEGORICAL ROMANCE.\n\n\nThere is another work which it is impossible not to associate with this\nperiod, and that is John Barclay's \"Argenis.\" It is little better known\nthan is \"The French Academy,\" and yet Cowper pronounced it the most\namusing romance ever written. Cardinal Richelieu is said to have been\nextremely fond of reading it, and to have derived thence many of his\npolitical maxims. It is an allegorical novel. It is proposed now only to\nmention some evidence connected with the \"Argenis\" which supports the\ncontention that the 1625 English edition contains the original\ncomposition, and that its author was young Francis Bacon.\n\nThe first edition of the \"Argenis\" in Latin was published in 1621. The\nauthority to the publisher, Nicholas Buon, to print and sell the\n\"Argenis\" is dated the 21st July, 1621, and was signed by Barclay at\nRome. The Royal authority is dated on the 31st August following.\n\nBarclay's death took place between these dates, on the 12th of August,\nat Rome. It is reported that the cause of death was stone, but in an\nappreciation of him, published by his friend, Ralph Thorie, his death is\nattributed to poison.\n\nThe work is an example of the highest type of Latinity. So impressed was\nCowper with its style that he stated that it would not have dishonoured\nTacitus himself. A translation in Spanish was published in 1624, and in\nItalian in 1629. The Latin version was frequently reprinted during the\nseventeenth and eighteenth centuries--perhaps more frequently than any\nother book.\n\nIn a letter dated 11th May, 1622, Chamberlain, writing to Carleton,\nsays: \"The King has ordered Ben Jonson to translate the 'Argenis,' but\nhe will not be able to equal the original.\" On the 2nd October, 1623,\nBen Jonson entered a translation in Stationers' Hall, but it was never\npublished. About that time there was a fire in Jonson's house, in which\nit is said some manuscripts were destroyed; but it is a pure assumption\nthat the \"Argenis\" was one of these.\n\nIn 1629 an English translation appeared by Sir Robert Le Grys, Knight,\nand the verses by Thomas May, Esquire. The title-page bears the\nstatement: \"The prose upon his Majesty's command.\" There is a Clavis\nappended, also stated to be \"published at his Majesties command.\" It was\nprinted by Felix Kyngston for Richard Mughten and Henry Seile. In the\naddress to \"The understanding Reader\" Le Grys says, \"What then should I\nsay? Except it were to entreate thee, that where my English phrase doth\nnot please thee, thou wilt compare it with the originall Latin and mend\nit. Which I doe not speak as thinking it impossible, but as willing to\nhave it done, for the saving me a labour, who, if his Majesty had not so\nmuch hastened the publishing it, would have reformed some things in it,\nthat did not give myselfe very full satisfaction.\"\n\nIn 1622 King James ordered a translation of the \"Argenis.\" In 1629[15]\nCharles I. was so impatient to have a translation that he hastened the\npublication, thus preventing the translator from revising his work.\nThree years previously, however, in 1625--if the date may be relied\non--there was published as printed by G. P. for Henry Seile a\ntranslation by Kingesmill Long. James died on the 25th March, 1625. The\n\"Argenis\" may not have been published in his lifetime; but if the date\nbe correct, three or four years before Charles hastened the publication\nof Le Grys's translation, this far superior one with Kingesmill Long's\nname attached to it could have been obtained from H. Seile. Surely the\npublisher would have satisfied the King's impatience by supplying him\nwith a copy of the 1625 edition had it been on sale. The publication of\na translation of the \"Argenis\" must have attracted attention. Is it\npossible that it could have been in existence and not brought to the\nnotice of the King? There is something here that requires explanation.\nThe Epistle Dedicatorie of the 1625 edition is written in the familiar\nstyle of another pen, although it bears the name of Kingesmill Long. The\ntitle-page states that it is \"faithfully translated out of Latine into\nEnglish,\" but it is not directly in the Epistle Dedicatorie spoken of as\na translation. The following extract implies that the work had been\nlying for years waiting publication:--\n\n \"This rude piece, such as it is, hath long lyen by me, since it was\n finished; I not thinking it worthy to see the light. I had always a\n desire and hope to have it undertaken by a more able workman, that\n our Nation might not be deprived of the use of so excellent a\n Story: But finding none in so long time to have done it; and\n knowing that it spake not _English_, though it were a rich jewell\n to the learned Linguist, yet it was close lockt from all those, to\n whom education had not given more languages, than Nature Tongues: I\n have adventured to become the key to this piece of hidden Treasure,\n and have suffered myselfe to be overruled by some of my worthy\n friends, whose judgements I have alwayes esteemed, sending it\n abroad (though coursely done) for the delight and use of others.\"\n\nNot a word about the author! The translations, said to be by Thomas May,\nof the Latin verses in the 1629 are identical with those in the 1625\nedition, although Kingesmill Long, on the title-page, appears as the\ntranslator. Nothing can be learnt as to who or what Long was.\n\nOver lines \"Authori,\" signed Ovv: Fell:[16] in the 1625 edition is one\nof the well-known light and dark A devices. This work is written in\nflowing and majestic English; the 1629 edition in the cramped style of\ntranslation.\n\nThe copy bearing date 1628, to which reference has been made, belonged\nto John Henry Shorthouse. He has made this note on the front page: \"Jno.\nBarclay's description of himself under the person of Nicopompus Argenis,\np. 60.\" This is the description to which he alludes:--\n\n \"Him thus boldly talking, Nicopompus could no longer endure: he was\n a man who from his infancy loved Learning; but who disdaining to be\n nothing but a booke-man had left the schooles very young, that in\n the courts of Kings and Princes, he might serve his apprenticeship\n in publicke affairs; so he grew there with an equall abilitie, both\n in learning and imployment, his descent and disposition fitting him\n for that kind of life: wel esteemed of many Princes, and especially\n of Meleander, whose cause together with the rest of the Princes, he\n had taken upon him to defend.\"\n\nThis description is inaccurate as applied to John Barclay, but in every\ndetail it describes Francis Bacon.\n\nA comparison has been made between the editions of 1625 and 1629 with\nthe 1621 Latin edition. It leaves little room for doubting that the 1625\nis the original work. Throughout the Latin appears to follow it rather\nthan to be the leader; whilst the 1629 edition follows the Latin\nclosely. In some cases the word used in the 1625 edition has been\nincorrectly translated into the 1621 edition, and the Latin word\nre-translated literally and incorrectly in view of the sense in the 1629\nedition. But space forbids this comparison being further followed;\nsuffice it to say that everything points to the 1625 edition being the\noriginal work.\n\nAs to the date of composition much may be said; but the present\ncontention is that \"The French Academie,\" \"The Argenis,\" and \"Love's\nLabour's Lost\" are productions from the same pen, and that they all\nrepresent the work of Francis Bacon probably between the years 1577 and\n1580. At any rate, the first-named was written whilst he was in France,\nand the others were founded on the incidents and experience obtained\nduring his sojourn there.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[15] One copy of this edition bears the date 1628.\n\n[16] Probably Owen Felltham, author of \"Felltham's Resolves.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nBACON IN FRANCE, 1576-1579.\n\n\nThis brilliant young scholar landed with Sir Amias Paulet at Calais on\nthe 25th of September, 1576, and with him went straight to the Court of\nHenry III. of France. It is remarkable that neither Montagu, Spedding,\nHepworth Dixon, nor any other biographer seems to have thought it worth\nwhile to consider under what influences he was brought when he arrived\nthere at the most impressionable period of his life. Hepworth Dixon,\nwithout stating his authority, says that he \"quits the galleries of the\nLouvre and St. Cloud with his morals pure,\" but nothing more. And yet\nFrancis Bacon arrived in France at the most momentous epoch in the\nhistory of French literature. This boy, with his marvellous\nintellect--the same intellect which nearly half a century later produced\nthe \"Novum Organum\"--with a memory saturated with the records of\nantiquity and with the writings of the classical authors, with an\nindustry beyond the capacity and a mind beyond the reach of his\ncontemporaries, skilled in the teachings of the philosophers, with\nindependence of thought and a courage which enabled him to condemn the\nmethods of study followed at the University where he had spent three\nyears; this boy who had a \"beam of knowledge derived from God\" upon him,\nwho \"had not his knowledge from books, but from some grounds and notions\nfrom himself,\" and above and beyond all who was conscious of his powers\nand had unbounded confidence in his capacity for using them; this boy\nwalked beside the English Ambassador elect into the highest circles of\nFrench Society at the time when the most important factors of influence\nwere Ronsard and his confreres of the Pleiade. He had left behind him in\nhis native country a language crude and almost barbaric, incapable of\ngiving expression to the knowledge which he possessed and the thoughts\nwhich resulted therefrom.\n\nAt this time there were few books written in the English tongue which\ncould make any pretence to be considered literature: Sir Thomas Eliot's\n\"The Governor,\" Robert Ascham's \"The Schoolmaster,\" and Thomas Wright's\n\"Arts of Rhetoric,\" almost exhaust the list. Thynne's edition, 1532, and\nLidgate's edition, 1561, of Chaucer's works are not intelligible. Only\nin the 1598 edition can the great poet be read with any understanding.\nThe work of re-casting the poems for this edition was Bacon's, and he is\nthe man referred to in the following lines, which are prefixed to it:--\n\n\n_The Reader to Geffrey Chaucer._\n\n _Rea._--Where hast thou dwelt, good Geffrey al this while,\n Unknown to us save only by thy bookes?\n\n _Chau._--In haulks, and hernes, God wot, and in exile,\n Where none vouchsaft to yeeld me words or lookes:\n Till one which saw me there, and knew my friends,\n Did bring me forth: such grace sometimes God sends.\n\n _Rea._--But who is he that hath thy books repar'd,\n And added moe, whereby thou are more graced?\n\n _Chau._--The selfe same man who hath no labor spar'd,\n To helpe what time and writers had defaced:\n And made old words, which were unknoun of many,\n So plaine, that now they may be knoun of any.\n\n _Rea._--Well fare his heart: I love him for thy sake,\n Who for thy sake hath taken all this pains.\n\n _Chau._--Would God I knew some means amends to make,\n That for his toile he might receive some gains.\n But wot ye what? I know his kindnesse such,\n That for my good he thinks no pains too much:\n And more than that; if he had knoune in time,\n He would have left no fault in prose nor rime.\n\nThere is a catalogue of the library of Sir Thomas Smith[17] on August 1,\n1566, in his gallery at Hillhall. It was said to contain nearly a\nthousand books. Of these only five were written in the English language.\nUnder Theologici, K. Henry VIII. book; under Juris Civilis, Littleton's\nTenures, an old abridgement of Statutes; under Historiographi, Hall's\nChronicles, and Fabian's Chronicles and The Decades of P. Martyr; under\nMathematica, The Art of Navigation. The remainder are in Greek, Latin,\nFrench, and Italian. Burghley's biographer states that Burghley \"never\nread any books or praiers but in Latin, French, or Italian, very seldom\nin Englishe.\"\n\nAt this time Francis Bacon thought in Latin, for his mother tongue was\nwholly insufficient. There is abundant proof of this in his own\nhandwriting. Under existing conditions there could be no English\nliterature worthy of the name. If a Gentleman of the Court wrote he\neither suppressed his writings or suffered them to be published without\nhis name to them, as it was a discredit for a gentleman to seem learned\nand to show himself amorous of any good art. Here is where Spedding\nmissed his way and never recovered himself. Deep as is the debt of\ngratitude due to him for his devoted labours in the preparation of\n\"Bacon's Life and Letters\" and in the edition of his works, it must be\nasserted that he accomplished this work without seeing Francis Bacon.\nThere was a vista before young Bacon's eyes from which the practice of\nthe law and civil dignities were absent. He arrived at the French Court\nat the psychological moment when an object-lesson met his eyes which had\na more far-reaching effect on the language and literature of the\nAnglo-Saxon race than any or all other influences that have conspired to\nraise them to the proud position which to-day they occupy. It is\nnecessary briefly to explain the position of the French language and\nliterature at this juncture.\n\nThe French Renaissance of literature had its beginning in the early\nyears of the sixteenth century. It had been preceded by that of Italy,\nwhich opened in the fourteenth century, and reached its limit with\nAriosto and Tasso, Macchiavelli and Guicciardini during the sixteenth\ncentury. Towards the end of the fifteenth century modern French poetry\nmay be said to have had its origin in Villon and French prose in\nComines. The style of the former was artificial and his poems abounded\nin recurrent rhymes and refrains. The latter had peculiarities of\ndiction which were only compensated for by weight of thought and\nsimplicity of expression. Clement Marot, who followed, stands out as one\nof the first landmarks in the French Renaissance. His graceful style,\nfree from stiffness and monotony, earned for him a popularity which even\nthe brilliancy of the Pleiade did not extinguish, for he continued to be\nread with genuine admiration for nearly two centuries. He was the\nfounder of a school of which Mellia de St. Gelais, the introducer of the\nsonnet into France, was the most important member. Rabelais and his\nfollowers concurrently effected a complete revolution in fiction.\nMarguerite of Navarre, who is principally known as the author of \"The\nHeptameron,\" maintained a literary Court in which the most celebrated\nmen of the time held high place. It was not until the middle of the\nsixteenth century that the great movement took place in French\nliterature which, if that which occurred in the same country three\nhundred years subsequently be excepted, is without parallel in literary\nhistory.\n\nThe Pleiade consisted of a group of seven men and boys who, animated by\na sincere and intelligent love of their native language, banded\nthemselves together to remodel it and its literary forms on the methods\nof the two great classical tongues, and to reinforce it with new words\nfrom them. They were not actuated by any desire for gain. In 1549 Jean\nDaurat, then 49 years of age, was professor of Greek at le College de\nCoqueret in Paris. Amongst those who attended his classes were five\nenthusiastic, ambitious youths whose ages varied from seventeen to\ntwenty-four. They were Pierre de Ronsard, Joachim du Bellay, Remy\nBelleau, Antoine de Baif, and Etienne Jodelle. They and their Professor\nassociated themselves together and received as a colleague Pontus de\nTyard, who was twenty-eight. They formed a band of seven renovators, to\nwhom their countrymen applied the cognomen of the Pleiade, by which they\nwill ever be known. Realising the defects and possibilities of their\nlanguage, they recognised that by appropriations from the Greek and\nLatin languages, and from the melodious forms of the Italian poetry,\nthey might reform its defects and develop its possibilities so\ncompletely that they could place at the service of great writers a\nvehicle for expression which would be the peer if not the superior of\nany language, classical or modern. It was a bold project for young men,\nsome of whom were not out of their teens, to venture on. That they met\nwith great success is beyond question; the extent of that success it is\nnot necessary to discuss here. The main point to be emphasised is that\nit was a deliberate scheme, originated, directed, and matured by a group\nof little more than boys. The French Renaissance was not the result of a\nspontaneous bursting out on all sides of genius. It was wrought out with\nsheer hard work, entailing the mastering of foreign languages, and\naccompanied by devotion and without hope of pecuniary gain. The\nmanifesto of the young band was written by Joachim de Bellay in 1549,\nand was entitled, \"La Defense et Illustration de la langue Francaise.\"\nIn the following year appeared Ronsard's Ode--the first example of the\nnew method. Pierre de Ronsard entered Court life when ten years old. In\nattendance on French Ambassadors he visited Scotland and England, where\nhe remained for some time. A severe illness resulted in permanent\ndeafness and compelled him to abandon his profession, when he turned to\nliterature. Although Du Bellay was the originator of the scheme, Ronsard\nbecame the director and the acknowledged leader of the band. His\naccomplishments place him in the first rank of the poets of the world.\nReference would be out of place here to the movement which was after his\ndeath directed by Malherbe against Ronsard's reputation and fame as a\npoet and his eventual restoration by the disciples of Sainte Beuve and\nthe followers of Hugo. It is desirable, however, to allude to other\ngreat Frenchmen whose labours contributed in other directions to promote\nthe growth of French literature. Jean Calvin, a native of Noyon, in\nPicardy, had published in Latin, in 1536, when only twenty-seven years\nof age, his greatest work, both from a literary and theological point of\nview, \"The Institution of the Christian Religion,\" which would be\naccepted as the product of full maturity of intellect rather than the\nfirstfruits of the career of a youth. What the Pleiade had done to\ncreate a French language adequate for the highest expression of poetry\nCalvin did to enable facility in argument and discussion. A Latin\nscholar of the highest order, avoiding in his compositions a tendency to\ndeclamation, he developed a stateliness of phrase which was marked by\nclearness and simplicity. Theodore Beza, historian, translator, and\ndramatist, was another contributor to the literature of this period.\nJacques Amyot had commenced his translations from \"Ethiopica,\" treating\nof the royal and chaste loves of Theagenes and Chariclea three years\nbefore Du Bellay's manifesto appeared. Montaigne, referring to his\ntranslation of Plutarch, accorded to him the palm over all French\nwriters, not only for the simplicity and purity of his vocabulary, in\nwhich he surpassed all others, but for his industry and depth of\nlearning. In another field Michel Eyquem Sieur de Montaigne had arisen.\nHis moral essays found a counterpart in the biographical essays of the\nAbbe de Brantome. Agrippa D'Aubigne, prose writer, historian, and poet;\nGuillaume de Saluste du Bartas, the Protestant Ronsard whose works were\nmore largely translated into English than those of any other French\nwriter; Philippes Desportes and others might be mentioned as forming\npart of that brilliant circle of writers who had during a comparatively\nshort period helped to achieve such a high position for the language and\nliterature of France.\n\n * * * * *\n\nIn 1576, when Francis Bacon arrived in France, the fame of the Pleiade\nwas at its zenith. Du Bellay and Jodelle were dead, but the fruit of\ntheir labours and of those of their colleagues was evoking the\nadmiration of their countrymen. The popularity of Ronsard, the prince of\npoets and the poet of princes, was without precedent. It is said that\nthe King had placed beside his throne a state chair for Ronsard to\noccupy. Poets and men of letters were held in high esteem by their\ncountrymen. In England, for a gentleman to be amorous of any learned art\nwas held to be discreditable, and any proclivities in this direction had\nto be hidden under assumed names or the names of others. In France it\nwas held to be discreditable for a gentleman not to be amorous of the\nlearned arts. The young men of the Pleiade were all of good family, and\nall came from cultured homes. Marguerite of Navarre had set the example\nof attracting poets and writers to her Court and according honours to\nthem on account of their achievements. The kings of France had adopted\na similar attitude. During the same period in England Henry VIII., Mary,\nand Elizabeth had been following other courses. They had given no\nencouragement to the pursuit of literature. Notwithstanding the\nrepetition by historians of the assertion that the good Queen Bess was a\nmunificent patron of men of letters, literature flourished in her reign\nin spite of her action and not by its aid.\n\nBacon implies this in the opening sentences of the second book of the\n\"Advancement of Learning.\" He speaks of Queen Elizabeth as being \"a\nsojourner in the world in respect of her unmarried life, rather than an\ninhabitant. She hath indeed adorned her own time and many waies enricht\nit; but in truth to Your Majesty, whom God hath blest with so much\nRoyall issue worthy to perpetuate you for ever; whose youthfull and\nfruitfull Bed, doth yet promise more children; it is very proper, not\nonly to iradiate as you doe your own times, but also to extend your\nCares to those Acts which succeeding Ages may cherish, and Eternity\nitself behold: Amongst which, if my affection to learning doe not\ntransport me, there is none more worthy, or more noble, than the\nendowment of the world with sound and fruitfull Advancement of Learning:\nFor why should we erect unto ourselves some few authors, to stand like\nHercules Columnes beyond which there should be no discovery of\nknowledge, seeing we have your Majesty as a bright and benigne starre to\nconduct and prosper us in this Navigation.\" As Elizabeth had been\nunfruitful in her body, and James fruitful, so had she been unfruitful\nin encouraging the Advancement of Learning, but the appeal is made to\nJames that he, being blessed with a considerable issue, should also have\nan issue by the endowment of Learning.\n\nWhat must have been the effect on the mind of this brilliant young\nEnglishman, Francis Bacon, when he entered into this literary atmosphere\nso different from that of the Court which he had left behind him? There\nwas hardly a classical writer whose works he had not read and re-read.\nHe was familiar with the teachings of the schoolmen; imbued with a deep\nreligious spirit, he had mastered the principles of their faiths and the\nsubtleties of their disputations. The intricacies of the known systems\nof philosophies had been laid bare before his penetrating intellect.\nWith the mysteries of mathematics and numbers he was familiar. What had\nbeen discovered in astronomy, alchemy and astrology he had absorbed;\nhowever technical might be a subject, he had mastered its details. In\narchitecture the works of Vitruvius had been not merely read but\ncriticised with the skill of an expert. Medicine, surgery--every\nsubject--he had made himself master of. In fact, when he asserted that\nhe had taken all knowledge to be his province he spoke advisedly and\nwith a basis of truth which has never until now been recognised. The\nyouth of 17 who possessed the intellect, the brain and the memory which\njointly produced the \"Novum Organum,\" whose mind was so abnormal that\nthe artist painting his portrait was impelled to place round it \"the\nsignificant words,\" \"_si tabula daretur digna, animum mallem_,\" who had\ntaken all knowledge to be his province, was capable of any achievement\nof the Admirable Crichton. And this youth it was who in 1576 passed from\na country of literary and intellectual torpor into the brilliancy of the\ncompanionship of Pierre de Ronsard and his associates. It is one of the\nmost stupendous factors in his life. Something happened to him before\nhis return to England which affected the whole of his future life. It\nmay be considered a wild assertion to make, but the time will come when\nits truth will be proved, that \"The Anatomie of the Minde,\" \"Beautiful\nBlossoms,\" and \"The French Academy,\" are the product of one mind, and\nthat same mind produced the \"Arte of English Poesie,\" \"An Apology for\nPoetrie,\" by Sir John Harrington, and \"The Defense of Poetry,\" by Sir\nPhilip Sydney. The former three were written before 1578 and place the\nphilosopher before the poet; the latter three were written after 1580\nand place the poet--the creator--before the philosopher. Francis Bacon\nhad recognised that the highest achievement was the act of creation.\nHenceforth he lived to create.\n\nSir Nicholas Bacon died on or about the 17th of February, 1578-9. How or\nwhere this news reached Francis is not recorded, but on the 20th of the\nfollowing March he left Paris for England, after a stay of two and\na-half years on the Continent. He brought with him to the Queen a\ndespatch from Sir Amias Paulet, in which he was spoken of as being \"of\ngreat hope, endued with many and singular parts,\" and one who, \"if God\ngave him life, would prove a very able and sufficient subject to do her\nHighness good and acceptable service.\"[18]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[17] Sir Thomas Smith (1512-1577) was Secretary of State under Edward\nVI. and Elizabeth--a good scholar and philosopher. He, when Greek\nlecturer and orator at Cambridge, with John Cheke, introduced, in spite\nof strong opposition, the correct way of speaking Greek, restoring the\npronunciation of the ancients.\n\n[18] State Paper Office; French Correspondence.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nBACON'S SUIT ON HIS RETURN TO ENGLAND, 1580.\n\n\nSpedding states that the earliest composition of Bacon which he had been\nable to discover is a letter written in his 20th year from Grays Inn.\nFrom that time forward, he continues, compositions succeed each other\nwithout any considerable interval, and in following them we shall\naccompany him step by step through his life. What are the compositions\nwhich Spedding places as being written but not published up to the year\n1597, when the first small volume of 10 essays containing less than\n6,000 words was issued from the press? These are they:--\n\n Notes on the State of Christendom[19] (date 1580 to 1584).\n\n Letter of Advice to the Queen (1584-1586).\n\n An Advertisement touching the Controversies of the Church of\n England (1586-1589).\n\n Speeches written for some Court device, namely, Mr. Bacon in praise\n of Knowledge, and Mr. Bacon's discourse in praise of his Sovereign\n (1590-1592).\n\n Certain observations made upon a libel published this present year,\n 1592.\n\n A true report of the Detestable Treason intended by Dr. Roderigo\n Lopez, 1594.\n\n Gesta Grayorum, 1594, parts of which are printed by Spedding in\n type denoting doubtful authorship.\n\n Bacon's device, 1594-1598.\n\n Three letters to the Earl of Rutland on his travels, 1595-1596.\n\nThat is all! These are the compositions which follow each other without\nconsiderable interval, and by which we are to accompany him step by step\nthrough those seventeen years which should be the most important years\nin a man's life! He could have turned them out in ten days or a\nfortnight with ease. We expect from Mr. Spedding bread, and he gives us\na stone!\n\nThis brilliant young man, who, when 15 years of age, left Cambridge,\nhaving possessed himself of all the knowledge it could afford to a\nstudent, who had travelled in France, Spain and Italy to \"polish his\nmind and mould his opinion by intercourse with all kinds of foreigners,\"\nhow was he occupying himself during what should be the most fruitful\nyears of his life? Following his profession at the Bar? His affections\ndid not that way tend. Spedding expresses the opinion that he had a\ndistaste for his profession, and, writing of the circumstances with\nwhich he was surrounded in 1592, says: \"I do not find that he was\ngetting into practice. His main object still was to find ways and means\nfor prosecuting his great philosophical enterprise.\" What was this\nenterprise? \"I confess that I have as vast contemplative ends as I have\nmoderate means,\" he says, writing to Burghley, \"for I have taken all\nknowledge to be my province.\" This means more than mere academic\nphilosophy.\n\nIn 1593, when Bacon was put forward and upheld for a year as a candidate\nfor the post of Attorney-General, Spedding writes of him; \"He had had\nlittle or no practice in the Courts; what proof he had given of\nprofessional proficiency was confined to his readings and exercises in\nGrays Inn.... Law, far from being his only, was not even his favourite\nstudy; ... his head was full of ideas so new and large that to most\nabout him they must have seemed visionary.\"\n\nWriting of him in 1594 Spedding says: \"The strongest point against\nBacon's pretensions for the Attorneyship was his want of practice. His\nopponents said that 'he had never entered the place of battle.'[20]\nWhether this was because he could not find clients or did not seek them\nI cannot say.\" In order to meet the objection, Bacon on the 25th\nJanuary, 1593-4, made his first pleading, and Burghley sent his\nsecretary \"to congratulate unto him the first fruits of his public\npractice.\"\n\nThere is one other misconception to be corrected. It is urged that Bacon\nwas, during this period, engrossed in Parliamentary life. From 1584 to\n1597 five Parliaments were summoned. Bacon sat in each. In his\ntwenty-fifth year he was elected member for Melcombe, in Dorsetshire. In\nthe Parliament of 1586 he sat for Taunton, in that of 1588 for\nLiverpool, in that of 1592-3 for Middlesex, and in 1597 for Ipswich.\n\nBut the sittings of these Parliaments were not of long duration, and the\nspeeches which he delivered and the meetings of committees upon which he\nwas appointed would absorb but a small portion of his time. It must be\npatent, therefore, that Spedding does not account for his occupations\nfrom his return to England in 1578 until 1597, when the first small\nvolume of his Essays was published.\n\nDuring the whole of this period Bacon was in monetary difficulties, and\nyet there is no evidence that he was living a life of dissipation or\neven of extravagance. On the contrary, all testimony would point to the\nconclusion that he was following the path of a strictly moral and\nstudious young man. On his return to England he took lodgings in Coney\nCourt, Grays Inn. There Anthony found him when he returned from abroad.\n\nThere are no data upon which to form any reliable opinion as to the\namount of his income at this time. Rawley states that Sir Nicholas Bacon\nhad collected a considerable sum of money which he had separated with\nintention to have made a competent purchase of land for the livelihood\nof his youngest son, but the purchase being unaccomplished at his death,\nFrancis received only a fifth portion of the money dividable, by which\nmeans he lived in some straits and necessities in his younger years. It\nis not clear whether the \"money dividable\" was only that separated by\nSir Nicholas, or whether he left other sums which went to augment the\nfund divisible amongst the brothers. His other children were well\nprovided for. Francis was not, however, without income. Sir Nicholas had\nleft certain manors, etc., in Herts to his sons Anthony and Francis in\ntail male, remainder to himself and his heirs. Lady Ann Bacon had vested\nan estate called Markes, in Essex, in Francis, and there is a letter,\ndated 16th April, 1593, from Anthony to his mother urging her to concur\nin its sale, so that the proceeds might be applied to the relief of his\nbrother's financial position.[21]\n\nLady Bacon lived at Gorhambury. She was not extravagant, and yet in 1589\nshe was so impoverished that Captain Allen, in writing to Anthony,\nspeaking of his mother, Lady Bacon, says she \"also saith her jewels be\nspent for you, and that she borrowed the last money of seven several\npersons.\" Whatever her resources were, they had by then been exhausted\nfor her sons. Anthony was apparently a man of considerable means. He was\nmaster of the manor and priory of Redburn, of the manor of Abbotsbury,\nMinchinbury and Hores, in the parish of Barley, in the county of\nHertford; of the Brightfirth wood, Merydan-meads, and Pinner-Stoke\nfarms, in the county of Middlesex.[22]\n\nBut within a few years after his return to England Anthony was borrowing\nmoney wherever he could. Mother and brother appear to have exhausted\ntheir resources and their borrowing capabilities. There is an account\nshowing that in eighteen months, about 1593, Anthony lent Francis L373,\nequivalent to nearly L3,000 at to-day's value. In 1597 Francis was\narrested by the sheriff for a debt of L300, for which a money-lender had\nobtained judgment against him, and he was cast into the Tower. Where had\nall the money gone? There is no adequate explanation.\n\n * * * * *\n\nThe first letter of Francis Bacon's which Spedding met with, to which\nreference has already been made, is dated 11th July, 1580, to Mr.\nDoylie, and is of little importance. The six letters which follow--all\nthere are between 1580 and 1590[23]--relate to one subject, and are of\ngreat significance. The first is dated from Grays Inn, 16th September,\n1580, to Lady Burghley. In it young Francis, now 19 years of age, makes\nthis request: \"That it would please your Ladyship in your letters\nwherewith you visit my good Lord to vouchsafe the mention and\nrecommendation of my suit; wherein your Ladyship shall bind me more unto\nyou than I can look ever to be able to sufficiently acknowledge.\"\n\nThe next letter--written on the same day--is addressed to Lord Burghley.\nIts object is thus set forth:--\n\n \"My letter hath no further errand but to commend unto your Lordship\n the remembrance of my suit which then I moved unto you, whereof it\n also pleased your Lordship to give me good hearing so far forth as\n to promise to tender it unto her Majesty, and withal to add in the\n behalf of it that which I may better deliver by letter than by\n speech, which is, that although it must be confessed that the\n request is rare and unaccustomed, yet if it be observed how few\n there be which fall in with the study of the common laws either\n being well left or friended, or at their own free election, or\n forsaking likely success in other studies of more delight and no\n less preferment, or setting hand thereunto early without waste of\n years upon such survey made, it may be my case may not seem\n ordinary, no more than my suit, and so more beseeming unto it. As I\n force myself to say this in excuse of my motion, lest it should\n appear unto your Lordship altogether undiscreet and unadvised, so\n my hope to obtain it resteth only upon your Lordship's good\n affection towards me and grace with her Majesty, who methinks\n needeth never to call for the experience of the thing, where she\n hath so great and so good of the person which recommendeth it.\"\n\nWhat was this suit? Spedding cannot suggest any explanation. He says:\n\"What the particular employment was for which he hoped I cannot say;\nsomething probably connected with the service of the Crown, to which the\nmemory of his father, an old and valued servant prematurely lost, his\nnear relationship to the Lord Treasurer, and the personal notice which\nhe had himself received from the Queen, would naturally lead him to\nlook.... The proposition, whatever it was, having been explained to\nBurghley in conversation, is only alluded to in these letters. It seems\nto have been so far out of the common way as to require an apology, and\nthe terms of the apology imply that it was for some employment as a\nlawyer. And this is all the light I can throw upon it.\" Subsequently\nSpedding says the motion was one[24] \"which would in some way have made\nit unnecessary for him to follow 'a course of practice,' meaning, I\npresume, ordinary practice at the Bar.\"\n\nAnother expression in the letter makes it clear that the object of the\nsuit was an experiment. The Queen could not have \"experience of the\nthing,\" and Bacon solicited Burghley's recommendation, because she would\nnot need the experience if he, so great and so good, vouched for it.\n\nBurghley appears to have tendered the suit to the Queen, for there is a\nletter dated 18th October, 1580, addressed to him by Bacon, commencing:\n\n \"Your Lordship's comfortable relation to her Majesty's gracious\n opinion and meaning towards me, though at that time your leisure\n gave me not leave to show how I was affected therewith, yet upon\n every representation thereof it entereth and striketh so much more\n deeply into me, as both my nature and duty presseth me to return\n some speech of thankfulness.\"\n\nSpedding remarks thereon: \"It seems that he had spoken to Burghley on\nthe subject and made some overture, which Burghley undertook to\nrecommend to the Queen; and that the Queen, who though slow to bestow\nfavours was careful always to encourage hopes, entertained the motion\ngraciously and returned a favourable answer. The proposition, whatever\nit was, having been explained to Burghley in conversation, is only\nalluded to in these letters.\"\n\nSpedding dismisses these three letters in 22 lines of comment, which\ncontain the extracts before set out. He regards the matter as of slight\nconsequence, and admits that he can throw no light upon it. But he\npoints out that it was \"so far out of the common way as to require an\napology.\" Surely he has not well weighed the terms of the apology when\nhe says they \"imply that it was for some employment as a lawyer.\"\n\nThere had been a conversation between Bacon and Burghley during which\nBacon had submitted a project to the accomplishment of which he was\nprepared to devote his life in the Queen's service. It necessitated his\nabandoning the profession of the law. Apparently Burghley had\nremonstrated with him, in the manner of experienced men of the world,\nagainst forsaking a certain road and avenue to preferment in favour of\nany course rare and unaccustomed. Referring in his letter to this,\nBacon's parenthetical clause beginning \"either being well left or\nfriended,\" etc., is confession and avoidance. In effect he says:--Few\nstudy the common laws who have influence; few at their own free\nelection; few desert studies of more delight and no less preferment; and\nfew devote themselves to that study from their earliest years. Since\nthere are few who, having my opportunities, devote themselves to the\nstudy of the common laws, my position in so doing would not be an\nordinary one, no more than is my suit. Therefore, why should I, having\nyour [Burleigh's] influence to help me, sacrifice my great intellectual\ncapabilities fitting me to accomplish my great contemplative ends? Why\nshould I sacrifice them to a study of the common laws?\n\nThe sentence may be otherwise construed, but in any case it involves an\napology for the abandonment of the profession which had been chosen for\nhim.\n\nThe next letter is addressed to the Right Honourable Sir Francis\nWalsingham, principal secretary to her Majesty, and is dated from Grays\nInn, 25th of August, 1585. Spedding's comment on it is as follows:--\n\n \"For all this time, it seems, the suit (whatever it was) which he\n had made to her through Burghley in 1580 remained in suspense,\n neither granted nor denied, and the uncertainty prevented him from\n settling his course of life. From the following letter to\n Walsingham we may gather two things more concerning it: it was\n something which had been objected to as unfit for so young a man;\n and which would in some way have made it unnecessary for him to\n follow 'a course of practice'--meaning, I presume, ordinary\n practice at the Bar.\"\n\nThis is the letter:--\n\n \"It may please your Honour to give me leave amidst your great and\n diverse business to put you in remembrance of my poor suit, leaving\n the time unto your Honour's best opportunity and commodity. I think\n the objection of my years will wear away with the length of my\n suit. The very stay doth in this respect concern me, because I am\n thereby hindered to take a course of practice which, by the leave\n of God, if her Majesty like not my suit, I must and will follow:\n not for any necessity of estate, but for my credit sake, which I\n know by living out of action will wear. I spake when the Court was\n at Theball's to Mr. Vice-Chamberlain,[25] who promised me his\n furderance; which I did lest he mought be made for some other. If\n it may please your Honour, who as I hear hath great interest in\n him, to speak with him in it, I think he will be fast mine.\"\n\nSpedding remarks: \"This is the last we hear of this suit, the nature and\nfate of which must both be left to conjecture. With regard to its fate,\nmy own conjecture is that he presently gave up all hope of success in\nit, and tried instead to obtain through his interest at Court some\nfurtherance in the direct line of his profession.\"\n\nHe adds: \"The solid grounds on which Bacon's pretensions rested had not\nyet been made manifest to the apprehension of Bench and Bar; his mind\nwas full of matters with which they could have no sympathy, and the shy\nand studious habits which we have seen so offend Mr. Faunt would\nnaturally be misconstrued in the same way by many others.\"[26]\n\nThis passage refers to a letter to Burghley dated the 6th of the\nfollowing May, _i.e._, 1586, from which it will be seen that the last\nhad not been heard of the motion. Burghley had been remonstrating with\nBacon as to reports which had come to him of his nephew's proceedings.\nBacon writes:--\n\n \"I take it as an undoubted sign of your Lordship's favour unto me\n that being hardly informed of me you took occasion rather of good\n advice than of evil opinion thereby. And if your Lordship had\n grounded only upon the said information of theirs, I mought and\n would truly have upholden that few of the matters were justly\n objected; as the very circumstances do induce in that they were\n delivered by men that did misaffect me and besides were to give\n colour to their own doings. But because your Lordship did mingle\n therewith both a late motion of mine own and somewhat which you had\n otherwise heard, I know it to be my duty (and so do I stand\n affected) rather to prove your Lordship's admonition effectual in\n my doings hereafter than causeless by excusing what is past. And\n yet (with your Lordship's pardon humbly asked) it may please you to\n remember that I did endeavour to set forth that said motion in such\n sort as it mought breed no harder effect than a denial, and I\n protest simply before God that I sought therein an ease in coming\n within Bars, and not any extraordinary and singular note of\n favour.\"\n\nMay not the interpretation of the phrase \"I sought therein an ease in\ncoming within Bars\" be \"I sought in that motion a freedom from the\nburden (or necessity) of coming within Bars.\" The phrase \"an ease in\" is\nvery unusual, and unless it was a term used in connection with the Inns\nit is difficult to see its precise meaning. In other words, he sought an\nalternative method to provide means for carrying out his great\nphilosophical enterprise.\n\nThere is an interval of five years before the next and last letter of\nthe six was written. It is undated, but an observation in it shows that\nit was written when he was about 31 years of age, thus fixing the date\nat 1591.\n\nFrom an entry in Burghley's note book,[27] dated 29 October, 1589, it\nappears that in the meantime a grant had been made to Bacon of the\nreversion of the office of Clerk to the Counsel in the Star Chamber.\nThis was worth about L1,600 per annum and executed by deputy, but the\nreversion did not fall in for twenty years, so it did not affect the\nimmediate difficulty in ways and means.\n\nThere are occasional references to Francis in Anthony's correspondence\nwhich show that the brothers were residing at Grays Inn, but nothing is\nstated as to the occupation of the younger brother.\n\nAt this time, according to Spedding,[28] who, however, does not give his\nauthority, Francis had a lodge at Twickenham. Many of his letters are\nsubsequently addressed from it, and three years later he was keeping a\nstaff of scriveners there.\n\nThe last letter is addressed to Lord Burghley, who is in it described by\nBacon as \"the second founder of my poor estate,\" and contains the\nfollowing:--\n\n \"I cannot accuse myself that I am either prodigal or slothful, yet\n my health is not to spend nor my course to get. Lastly, I confess\n that I have as vast contemplative ends as I have moderate civil\n ends: for I have taken all knowledge to be my province. This\n whether it be curiosity or vain glory, or (if one takes it\n favourably) _philanthropia_, is so fixed in my mind as it cannot be\n removed. And I do easily see, that place of any reasonable\n countenance doth bring commandment of more wits than of a man's\n own, which is the thing I greatly affect. And for your Lordship,\n perhaps you shall not find more strength and less encounter in any\n other. And if your Lordship shall find now, or at any time, that I\n do seek or affect any place, whereunto any that is nearer to your\n Lordship shall be concurrent, say then that I am a most dishonest\n man. And if your Lordship will not carry me on, I will not do as\n Anaxagoras did, who reduced himself with contemplation unto\n voluntary poverty; but this I will do, I will sell the inheritance\n that I have, and purchase some lease of quick revenue, or some\n office of gain that shall be executed by deputy, and so give over\n all care of service and become some sorry bookmaker, or a true\n pioneer in that mine of truth, which he said lay so deep. This\n which I have writ to your Lordship is rather thoughts than words,\n being set down without all art, disguising or reservation.\"\n\nThe suit has been of no avail. Once more Bacon appeals (and this is to\nbe his final appeal) to his uncle. He is writing thoughts rather than\nwords, set down without art, disguising or reservation. But if his\nLordship will not carry him along he has definitely decided on his\ncourse of action. The law is not now even referred to. If the object of\nthe suit was not stated in 1580, there cannot be much doubt now but that\nit had to do with the making of books and pioneer work in the mine of\ntruth. For ten years Francis Bacon had waited, buoyed up by\nencouragements and false hopes. Now he decides to take his fortune into\nhis own hands and rely no more on assistance either from the Queen or\nBurghley.\n\nOne sentence in the letter should be noted: \"If your Lordship shall find\nnow, or at any time, that I do seek or affect any place whereunto any\nthat is nearer unto your Lordship shall be concurrent, say then that I\nam a most dishonest man.\" Surely this was an assurance on Bacon's part\nthat he did not seek or affect to stand in the way of the one--the only\none, Robert Cecil--who stood nearer to Burghley in kinship.\n\nIt therefore appears evident from the foregoing facts:--\n\n(1) That Francis Bacon at 17 years of age was an accomplished scholar;\nthat his knowledge was abnormally great, and that his wit, memory, and\nmental qualities were of the highest order--probably without parallel.\n\n(2) That in the year 1580, when 19 years old, he sought the assistance\nof Burghley to induce the Queen to supply him with means and the\nopportunity to carry out some great work upon the achievement of which\nhe had set his heart. The work was without precedent, and in carrying it\nout he was prepared to dedicate to her Majesty the use and spending of\nhis life.\n\n(3) That for ten years he waited and hoped for the granting of his suit,\nwhich was rare and unaccustomed, until eventually he was compelled to\nrelinquish it and rely upon his own resources to effect his object.\n\n(4) But he desired to command other wits than his own, and that could be\nmore easily achieved by one holding place of any reasonable countenance.\nHe therefore sought through Burleigh place accompanied by income, so\nthat he might be enabled to achieve the vast contemplative ends he had\nin view.\n\n(5) That during the years 1580 to 1597, in which he claims that he was\nnot slothful, there is no evidence of his being occupied in his\nprofession or in State affairs to any appreciable extent, and yet there\ndo not exist any acknowledged works as the result of his labours. Rawley\nstates that Bacon would \"suffer no moment of time to slip from him\nwithout some present improvement.\"\n\n(6) He received pecuniary assistance from his uncle, Lord Burghley. He\nstrained the monetary resources of his mother and brother, which were\nnot inconsiderable, to the utmost, exhausted his own, and heavily\nencumbered himself with debts, and yet he was not prodigal or\nextravagant.\n\n(7) Money and time he must have to carry out his scheme, which, if one\ntakes it favourably, might be termed philanthropia, and he therefore\ndecided that, failing obtaining some sinecure office, he would sell the\ninheritance he had, purchase some lease of quick revenue or office of\ngain that could be executed by a deputy, give over all care of serving\nthe State, and become some sorry bookmaker or a true pioneer in the mine\nof truth.\n\n(8) Spedding says, \"He could at once imagine like a poet and execute\nlike a clerk of the works\"; but whatever his contemplative ends were\nthere is nothing known to his biographers which reveals the result of\nhis labours as clerk of the works.\n\n(9) If he carried out the course of action which he contemplated it is\nclear that he decided to do so without himself appearing as its author\nand director. From 1580 to 1590 something more was on his mind than the\nworks he published after he had arrived at sixty years of age. \"I am no\nvain promiser,\" he said. Where can the fulfilment of his promise be\nfound? Can his course be followed by tracing through the period the\ntrail which was left by some great and powerful mind directing the\nprogress of the English Renaissance?\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[19] Spedding prints this in small type, being doubtful as to the\nauthorship.\n\n[20] That is, never held a brief.\n\n[21] I am indebted to Mr. Harold Hardy for this interesting information.\nThere is an entry in the State Papers, 1608, Jan. 31: Grant at the suit\nof Sir Francis Bacon to Sir William Cooke, Sir John Constable, and three\nothers, of the King's reversion of the estates in Herts above referred\nto. Sir Nicholas, to whom it had descended from the Lord Keeper,\nconveyed the remainder to Queen Elizabeth her heirs and successors \"with\nthe condition that if he paid L100 the grant should be void, which was\napparently done to prevent the said Sir Francis to dispose of the same\nland which otherwise by law he might have done.\" When Lady Anne conveyed\nthe Markes estate to Francis it was subject to a similar condition,\nnamely, that the grant was to be null and void on Lady Ann paying ten\nshillings to Francis. This condition made it impossible for Francis to\ndispose of his interest in the estate, hence Anthony's request in the\nletter above referred to. It is obvious that his relatives considered\nthat Francis was not to be trusted with property which he could turn\ninto money. There was evidently some heavy strain on his resources which\ncaused him to convert everything he could into cash.\n\n[22] \"Story of Lord Bacon's Life.\" Hepworth Dixon, p. 28.\n\n[23] The two letters of 16th September, 1580, and that of 15th October,\n1580, are taken from copies in the Lansdowne collection. That of the 6th\nMay, 1586, is in the same collection, and is an original in Bacon's\nhandwriting. The letter of 25th August, 1585, is also in his\nhandwriting, and is in the State Papers, Domestic. The letter without\ndate, written to Burghley presumably in 1591, is from the supplement to\nthe \"Resuscitatio,\" 1657.\n\n[24] \"Life and Letters,\" Vol. I. p. 57.\n\n[25] This was Sir Christopher Hatton.\n\n[26] \"Life and Letters,\" Vol I. p. 59.\n\n[27] Cott. MSS. Tit. CX. 93.\n\n[28] \"Life and Letters,\" Vol. I., p. 110.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nTHE RARE AND UNACCUSTOMED SUIT.\n\n\nWhat was this rare and unaccustomed suit of which the Queen could have\nhad no experience and which, according to Spedding, would make it\nunnecessary for Bacon to follow \"ordinary practice at the bar\"?\nHistorians and biographers have founded on this suit the allegation that\nfrom his earliest years Bacon was a place hunter, entirely ignoring the\nfact, which is made clear from the letter to Walsingham written four\nyears after the application was first made, that he had resolved on a\ncourse of action which, if her Majesty liked not his suit, by the leave\nof God he must and would follow, not for any necessity of estate, but\nfor his credit sake. Here was a young man of twenty years of age,\nearnestly urging the adoption of a scheme which he had conceived, and\nwhich he feared Burghley might consider indiscreet and unadvised.\nFailing in obtaining his object, as will be proved by definite evidence,\nundertaking at the cost of Thomas Bodley and other friends a course of\ntravel to better fit him for the task he had mapped out as his life's\nwork--returning to England and, four years after his first request had\nbeen made, renewing his suit--grimly in earnest and determined to carry\nthe scheme through at all costs, with or without the Queen's aid. This\nis not the conduct of a mere place hunter. If these letters be read\naright and the reasonable theory which will be advanced of the nature of\nthe suit be accepted--all efforts to suggest any explanation having\nhitherto, as Spedding admits, proved futile--a fresh light will be\nthrown upon the character of Francis Bacon, and the heavy obligation\nunder which he has placed his countrymen for all ages will for the\nfirst time be recognised.\n\nIn the seven volumes of \"Bacon's Life and Letters\" there is nothing to\njustify the eulogy on his character to which Spedding gave utterance in\nthe following words:--\"But in him the gift of seeing in prophetic vision\nwhat might be and ought to be was united with the practical talent of\ndevising means and handling minute details. He could at once imagine\nlike a poet and execute like a clerk of the works. Upon the conviction\n_This must be done_ followed at once _How_ may it be done? Upon that\nquestion answered followed the resolution to try and do it.\" But\nalthough Spedding fails to produce any evidence to justify his\nstatement, it is nevertheless correct. More than that, the actual\nachievement followed with unerring certainty, but Spedding restricts\nBacon's life's work to the establishment of a system of inductive\nphilosophy, and records the failure of the system.\n\nWilliam Cecil was a man of considerable classical attainments, although\nthese were probably not superior to those of Mildred Cooke, the lady who\nbecame his second wife. He was initiated into the methods of\nstatesmanship at an early age by his father, Richard Cecil, Master of\nthe Robes to Henry VIII. Having found favour with Somerset, the\nProtector of Edward VI., he was, when 27 years of age, made Master of\nRequests. When Somerset fell from power in 1549 young Cecil, with other\nadherents of the Protector, was committed to the Tower. But he was soon\nreleased and was rapidly advanced by Northumberland. He became Secretary\nof State, was knighted and made a member of the Privy Council. Mary\nwould have continued his employment in office had he not refused her\noffers on account of his adhesion to the Protestant faith. He mingled\nduring her reign with men of all parties and his moderation and cautious\nconduct carried him through that period without mishap. On Elizabeth's\naccession he was the first member sworn upon the Privy Council, and he\ncontinued during the remainder of his life her principal Minister of\nState. Sagacious, deliberate in thought and character, tolerant, a man\nof peace and compromise, he became the mainstay of the Queen's\ngovernment and the most influential man in State affairs. Whilst he\nmaintained a princely magnificence in his affairs, his private life was\npure, gentle and generous. This was the man to whom the brilliant young\nnephew of his wife and the son of his old friend, Sir Nicholas Bacon,\ndisclosed, some time during the summer of 1580, his scheme, of which\nthere had been no experience, and entrusted his suit, which was rare and\nunaccustomed. The arguments in its favour at this interview may have\nfollowed the following outline:--\n\nI need not remind you of my devotion to learning. You know that from my\nearliest boyhood I have followed a course of study which has embraced\nall subjects. I have made myself acquainted with all knowledge which the\nworld possesses. To enable me to do this I mastered all languages in\nwhich books are written. During my recent visit to foreign lands, I have\nrecognized how far my country falls behind others in language, and\nconsequently in literature. I would draw your special attention to the\nremarkable advance which has been made in these matters in France during\nyour lordship's lifetime. When I arrived there in 1576 I made myself\nacquainted with the principles of the movement which had been carried\nthrough by Du Bellay, Ronsard, and their confreres. They recognized that\ntheir native language was crude and lacking in gravity and art. First by\nobtaining a complete mastery of the Greek and Latin languages, as also\nof those of Italy and Spain, they prepared themselves for a study of the\nliteratures of which those languages, with their idioms and\npeculiarities, form the basis. Having obtained this mastery they\nreconstructed their native language and gave their country a medium by\nwhich her writers might express their thoughts and emotions. They have\nmade it possible for their countrymen to rival the poets of ancient\nGreece and Rome. They and others of their countrymen have translated the\nliterary treasures of those ancient nations into their own tongue, and\nthereby enabled those speaking their language, who are not skilled in\nclassical languages, to enjoy and profit by the works of antiquity. Your\nlordship knows well the deficiencies of the language of our England, the\nabsence of any literature worthy of the name. In these respects the\ncondition of affairs is far behind that which prevailed in France even\nbefore the great movement which Ronsard and Du Bellay initiated. I do\nnot speak of Italy, which possesses a language melodious, facile, and\nrich, and a literature which can never die.\n\nI know my own powers. I possess every qualification which will enable me\nto do for my native tongue what the Pleiade have done for theirs. I ask\nto be permitted to give to my country this great heritage. Others may\nserve her in the law, others may serve her in affairs of state, but your\nLordship knows full well that there are none who could serve her in this\nrespect as could I. You are not unmindful of the poorness of my estate.\nThis work will not only entail a large outlay of money but it\nnecessitates command of the ablest wits of the nation. This is my suit:\nthat her Majesty will graciously confer on me some office which will\nenable me to control such literary resources and the services of such\nmen as may be necessary for the accomplishment of this work; further,\nthat she may be pleased from time to time to make grants from the civil\nlist to cover the cost of the work. I need not remind your Lordship what\nfame will ever attach to her Majesty and how glorious will be the\nmemory of her reign if this great project be effected in it. Your\nLordship must realise this because you and her Ladyship, my aunt, are by\nyour attainments qualified to appreciate its full value. My youth may be\nurged as an objection to my fitness for such a task, but your Lordship\nknows full well--none better--that my powers are not to be measured by\nmy years. This I will say, I am no vain promiser, but I am assured that\nI can accomplish all that I contemplate. The Queen hath such confidence\nin the soundness of your judgment that she will listen to your advice.\nMy prayer to you therefore is that it may please your Lordship both\nherein and elsewhere to be my patron and urge my suit, which, although\nrare and unaccustomed, may be granted if it receives your powerful\nsupport.\n\nThe suit was submitted to the Queen, but without result. Probably it was\nnot urged with a determination to obtain its acceptance in spite of any\nobjections which might be raised by the Queen. Five years after, Bacon,\nstill a suppliant, wrote to Walsingham: \"I think the objection to my\nyears will wear away with the length of my suit.\" Cautious Lord Burghley\nwould give full weight to the force of this objection if it were\nadvanced by the Queen. He loved this boy, with his extraordinary\nabilities, but he had such novel and far-reaching ideas. He appeared to\nhave no adequate reverence for his inferior superiors. On leaving\nCambridge he had arrogantly condemned its cherished methods of imparting\nknowledge. Before power was placed in his hands the use he might make of\nit must be well weighed and considered. What effect might the\nadvancement of Francis Bacon have on Robert Cecil's career? Granted that\nthe contentions of the former were sound, and the object desirable,\nshould not this work be carried out by the Universities? Never leap\nuntil you know where you are going to alight was a proverb the\nsoundness of which had been proved in Lord Burghley's experience. What\nmight be the outcome if this rare and unaccustomed suit were granted?\nBetter for the Queen, who, though slow to bestow favours, was always\nready to encourage hopes, to follow her usual course. She might\nentertain the motion graciously and return a favourable answer and let\nit rest there. And so it did.\n\nThen there was a happening which has remained unknown until now.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nBACON'S SECOND VISIT TO THE CONTINENT AND AFTER.\n\n\nIn the \"Reliquiae Bodleianae,\" published in 1703, is a letter written\nwithout date by Thomas Bodley to Francis Bacon. This letter does not\nappear to have been known to Mallett, Montague, Dixon, Spedding, or any\nof Bacon's biographers. It had been lost sight of until the writer\nnoticed it and reproduced it in _Baconiana_. This is the letter:--\n\n MY DEAR COUSIN,--According to your request in your letter (dated\n the 19th October at Orleans, I received here the 18th of December),\n I have sent you by your merchant L30 (the thirty is written thus\n 30 l) sterling for your present supply, and had sent you a greater\n sum, but that my extraordinary charge this year _hath utterly\n unfurnished me_. And now, cousin, though I will be no _severe_\n exactor of the account, either of your money or time, yet for the\n love I bear you, I am very desirous, both to satisfy myself, and\n your friends how you prosper in your travels, and how you find\n yourself bettered thereby, either in knowledge of God, or of the\n world; the rather, because the Days you have already spent abroad,\n are now both sufficient to give you Light, how to fix yourself and\n end with counsel, and accordingly to shape your course constantly\n unto it. Besides, it is a vulgar scandal unto the travellers, that\n few return more religious (narrow, _editor_) than they went forth;\n wherein both my hope and Request is to you, that your principal\n care be to hold your Foundation, and to make no other use of\n informing your self in the corruptions and superstitions of other\n nations, than only thereby to engage your own heart more firmly to\n the Truth. You live indeed in a country of two several professions,\n and you shall return a Novice, if you be not able to give an\n account of the Ordinances, strength, and progress of each, in\n Reputation, and Party, and how both are supported, ballanced and\n managed by the state, as being the contrary humours, in the Temper\n of Predominancy whereof, the Health or Disease of that Body doth\n consist. These things you will observe, not only as an\n _English_-man, whom it may concern, to what interest his country\n may expect in the consciences of their Neighbours; but also, as a\n Christian, to consider both the beauties and blemishes, the hopes\n and dangers of the _church_ in all places. Now for the world, I\n know it _too_ well, to persuade you to dive into the practices\n thereof; rather stand upon your own guard, against all that attempt\n you there unto, or may practise upon you in your Conscience,\n Reputation, or your Purse. Resolve, no Man is wise or safe, but he\n that is honest: And let this Persuasion turn your studies and\n observations from the Complement and Impostures of the debased age,\n to more real grounds of wisdom, gathered out of the story of Times\n past, and out of the government of the present state. Your guide to\n this, is the knowledge of the country and the people among whom ye\n live; For the country though you cannot see all places, yet if, as\n you pass along, you enquire carefully, and further help yourself\n with Books that are written of the cosmography of those parts, you\n shall sufficiently gather the strength, Riches, Traffick, Havens,\n Shipping, _commodities_, vent, and the wants and disadvantages of\n places. Wherein also, for your good hereafter, and for your\n friends, it will befit to note their buildings, Furnitures,\n Entertainments; all their Husbandry, and ingenious inventions, in\n whatsoever concerneth either Pleasure or Profit.\n\n For the people, your traffick among them, while you learn their\n language, will sufficiently instruct you in their Habilities,\n Dispositions, and Humours, if you a little enlarge the Privacy of\n your own Nature, to seek acquaintance with the best sort of\n strangers, and _restrain_ your _Affections_ and Participation, for\n your own countrymen of whatsoever condition.\n\n In the story of France, you have a _large and pleasant Field_ in\n three lines of their Kings, to observe their alliances and\n successions, their _Conquests_, their wars, _especially with us_;\n their Councils, their treaties; and all Rules and examples of\n experiences and Wisdom, which may be Lights and Remembrances to you\n hereafter, to Judge of all occurants both at home and abroad.\n\n Lastly, for the Government, your end _must not be like an_\n Intelligencer, to spend all your time in fishing after the present\n News, Humours, Graces, _or_ Disgraces of Court, which happily may\n change before you come home; but your better and more constant\n ground will be, to know the Consanguinities, Alliances, and Estates\n of their Princes; Proportion between the Nobility and Magistracy;\n the Constitutions of their Courts of Justice; the state of the\n Laws, as well for the making as the execution thereof; How the\n Sovereignty of the King infuseth itself into all Acts and\n Ordinances; how many ways they lay Impositions and Taxations, and\n gather Revenues to the _Crown_.\n\n What be the Liberties and Servitudes of all degrees; what\n Discipline and Preparations for wars; what Invention for increase\n of Traffick at home, for multiplying their commodities, encouraging\n Arts and Manufactures, or of worth in any kind. Also what\n establishment, to prevent the _Necessities_ and _Discontentment_ of\n _People_, To cut off suits at Law, and Duels, to suppress thieves\n and all Disorders.\n\n To be short, because my purpose is not to bring all your\n Observations to Heads, but only by these few to let you know what\n manner of Return your Friends expect _from you_; let me, for all\n these and all the rest, give you this one Note, which I desire you\n to observe as the Counsels of a Friend, _Not_ to spend your\n Spirits, and the _precious_ time of your Travel, in a Captious\n Prejudice and censuring of all things, nor in an Infectious\n Collection of base Vices and Fashions of Men and Women, or general\n corruption of these times, which will be of use only Among\n Humorists, for Jests and Table-Talk: but rather strain your Wits\n and Industry soundly to instruct your-self in all things between\n _Heaven and Earth_ which may tend to Virtue, Wisdom, and Honour,\n and which may make your life more profitable to your country, and\n yourself more comfortable to your friends, and acceptable to God.\n And to conclude, let all these Riches be treasured up, not only in\n your memory, where time may lessen your stock; but rather in good\n writings, and Books of Account, which will _keept_ them safe for\n your use hereafter.\n\n And if in this time of your liberal Traffick, you will give me any\n advertizement of your commodities in these kinds, I will make you\n as liberal a Return from my self and your Friends here, as I shall\n be able.\n\n And so commending all your good Endeavours, to him that must either\n _wither_ or _prosper_ them, I very kindly bid you farewel.\n\n Your's to be commanded, THOMAS BODLEY.\n\nSpedding prints this letter (Vol. II. p. 16) commencing with the words,\n\"Yet for the love I bear,\" to the end, with the exception of the last\nsentence, as a letter written probably by Bacon for Essex to send to the\nEarl of Rutland. He identifies it as \"the letter which the compiler of\nStephens' Catalogue took for a letter addressed by Bacon to Buckingham,\"\nwhich he says it could not be. The original is at Lambeth (MSS. 936, fo.\n218). The seal remains, but the part of the last sheet which contained\nthe signature on one side, and the superscription on the other, has been\ntorn off. The letter commences, \"_My good Lord_,\" and ends, \"_Your\nLordship's in all duty to serve you_.\" It would appear, therefore, that\nsomeone had access to Bodley's letter to Bacon, and, approving its\ncontents, used its contents a second time.\n\nThere are two palpable deductions to be drawn from this letter: (1) That\nBacon was on a journey through _several_ countries to obtain knowledge\nof their customs, laws, religion, military strength, shipping, and\nwhatsoever concerneth pleasure or profit. There is a striking\ncorrespondence between Bodley's advice and the description of Bacon's\ntravels found in the \"Life\" prefixed to \"L'Histoire Naturelle.\" (2) That\nBacon was being supported by Bodley and other of his friends, who\ndesired him to keep a record of all that he observed and learnt, and to\nreport from time to time as he progressed, and in return, said Bodley,\n\"I will make you as liberal a return from myself and your friends here\nas I shall be able.\" This letter was written from England, and there is\na paragraph in Bodley's \"Life,\" written by himself, which makes it\npossible to fix the year:--\n\n \"My resolution fully taken I departed out of England anno 1576 and\n continued very neare foure yeares abroad, and that in sundry parts\n of Italy, France, and Germany. A good while after my return to wit,\n in the yeare 1585 I was employed by the Queen,\" etc.\n\nIf this letter was written between 1576 and 1579 it would appear strange\nthat Bodley and others should be providing Bacon with money for his\ntravels, and requiring reports from him, whilst his father, Sir Nicholas\nBacon, was alive and prosperous. No such difficulty, however, arises,\nfor the letter, being sent from England, could not have been written\nbetween the date of Bacon's first departure for France in 1576 and his\nreturn on his father's death in 1579, for during the whole of that time\nBodley was abroad. It is stated in it that Bacon wrote from Orleans a\nletter dated 19th October, the year not being given. This could not be\nin 1580, for Bacon wrote to Lord Burghley from Gray's Inn on the 18th\nOctober, 1580. Spedding commences the paragraph immediately following\nthis letter by saying, \"From this time we have no further news of\nFrancis Bacon till the 5th of April, 1582,\" and although he does not\nreproduce the letter, he relies on a letter from Faunt to Anthony Bacon,\nto which that date is attributed in Birch's \" Memorials,\" Vol. I. page\n22. In it Faunt refers to having seen Anthony's mother and his brother\nFrancis. Faunt left Paris for England on the 22nd March, 1582. This\nletter was written on the 15th of the following month, so no trace has\nbeen found of Francis being in England between 18th October, 1580, and\n5th of April, 1582. Bodley's letter, must, therefore, have been written\nin December, 1581, when Bacon was abroad making a journey through\nseveral countries. From the foregoing facts it is impossible to form any\nother conclusion. Now for the first time this journey has been made\nknown. There is a letter amongst the State papers in the Record Office,\ndated February, 1581, written by Anthony Bacon to Lord Burghley,\nenclosing a note of advice and instructions for his brother Francis.\nAnthony was an experienced traveller, and was then abroad. It reads as\nthough he was sending advice and instructions to his younger brother,\nwho was about to start on travels through countries with which Anthony\nwas familiar. If so, Francis would leave England early in March,\n1581--that is, if he had not left before this letter was received by\nBurghley.\n\nHaving established beyond reasonable doubt the fact of this journey, a\nnew and remarkable suggestion presents itself. Spedding, when dealing\nwith the year 1582, prints \"Notes on the State of Christendom,\"[29] with\nthe following remarks:--\n\n \"If that paper of notes concerning 'The State of Europe' which was\n printed as Bacon's in the supplement to Stephens' second collection\n in 1734, reprinted by Mallet in 1760, and has been placed at the\n beginning of his political writings in all editions since 1563, be\n really of his composition, this is the period of his life to which\n it belongs. I must confess, however, that I am not satisfied with\n the evidence or authority upon which it appears to have been\n ascribed to him.\"\n\nRobert Stephens, who was Historiographer Royal in the reign of William\nand Mary, states that the Earl of Oxford placed in his hands some\nneglected manuscripts and loose papers to see whether any of the Lord\nBacon's compositions lay concealed there and were fit for publication.\nHe found some of them written, and others amended, with his lordship's\nown hand. He found certain of the treatises had been published by him,\nand that others, certainly genuine, which had not, were fit to be\ntranscribed if not divulged. Spedding states that he has little doubt\nthat this paper on the state of Europe was among these manuscripts and\nloose papers, for the editor states that the supplementary pieces (of\nwhich this was one) were added from originals found among Stephens'\npapers. The original is now among the Harleian MSS. in the British\nMuseum. Spedding thus describes it:--\n\n \"The Harleian MS. is a copy in an old hand, probably contemporary,\n but not Francis Bacon's. A few sentences have been inserted\n afterwards by the same hand, and two by another which is very like\n Anthony Bacon's; none in Francis's. The blanks have all been filled\n up, but no words have been corrected, though it is obvious that in\n some places they stand in need of correction.\n\n \"Certain allusions to events then passing (which will be pointed\n out in their place) prove that the original paper was written, or\n at least completed, in the summer of 1582, at which time Francis\n Bacon was studying law in Gray's Inn, while Anthony was travelling\n in France in search of political intelligence and was in close\n correspondence with Nicholas Faunt, a secretary of Sir Francis\n Walsingham's, who had spent the previous year in France, Germany,\n Switzerland, and the north of Italy, on the same errand; and was\n now living about the English Court, studying affairs at home, and\n collecting and arranging the observations which he had made abroad,\n 'having already recovered all his writings and books which he had\n left behind him in Italy and in Frankfort' (see Birch's 'Memoirs,'\n I. 24), and it is remembered that if this paper belonged to Anthony\n Bacon, it would naturally descend at his death to Francis and so\n remain among his manuscripts, where it is supposed to have been\n found.\n\n \"Thus it appears that the external evidence justifies no inference\n as to the authorship, and the only question is whether the _style_\n can be considered conclusive. To me it certainly is not. But as\n this is a point upon which the reader should be allowed to judge\n for himself, and as the paper is interesting in itself and\n historically valuable and has always passed for Bacon's, it is here\n printed from the original though (to distinguish it from his\n undoubted compositions) in a smaller type.\"\n\nSpedding's difficulty in accepting this paper as from Bacon's pen really\nlay in the fact that from the internal evidence it is obvious that it\nwas written by one who had himself travelled through, at any rate, some\nof the countries described. The results of personal observation are\nagain and again apparent. According to Spedding, Bacon was in 1581-1582\nstudying law at Gray's Inn; according to Bodley he was on the Continent\nmaking observations for his future guidance. The reader can judge of the\nvalue of the external evidence. It is not conclusive, but the draft\nbeing found amongst papers which were unquestionably Bacon's writings\nand being adopted as Bacon's and published as such by those who found\nit, the balance of probabilities is distinctly in favour of its being\nhis. As to the internal evidence much may be said. It corresponds as\nclosely as it is possible with Bodley's requirements as set forth in his\nletter of December. It is exactly \"the manner of return\" Bodley wrote to\nFrancis \"your friends expect from you.\" \"And,\" he added, \"if in this\ntime of your liberal Traffick, you will give me any advertisement of\nyour commodities in these kinds, I will make you as liberal a return\nfrom myself and your friends here as I shall be able.\"\n\nThe date agrees with that of Bacon's second visit to the Continent. In\nSpedding's Life and Letters it occupies twelve and a-half pages, of\nwhich five are occupied by descriptions of Italy, one of Austria, two of\nGermany (chiefly a recital of names and places), two of France,\nthree-quarters of Spain, one and three-quarters of Portugal, Poland,\nDenmark, and Sweden. This may have been Bacon's itinerary in 1581-2.\n\nItaly is treated with considerable detail and was undoubtedly described\nfrom personal observation, as were France and Spain. In a less degree\nthe description of Austria, Poland and Denmark produces this impression;\nin a still smaller degree Portugal and Sweden, and it is quite absent\nfrom the description of Germany. Florence, Venice, Mantua, Genoa, Savoy,\nare dealt with in most detail. Rawley states that it was Bacon's\nintention to have stayed abroad some years longer when he was called\nhome by the death of his father, to find himself left in straightened\ncircumstances. Then followed his ineffectual suit, which he still\npersisted in. Bodley evidently was, if not the instigator, at any rate\nthe paymaster for this second journey. Anthony's letter of February,\n1581, points to Burghley as a participator in the project. He would\nassist not only out of kindly feeling, but the journey would at any rate\nget this ambitious, determined young man out of the way for a time, and\npossibly the journey might get this unaccustomed suit out of his mind.\nThus it came about.\n\nFrom Faunt's letters, Spedding says we derive what little information we\nhave with regard to Francis's proceedings from 1583 to 1584. \"From them\nwe gather little more than that he remained studying at Gray's Inn,\noccasionally visiting his mother at Gorhambury, or going with her to\nhear Travers at the Temple and occasionally appearing at the Court.\"\n\nBut the suit was not abandoned, for there is the letter of 25th August,\n1585, to Walsingham, when Bacon writes: \"I think the objection of my\nyears will wear away with the length of my suit. The very stay doth in\nthis respect concern me, because I am thereby hindered to take a course\nof practice which by the leave of God, if her Majesty like not of my\nsuit, I must and will follow: not for any necessity of estate, but for\nmy credit sake, which I know by living out of action will wear.\"\n\nAgain, the old, \"rare and unaccustomed suit\" of which the Queen could\nhave had no experience! Either the persuasive powers of Burghley had\nfailed or he had not exerted them. Probably the latter, because the\ntroublesome, determined young man is now worrying Walsingham and Hatton\nto urge its acceptance with the Queen. The purport of the foregoing\nextract effectually precludes the possibility of this suit referring to\nhis advancement at the bar. For five years it has been proceeding--he\nhas been indulging in hopes which have been unfulfilled. Now he will\nwait no longer, but he will adopt a course which, if her Majesty like\nnot his suit, by the leave of God he must and will follow, not for any\nnecessity of making money but because he feels impelled to it by a\nsense of responsibility which he must fulfil. Walsingham and Hatton do\nnot appear to have helped the matter forward. There was little\nprobability of them succeeding in influencing the Queen where Burghley\nhad failed. There was still less probability of them attempting to\ninfluence her if Burghley objected. Had this suit referred to\nadvancement in the law it would have been granted with the aid of\nBurghley's influence years before. Had it referred to some ordinary\noffice of State, friends so powerful as Burghley, Walsingham and Hatton\ncould and would have obtained anything within reason for this brilliant\nyoung son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, for there was no complication with\nEssex until after 1591. But this rare and unaccustomed suit of which\nthere had been no experience was another matter.\n\nSix more years pass, and although there is now no suit to the Queen\nthere is the same idea prevailing in the letter to Burghley--a seeking\nfor help to achieve some great scheme upon which Bacon's mind was so\nfixed \"as it cannot be removed,\" \"whether it be curiosity, vainglory or\nnature, or (if one take it favourably) philanthropia.\" Still he required\nthe command of more wits than of a man's own, which is the thing he did\ngreatly affect. Still his course was not to get. Still the determination\nto achieve the object without help, if help could not be obtained--to\nachieve it by becoming some sorry bookmaker or a pioneer in that mine of\ntruth which Anaxagoras said lay so deep. This is emphasised. These are\n\"thoughts rather than words, being set down without all art, disguising\nor reservation.\"\n\nThere are two significant sentences in this letter written to Burghley\nwhen Bacon was 31 years of age. He describes Burghley as \"the second\nfounder of my poor estate,\" and, further, he uses the expression \"And if\nyour Lordship will not carry me on.\" What can these allusions mean but\nthat Burghley had been rendering financial assistance to his nephew? If\nthe theory here put forward as to the nature of the suit be correct, the\nobject was one which would have Burghley's cordial support. That he had\nexpressed approval of it must be deduced from the letter of the 16th of\nSeptember, 1580. The object was one which, without doubt, would find\nstill warmer support from Lady Mildred. But the suit was so\nunprecedented that it is not to be wondered at that Burghley did not try\nto force it through. The work was going forward all the time--slowly for\nlack of means and official recognition. Burghley, generous in his\nnature, lavish in private life, might, however, be expected to help a\nwork which he would be glad to see carried to a successful conclusion.\n\nHad he been less cautious and let young Francis have his head, what\nmight not have happened! But there was always the fear of letting this\nhuge intellectual power forge ahead without restraint. It was, however,\nworking out unseen its scheme and that, too, with Burghley's help and\nthat of others. The period from 1576 to 1623--only 47 years--sees the\nEnglish language developed from a state of almost barbaric crudeness to\nthe highest pitch which any language, classical or modern, has reached.\nThere was but one workman living at that period who could have\nconstructed that wonderful instrument and used it to produce such\nmagnificent examples of its possibilities. It is as reasonable to take\nup a watch keeping perfect time and aver that the parts came together by\naccident, as to contend that the English language of the Authorised\nVersion of the Bible and the works of Shakespeare were the result of a\ngeneral up-springing of literary taste which was diffused amongst a few\nwriters of very mediocre ability. The English Renaissance was conceived\nin France and born in England in 1579. It ran its course and in 1623\nattained its maturity; but when Francis Bacon was no more--he who had\nperformed that in our tongue which may be preferred either to insolent\nGreece or haughty Rome--\"things daily fall, wits grow downward, and\neloquence grows backward: so that he may be named and stand as the mark\nand [Greek: achme] of our language.\"\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[29] \"Life and Letters,\" Vol. I., page 16.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\nIS IT PROBABLE THAT BACON LEFT MANUSCRIPTS HIDDEN AWAY?\n\n\nIt is difficult to leave this subject without some reference to the\narticles which have appeared in the press and magazines referring to the\nsuggestion that there were left concealed literary remains of Bacon\nhitherto undiscovered.\n\nIn an article which recently appeared in a Shakespearean journal, a\nwriter who evidently knows little about the Elizabethan period said:\n\"But why should Bacon want to bury manuscripts, anyhow? Who does bury\nmanuscripts? Besides, they had been printed and were, therefore, rubbish\nand waste paper merely.\" The manuscript of John Harrington's translation\nof Ariosto's \"Orlando Furioso\" may be seen in the British Museum. It is\nbeautifully written on quarto paper. It was, apparently, the fair copy\nsent to the printer from which the type was to be set up. Be this as it\nmay, it was undoubtedly a copy upon which Bacon marked off the verses\nwhich are to go on each page and set out the folio of each page and the\nprinter's signature which was to appear at the bottom. It also contains\ninstructions to the printer as to the type to be used. This manuscript\nwas not considered \"rubbish and waste paper merely.\"\n\nFrancis Bacon has again and again insisted upon the value of history. In\nthe \"Advancement of Learning\" he points out to the King \"the indignity\nand unworthiness of the history of England as it now is, in the main\ncontinuation thereof.\" No man appreciated as did Bacon the importance in\nthe history of England of the epoch in which he lived. That a truthful\nrelation of the events of those times would be invaluable to posterity\nhe knew full well. He of all men living at that time was best qualified\nto write such a history. He recognised that there were objections to a\nhistory being written, or, at any rate, published, wherein the actions\nof persons living were described, for he said \"it must be confessed that\nsuch kind of relations, specially if they be published about the times\nof things done, seeing very often that they are written with passion or\npartiality, of all other narrations, are most suspected.\" It is hardly\nconceivable that Bacon should have failed to provide a faithful history\nof his own times for the benefit of posterity, or, at any rate, that he\nshould have failed to preserve the materials for such a history. Neither\nthe history nor such materials are known to be in existence. Supposing\nBacon had prepared either the one or the other, what could he do with\nit? Hand it to Rawley with instructions for it to be printed? With a\nstrong probability, if it were a faithful history, that it would never\nbe published, but that it would be destroyed, he would never take such a\nrisk. There would only be one course open to him. To conceal it in some\nplace where it would not be likely to be disturbed, in which it might\nremain in safety, possibly for hundreds of years. And then leave a clue\neither in cypher or otherwise by which it might be recovered.\n\nIt is by no means outside the range of possibility that Bacon as early\nas 1588 had opened a receptacle for books and manuscripts which he\ndesired should go down to posterity, and fearing their loss from any\ncause, he carefully concealed them, adding to the store from time to\ntime. If he did so he left a problem to be solved, and arranged the\nplace of concealment so that it could only be found by a solution of the\nproblem.\n\nThe emblems on two title-pages of two books of the period are very\nsignificant. \"Truth brought to Light and discovered by Time\" is a\nnarrative history of the first fourteen years of King James' reign. One\nportion of the engraved title-page represents a spreading tree growing\nup out of a coffin, full fraught with various fruits (manuscripts and\nbooks) most fresh and fair to make succeeding times most rich and rare.\nIn the Emblem (Fig. III.) now reproduced, which is found on the\ntitle-page of the first edition of \"New Atlantis,\" 1627,[30] Truth\npersonified by a naked woman is being revealed by Father Time, and the\ninscription round the device is \"_Tempore patet occulta veritas_--in\ntime the hidden truth shall be revealed.\"\n\nThen, in further confirmation of this view, there is the statement of\nRawley in his introduction to the \"Manes Verulamiani.\" Speaking of the\nfame of his illustrious master he says, \"Be this moreover enough, to\nhave laid, as it were, the foundations, in the name of the present age.\nEvery age will, methinks, adorn and amplify this structure, but to what\nage it may be vouchsafed to set the finishing hand--this is known only\nto God and the Fates.\"\n\n [Illustration: _Fig. III._\n\n _From the Title Page of \"New Atlantis,\" 1627._]\n\n [Illustration: _Fig. IV._\n\n _From the Title Page of Peacham's \"Minerva Britannia,\" 1612._]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[30] There is a copy bearing date 1626.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\nHOW THE ELIZABETHAN LITERATURE WAS PRODUCED.\n\n\nThe half century from 1576 to 1625 stands by itself in the history of\nthe literature of this country. During that period not only was the\nEnglish language made, not only were there produced the finest examples\nof its capacities, which to-day exist, but the knowledge and wisdom\npossessed by the classical writers, the histories of the principal\nnations of the world, practically everything that was worth knowing in\nthe literature which existed in other countries were, for the first\ntime, made available in the English tongue. And what is still more\nremarkable, these translations were printed and published. These works\nembraced every art and subject which can be imagined. Further, during\nthis period there were issued a large number of books crowded with\ninformation upon general subjects. The names on the title-pages of many\nof these works are unknown. It is astonishing how many men as to whom\nnothing can be learnt, appear about this time to have written one book\nand one book only.\n\nThese translations were published at a considerable cost. For such\nworks, being printed in the English language, purchasers were\npractically confined to this country, and their number was very limited.\nThe quantity of copies constituting an edition must have been small. It\nis impossible to believe that the sale of these books could realise the\namount of their cost.\n\nDefinite information on this point is difficult to obtain, for little is\nknown as to the prices at which these books were sold.\n\nIt appears from the \"Transcripts of the Stationers' Registers\" that the\nmaximum number of copies that went to make up an edition was in the\ninterest of the workman fixed at 1,250 copies, so that if a larger\nnumber were required the type had to be re-set for each additional 1,250\ncopies. Double impressions of 2,500 were allowed of primers, catechisms,\nproclamations, statutes and almanacs. But the solid literature which\ncame into the language at this period would not be required in such\nquantities. The printer was not usually the vendor of the books. The\npublisher and bookseller or stationer carried on in most cases a\ndistinct business.\n\nPamphlets, sermons, plays, books of poems, formed the staple ware of the\nstationer. The style of the book out of which the stationer made his\nmoney may be gathered from the following extract from _The Return from\nParnassus_, Act I, scene 3:--\n\n _Ingenioso._--Danter thou art deceived, wit is dearer than thou\n takest it to bee. I tell thee this libel of Cambridge\n has much salt and pepper in the nose: it will\n sell sheerely underhand when all those bookes of\n exhortations and catechisms lie moulding on thy\n shopboard.\n\n _Danter._--It's true, but good fayth, M. Ingenioso, I lost by your\n last booke; and you know there is many a one that pays\n me largely for the printing of their inventions, but\n for all this you shall have 40 shillings and an odde\n pottle of wine.\n\n _Ingenioso._--40 shillings? a fit reward for one of your reumatick\n poets, that beslavers all the paper he comes by, and\n furnishes the Chaundlers with wast papers to wrap\n candles in: ... it's the gallantest Child my invention\n was ever delivered off. The title is, a Chronicle of\n Cambridge Cuckolds; here a man may see, what day of\n the moneth such a man's commons were inclosed, and when\n throwne open, and when any entayled some odde crownes\n upon the heires of their bodies unlawfully begotten;\n speake quickly, ells I am gone.\n\n _Danter._--Oh this will sell gallantly. Ile have it whatsoever it\n cost, will you walk on, M. Ingenioso, weele sit over a\n cup of wine and agree on it.\n\nThe publication of such works as Hollingshed's \"Chronicles,\" North's\n\"Plutarch's Lives,\" Grimston's \"History of France,\" and \"The French\nAcademy,\" could not have been produced with profit as the object. A\nlarge body of evidence may be brought forward to support this view, but\nspace will only permit two examples to be here set forth.\n\nIn the dedication to Sir William Cecil, of Hollingshed's \"Chronicles,\"\n1587, the writer says:\n\n Yet when the volume grew so great as they that were to defraie the\n charges for the impression were not willing to go through with the\n whole, they resolved first to publish the histories of England,\n Scotland, and Ireland with their descriptions.\n\nJohn Dee spent most of the year 1576 in writing a series of volumes to\nbe entitled \"General and Rare Memorials pertayning to the perfect Art of\nNavigation.\" In 1577 the first volume was ready for the press. In June\nhe had to borrow L40 from one friend, L20 from another, and L27 upon\n\"the chayn of gold.\" In the following August John Day commenced printing\nit at his press in Aldersgate. The title was \"The British Monarchy or\nHexameron Brytannicum,\" and the edition consisted of 100 copies.\n\nThe second volume, \"The British Complement,\" was ready in the following\nDecember. It was never published. Dee states in his Diary that the\nprinting would cost many hundreds of pounds, as it contained tables and\nfigures, and he must first have \"a comfortable and sufficient\nopportunity or supply thereto.\" This he was unable to procure, so the\nbook remained in manuscript.[31]\n\nBooks of this class were never produced with the object of making\nprofit. The proceeds of sale would not cover the cost of printing and\npublishing, without any provision for the remuneration of the translator\nor author. Why were they published, and how was the cost provided?\n\nThere was, however, another source of revenue open to the author of a\nbook. Henry Peacham, in \"The Truth of our Time,\" says:--\n\n \"But then you may say, the Dedication will bee worth a great\n matter, either in present reward of money, or preferment by your\n Patrones Letter, or other means. And for this purpose you prefixe a\n learned and as Panegyricall Epistle as can,\" etc.\n\nIt is beyond question that an author usually obtained a considerable\ncontribution towards the cost of the production of a book from the\nperson to whom the dedication was addressed. A number of books published\nduring the period from 1576 to 1598 are dedicated to the Queen, to the\nEarl of Leicester, and to Lord Burghley. One can only offer a suggestion\non this point which may or may not be correct. If Francis Bacon was\nconcerned in the issue of these translations and other works, and\nBurghley was assisting him financially, it is probable that Burghley\nwould procure grants from the Queen in respect of books which were\ndedicated to her, and would provide funds towards the cost of such books\nas were dedicated to himself. \"The Arte of English Poesie\" was written\nwith the intention that it should be dedicated to the Queen, but there\nwas a change in the plans, and Burghley's name was substituted. When\nBacon, in 1591, is threatening to become \"a sorry bookmaker,\" he\ndescribes Burghley as the second founder of his poor estate, and uses\nthe expression, \"If your Lordship will not carry me on,\" which can only\nmean that as to the matter which is the subject of the letter, Burghley\nhad not merely been assisting but carrying him. The evidence which\nexists is strong enough to warrant putting forward this theory as to the\nfrequency of the names of the Queen and Burghley on the dedications.\n\nThe Earl of Leicester desired to have the reputation of being a patron\nof the arts, and was willing to pay for advertisement. He was the\nChancellor of Oxford University, and evidently recognised the value of\nprinting, for in 1585 he erected, at his own expense, a new printing\npress for the use of the University. If he paid at all for dedications\nhe would pay liberally. But, of course, the Queen, Burghley, and\nLeicester were accessible to others besides Bacon, and the argument goes\nno further than that towards the production of certain books upon which\ntheir names appear the patrons provided part of the cost. The\nrecognition of this fact, however, does not detract from the importance\nof the expressions used by Bacon in his letter to Burghley.\n\nThere is abundant testimony to the fact that it was the custom, during\nthe Elizabethan age, for an author to suppress his own name, and on the\ntitle-page[32] substitute either the initials or name of some other\nperson. The title-pages of this period are as unreliable as are the\nnames or initials affixed to the dedications and epistles \"To the\nReader.\"\n\nIn 1624 was published \"The Historie of the Life and Death of Mary Stuart\nQueene of Scotland.\" The dedication is signed Wil Stranguage. In 1636 it\nwas reprinted, the same dedication being signed W. Vdall. There are\nnumerous similar instances.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[31] \"John Dee,\" by Charlotte Fell Smith, 1909. Constable and Co., Ltd.\n\n[32] See page 31.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\nTHE CLUE TO THE MYSTERY OF BACON'S LIFE.\n\n\nThe theory now put forward is based upon the assumption that Francis\nBacon at a very early age adopted the conception that he would devote\nhis life to the construction of an adequate language and literature for\nhis country and that he would do this remaining invisible. If he was the\nauthor of \"The Anatomie of the Mind,\" 1576, and of \"Beautiful Blossoms,\"\n1577, he must have adopted this plan of obscurity as early as his\nsixteenth year. It is possible, however, that it may be shown that at a\ndate still earlier he had decided upon this course. This, however, is\nbeyond doubt--that if Francis Bacon was associated in any way with the\nliterature of England from 1570 to 1605, with the exception of the small\nvolume of essays published in 1597, he most carefully concealed his\nconnection with it.\n\n\"Therefore, set it down,\" he says in the essay Of Simulation and\nDissimulation, \"that a habit of secrecy is both politic and moral,\" and\nin _Examples of the Antitheta_,[33] \"Dissimulation is a compendious\nwisdome.\" Here again is the same idea: \"Beside in all wise humane\nGovernment, they that sit at the helme, doe more happily bring their\npurposes about, and insinuate more easily things fit for the people by\npretexts, and oblique courses; than by ... downright dealing. Nay (which\nperchance may seem very strange) in things meerely naturall, you may\nsooner deceive nature than force her; so improper and selfeimpeaching\nare open direct proceedings; whereas on the other side, an oblique and\nan insinuating way, gently glides along, and compasseth the intended\neffect.\"[34]\n\nIt is noteworthy that Bacon had a quaint conceit of the Divine Being\nwhich he was never tired of repeating. In the preface to the\n\"Advancement of Learning\" (1640), the following passage occurs:--\n\n \"_For of the knowledges which contemplate the works of Nature, the\n holy Philosopher hath said expressly_; that the glory of God is to\n conceal a thing, but the glory of the King is to find it out: _as\n if the Divine Nature, according to the innocent and sweet play of\n children, which hide themselves to the end they may be found; took\n delight to hide his works, to the end they might be found out; and\n of his indulgence and goodness to mankind, had chosen the Soule of\n man to be his Play-fellow in this game_.\"\n\nAgain on page 45 of the work itself he says:--\n\n \"For so he (King Solomon) saith expressly, _The Glory of God is to\n conceale a thing, but the Glory of a King is to find it out_. As if\n according to that innocent and affectionate play of children, the\n Divine Majesty took delight to hide his works, to the end to have\n them found out, and as if _Kings_ could not obtain a greater\n Honour, then to be God's play-fellowes in that game, especially\n considering the great command they have of wits and means, whereby\n the investigation of all things may be perfected.\"\n\nAnother phase of the same idea is to be found on page 136.\n\nIn the author's preface to the \"Novum Organum\" the following passage\noccurs:--\n\n \"Whereas of the sciences which regard nature the Holy Philosopher\n declares that 'it is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but it is\n the glory of the King to find it out.' Even as though the Divine\n Nature took pleasure in the innocent and kindly sport of children\n playing at hide and seek, and vouched-safe of his kindness and\n goodness to admit the human spirit for his play fellow in that\n game.\"\n\nIn almost identical words Bacon suggests the same conception in \"In\nValerius Terminus\" and in \"Filum Labyrinthi.\"\n\nIn the Epistle Dedicatorie of \"The French Academie\" and elsewhere the\nauthor is insisting on the same idea that \"He (God) cannot be seene of\nany mortal creature but is notwithstanding known by his works.\"\n\nThe close connection of Francis Bacon with the works (now seldom\nstudied) of the Emblem writers is vouched for by J. Baudoin.\n\nOliver Lector in \"Letters from the Dead to the Dead\" has given examples\nof his association with the Dutch and French emblem writers. Three\nEnglishmen appear to have indulged in this fascinating pursuit--George\nWhitney (1589), Henry Peacham (1612), and George Withers (1634). From\nthe Baconian point of view Peacham's \"Minerva Britannia\" is by far the\nmost interesting. The Emblem on page 34 is addressed \"To the most\njudicious and learned, SIR FRANCIS BACON Knight.\" On the opposite leaf,\npaged thus, .33,[35] the design represents a hand holding a spear as in\nthe act of shaking it. But it is the frontispiece which bears specially\non the present contention. The design is now reproduced (Fig. IV). A\ncurtain is drawn to hide a figure, the hand only of which is protruding.\nIt has just written the words \"MENTE VIDEBOR\"--\"By the mind I shall be\nseen.\" Around the scroll are the words \"Vivitur ingenio cetera mortis\nerunt\"--one lives in one's genius, other things shall be (or pass away)\nin death.\n\nThat emblem represents the secret of Francis Bacon's life. At a very\nearly age, probably before he was twelve, he had conceived the idea that\nhe would imitate God, that he would hide his works in order that they\nmight be found out--that he would be seen only by his mind and that his\nimage should be concealed. There was no haphazard work about it. It was\nnot simply that having written poems or plays, and desiring not to be\nknown as the author on publishing them, he put someone else's name on\nthe title-page. There was first the conception of the idea, and then the\ncarefully-elaborated scheme for carrying it out.\n\nThere are numerous allusions in Elizabethan and early Jacobean\nliterature to someone who was active in literary matters but preferred\nto remain unrecognised. Amongst these there are some which directly\nrefer to Francis Bacon, others which occur in books or under\ncircumstances which suggest association with him. It is not contended\nthat they amount to direct testimony, but the cumulative force of this\nevidence must not be ignored. In some of the emblem books of the period\nthese allusions are frequent.\n\nThen there is John Owen's epigram appearing in his \"Epigrammatum,\"\npublished in 1612.\n\nAD. D.B.\n\n \"Si bene qui latuit, bene vixit, tu bene vivis:\n Ingeniumque tuum grande latendo patet.\"\n\n \"Thou livest well if one well hid well lives,\n And thy great genius in being concealed is revealed.\"\n\nD. is elsewhere used by Owen as the initial of Dominus. The suggestion\nthat Ad. D.B. represents Ad Dominum Baconum is therefore reasonable.\n\nThomas Powell published in 1630 the \"Attourney's Academy.\" The book is\ndedicated \"To True Nobility and Tryde learning beholden To no Mountaine\nfor Eminence, nor supportment for Height, Francis, Lord Verulam and\nViscount St. Albanes.\" Then follow these lines:--\n\n \"O Give me leave to pull the Curtaine by\n That clouds thy Worth in such obscurity.\n Good Seneca, stay but a while thy bleeding,\n T' accept what I received at thy Reading:\n Here I present it in a solemne strayne,\n And thus I pluckt the Curtayne backe again.\"\n\nIn the \"Mirrour of State and Eloquence,\" published in 1656, the\nfrontispiece is a very bad copy of Marshall's portrait of Bacon prefixed\nto the 1640 Gilbert Wat's \"Advancement of Learning.\" Under it are these\nlines:--\n\n \"Grace, Honour, virtue, Learning, witt,\n Are all within this Porture knitt\n And left to time that it may tell,\n What worth within this Peere did dwell.\"\n\nThe frontispiece previously referred to of \"Truth brought to Light and\ndiscovered by Time, or a discourse and Historicall narration of the\nfirst XIIII. yeares of King James Reign,\" published in 1651, is full of\ncryptic meaning and in one section of it there is a representation of a\ncoffin out of which is growing\n\n \"A spreading Tree\n Full fraught with various Fruits most fresh and fair\n To make succeeding Times most rich and rare.\"\n\nThe fruits are books and manuscripts. The volume contains speeches of\nBacon and copies of official documents signed by him.\n\nThe books of the emblem writers are still more remarkable. \"Jacobi\nBornitii Emblemata Ethico Politica,\" 1659, contains at least a dozen\nplates in which Bacon is represented. A suggestive emblem is No. 1 of\nCornelii Giselberti Plempii Amsterodarnum Monogrammon, bearing date\n1616, the year of Shakespeare's death. It is now reproduced (Fig. V.).\nIt will be observed that the initial letters of each word in the\nsentence--_Obscaenumque nimis crepuit Fortuna Batavis appellanda_--yield\nF. Bacon. There are in other designs figures which are evidently\nintended to represent Bacon. Emblem XXXVI. shows the inside of a\nprinter's shop and two men at work in the foreground blacking and fixing\nthe type. Behind is a workman setting type, and standing beside him,\napparently directing, or at any rate observing him, is a man with the\nwell-known Bacon hat on.\n\nThe contention may be stated thus:--Francis Bacon possessed, to quote\nMacaulay, \"the most exquisitely constructed intellect that has ever been\nbestowed on any of the children of men.\" Hallam described him as \"the\nwisest, greatest of mankind,\" and affirmed that he might be compared to\nAristotle, Thucydides, Tacitus, Philippe de Comines, Machiavelli,\nDavila, Hume, \"all of these together,\" and confirming this view Addison\nsaid that \"he possessed at once all those extraordinary talents which\nwere divided amongst the greatest authors of antiquity.\" At twelve years\nof age in industry he surpassed the capacity, and, in his mind, the\nrange of his contemporaries, and had acquired a thorough command of the\nclassical and modern languages. \"He, after he had survaied all the\nRecords of Antiquity, after the volumes of men, betook himself to the\nvolume of the world and conquered whatever books possest.\" Having,\nwhilst still a youth, taken all knowledge to be his province, he had\nread, marked, and absorbed the contents of nearly every book that had\nbeen printed. How that boy read! Points of importance he underlined and\nnoted in the margin. Every subject he mastered--mathematics, geometry,\nmusic, poetry, painting, astronomy, astrology, classical drama and\npoetry, philosophy, history, theology, architecture.\n\nThen--or perhaps before--came this marvellous conception, \"Like God I\nwill be seen by my works, although my image shall never be\nvisible--_Mente videbor_. By the mind I shall be seen.\" So equipped, and\nwith such a scheme, he commenced and successfully carried through that\ncolossal enterprise in which he sought the good of all men, though in a\ndespised weed. \"This,\" he said, \"whether it be curiosity or vainglory,\nor (if one takes it favourably) philanthropia, is so fixed in my mind as\nit cannot be removed.\"\n\nTranslations of the classics, of histories, and other works were made.\nIn those he no doubt had assistance by the commandment of more wits than\nhis own, which is a thing he greatly affected. Books came from his\npen--poetry and prose--at a rate which, when the truth is revealed, will\nliterally \"stagger humanity.\" Books were written by others under his\ndirection. He saw them through the press, and he did more. He had his\nown wood blocks of devices, some, at any rate, of which were his own\ndesign, and every book produced under his direction, whether written by\nhim or not, was marked by the use of one or more of these wood blocks.\nThe favourite device was the light A and the dark A. Probably the first\nbook published in England which was marked with this device was _De Rep.\nAnglorum Instauranda libri decem, Authore Thoma Chalonero Equite,\nAnglo_. This was printed by Thomas Vautrollerius,[36] and bears date\n1579.\n\nVautrollier, and afterwards Richard Field, printed many of the books in\nthe issue of which Bacon was concerned from 1579 onwards. Henry\nBynneman, and afterwards his assignees Ralph Newbery and Henry Denham\nand George Bishop, who was associated with Denham, were also printing\nbooks issued under his auspices, and later Adam Islip, George Eld and\nJames Haviland came in for a liberal share of his patronage.\n\nThe cost of printing and publishing must have been very great. If the\nfacts ever come to light it will probably be found that Burghley was\nBacon's mainstay for financial support. It will also be found that Lady\nAnne Bacon and Anthony Bacon were liberal contributors to the funds, and\nthat the cause of Francis Bacon's monetary difficulties and consequent\ndebts was the heavy obligation which he personally undertook in\nconnection with the production of the Elizabethan literature.\n\nIn the Dedications, Prefaces, and Epistles \"To the Reader\" also Francis\nBacon's mind may be recognised. When Addison wrote of Bacon, \"One does\nnot know which to admire most in his writings, the strength of reason,\nforce of style, or brightness of imagination,\" his words might have been\ninspired by these prefixes to the literature of this period. When once\nthe student has made himself thoroughly acquainted with Bacon's style of\nwriting prefaces he can never fail to recognise it, especially if he\nreads the passages aloud. The Epistle Dedicatorie to the 1625 edition of\nBarclay's \"Argenis,\" signed Kingesmill Long, is one of the finest\nexamples of Baconian English extant. Who but the writer of the\nShakespeare plays could have written that specimen of musical language?\nTo hear it read aloud gives all the enjoyment of listening to a fine\ncomposition of music. It is the same with the Shakespeare plays; only\nwhen they are read aloud can the richness and charm of the language they\ncontain be appreciated.\n\nBacon's work can never be understood by anyone who has not realised the\nmarvellous character of the mind of the boy, his phenomenal industry,\nand the fact that \"he could imagine like a poet and execute like a clerk\nof the works.\" It has been suggested that he had a secret Society, by\nthe agency of which he carried through his works, but it is difficult\nto find any evidence that such a Society existed. It may be that he had\nhelpers without there having been anything of the nature of a Society.\n\nFrom 1575 to 1605 (thirty years) with the exception of the trifles\npublished as Essays in 1597, there are no acknowledged fruits of his\nwork to which his name is attached. Even the two books of the\n\"Advancement of Learning,\" published in 1605, would have made little\ndemands on his time. Edmund Burke said: \"Who is there that hearing the\nname of Bacon does not instantly recognise everything of genius the most\nprofound, of literature the most extensive, of discovery the most\npenetrating, of observation of human life the most distinguished and\nrefined.\" For such a man to write \"The two books\" would be no hard or\nlengthy task.\n\nThe wonder is that Francis Bacon should have attached his name to the\n1597 edition of the essays. He had written and published under other\nnames tomes of essays of at least equal merit. In Aphorism 128 of the\n\"Novum Organum\" Bacon says, \"But how sincere I am in my profession of\naffection and goodwill towards the received sciences my published\nwritings, especially the books on the Advancement of Learning,\nsufficiently shew.\" What are the published writings referred to? The\nonly works which bore his name were the incomplete volume of the Essays\nand the \"Wisdom of the Ancients,\" to neither of which the words quoted\nare applicable.\n\nAnthony Bacon, writing to Lady Anne in April, 1593, referring to her\n\"motherly offer\" to help Francis out of debt by being content to bestow\nthe whole interest in an estate in Essex, called Markes, said\n\"beseeching you to believe that being so near and dear unto me as he is,\nit cannot but be a grief unto me to see a mind that hath given so\nsufficient proof of itself in having brought forth many good thoughts\nfor the general to be overburdened and cumbered with a care of clearing\nhis particular estate.\"\n\nIn 1593 nothing had been published under Bacon's name, and there is not\nany production of his known which would justify Anthony's remark. What\nwas his motive in selecting this insignificant little volume of essays\nwhereby to proclaim himself a writer? One can understand his object in\naddressing James in _The Two Books of the Advancement of Learning_. He\nobtained in 1606, as Peacham has it, \"preferment by his Patrone's\nletter\" by being appointed Solicitor-General.\n\nDuring all this period--1575 to 1605--\"the most exquisitely constructed\nmind that has ever been bestowed on any of the children of men\" appears\nto have been dormant. Take the first three volumes of Spedding's \"Life\nand Letters,\" and carefully note all that is recorded as the product of\nthat mind during the years when it must have been at the zenith of its\npower and activity. All the letters and tracts accredited to Bacon in\nthem which have come down to us would not account for six months--not\nfor three months--of its occupation.\n\nThe explanation that he was building up his great system of inductive\nphilosophy is quite inadequate. Rawley speaks of the \"Novum Organum\" as\nhaving been in hand for twelve years. This would give 1608 as the year\nwhen it was commenced. The \"Cogitata et Visa,\" of which it was an\namplification, was probably written in 1606 or 1607, for on the 17th\nFebruary, 1607-8, Bodley writes acknowledging the receipt of it and\ncommenting on it.\n\nRawley says that it was during the last five years of Bacon's life that\nhe composed the greatest part of his books and writings both in English\nand Latin, and supplies a list which comprises all his acknowledged\npublished works except the \"Novum Organum\" and the Essays.\n\nIn \"The Statesmen and Favourites of England since the Reformation,\" it\nis stated that the universal knowledge and comprehension of things\nrendered Francis Bacon the observation of great and wise men, and\nafterward the wonder of all. Yet it is remarkable how few are the\nreferences to him amongst his contemporaries. Practically the only one\nthat would enable a reader to gain any knowledge of his personality is\nFrancis Osborn, who, in letters to his son, published in 1658, describes\nhim as he was in the last few years of his life. No one has left data\nwhich enables a clear impression to be formed of Francis Bacon as he was\nup to his fortieth year. The omission may be described as a conspiracy\nof silence. How exactly the circumstances appear to fit in with the\nfirst line of John Owen's epigram to Dominus B., published in\n1612!--\"Thou livest well if one well hid well lives\"; and if the\nsuggestion now put forward be correct that Bacon deliberately resolved\nthat his image and personality should never be seen, but only the fruits\nof his mind--the issues of his brain, to use Rawley's expression--how\napt is the second line of the epigram: \"And thy great genius in being\nconcealed, is revealed.\"\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[33] \"Of the Advancement of Learning,\" 1640, page 312.\n\n[34] \"Of the Advancement of Learning,\" 1640, pages 115, 116.\n\n[35] 33 is the numerical value of the name \"Bacon.\" The stop preceding\nit denotes cypher.\n\n[36] Vautrollier was a scholar and printer who came to England from\nParis or Roan about the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, and first\ncommenced business in Blackfriars. In 1584 he printed _Jordanus Brunus_,\nfor which he was compelled to fly. In the next year he was in Edinburgh,\nwhere, by his help, Scottish printing was greatly improved. Eventually\nhis pardon was procured by powerful friends, amongst whom was Thomas\nRandolph. In 1588 Richard Field, who was apprenticed to Vautrollier,\nmarried Jakin, his daughter, and on his death in 1589 succeeded to the\nbusiness.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV.\n\nBURGHLEY AND BACON.\n\n\nThere was published in 1732 \"The Life of the Great Statesman William\nCecil, Lord Burghley.\" The preface signed by Arthur Collins states:--\n\n The work I have for several years engaged in, of treating of those\n families that have been Barons of this Kingdom, necessarily induced\n me to apply to our Nobility for such helps, as might illustrate the\n memory of their ancestors. And several Noblemen having favour'd me\n with the perusal of their family evidences, and being recommended\n to the Right Honourable the present Earl of Exeter, his Lordship\n out of just regard to the memory of his great Ancestor, was pleased\n to order the manuscript Life of the Lord Burghley to be\n communicated to me.\n\n Which being very old and decayed and only legible to such who are\n versed in ancient writings it was with great satisfaction that I\n copied it literatim. And that it may not be lost to the world, I\n now offer it to the view of the publick. It fully appears to be\n wrote in the reign of Queen Elizabeth soon after his Lordship's\n death, by one who was intimate with him, and an eye witness of his\n actions for the last twenty-five years. It needs no comment to set\n it off; that truth and sincerity which shines through the whole,\n will, I don't doubt have the same weight with the Readers as it had\n with me and that they will be of opinion it's too valuable to be\n buried in oblivion.\n\nThis \"Life of Lord Burghley\" is referred to by Nares and other of his\nbiographers as having been written by \"a domestic.\" It contains about\n16,000 words and is the most authentic account extant of the great\nstatesman's life. The narrative is full, but the observations on the\ncharacter and habits of Burghley are by far the most important feature.\nThe method of treatment of the subject is after Bacon's style; the Life\nabounds with phrases and with tricks of diction, which enable it to be\nidentified as his. The concluding sentences could only have been written\nwith Bacon's pen:--\n\n And so leaving his soule with God, his fame to the world, and the\n truth to all charitable mynds, I leave the sensure to all judicious\n Christians, who truly practising what they professe, will better\n approve, and more indifferentlie interpret it, than envie or malice\n can disprove it. The best sort will ever doe right, the worst can\n but imagine mischief and doe wrong; yet this is a comfort, the more\n his virtues are troden downe, the more will theire brightnes\n appeare. Virtus vulnerata virescit.\n\nIn 1592 the \"Responsio ad edictum Reginae Angliae\" of the Jesuit Parsons\nhad appeared, attacking the Queen and her advisers (especially\nBurghley), to whom were attributed all the evils of England and the\ndisturbances of Christendom. The reply to this was entrusted to Francis\nBacon, who responded with a pamphlet entitled \"Certain observations upon\na libel published this present year, 1592.\" It was first printed by Dr.\nRawley in the \"Resuscitatio\" in 1657. At the time it was written it was\ncirculated largely in manuscript, for at least eight copies, somewhat\nvarying from each other, have been preserved.[37] It is quite possible\nthat it was printed at the time, but that no copy has survived.\nThroughout the whole work there are continual references to Burghley.\nChapter VI. is entirely devoted to his defence and is headed \"Certain\ntrue general notes upon the actions of the Lord Burghley.\" Either \"The\nLife\" and the \"Observations on a Libel\" are by the same writer or the\nauthor of the former borrowed the latter very freely.\n\nIt is to be regretted that the original manuscript of the \"Life\" cannot\nnow be found. In 1732 it was at Burghley House. Application has been\nmade to the present Marquis of Exeter for permission to inspect it, but\nhis Lordship's librarian has no knowledge of its existence. If it could\nbe examined it is probable that if the text was not in Bacon's\nhandwriting some notes or alterations might be recognised as his. The\nwriter says he was an eye witness of Burghley's life and actions\ntwenty-five years together--that would be from 1573 to 1598, which would\nwell accord with the present contention. If Bacon was the author it\nthrows considerable light on his relations with Burghley and establishes\nthe fact that they were of the most cordial and affectionate character.\nIt is reported that Bacon said that in the time of the Burghleys--father\nand son--clever or able men were repressed, and mainly upon this has\nbeen based the impression that Burghley opposed Francis Bacon's\nprogress.\n\nBurghley's biographer refers to this report. He writes: \"He was careful\nand desirous to furder and advaunce men of quality and desart to be\nCouncellors and officers to her Majesty wherein he placed manie and\nlaboured to bring in more ... yet would envy with her slaunders report\nhe hindered men from rising; but howe true it is wise men maie judge,\nfor it was the Queene to take whom she pleased and not in a subject to\npreferree whom he listed.\"\n\nIt will eventually be proved that such a report conveys an incorrect\nview. In the letter of 1591,[38] addressed to Burghley, Bacon\nsays:--\"Besides I do not find in myself so much self-love, but that the\ngreater parts of my thoughts are to deserve well (if I were able) of my\nfriends and namely of your Lordship; who being the Atlas of this\nCommonwealth, the honour of my house, and the second founder of my poor\nestate, I am tied by all duties, both of a good patriot, and of an\nunworthy kinsman, and of an obliged servant, to employ whatsoever I am\nto do your service,\" and later in the letter he employs the phrase,\n\"And if your Lordship will not carry me on,\" and then threatens to sell\nthe inheritance that he has, purchase some quick revenue that may be\nexecuted by another, and become some sorry bookmaker or a pioneer in\nthat mine of truth which Anaxagoras said lay so deep.\n\nAgain, in a letter to Burghley, dated 31st March, 1594, he\nsays:--\"Lastly, that howsoever this matter may go, yet I may enjoy your\nlordship's good favour and help as I have done in regard to my private\nestate, which as I have not altogether neglected so I have but\nnegligently attended and which hath been bettered only by yourself (the\nQueen except) and not by any other in matter of importance.\" Further on\nhe says: \"Thus again desiring the continuance of your Lordship's\ngoodness as I have hitherto found it on my part sought also to deserve,\nI commend,\" etc.\n\nIt is very easy, with little information as to Bacon's actions and\nlittle knowledge of the period, to form a definite opinion as to the\nrelations of Bacon and Burghley. The more information as to the one and\nknowledge of the other one gets, the more difficult does it become to\narrive at a satisfactory conclusion. Here was the son of Elizabeth's\ngreat Lord Keeper, the nephew of her trusted minister, himself from his\nboyhood a _persona grata_ with the Queen, of brilliant parts and great\nwisdom--if he had been a mere place-hunter his desires could have been\nsatisfied over and over again. There was some condition of circumstance,\nof which nothing has hitherto been known, which prevented him from\nobtaining the object of his desires. That he had a definite object, and\nhad mapped out a course by which he hoped to achieve it, is evident from\nhis letters[39] already quoted. It is equally clear that the course he\nsought to pursue entailed his abandoning the law as a profession. Either\nhe would only have such place as he desired, and on his own terms, or\nhe was known to be following some course which, although not distasteful\nto his close friends, caused him to be held in suspicion, if not\ndistrust, by the courtiers with whom Elizabeth was surrounded. Every\nadditional fact that comes to light seems to point to the truth being\nthat through his life Burghley was Francis Bacon's staunch friend and\nsupporter. Upon Sir Nicholas Bacon's death Burghley appears with Bodley\nto have been maintaining Bacon in his travels abroad. Upon his return to\nEngland Burghley gave him financial support in his great project. In\n1591 there was a crisis--someone had been spending money for the past\ntwelve years freely in making English literature. That cannot be\ngainsaid. Burghley appears to have pulled up and remonstrated; hence\nBacon's letter containing the threat before referred to. It is\nsignificant that it was immediately after this letter was written that\nBacon's association with Essex commenced. Bacon would take him and\nSouthampton into his confidence and seek their help. Essex was just the\nman to respond with enthusiasm. Francis introduced Anthony to him. The\nservices of the brothers were placed at his disposal, and he undertook\nto manage the Queen. The office of Attorney-General for Francis would\nmeet the case. \"It was dangerous in a factious age to have my Lord Essex\nhis favour,\" says the biographer before quoted.[40]\n\nThat Burghley was favourable to his appointment as Attorney-General two\nletters written by Francis to Lord Keeper Puckering in 1594 testify. In\nthe first Bacon writes: \"I pray your Lordship to call to remembrance my\nLord Treasurer's kind course, who affirmed directly all the rest to be\nunfit. And because _vis unita fortior_ I beg your Lordship to take a\ntime with the Queen when my Lord Treasurer is present.\"\n\nIn a second letter he writes: \"I thought good to remember your good\nLordship and to request you as I touched in my last that if my Lord\nTreasurer be absent your Lordship would forbear to fall into my business\nwith her Majesty lest it mought receive some foil before the time when\nit should be resolutely dealt in.\"\n\nOnly Burghley was found to support Essex's advocacy, and on the whole\nthis was not to be wondered at. Such an appointment, to say the least,\nwould have been an experiment. Possibly Essex was the stumbling-block,\nbut it may be that the real objection on the part of the Queen and her\nadvisers was that Bacon was known to be so amorous of certain learned\narts, so much given over to invention, that the consensus of opinion was\nthat he was thereby unfitted to hold an important office of the State.\nOr it may be that he was discredited by his suspected or known\nassociation with certain printers. There was some reason of which no\nexplanation can now be traced.\n\nIt has been suggested that in 1591 there was a crisis in Bacon's life.\nThat is evident from the letter to Burghley written in that year. John\nHarrington's translation of \"Orlando Furioso\" was published about this\ntime. The manuscript, which is in a perfect condition, is in the British\nMuseum, and has been marked in Bacon's handwriting throughout. The\npagination and the printer's signature are placed at the commencement of\nthe stanzas to be printed on each page, and there are instructions to\nthe printer at the end which are not in his hand.\n\nThere are good grounds for attributing the notes at the end of each\nchapter to Bacon.\n\nIt is very improbable that Sir John Harrington had the classical\nknowledge which the writer of these notes must have possessed. There is\na letter written by him to Sir Amias Pawlett, dated January, 1606-7. He\nis relating an interview with King James, and says: \"Then he (the king)\nenquyrede muche of lernynge and showede me his owne in such sorte as\nmade me remember my examiner at Cambridge aforetyme. He soughte muche to\nknowe my advances in philosophie and utterede profounde sentences of\nAristotle and such lyke wryters, whiche I had never reade and which some\nare bolde enoughe to saye others do not understand.\" It would be\ndifficult to mention any classical author with whose works the writer of\nthese notes was not familiar, or to believe that \"Epigrams both Pleasant\nand Serious\" (1615) came from the pen of that writer.\n\nAt the end of the thirty-seventh chapter the following note occurs: \"It\nwas because she (Porcia) wrote some verses in manner of an Epitaph upon\nher husband after his decease: In which kind, that honourable Ladie\n(widow of the late Lord John Russell) deserveth no lesse commendation,\nhaving done as much for two husbands. And whereas my author maketh so\ngreat bost only of one learned woman in Italie, I may compare (besides\none above all comparison that I have noted in the twentith booke) three\nor foure in England out of one family, and namely the sisters of that\nlearned Ladie, as witness that verse written by the meanest of the foure\nto the Ladie Burlie which I doubt if Cambridge or Oxford can mend.\"\n\n The four Si mihi quem cupio cures Mildreda She wrote to\n daughters of remitti Lady Burlie\n Sir Anthonie Tu bona, tu melior, tu mihi sola to send a\n Cooke-- soror; kinsman of\n Ladie Burlie, Sin mali cessando retines, & trans hers into\n Ladie Russell, mare mittis, Cornwall,\n Lady Bacon, Tu mala, tu peior, tu mihi nulla where she\n Mistress soror. dwelt, and to\n Killygrew. Is si Cornubiam, tibi pax sit & stop his going\n omnia laeta, beyond sea.\n Sin mare Ceciliae nuncio bella.\n Vale.[41]\n\nThe writer of the Latin verse was _not_ Ladie Russell, and it was\nwritten _to_ Ladie Burlie, so she must either be Ladie Bacon or Mistress\nKilligrew. It is not an improbable theory that Ladie Bacon was writing\nto her sister Mildred, who had, through her husband, power either to\nsend Francis to Cornwall or permit him to be sent away over the seas.\n\nThere is a copy of Machiavelli's \"History of Florence,\" 1595, with\nBacon's notes in the margins.[42]\n\nAt the end is a memorandum giving the dates when the book was read \"in\nCornwall at,\" and then follow two words, the second of which is \"Lake,\"\nbut the first is undecipherable.\n\nIs it possible that Lady Anne Bacon had a house in Cornwall which\nFrancis Bacon, inheriting after her death, was in the habit of visiting\nfor retirement? But this is conjecture.\n\nThe following point is of interest. In the \"Life of Burghley\" (1598) it\nis said that: \"Bookes weare so pleasing to him, as when he gott libertie\nto goe unto his house to take ayre, if he found a book worth the\nopeninge, he wold rather loose his ridinge than his readinge; and yet\nryding in his garden walks upon his litle moile was his greatest\nDisport: But so soone as he came in he fell to his readinge againe or\nels to dispatchinge busines.\"\n\nRawley, in his \"Life of Bacon\" (1657), attributes an exactly similar\nhabit to the philosopher, and almost in identical phrase: \"For he would\never interlace a moderate relaxation of his mind with his studies as\nwalking, or taking the air abroad in his coach or some other befitting\nrecreation; and yet he would lose no time, inasmuch as upon his first\nand immediate return he would fall to reading again, and so suffer no\nmoment of time to slip from him without some present improvement.\"\n\nIt is difficult to approach any phase of the life of Bacon without being\nconfronted with what appears to be evidence of careful preparation to\nobscure the facts. This observation does not result from imagination or\nprejudice; Bacon's movements are always enshrouded in mystery.\nInvestigation and research will, however, eventually establish as a fact\nthat there was a closer connection between Burghley and Bacon than\nhistorians have recognised, and that they had a strong attachment for\neach other.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[37] Harl. MSS., 537, pp. 26 and 71; additional MSS., 4,263, p. 144;\nHarl. MSS., 6,401; Harl. MSS., 6,854, p. 203; Cambridge Univ. Lib., Mm.\nV. 5; Cotton MSS., Tit., Chap. VII., p. 50 b; Harl. MSS., 859, p. 40;\nCotton MSS., Jul., F. VI., p. 158.\n\n[38] See page 72.\n\n[39] See pages 70, 72.\n\n[40] See Appendix.\n\n[41] If you, O Mildred, will take care to send back to me him whom\n I desire,\n You will be my good, my more than good, my only sister;\n But if, unfortunately, by doing nothing you keep him back and\n send him across the sea,\n You will be bad, more than bad, nay no sister at all of mine.\n If he comes to Cornwall, peace and all joys be with you,\n But if he goes by sea to Sicily I declare war. Farewell.\n\n[42] One note on this book contains an interesting historical fact\nhitherto unknown. On page 279 the text states: \"Among the Conspirators\nwas Nicholo Fedini whom they employed as Chauncellor, he persuaded with\na hope more certaine, revealed to Piero, all the practice argreed by his\nenemies, and delivered him a note of all their names.\" Bacon has made\nthe following note in the margin: \"Ex (_i.e._, Essex) did the like in\nEngland which he burnt at Shirfr Smiths house in fenchurch Street.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI.\n\nTHE 1623 FOLIO EDITION OF SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS.\n\n\nSir Sydney Lee has written[43]:--\"As a specimen of typography, the First\nFolio is not to be commended. There are a great many contemporary folios\nof larger bulk far more neatly and correctly printed. It looks as though\nJaggard's printing office was undermanned. The misprints are numerous,\nand are especially conspicuous in the pagination.\" In the same year was\npublished \"The Theater of Honour and Knighthood,\" translated from the\nFrench of Andreu Favine. William Jaggard was the printer. It is a large\nfolio volume containing about 1,200 pages, and is referred to as being\nissued by Jaggard as an example of the printer's art to maintain his\nreputation, which had suffered from the apparently careless manner in\nwhich the Shakespeare Folio was turned out. Both books contain the same\nemblematic head-pieces and tail-pieces. There are, however, some\nconsiderable mispaginations in \"The Theater of Honour.\" Mispaginations\nwere not infrequent in Elizabethan and Jacobean literature, but it is\nquite possible that they were not unintentional. The most glaring\ninstance is to be found in the first Edition of \"The Two Bookes of\nFrancis Bacon--Of the Proficience and Advancement in Learning, Divine\nand Humane,\" published by Henrie Tomes (1605). Each leaf (not page) is\nnumbered. The 45 leaves of the first book are correctly numbered. In the\nsecond book there is no number on leaf 6. Leaf 9 is numbered 6, the\nright figure being printed upside down; 30 is numbered 33; from 31 to\n70 the numbering is correct, and then the leaves are numbered as\nfollows:--70, 70, 71, 70, 72, 74, 73, 74, 75, 69, 77, 78, 79, 80, 77,\n74, 74, 69, 69, 82, 87, 79, 89, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 99, 97, 99, 94, 100,\n99, 102, 103, 103, 93, 106, and on correctly until the last page, 118,\nexcept that 115 is numbered 105.\n\nIt is impossible to attribute this mispagination to the printer's\ncarelessness. This was the first work published bearing Bacon's name,\nexcepting the trifle of essays published in 1597. There does not appear\nto have been any hurry in its production. It is quite a small volume,\nand yet the foregoing remarkable mispaginations occur. There must be\nsome purpose in this which has yet to be found out.\n\nThe 1623 Shakespeare Folio will be found to be one of the most perfect\nexamples of the printer's art extant, because no work has been produced\nunder such difficult conditions for the printer. There are few mistakes\nin pagination or spelling which are not intentional. The work is a\nmasterpiece of enigma and cryptic design. The lines \"To the Reader\"\nopposite to the title-page are a table or code of numbers. The same\nlines and the lettering on the title-page form another table. The\ningenuity displayed in this manipulation of words and numbers to create\nanalogies is almost beyond the comprehension of the human mind. The\nmispaginations are all intentional and have cryptic meanings. The acme\nof wit is the substitution of 993 for 399 on the last page of the\ntragedies; a hundred has been omitted in \"Hamlet,\" 257 following 156,\nand other errors made in order to obtain this result on the last page.\nThe manner in which the printer's signatures have been arranged with the\npages is equally wonderful. The name William Shakespeare must have been\ncreated without reference to him of Stratford, who possibly bore or had\nassigned to him a somewhat similar name. A great superstructure is built\nup on the exact spelling of the words William Shakespeare. The year\n1623 was specially selected for the issue of the complete volume of the\nplays, because of the marvellous relations which the numbers composing\nit bear to the names William Shakespeare and Francis Bacon, to the year\n1560, in which the birth of Bacon is registered, and to 1564 and 1616,\nthe reputed dates of the birth and death of the Stratford man. Nor do\nthe wonders end here. The use of numerical analogies has been carried\ninto the construction of the English language. All this, and much more,\nwill be made manifest when the work of Mr. E. V. Tanner comes to be\ninvestigated and appreciated. He has made the greatest literary\ndiscovery of all time. The wonder is how it has been possible for anyone\nto pierce the veil and reveal the secrets of the volume. The value of\nthe Shakespeare Folio 1623 will be enhanced. It will stand alone as the\ngreatest monument of the achievements of the human intellect.\n\nTo any literary critic who should honour this book by noticing it,\nit is probable the foregoing statements may seem extravagant and\nuntrustworthy. To such the request is now made that before making any\ncomment he will inspect the proof of the foregoing statements which are\nin the writer's possession. The dramas of Shakespeare are, by universal\nconsent, placed at the head of all literature. The invitation is now\nput forth in explicit terms, and facilities are offered for the\ninvestigation of the truth, or otherwise, of every statement made in\nthe foregoing paragraph.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[43] \"A Life of Shakespeare,\" 1589, 2nd Edition, p. 308.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII.\n\nTHE AUTHORIZED VERSION OF THE BIBLE, 1611.\n\n\nIs it not strange that there is no mention of any connection of Francis\nBacon with this work? There was a conference held at Hampton Court\nPalace before King James on January, 1603, between the Episcopalians and\nPuritans. John Rainoldes urged the necessity of providing for his people\na uniform translation of the Bible. Rainoldes was the leader of the\nPuritans, a person of prodigious reading and doctrine, and the very\ntreasury of erudition. Dr. Hall, Bishop of Norwich, reports that \"he\nalone was a well furnished library, full of all faculties, of all\nstudies, of all learning--the memory and reading of that man were near a\nmiracle.\" The King approved the suggestion and commissioned for that\npurpose fifty-four of the most learned men in the universities and other\nplaces. There was a \"careful selection of revisers made by some unknown\nbut very competent authority.\" The translators were divided into six\nbands of nine each, and the work of translation was apportioned out to\nthem. A set of rules was drawn up for their guidance, which has happily\ncome down to modern times--almost the only record that remains of this\ngreat undertaking. These concise rules have a homogeneity, breadth and\nvigour which point to Bacon as their author. Each reviser was to\ntranslate the whole of the original allocated to his company; then they\nwere to compare their translations together, and, as soon as a company\nhad completed its part, it was to communicate the result to the other\ncompanies, that nothing might pass without the general consent. If any\ncompany, upon the review of the translation so sent, differed on any\npoint, they were to note their objection and state their reasons for\ndisagreement. If the differences could not be adjusted, there was a\ncommittee of arbitration which met weekly, consisting of a\nrepresentative from each company, to whom the matter in dispute was\nreferred. If any point was found to be very obscure, letters were to be\naddressed, by authority, to learned persons throughout the land inviting\ntheir judgment. The work was commenced in 1604. Rainoldes belonged to\nthe company to whom Isaiah and the prophets were assigned. He died in\n1607, before the work was completed. During his illness his colleagues\nmet in his bedroom so that they might retain the benefit of his\nlearning. Only forty-seven out of the fifty-four names are known. When\nthe companies had completed their work, one complete copy was made at\nOxford, one at Cambridge, and one at Westminster. Those were sent to\nLondon. Then two members were selected from each company to form a\ncommittee to review and polish the whole. The members met daily at\nStationers' Hall and occupied nine months in their task. Then a final\nrevision was entrusted to Dr. Thomas Bilson and Dr. Miles Smith, and in\n1609 their labours were completed and the result was handed to the King.\nMany of the translators have left specimens of their writing in\ntheological treatises, sermons, and other works. A careful perusal of\nall these available justifies the assertion that amongst the whole body\nthere was not one man who was so great a literary stylist as to be able\nto write certain portions of the Authorised Version, which stamp it as\none of the two greatest examples of the English language. Naturally the\ninterest centres on Dr. Thomas Bilson and Dr. Miles Smith, to whom the\nfinal revision was entrusted. There are some nine or ten theological\nworks by the former and two sermons by the latter. Unless the theory of\na special divine inspiration for the occasion be admitted, it is clear\nthat neither Bilson nor Miles Smith could have given the final touches\nto the Bible. And now a curious statement has come down to us. In 1609\nthe translators handed their work to the King, and in 1610 he returned\nit to them completed. James was incapable of writing anything to which\nthe term beautiful could be applied. What had happened to the\ntranslators' work whilst it was left in his hands?\n\nJames had an officer of state at that time of whom a contemporary\nbiographer wrote that \"he had the contrivance of all King James his\nDesigns, until the match with Spain.\" It will eventually be proved that\nthe whole scheme of the Authorised Version of the Bible was Francis\nBacon's. He was an ardent student not only of the Bible, but of the\nearly manuscripts. St. Augustine, St. Jerome, and writers of theological\nworks, were studied by him with industry. He has left his annotations in\nmany copies of the Bible and in scores of theological works. The\ntranslation must have been a work in which he took the deepest interest\nand which he would follow from stage to stage. When the last stage came\nthere was only one writer of the period who was capable of turning the\nphrases with that matchless style which is the great charm of the\nShakespeare plays. Whoever that stylist was, it was to him that James\nhanded over the manuscripts which he received from the translators. That\nman then made havoc of much of the translation, but he produced a result\nwhich, on its literary merits, is without an equal.\n\nThirty years ago another revision took place, but, notwithstanding the\nadvantages which the revisers of 1880 had over their predecessors of\n1611, their version has failed to displace the older version, which is\ntoo precious to the hearts of the people for them to abandon it.\n\nAlthough not one of the translators has left any literary work which\nwould justify the belief that he was capable of writing the more\nbeautiful portions of the Bible, fortunately Bacon has left an example\nwhich would rather add lustre to than decrease the high standard of the\nBible if it were incorporated in it. As to the truth of this statement\nthe reader must judge from the following prayer, which was written after\nhis fall, and which was described by Addison as resembling the devotion\nof an angel rather than a man:--\n\n _Remember, O Lord, how Thy servant hath walked before Thee;\n remember what I have first sought, and what been principal in mine\n intentions. I have loved Thy assemblies; I have mourned for the\n divisions of Thy Church; I have delighted in the brightness of Thy\n sanctuary._\n\n _This vine, which Thy right hand hath planted in this nation, I\n have ever prayed unto Thee that it might have the first and the\n latter rain, and that it might stretch her branches to the seas and\n to the floods._\n\n _The state and bread of the poor and oppressed have been precious\n in mine eyes. I have hated all cruelty and hardness of heart. I\n have, though in a despised weed, procured the good of all men._\n\n _If any have been mine enemies, I thought not of them, neither hath\n the sun almost set upon my displeasure; but I have been as a dove,\n free from superfluity of maliciousness._\n\n _Thy creatures have been my books, but Thy scriptures much more. I\n have sought Thee in the courts, fields, and gardens, but I have\n found Thee in Thy temples._\n\n _Thousand have been my sins and ten thousand my transgressions, but\n Thy sanctifications have remained with me, and my heart, through\n Thy grace, hath been an unquenched coal upon Thine altar._\n\n _O Lord, my strength, I have since my youth met with Thee in all my\n ways, by Thy fatherly compassions, by Thy comfortable\n chastisements, and by Thy most visible providence. As Thy favours\n have increased upon me, so have Thy corrections, so that Thou hast\n been ever near me, O Lord; and ever, as Thy worldly blessings were\n exalted, so secret darts from Thee have pierced me, and when I have\n ascended before men, I have descended in humiliation before Thee._\n\n _And now, when I thought most of peace and honour, Thy hand is\n heavy upon me, and hath humbled me according to Thy former\n lovingkindness, keeping me still in Thy fatherly school, not as a\n bastard but as a child. Just are Thy judgments upon me for my sins,\n which are more in number than the sands of the sea, but have no\n proportion to Thy mercies; for what are the sands of the sea to the\n sea? Earth, heavens, and all these are nothing to Thy mercies._\n\n _Besides my innumerable sins, I confess before Thee that I am\n debtor to Thee for the gracious talent of Thy gifts and graces,\n which I have neither put into a napkin, nor put it (as I ought) to\n exchangers, where it might have made most profit, but misspent it\n in things for which I was least fit so that I may truly say my soul\n hath been a stranger in the course of my pilgrimage._\n\n _Be merciful unto me, O Lord, for my Saviour's sake, and receive me\n into Thy bosom or guide me in Thy ways._\n\nThere is another feature about the first editions of the Authorised\nVersion which arrests attention. In 1611 the first folio edition was\npublished. The design with archers, dogs and rabbits which is to be\nfound over the address \"To the Christian Reader\" which introduces the\ngenealogies is also to be found in the folio edition of Shakespeare over\nthe dedication to the most noble and Incomparable paire of Brethren,\nover the Catalogue and elsewhere. Except that the mark of query which is\non the head of the right hand pillar in the design in the Bible is\nmissing in the Shakespeare folio, and the arrow which the archer on the\nright hand side is shooting contains a message in the design used in\nthe Bible and is without one in the Shakespeare folio.\n\nIn the 1612 quarto edition of the Authorised Version on the title-page\nof the Genealogies are two designs; that at the head of the page is\nprinted from the identical block which was used on the title-page of the\nfirst edition of \"Venus and Adonis,\" 1593, and the first edition of\n\"Lucrece,\" 1594. At the bottom is the design with the light A and dark\nA, which is over the dedication to Sir William Cecil in the \"Arte of\nEnglish Poesie,\" 1589. An octavo edition, which is now very rare, was\nalso published in 1612. On the title-page of the Genealogies will be\nfound the design with the light A and dark A which is used on several of\nthe Shakespeare quartos and elsewhere. (Figure XXI.)\n\nThe selection of these designs was not made by chance. They were\ndeliberately chosen to create similitudes between certain books, and\nmark their connection with each other.\n\nThe revised translation of the Bible was undertaken as a national work.\nIt was carried out under the personal supervision of the King, but every\nrecord of the proceedings has disappeared. The British Museum does not\ncontain a manuscript connected with the proceedings of the translators.\nIn the Record Office have been preserved the original documents\nreferring to important proceedings of that period. The parliamentary,\njudicial, and municipal records are, on the whole, in a complete\ncondition, but ask for any records connected with the Authorised Version\nof the Bible and the reply is: \"We have none.\" And yet it is reasonable\nto suppose that manuscripts and documents of such importance would be\npreserved. Where are they to be found?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII.\n\nHOW BACON MARKED BOOKS WITH THE PUBLICATION OF WHICH HE WAS CONNECTED.\n\n\nAt a very early period in the history of printing, the custom was\nintroduced of placing on title-pages, at the heads and ends of the\nchapters, emblematical designs. In English printed books these are\nseldom to be found until the latter half of the 16th century.\n\nAn investigation of the books of the period reveals the fact that the\nsame blocks were used by different printers. Articles have been written\non the migration of printer's blocks, but, so far, no explanation has\nbeen offered as to any object other than decoration for which these\nblocks were used.\n\nAmong other designs in use between 1576 and 1640 are a number of\nvariants of a device in which a light A and a dark A form the most\nconspicuous points. Camden, in his \"Remaines Concerning Britaine,\" 1614,\ncommences a chapter on \"Impresses,\" at the head of which the device is\nfound, thus:--\"An Imprese (as the Italians call it) is a device in\npicture with his Motto, or Word, borne by noble and learned personages,\nto notifie some particular conceit of their owne: as Emblemes (that we\nmay omitte other differences) doe propound some general instructions to\nall.\" Then follow a number of examples, and amongst them this:--\n\n \"Variete and vicissitude of humane things he seemed to shew which\n parted his shield, Per Pale, Argent & Sables and counter-changeably\n writte in the Argent, Ater and in the Sables Albus.\"\n\n But even if the light A and dark A are used in the design of the\n head-piece to represent Albus and Ater it does not afford any\n satisfactory explanation as to why they are so used.\n\nIn MDCXVI. was published \"Les Emblemes Moraulx et Militaires du Sieur\nJacob De Bruck Angermundt Nouvellement mis en Lumiere A Strasbourg, Par\nJacob de Heyden Graveur.\"\n\nIn Emblem No. 18, now reproduced, the light A and the dark A will be\nfound in the branch of the tree which the man is about to cut off.\n(Figure VI.)[44]\n\nAnother Emblem does not contain the light A and dark A, but the bark of\nthe trunk and branches of the tree on the design exhibit a strong\ncontrast between the dark and light, which feature is represented in\nmost of the title-pages of books in which the device is found. (Figure\nVII.)\n\nMr. Charles T. Jacob, Chiswick Press, London, who is the author of\n\"Books and Printing\" (London, 1902), and several works on typography,\nreferring to an article on the migration of woodblocks, said:--\n\n It is a well-known fact to Bibliographers that the same blocks were\n sometimes used by different printers in two places quite far apart,\n and at various intervals during the seventeenth and eighteenth\n centuries. That the same blocks were employed is apparent from a\n comparison of technical defects of impressions taken at different\n places, and at two periods. There was no method of duplication in\n existence until stereotyping was first invented in 1725; even then\n the details were somewhat crude, and the process being new, it met\n with much opposition and was practically not adopted until the\n early part of the nineteenth century. Electrotyping, which is the\n ideal method of reproducing woodblocks, was not introduced until\n 1836 or thereabouts. Of course, it was quite possible to re-engrave\n the same design, but absolute fidelity could not be relied on by\n these means, even if executed by the same hand.\n\nThe earliest date which appears on a book in which the head-piece,\ncontaining the device of the light A and dark A is found, is 1563. The\nbook is \"De Furtivis Literarum Notis Vulgo. De Ziferis,\" Ioan. Baptista\nPorta Neapolitano Authore. Cum Privilegio Neapoli, apud Ioa. Mariam\nScotum. MDLXIII. (Figure VIII.)\n\nIt is only used once--over the dedication Ioanni Soto Philippi Regis.\nThere is no other head-piece in the book. John Baptist Porta was, with\nthe exception of Trithemius, whom he quotes, the first writer on\ncyphers. At the time at which he wrote cypher-writing was studied in\nevery Court in Europe. It is significant that this emblematic device is\nused in the earliest period in which head-pieces were adopted, in a book\nwhich is descriptive and is in fact a text-book of the art of\nconcealment. This has, however, now been proved to be a falsely dated\nbook.\n\nThe first edition of this work was published in Naples in 1563 by Ioa.\nMarius Scotus, but this does not contain the A A design. In 1591 the\nbook was published in London by John Wolfe; this reprint was dedicated\nto Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland. After the edition had been\nprinted off, the title-page was altered to correspond with the 1563\nNaples publication. The dedication was taken out, and a reprint of the\noriginal dedication was substituted, and over this was placed the A A\nhead-piece; then an edition was struck off, and, until to-day, it has\nbeen sold and re-sold as the first edition of Baptista Porta's work. It\nis difficult to offer any explanation as to why this fraud was\ncommitted.\n\nThe first occasion upon which this device was used appears to be in a\nbook so rare that no copy of it can be found, either in the British\nMuseum or the Bodleian Library. Unfortunately, in the copy belonging to\nthe writer, the title-page and the two first pages are missing. The work\nis called \"Hebraicum Alphabethum Jo. Bovlaese.\" It is a Hebrew Grammar,\nwith proof-sheets added. It is interleaved with sheets of English-made\npaper, containing Bacon's handwriting. Bound up with it is another\nHebrew Grammar, similarly interleaved, called \"Sive compendium,\nquintacunque Ratione fieri potuit amplessimum, Totius linguae,\" published\nin Paris in 1566. The book ends with the sentence: \"Ex collegio\nMontis--Acuti 20 Decembris 1576\"; then follow two pages in Hebrew, with\nthe Latin translation over it, headed \"Decem Praecepta decalogi Exod.\"\nOver this is the design containing the light A and the dark A, and the\nsquirrel and rabbits. (Figure IX.) One thing is certain, that the copy\nnow referred to was in the possession of Bacon, and that the interleaved\nsheets of paper contain his handwriting, in which have been added page\nby page the equivalents of the Hebrew in Greek, Chaldaeic, Syriac and\nArabic.\n\nIn 1577 Christophor Plantin published an edition of Andrea Alciat's\n\"Emblemata.\" On page 104 is Emblem No. 45, \"In dies meliora.\" This has\nbeen re-designed for the 1577 edition. It contains at the back the\npillars of Hercules, with a scroll around bearing the motto: \"Plus\noltre.\" These pillars stand on some arches, immediately in front of\nwhich is a mound or pyramid, two sides of which are seen. On one is to\nbe found the light A and on the other the dark A. The design was\nappropriated by Whitney, and appears on page 53 in the 1586 edition of\nhis Emblems. From this time forth, A A devices are to be found in\nnumbers of books published in England, and on some published on the\nContinent. Amongst the former are the first editions of \"Venus and\nAdonis,\" \"Lucrece,\" the \"Sonnets,\" the quarto editions of Shakespeare's\nplays, the folio edition (1623) of his works, and the first quarto and\noctavo editions (1612) of the Authorised Version of the Bible.\n\nThere are fourteen distinct designs, in all of which, varying widely in\nother respects, the light A and the dark A constitute the outstanding\nfigure. The use of the two letters so shaded must have had a special\nsignificance. In nearly every case it will be observed that the letter A\nis so drawn as to make the letter C on the inside. Was its significance\nof general knowledge amongst printers and readers, or was it an\nearmarking device used by one person, or by a Society?\n\nA possible interpretation of the use of the light and dark shading, is\nthat the book in which it is used contains more than is revealed; that\nis to say, the overt and the concealed.\n\nA copy of \"AEsopiphrygis vita et fabellae cum latina interpretatione\"\nexists, date 1517. The book is annotated by Bacon. On one side is the\nGreek text and on the opposite page the Latin translation. On pages 102\nand 103 are two initial letters printed from blocks of the letter A.\nThese are coloured so that the one on the left hand side is a light A,\nand that on the opposite page a dark A.\n\nThere are other designs which are used apparently as part of a scheme.\nThe identical block (Figure X.) which was used at the top of the title\npage of \"Venus and Adonis\" (1593) and \"Lucrece\" (1594) did service on\nthe title page of the Genealogies in the quarto edition of the\nAuthorised Version of the Bible, 1612. This design was, so far as can be\ntraced, only used twice in the intervening nineteen years--on \"An\nApologie of the Earl of Essex to Master Anthony Bacon,\" penned by\nhimself in 1598, and printed by Richard Bradocke in 1603, and in 1607,\non the \"World of Wonders,\" printed by Richard Field. It was of this book\nthat Caldecott, the bibliophile and Shakespearean scholar, wrote: \"The\nphraseology of Shakespeare is better illustrated in this work than in\nany other book existing.\" The design which is found on the title page of\nthe \"Sonnets of Shakespeare,\" 1609, is found also in the first edition\nof Napier's \"Mirifici Logarithmorum,\" 1611, but printed from a\ndifferent block. The design with archers shooting at the base of the\ncentral figure is to be found in a large number of the folio editions of\nthe period. Amongst these are the Authorised Version of the Bible, 1611,\nthe \"Novum Organum,\" 1620, and the 1623 edition of Shakespeare's works.\n\nThere are other designs which are usually found accompanying the light A\nand dark A and the other devices before referred to.\n\nThese designs were first brought into use from 1576 and practically\ncease to appear about 1626. Afterwards they are seldom seen except in\nbooks bearing Bacon's name, and eventually they lapse. The last use of\nan A A device is over the life of the author in the second volume of an\nedition of Bacon's Essays edited by Dr. William Willymott, published by\nHenry Parson in 1720. After an interval of about 60 years a new design\nis made, which is not one of those employed by Bacon.\n\nBy means of these devices a certain number of books may be identified as\nforming a class by themselves.\n\nThere is another feature connected with them which is of special\ninterest. One man appears to have contributed to all the books thus\nmarked--either the dedication, the preface,[45] or the lines \"To the\nReader\"; in some cases all three. It may be urged in opposition to this\nview that in those days there was a form in which dedications and\nprefaces were written, and that this was more or less followed by many\nwriters, but this contention will not stand investigation. There are\ntricks of phrasing and other peculiarities which enable certain literary\nproductions to be identified as the work of one man. Some of the finest\nElizabethan literature is to be found in the prefaces and dedications\nin these books.\n\nThe theory now put forth is that Francis Bacon was directing the\nproduction of a great quantity of the Elizabethan literature, and in\nevery book in the production of which he was interested, he caused to be\ninserted one of these devices. He kept the blocks in his own custody; he\nsent them out to a printer when a book was approved by him for printing.\nOn the completion of the work, the printer returned the blocks to Bacon\nso that they could be sent elsewhere by him as occasion required.\n\nThe most elaborate of the AA designs is Figure XII., and the writer has\nonly found it in one volume. It is \"Le Historie della Citta Di\nFiorenza,\" by M. Jacopo, published in Lyons by Theobald Ancelin in 1582.\n\n\"Exact was his correspondence abroad and at home, constant his Letters,\nfrequent his Visits, great his obligations,\" states the contemporary\nbiographer, speaking of Francis Bacon. It is difficult to arrive at the\nexact meaning of these words. There is little correspondence with those\nabroad remaining, no record of visits, no particulars of the great\nobligations into which he entered. In the dedication of the 1631 edition\nof the \"Histoire Naturelle\" to Monseigneur de Chasteauneuf, the author\nspeaking of Bacon writes:--\"Le Chancelier, qu'on a fait venir tant de\nfois en France, n'a point encore quitte l'Angleterre avec tant de\npassion de nous decouvrir ses merveilles que depuis qu'il a sceu le rang\ndont on avoit reconnu vos vertus.\"\n\nThese frequent visits to France are unrecorded elsewhere, but here is\ndefinite testimony that they were made.\n\nThere are good grounds for believing that Bacon was throughout his life,\nuntil their deaths, in constant communication with Christophor Plantin\n(1514-1589), Aldus Manutius, Henry Stephen (1528-1598), and also with\nRobert Stephens the third (1563-1640). All these men were not only\nprinters, but brilliant scholars and writers. If search be made, it is\nquite possible that correspondence or other evidence of their friendship\nmay come to light. Be that as it may, there were undoubtedly a number of\nbooks published on the continent between 1576 and 1630 which in the\nsparta upon them bear testimony to Bacon's association with their\npublication.\n\nThe following are instances of where the several designs which are\nreproduced may be found. They however occur in many other volumes.\n\n Figure IX.--\"The Arte of English Poesie,\" 1589.\n \" XIII.--\"Orlando Furioso,\" 1607.\n \" XIV.--Spencer's \"Fairie Queen.\"\n \" XV.--\"Florentine History translation,\" 1595, and 1636 edition\n of Barclay's \"Argenis.\"\n \" XI.--\"Sonnets.\"\n \" XVI.--Simon Pateriche's translation of \"Discourse against\n Machiavel.\"\n \" XVII.--Lodge's translation of \"Seneca,\" 1614.\n \" XVIII.--Shakespeare Folio, 1623.\n \" XIX.--\"Daemonologie,\" 1603.\n \" XX.--Alciat's \"Emblems,\" published in Paris, 1584.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[44] Plates Nos. VI. to XXI. will be found after the Appendix.\n\n[45] In the \"Advancement of Learning\" Bacon says that Demosthenes\nwent so far in regard to the great force that the entrance\nand access into a cause had to make a good impression that he\nkept in readiness a stock of prefaces.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX.\n\nBACON AND EMBLEMATA.\n\n\nIn \"Shakespeare and the Emblem Writers\" the Rev. Henry Green endeavours\nto show the similarities of thought and expression between the great\npoet and the authors of Emblemata, but the line of enquiry which he\nthere opened does not appear to have been followed by subsequent\nwriters. To-day the Emblemata literature is a _terra incognita_ except\nto a very few students, and yet it is full of interest, romance, and\nmystery. Emblem literature may be said to have had its origin with\nAndrea Alciat, the celebrated Italian jurisconsult, who was famous for\nhis great knowledge and power of mind. In 1522 he published at Milan an\n\"Emblematum Libellus,\" or Little Book of Emblems. Green says: \"It\nestablished, if it did not introduce, a new style of emblem literature,\nthe classical in the place of the simply grotesque and humorous, or of\nthe heraldic and mythic.\" The first edition now known to exist was\npublished at Augsburg in 1531, a small octavo containing eighty-eight\npages with ninety-seven emblems, and as many woodcuts. It was from time\nto time augmented, and passed through many editions. For some years the\nEmblemata appears to have been produced chiefly by Italians, with a few\nFrenchmen. Until the last half of the sixteenth century the output of\nbooks of this character was not large. Thenceforth for the next hundred\nyears the creation of emblems became a popular form of literary\nexercise. The Italians continued to be prolific, but Dutch, French, and\nGerman scholars were but little behind them. There were a few Englishmen\nand Spaniards who also practised the art.\n\nIn 1905 was published a book called \"Letters from the Dead to the Dead,\"\nby Oliver Lector. In it attention is drawn to the remarkable features of\nsome of the books on emblems printed during Bacon's life, and to the\nevidence that he was in some manner connected with the publication of\nmany of these volumes. The author claims this to be especially the case\nwith the \"Emblemata Moralia et Bellica,\" 1615, of Jacob de Bruck, of\nAngermundt, and the \"Emblemata Ethic Politica\" of J. Bornitius.\n\nThe emblem pictures for the most part appear to be picture puzzles. In\nthe \"Critique upon the Mythology of the Ancients\" Bacon says:--\n\n \"It may pass for a farther indication of a concealed and secret\n meaning, that some of these fables are so absurd and idle in their\n narration as to proclaim and shew an allegory afar off. A fable\n that carries probability with it may be supposed invented for\n pleasure, or in imitation of history; but, those that would never\n be conceived or related in this way, must surely have a different\n use.\"\n\nIf this line of reasoning be applied to the illustrations in the emblem\nbooks, it is clear that they conceal some hidden meaning, for they are\napparently unintelligible, and the accompanying letterpress does not\nafford any illumination.\n\nJean Baudoin was the translator of Bacon's \"Essaies\" into the French\nlanguage (1626). Baudoin published in 1638-9 \"Recueil D'Emblemes divers\navec des Discours Moraux, Philos. et Polit.\" In the preface he says:\n\"Le grand chancelier Bacon m'ayant fait naitre l'envie de travailler\na ces emblemes ... m'en a fourni les principaux que j'ai tires de\nl'explication ingenieuse qu'il a donnee de quelques fables et de ses\nautres ouvrages.\" Here is definite evidence of Bacon's association with\na book of emblems.\n\nThe first volume of Emblemata in which traces of Bacon's hand are to\nbe found is the 1577 edition of Alciat's \"Emblems,\" published by the\nPlantin Press, with notes by Claude Mignault. It is in this edition, in\nEmblem No. 45, \"In dies meliora,\" that for the first time the light A\nand the dark A is to be found. In previous editions this device is\nabsent. For this volume a new design has been engraved in which it\nappears.\n\nIn the emblem books written in Italian Bacon does not appear to have\nbeen concerned, unless an exception be made of Ripa's \"Iconologia,\" a\ncopy of which contains his handwriting and initials. In some way he had\ncontrol of a large number of those written in Latin, and bearing names\nof Dutch, French, and some Italian authors, and also of several written\nin Dutch and of the English writers. The field is a very wide one, and\nonly a few of the principal examples can be mentioned.\n\nThe most important work is the \"Emblemata Moralia et Bellica\" of Jacob a\nBruck, of Angermundt, 1615. \"Argentorati per Jacobum ab Heyden.\" With\nmany of the designs in this volume Oliver Lector has dealt fully in\n\"Letters from the Dead to the Dead,\"[46] before referred to. There is\nanother volume bearing the name of Jacob a Bruck, published in 1598.\nOnly one copy of this book is known to be in existence, and that is in\nthe Royal Library of St. Petersburg.\n\nThe \"Emblemata Ethico Politica of Jacobus Bornitius, 1659, Moguntiae,\" is\nremarkable because many of the engravings contain portraits of Bacon,\nnamely, in Sylloge Prima, Plates Nos. vii., xxiii., xliv., xlv., xlvix.;\nand in Sylloge II., Plates ix. and xxxvi. Oliver Lector says: \"I have\nnot met with an earlier edition of Bornitius than 1659. My conjecture,\nhowever, is that the manuscript came into the hands of Gruter with other\nof Bacon's published by him in the year 1653.\"\n\nThere are two productions of Janus Jacobus Boissardus in which Bacon's\nhand may be recognised--\"Emblemes Latines avec l'Interpretation\nFrancoise du I. Pierre Ioly Messin. Metis, 1588,\" and \"Emblematum liber.\nIpsa Emblemata ab Auctore delineata: a Theodoro de Bry sculpta et nunc\nrecens in lucem edita,\" 1593, Frankfort. Two editions of the latter were\nprinted in the same year. The title-pages are identical, and the same\nplates have been used throughout, but the letterpress is in Latin in the\none, and in French in the other. In both, the dedications are addressed\nin French to Madame de Clervent, Baronne de Coppet, etc. The dedication\nof the former bears the name Jan Jacques Boissard at the head, and\naddresses the lady as \"que come estes addonnee a la speculation des\nchoses qui appartiennent a l'instruction de l'ame.\" The dedication of\nthe latter is signed Ioly, who explains that he has translated the\nverses into French, so that they may be of more service to the\ndedicatee.\n\nOtho Van Veen enjoys the distinction of having had Rubens for a\ndisciple. A considerable number of emblem books emanated from him. In\n1608 were published at Antwerp two editions of his \"Amorum Emblemata.\"\nIn one copy the verses are in Latin, German, and French, and in the\nother in Latin, English, and Italian. There are commendatory verses in\nthe latter, two of which are by Daniel Heinsius and R. V., who was\nRobert Verstegen, the author of \"A Restitution of Decayed Intelligence\nin Antiquities.\" The dedication is \"To the most honourable and worthie\nbrothers William Earle of Pembroke, and Phillip Earle of Montgomerie,\npatrons of learning and chevalrie,\" who are \"the most noble and\nincomparable paire of brethren\" to whom the 1623 Shakespeare Folio was\ndedicated. In this volume Bacon has left his marks.\n\n\"Emblemata door Zacharias Heyns,\" published in Rotterdam in 1625,\ncomprises four books bound together. The inscriptions over the plates\nare in Latin. The letterpress, which is in Dutch and French, apparently\nbears very little reference to the illustrations.\n\nJohannis de Brunes I.C. Emblemata of Sinne-Werck, Amsterdam, 1624, is\nwritten in Dutch. Emblem VIII. contains an indication that the number\n1623 is a key.\n\nThe \"Silenus Alcibiades sive Proteus\" was published at Middleburgh in\n1618. There is no author's name on the title-page, but the Voor-reden,\nwritten in Dutch, is signed J. Cats. Attached to two of the preliminary\ncomplimentary verses are the names of Daniel Heyns and Josuah Sylvester,\nthe translator of \"Du Bartas.\" The verses are in Latin, Dutch, and\nFrench. Immediately following the title-page is a preface in Latin,\nsigned by Majores de Baptis. Over this is the familiar emblem containing\nthe archers, rabbits, and dogs, with the note of query on the right-hand\nside, and the message on the arrow. This volume is one of the most\nremarkable of the emblem books. The Latin preface is autobiographical.\nIf the writer can be identified as the author of \"Venus and Adonis,\" it\nbecomes one of the most important contributions to his biography.\n\nIn 1616, the year of Shakespeare's death, was published at Amsterdam a\nbook bearing on its title-page the inscription: \"Cornelii Giselberti\nPlempii Amsterodamum Monogrammon.\" It contains fifty illustrations, with\nLatin verses attached. Emblem I. is reproduced (Fig. V.) On reference to\nit, it will be seen that Fortune stands on a globe, and with one hand is\npushing off from the pinnacle of fame a man dressed as a player with a\nfeather in his hat; with the other hand she is raising up a man who is\nwearing the Bacon hat, but whose face is hidden. The prophecy expressed\nby the emblem is now being fulfilled. It will be seen that the initial\nletters of each word in the sentence of the letterpress--Obscaenumque\nnimis crepuit, Fortuna Batavis appellanda--yield F. Bacon. Bacon's\nportrait is found in several of the illustrations in this book. Other\nemblem writers whose works bear traces of Bacon's co-operation are\nG. Rollenhagen, J. Camerius, J. Typotius, D. Hensius.\n\n [Illustration: _Fig. V._\n\n _En Fortuna: manu quos rupem ducit in altam,\n Praecipites abigit: carnificina Dea est.\n Firma globo imponi voluerunt fata caducam,\n Ipsa quoque ut posset risus, & esse iocus.\n Olim unctos Saly qui praesiliere per utres,\n Ridebant caderet si qua puella male.\n O quam saepe sales, plausumque merente ruina,\n Erubuit vitium fors inhonest a suum!\n Obscaenumque nimis crepuit, Fortuna Batavis\n Appellanda; sono, quo sua curta vocant.\n Quoque sono veteres olim sua furta Latini:\n Vt nec, Homere, mali nomen odoris ames._\n\n C. PLEMPII.\n EMBLEMATA\n EMBL. I.]\n\nThere yet remain to be mentioned two English emblem writers. A \"Choice\nof Emblems\" by Geffrey Whitney was published in 1586 by Francis\nRaphelengius in the house of Christopher Plantin at Leyden. The\ndedication is to Robert Earle of Leicester. There are only from fifteen\nto twenty original designs out of 166 illustrations. The remainder are\ntaken from other emblem writers, chiefly from Alciat, Sambucus, Paradin,\nand Hadrian Junius. On page 53 is the design headed \"In dies meliora\"\nfound in the 1577 edition of Alciat, but the letterpress, which is in\nEnglish, is quite different from the Latin verse attached to it in the\nAlciat.\n\nThe \"Minerva Britanna\" of Henry Peacham was published in 1612. The\nemblem on the title-page[47] represents the great secret of Francis\nBacon's life, and on page .33 is an emblem in which the name Shakespeare\nis represented. The volume is full of devices which will amply repay a\ncareful study.\n\nApart from any connection which Bacon may have had with this remarkable\nclass of books, they are of great interest to the student of the\nElizabethan and Jacobean periods. They contain pictorial representations\nfull of information as to the habits and customs of the people. With the\nexception of Whitney's \"Choice of Emblems,\" a facsimile reprint of which\nwas published in 1866, edited by the Rev. Henry Green, no reprint of any\nof these curious books has been issued. As the original editions of many\nof them are very rare, and of none of them plentiful, their study is a\nmatter of difficulty, and few students find their way to this\nfascinating field of research. How close Bacon's connection was with the\nwriters of these books, or with their publishers, it is difficult to\nsay, but there is considerable evidence that in some way he was able to\nintroduce into every one of the books here enumerated, and many others,\nsome plates illustrative of his inductive philosophy.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[46] Bernard Quaritch, 1905.\n\n[47] See page 105.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XX.\n\nSHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS.\n\n\n\"Shakespeare's Sonnets never before Imprinted,\" have afforded\ncommentators material for many volumes filled with theories which to the\nordinary critical mind appear to have no foundation in fact. Chapters\nhave been written to prove that Mr. W. H., the only begetter of the\nSonnets, was Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, and chapters have\nbeen written to prove that he was no such person, but that William\nHerbert, Earl of Pembroke, was the man intended to be designated.\nTheories have been elaborated to identify the individuals represented by\nthe Rival Poet and the dark Lady. Not one of these theories is supported\nby the vestige of a shred of testimony that would stand investigation.\nThere has not come down any evidence that Shakspur, of Stratford, knew\neither the Earl of Southampton, the Earl of Pembroke or Marie Fitton.\nThe truth is that Mr. W. H. was _Shakespeare_, who _was_ the only\nbegetter of the Sonnets, and the proof of this statement will in due\ntime be forthcoming. It may be well to try and read some of the Sonnets\nas they stand and endeavour to realise what is the obvious meaning of\nthe printed words.\n\nThe key to the Sonnets will be found in No. 62. The language in which it\nis written is explicit and capable of being understood by any ordinary\nintellect.\n\n \"Sinne of selfe-love possesseth al mine eie\n And all my soule, and al my every part;\n And for this sinne there is no remedie,\n It is so grounded inward in my heart.\n Me thinkes no face so gratious is as mine,\n No shape so true, no truth of such account,\n And for my selfe mine owne worth do define,\n As I all other in all worth's surmount\n But when my glasse shewes me my selfe indeed\n Beated and chopt with tand antiquitie,\n Mine own selfe love quite contrary I read\n Selfe, so selfe loving were iniquity.\n Tis thee (my-selfe) that for myself I praise\n Painting my age with beauty of thy daies.\"\n\nThe writer here states definitely that he is dominated by the sin of\nself-love; it possesseth his eye, his soul, and every part of him. There\ncan be found no remedy for it; it is so grounded in his heart. No face\nis so gracious as is his, no shape so true, no truth of such account. He\ndefines his worth as surmounting that of all others. This is the frank\nexpression of a man who not only believed that he was, but knew that he\nwas superior to all his contemporaries, not only in intellectual power,\nbut in personal appearance. Then comes an arrest in the thought, and he\nrealises that time has been at work. He has been picturing himself as he\nwas when a young man. He turns to his glass and sees himself beated and\nchopt with tanned antiquity; forty summers have passed over his\nbrow.[48]\n\nFrancis Bacon at forty years of age, or thereabouts, unmarried,\nchildless, sits down to his table, Hilliard's portrait before him, with\npen in hand, full of self-love, full of admiration for that beautiful\nyouth on whose counterfeit presentment he is gazing. His intellectual\ntriumphs pass in review before him, most of them known only to himself\nand that youth--his companion through life. That was the Francis Bacon\nwho controlled him in all his comings and goings--his ideal whom he\nworshipped. If he could have a son like that boy! His pen begins to move\non the paper--\n\n \"From fairest creatures we desire increase\n That thereby beauty's rose might never die,\n But as the riper should by time decrease\n His tender heire might bear his memory.\"\n\nThe pen stops and the writer's eye wanders to the miniature:--\n\n \"But _thou_[49] contracted to thine own bright eyes.\"\n\nAnd so the Sonnets flow on, without effort, without the need of\nreference to authorities, for the great, fixed and methodical memory\nneeds none.\n\nHow natural are the allusions--\n\n \"Thou art thy mother's glasse and she in thee\n Calls backe the lovely Aprill of her prime.\"\n\n * * * * *\n\n \"Be as thy presence is, gracious and kind,\n Or to thyselfe at least kind hearted prove.\n Make thee another self, for love of me\n That beauty may still live in thine or thee.\"\n\n * * * * *\n\n \"Let those whom nature hath not made for store,\n Harsh, featureless and rude, barrenly perish;\n Look, whom she best indow'd she gave the more;\n Which bountious guift thou shouldst in bounty cherrish;\n She carv'd thee for her seale, and ment therby\n Thou shouldst print more, not let that coppy die.\"\n\n * * * * *\n\n \"O that you were yourselfe, but love you are\n No longer yours, then you yourselfe here live,\n Against this cunning end you should prepare,\n And your sweet semblance to some other give\n . . . .\n Who lets so faire a house fall to decay\n . . . .\n O none but unthrifts, deare my love you know\n You had a Father, let your Son say so.\"\n\n * * * * *\n\n \"But wherefore do not you a mightier waie\n Make warre uppon this bloodie tirant Time?\n And fortifie your selfe in your decay\n With meanes more blessed, then my barren rime?\n Now stand you on the top of happie houres\n And many maiden gardens, yet onset,\n With virtuous wish would beare you living flowers\n Much liker than your painted counterfeit:\n\n * * * * *\n\n Who will beleeve my verses in time to come\n If it were fil'd with your most high deserts?\n Though yet heaven knows, it is but as a tombe\n _Which hides your life_, and shewes not halfe your parts:\n If I could write the beauty of your eyes\n And in fresh numbers number all your graces,\n The age to come would say this Poet lies,\n Such heavenly touches nere toucht earthly faces.\n So should my papers (yellowed with their age)\n Be scorn'd, like old men of lesse truth than tongue,\n And your true rights be termd a Poets rage\n And stretched miter of an Antique song.\n But were some childe of yours alive that time,\n You should live twise, in it and in my rime.\"\n\n * * * * *\n\n \"Yet doe thy worst, ould Time, dispight thy wrong\n My love shall in my verse ever live young.\"\n\nHe realises that he no longer answers Ophelia's description:\n\n \"The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's eye, tongue, sword:\n The expectancy and rose of the fair state\n The glass of fashion and the mould of form,\n The observed of all observers....\n That unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth.\"\n\nBut he cannot forget what he has been, he cannot realise that he is no\nlonger the brilliant youth whose miniature he has before him, with the\nwords inscribed around, \"Si tabula daretur digna animum mallem\"--If\nmaterials could be found worthy to paint his mind (\"O could he but have\ndrawn his wit\") and then with a burst of poetic enthusiasm he\nexclaims:--\n\n \"Tis thee (myselfe) that for myselfe I praise,\n Painting my age with beauty of thy daies.\"\n\nThis is the common experience of a man as he advances in life. So long\nas he does not see his reflection in a glass, if he tries to visualize\nhimself, he sees the youth or young man. Only in his most pessimistic\nmoments does he realise his age.\n\nThere is no longer any difficulty in understanding Shakespeare's\nSonnets. They were addressed by \"Shakespeare,\" the poet, to the\nmarvellous youth who was known under the name of Francis Bacon, and they\nwere written, with Hilliard's portrait placed on his table before him.\n\nIn that age (please God it may be the present age), which is known only\nto God and to the fates when the finishing touch shall be given to\nBacon's fame,[50] it will be found that the period of his life from\ntwelve to thirty-five years of age surpassed all others, not only in\nbrilliant intellectual achievements, but for the enduring wealth with\nwhich he endowed his countrymen. And yet it was part of his scheme of\nlife that his connection with the great renaissance in English\nliterature should lie hidden until posterity should recognise that work\nas the fruit of his brain:--\"Mente Videbor\"--\"by the mind I shall be\nseen.\"\n\nHow lacking all his modern biographers have been in perception!\n\nEvery difficulty in those which are termed the procreation Sonnets\ndisappears with the application of this key. Only by it can Sonnet 22 be\nmade intelligible:--\n\n \"My glass shall not persuade me I am old,\n As long as youth and thou are of one date;\n But when in thee time's furrow I behold,\n Then look, I death my days would expirate\n For all that beauty that doth cover thee\n Is but the steady raiment of my heart.\n Which in my breast doth live, as thine in me.\n How can I then be older than thou art?\n O, therefore, love, be of thyself so wary\n As I, not for myself, but for thee will;\n Bearing thy heart, which I will keep so chary\n As tender nurse her babe from faring ill.\n Presume not on thy heart when mine is slain;\n Thou gavest me thine, not to give back again.\"\n\nBut nearly every Sonnet might be quoted in support of this view.\nEspecially is it of value in bringing an intelligent and allowable\nexplanation to Sonnets 40, 41, and 42, which now no longer have an\nunsavoury flavour.\n\nSonnet No. 59 is most noteworthy, because it implies a belief in\nre-incarnation. Shakespeare expresses his longing to know what the\nancients would have said of his marvellous intellect. If he could find\nhis picture in some antique book over 500 years old, see an image of\nhimself as he then was, and learn what men thought of him!\n\n \"If their bee nothing new, but that which is\n Hath beene before, how are our braines begulld,\n Which laboring for invention, beare amisse\n The second burthen of a former child?\n Oh that record could with a back-ward looke,\n Even of five hundredth courses of the Sunne,\n Show me your image in some antique booke,\n Since minde at first in carrecter was done,\n That I might see what the old world could say\n To this composed wonder of your frame;\n Whether we are mended, or where better they,\n Or whether revolution be the same.\n Oh sure I am, the wits of former daies,\n To subjects worse have given admiring praise.\"\n\nThere is the same idea in Sonnet 71, which suggests that in some future\nre-incarnation Bacon might read Shakespeare's praises of him.\n\nConjectures as to who was the rival poet may be dispensed with. The\nfollowing rendering of Sonnet No. 80 makes this perfectly clear:--\n\n \"O how I (_the poet_) faint when I of you (_F.B._) do write,\n Knowing a better spirit (_that of the philosopher_) doth use your name\n And in the praise thereof spends all his might\n To make me tongue tied, speaking of your fame!\n (_Shakespeare never refers to Bacon or vice-versa_)\n But since your (_F.B.'s_) worth wide as the ocean is,\n The humble as the proudest sail doth bear,\n My saucy bark (_that of the poet_) inferior far to his (_that of the\n philosopher_),\n On your broad main doth wilfully appear.\n Your shallowest help will hold me (_the poet_) up afloat\n Whilst he (_the philosopher_) upon your soundless deep doth ride.\"\n\nIt is impossible to do justice to this subject in the space here\navailable. By the aid of this key every line becomes intelligible. The\ncharm and beauty of the Sonnets are increased tenfold. Every unpleasant\nassociation of them is removed. No longer need Browning say, \"If so the\nless Shakespeare he.\"\n\nThese are not \"Shakespeare's sug'rd[51] Sonnets amongst his private\nfriends\" to which Meres makes reference. They are to be found elsewhere.\n\nIf there had been an intelligent study of Elizabethan literature from\noriginal sources the authorship of the Sonnets would have been revealed\nlong ago. It was a habit of Bacon to speak of himself as some one apart\nfrom the speaker. The opening sentence of _Filum Labyrinthi, Sivo Forma\nInquisitiones_ is an example. _Ad Filios_--\"Francis Bacon thought in\nthis manner.\" Prefixed to the preface to Gilbert Wats' interpretation of\nthe \"Advancement of Learning\" is a chapter commencing, \"Francis Lo\nVerulam consulted thus: and thus concluded with himselfe. The\npublication whereof he conceived did concern the present and future\nage.\"\n\nNothing that has been written is more perfectly Baconian in style and\ntemperament than are the Sonnets. They breathe out his hopes, his\naspirations, his ideals, his fears, in every line. He knew he was not\nfor his time. He knew future generations only would render him the fame\nto which his incomparable powers entitled him. He knew how far he\ntowered above his contemporaries, aye, and his predecessors, in\nintellectual power. His hopes were fixed on that day in the distant\nfuture--to-day--when for the first time the meshes which he wove, behind\nwhich his life's work is obscured, are beginning to be unravelled.\n\nThe most sanguine Baconian, in his most enthusiastic moments, must fail\nadequately to appreciate the achievements of Francis Bacon and the\nobligations under which he has placed posterity. But Bacon knew--and he\nalone knew--their full value. It was fitting that the greatest poet\nwhich the world had produced should in matchless verse do honour to the\nworld's greatest intellect. It was a pretty conceit. Only a master mind\nwould dare to make the attempt. The result has afforded another example\nof how his great wit, in being concealed, was revealed.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[48] Sonnet No. 2.\n\n[49] _'Tis thee myselfe_, Sonnet 62.\n\n[50] See Rawley's Introduction to \"Manes Verulamiana.\"\n\n[51] The expression \"sugr'd Sonnets\" refers to verses which were written\nwith coloured ink to which sugar had been added. When dry the writing\nshone brightly.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXI.\n\nBACON'S LIBRARY.\n\n\nIn the \"Advancement of Learning\" Bacon refers to the annotations of\nbooks as being deficient. There was living at the end of the sixteenth\nand beginning of the seventeenth century a scholar through whose hands\nat least several thousand books passed. He appears to have made a\npractice of annotating in the margins every book he read. The chief\npurpose, however, of the notes, apparently, was to aid the memory, for\nin some books nearly every name occurring in the text is carried into\nthe margin without comment. The notes are also accompanied by scrolls,\nmarks, and brackets, which support the contention that they are the work\nof one man. The annotation of books was not a common practice then, nor\nhas it been since. If a reader takes up a hundred books in a second-hand\nbook shop he will probably not find more than one containing manuscript\nnotes, and not one in five hundred in which the annotations have been\nsystematically carried through. There does not appear to have been any\nother scholar living at that time, with the exception of this one, who\nwas persistently making marginal notes on the books he read.\n\nSpedding writes: \"What became of his (Bacon's) books, which were left to\nSir John Constable and must have contained traces of his reading, we do\nnot know; but very few appear to have survived.\"\n\nMrs. Pott, in \"Francis Bacon and his Secret Society,\" draws attention to\nthe mystery as to the disappearance of Bacon's library. \"Which is a\nmystery,\" she adds, \"although the world has been content to take it\nvery apathetically. Where is Bacon's library? Undoubtedly the books\nexist and are traceable. We should expect them to be recognisable by\nmarginal notes; yet those notes, whether in pencil or in ink, may have\nbeen effaced. If annotated, Bacon and his friends would not wish his\nbooks to attract public attention.\" And further on: \"It is probable that\nthe latter (_i.e._, the books) will seldom or never be found to bear his\nname or signature.\" And again: \"Yet it may reasonably be anticipated\nthat some at least are 'noted in the margin,' or that some will be found\nwith traces of marks which were guides to the transcriber or amanuensis\nas to the portions which were to be copied for future use in Bacon's\ncollections or book of commonplaces.\" Mrs. Pott's words were written in\na spirit of true prophecy.\n\nThe collecting together of these books originated with that\ndistinguished Baconian scholar, Mr. W. M. Safford. For years past he has\nbeen steadily engaged in reconstituting Bacon's Library. The writer has\nhad the privilege of being associated with him in this work during the\npast three years. A collection of nearly two thousand volumes has been\ngathered together. The annotations on the margins of these books are\nunquestionably the work of one man, and that man, or rather boy and man,\nwas undoubtedly Francis Bacon. The books bear date from 1470 to 1620. It\nis impossible to enumerate them all here, but they include the works of\nSeneca, Aristotle, Plato, Horace, Alciat, Lucanus, Dionysius, Catullus,\nLactinius, Plutarch, Pliny, Aristophanes, Plautus, Cornelius Agrippa,\nCicero, Vitruvius, Euclid, Virgil, Ovid, Lucretius, Apuleius, Salust,\nTibullus, Isocrates, and hundreds of other classical writers; St.\nAugustine, St. Jerome, Calvin, Beza, Beda, Erasmus, Martin Luther, J.\nCammerarius, Sir Thomas Moore, Machiavelli, and other more modern\nwriters.\n\nThe handwriting varies,[52] but there is a particular hand which is\nfound accompanied by a boy's sketches. There are drawings of full-length\nfigures, heads of men and women, animals, birds, reptiles, ships,\ncastles, cathedrals, cities, battles, storms, etc. The writing is a\nstrong, clerkly student's hand. There is a passage in \"Hamlet,\" Act V.,\nscene ii., which is noteworthy. Hamlet, speaking to Horatio, says:--\n\n \"I sat me down\n Devised a new commission; wrote it fair;\n I once did hold it, as our statists do,\n A baseness to write fair, and labour'd much\n How to forget that learning; but, Sir, now\n It did me yeomans service.\"\n\nThe nature of this statement is so personal that it could only have been\nwritten as the result of experience. Hamlet had been taught, when young,\nto write a hand so fair that he was capable of producing a fresh\ncommission which would pass muster as the work of a Court copyist. The\nannotation of these books possessed the same qualification. In the\nmargins of these books are abundant references in handwriting to the\nwhole range of classical authors.\n\nA copy of the \"Grammatice Compendium\" of Lactus Pomponius, a very rare\nbook printed by De Fortis in Venice in 1484, contains on the margins the\nboy's scribble and drawings, besides a number of manuscript notes. It\nbears traces of his reading probably at eight years of age. A large\nfolio volume entitled \"T. Livii Palvini Latinae Historiae Principis\nDecades Tres,\" published by Frobenius in 1535, is a treasure. It is most\ncopiously annotated and embellished with sketches. The notes are usually\nin Latin, but interspersed with Greek and sometimes with English.\nObviously the writer thought in Latin, and the character of the\ndrawings justifies the assumption that, at the time, his age would be\nfrom ten to fourteen years.\n\nThe most remarkable reference to these annotations is to be found in the\n\"Rape of Lucrece.\" The fifteenth stanza is as follows:--\n\n \"But she that never cop't with straunger eies,\n Could picke no meaning from their parling lookes,\n _Nor read the subtle shining secrecies\n Writ in the glassie margents of such bookes_,\n Shee toucht no unknown baits, nor feared no hooks,\n Nor could shee moralize his wanton sight\n More than his eies were opend to the light.\"\n\nIt would be difficult to conceive a more inappropriate simile for the\nlustful looks in Tarquin's eyes than \"the subtle shining secrecies, writ\nin the glassie margents of such books.\" That this is lugged in for a\npurpose outside the object of the poem is manifest. How many readers of\n\"Lucrece\" would know of such a practice? Nay. If it did exist, was not\nits use very rare?\n\nBut the margin of the verse itself yields a subtle shining secret! The\ninitial letters of the lines are B, C, N, W, Sh, N, M. It is only\nnecessary to supply the vowels--BACoN, W. Sh., NaMe. Sh is on line 103,\nwhich is the numerical value of the word Shakespeare. The numerical\nvalue of Bacon is 33. In view of this the line 33 is significant:--\"Why\nis Colatine the publisher?\" The use of the word _publisher_ here is\nquite inappropriate. It is introduced for some reason outside the\npurpose of the text.\n\nThe \"Rape of Lucrece\" commences with Bacon's monogram and, as the late\nRev. Walter Begley pointed out, ends with his signature.\n\nThe theory now advanced is that when Bacon read a book he made marginal\nnotes in it--the object being mainly to assist his memory, but the\ncritical notes are numerous. It does not follow that all these books\nconstituted his library. He would read a book and it having served his\npurpose he would dispose of it. Some books no doubt he would retain and\nthese would form his library.\n\nThe annotations are chiefly in Latin, but some are in Greek, some in\nHebrew, French and Spanish. When these have been examined and translated\nthe meaning of the phrase that he had taken all knowledge to be his\nprovince will be better understood. Rawley says: \"He read much and that\nwith great judgment and rejection of impertinences incident to many\nauthors.\"\n\nThe writer having examined annotations, many and varied, of books in his\nlibrary, and having enjoyed the privilege of free access to those\ncollected by Mr. Safford, ventures to assert that much of the ripe\nlearning of the Shakespeare plays can be traced therein to its proper\norigin. Amongst the former is a copy of Alciat's Emblems, 1577, in the\nearly part profusely annotated. Ben Jonson in his \"Discoveries\" has\nincorporated the translation of a portion of one of the Emblems and _has\nalso incorporated a portion of the annotations from this very book_.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[52] Edwin A. Abbot, in his work, \"Francis Bacon,\" p. 447, writes,\n\"Bacon's style (as a writer) varied almost as much as his handwriting.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXII.\n\nTWO GERMAN OPINIONS ON SHAKESPEARE AND BACON.\n\n\nDr. G. G. Gervinus, the eminent German Historian and Professor\nExtraordinary at Heidelberg, published in 1849 his work, \"Shakespeare\nCommentaries.\" This was years before any suggestion had been made that\nBacon was in any way connected with the authorship of the Shakespearean\ndramas.\n\nIn the Prospectus of \"The New Shakespeare Society,\" written in 1873, Dr.\nF. J. Furnivall says:--\n\n \"The profound and generous 'Commentaries' of Gervinus--an honour to\n a German to have written, a pleasure to an Englishman to read--is\n still the only book known to me that comes near the true treatment\n and the dignity of its subject, or can be put into the hands of the\n student who wants to know the mind of Shakespeare.\"\n\nThe book abounds with references to Bacon. From the Preface to the last\nchapter Gervinus appears to have Bacon continually suggested to him by\nthe thoughts and words of Shakespeare.\n\nIn the Preface, after speaking of the value accruing to German\nliterature by naturalizing Shakespeare \"even at the risk of casting\nour own poets still further in the shade,\" he says:--\n\n \"A similar benefit would it be to our intellectual life if his\n famed contemporary, Bacon, were revived in a suitable manner, in\n order to counterbalance the idealistic philosophy of Germany. For\n both these, the poet as well as the philosopher, having looked\n deeply into the history and politics of their people, stand upon\n the level ground of reality, notwithstanding the high art of the\n one and the speculative notions of the other. By the healthfulness\n of their own mind they influence the healthfulness of others, while\n in their most ideal and most abstract representations they aim at a\n preparation for life _as it is_--for _that_ life which forms the\n exclusive subject of all political action.\"\n\nIn the chapter on \"His Age,\" written prior to 1849, the Professor pours\nout the results of a profound study of the writings attributed to both\nmen in the following remarkable sentences:--\n\n \"Judge then how natural it was that England, if not the birthplace\n of the drama, should be that of dramatic legislature. Yet even this\n instance of favourable concentration is not the last. Both in\n philosophy and poetry everything conspired, as it were, throughout\n this prosperous period, in favour of two great minds, Shakespeare\n and Bacon; all competitors vanished from their side, and they could\n give forth laws for art and science which it is incumbent even upon\n present ages to fulfil. As the revived philosophy, which in the\n former century in Germany was divided among many, but in England at\n that time was the possession of a single man, so poetry also found\n one exclusive heir, compared with whom those later born could claim\n but little.\n\n \"That Shakespeare's appearance upon a soil so admirably prepared\n was neither marvellous nor accidental is evidenced even by the\n corresponding appearance of such a contemporary as Bacon. Scarcely\n can anything be said of Shakespeare's position generally with\n regard to mediaeval poetry which does not also bear upon the\n position of the renovator Bacon with regard to mediaeval philosophy.\n Neither knew nor mentioned the other, although Bacon was almost\n called upon to have done so in his remarks upon the theatre of his\n day. It may be presumed that Shakespeare liked Bacon but little, if\n he knew his writings and life; that he liked not his ostentation,\n which, without on the whole interfering with his modesty, recurred\n too often in many instances; that he liked not the fault-finding\n which his ill-health might have caused, nor the narrow-mindedness\n with which he pronounced the histrionic art to be infamous,\n although he allowed that the ancients regarded the drama as a\n school for virtue; nor the theoretic precepts of worldly wisdom\n which he gave forth; nor, lastly, the practical career which he\n lived. Before his mind, however, if he had fathomed it, he must\n have bent in reverence. For just as Shakespeare was an interpreter\n of the secrets of history and of human nature, Bacon was an\n interpreter of lifeless nature. Just as Shakespeare went from\n instance to instance in his judgment of moral actions, and never\n founded a law on single experience, so did Bacon in natural science\n avoid leaping from one experience of the senses to general\n principles; he spoke of this with blame as anticipating nature; and\n Shakespeare, in the same way, would have called the\n conventionalities in the poetry of the Southern races an\n anticipation of human nature. In the scholastic science of the\n middle ages, as in the chivalric poetry of the romantic period,\n approbation and not truth was sought for, and with one accord\n Shakespeare's poetry and Bacon's science were equally opposed to\n this. As Shakespeare balanced the one-sided errors of the\n imagination by reason, reality, and nature, so Bacon led philosophy\n away from the one-sided errors of reason to experience; both with\n one stroke, renovated the two branches of science and poetry by\n this renewed bond with nature; both, disregarding all by-ways,\n staked everything upon this 'victory in the race between art and\n nature.' Just as Bacon with his new philosophy is linked with the\n natural science of Greece and Rome, and then with the latter period\n of philosophy in western Europe, so Shakespeare's drama stands in\n relation to the comedies of Plautus and to the stage of his own\n day; between the two there lay a vast wilderness of time, as\n unfruitful for the drama as for philosophy. But while they thus led\n back to nature, Bacon was yet as little of an empiric, in the\n common sense, as Shakespeare was a poet of nature. Bacon prophesied\n that if hereafter his commendation of experience should prevail,\n great danger to science would arise from the other extreme, and\n Shakespeare even in his own day could perceive the same with\n respect to his poetry; Bacon, therefore, insisted on the closest\n union between experience and reason, just as Shakespeare effected\n that between reality and imagination. While they thus bid adieu to\n the formalities of ancient art and science, Shakespeare to conceits\n and taffeta-phrases, Bacon to logic and syllogisms, yet at times it\n occurred that the one fell back into the subtleties of the old\n school, and the other into the constrained wit of the Italian\n style. Bacon felt himself quite an original in that which was his\n peculiar merit, and so was Shakespeare; the one in the method of\n science he had laid down, and in his suggestions for its execution,\n the other in the poetical works he had executed, and in the\n suggestions of their new law. Bacon, looking back to the waymarks\n he had left for others, said with pride that his words required a\n century for their demonstration and several for their execution;\n and so too it has demanded two centuries to understand Shakespeare,\n but very little has ever been executed in his sense. And at the\n same time we have mentioned what deep modesty was interwoven in\n both with their self-reliance, so that the words which Bacon liked\n to quote hold good for the two works:--'The kingdom of God cometh\n not with observation.' Both reached this height from the one\n starting point, that Shakespeare despised the million, and Bacon\n feared with Phocion the applause of the multitude. Both are alike\n in the rare impartiality with which they avoided everything\n one-sided; in Bacon we find, indeed, youthful exercises in which he\n endeavoured in severe contrasts to contemplate a series of things\n from two points of view. Both, therefore, have an equal hatred of\n sects and parties; Bacon of sophists and dogmatic philosophers,\n Shakespeare of Puritans and zealots. Both, therefore, are equally\n free from prejudices, and from astrological superstition in dreams\n and omens. Bacon says of the alchemists and magicians in natural\n science that they stand in similar relation to true knowledge as\n the deeds of Amadis to those of Caesar, and so does Shakespeare's\n true poetry stand in relation to the fantastic romance of Amadis.\n Just as Bacon banished religion from science, so did Shakespeare\n from Art; and when the former complained that the teachers of\n religion were against natural philosophy, they were equally against\n the stage. From Bacon's example it seems clear that Shakespeare\n left religious matters unnoticed on the same grounds as himself,\n and took the path of morality in worldly things; in both this has\n been equally misconstrued, and Le Maistre has proved Bacon's lack\n of Christianity, as Birch has done that of Shakespeare. Shakespeare\n would, perhaps, have looked down just as contemptuously on the\n ancients and their arts as Bacon did on their philosophy and\n natural science, and both on the same grounds; they boasted of the\n greater age of the world, of more enlarged knowledge of heaven,\n earth, and mankind. Neither stooped before authorities, and an\n injustice similar to that which Bacon committed against Aristotle,\n Shakespeare _perhaps_ has done to Homer. In both a similar\n combination of different mental powers was at work; and as\n Shakespeare was often involuntarily philosophical in his\n profoundness, Bacon was not seldom surprised into the imagination\n of the poet. Just as Bacon, although he declared knowledge in\n itself to be much more valuable than the use of invention, insisted\n throughout generally and dispassionately upon the practical use of\n philosophy, so Shakespeare's poetry, independent as was his sense\n of art, aimed throughout at bearing upon the moral life. Bacon\n himself was of the same opinion; he was not far from declaring\n history to be the best teacher of politics, and poetry the best\n instructor in morals. Both were alike deeply moved by the picture\n of a ruling Nemesis, whom they saw, grand and powerful, striding\n through history and life, dragging the mightiest and most\n prosperous as a sacrifice to her altar, as the victims of their own\n inward nature and destiny. In Bacon's works we find a multitude of\n moral sayings and maxims of experience, from which the most\n striking mottoes might be drawn for every Shakespearian play, aye,\n for every one of his principal characters (we have already brought\n forward not a few proofs of this), testifying to a remarkable\n harmony in their mutual comprehension of human nature. Both, in\n their systems of morality rendering homage to Aristotle, whose\n ethics Shakespeare, from a passage in Troilus, may have read,\n arrived at the same end as he did--that virtue lies in a just\n medium between two extremes. Shakespeare would also have agreed\n with _him_ in this, that Bacon declared excess to be 'the fault of\n youth, as defect is of age;' he accounted 'defect the worst,\n because excess contains some sparks of magnanimity, and, like a\n bird, claims kindred of the heavens, while defect, only like a base\n worm, crawls upon the earth.' In these maxims lie at once, as it\n were, the whole theory of Shakespeare's dramatic forms and of his\n moral philosophy.\"\n\nDR. KUNO FISCHER, the distinguished German critic and historian of\nphilosophy, in a volume on Bacon, published in 1856, writes:--\n\nThe same affinity for the Roman mind, and the same want of sympathy with\nthe Greek, we again find in Bacon's greatest contemporary, whose\nimagination took as broad and comprehensive a view as Bacon's intellect.\nIndeed, how could a Bacon attain that position with respect to Greek\npoetry that was unattainable by the mighty imagination of a Shakspeare?\nFor in Shakspeare, at any rate, the imagination of the Greek antiquity\ncould be met by a homogeneous power of the same rank as itself; and, as\nthe old adage says, \"like comes to like.\" But the age, the spirit of the\nnation--in a word, all those forces of which the genius of an individual\nman is composed, and which, moreover, genius is least able to\nresist--had here placed an obstacle, impenetrable both to the poet and\nthe philosopher. Shakspeare was no more able to exhibit Greek characters\nthan Bacon to expound Greek poetry. Like Bacon, Shakspeare had in his\nturn of mind something that was Roman, and not at all akin to the Greek.\nHe could appropriate to himself a Coriolanus and a Brutus, a Caesar and\nan Antony; he could succeed with the Roman heroes of Plutarch, but not\nwith the Greek heroes of Homer. The latter he could only parody, but his\nparody was as infelicitous as Bacon's explanation of the \"Wisdom of the\nAncients.\" Those must be dazzled critics indeed who can persuade\nthemselves that the heroes of the Iliad are excelled by the caricatures\nin \"Troilus and Cressida.\" The success of such a parody was poetically\nimpossible; indeed, he that attempts to parody Homer shows thereby that\nhe has not understood him. For the simple and the naive do not admit of\na parody, and these have found in Homer their eternal and inimitable\nexpression. Just as well might caricatures be made of the statues of\nPhidias. Where the creative imagination never ceases to be simple and\nnaive, where it never distorts itself by the affected or the unnatural,\nthere is the consecrated land of poetry, in which there is no place for\nthe parodist. On the other hand, where there is a palpable want of\nsimplicity and nature, parody is perfectly conceivable; nay, may even be\nfelt as a poetical necessity. Thus Euripides, who, often enough, was\nneither simple nor naive, could be parodied, and Aristophanes has shown\nus with what felicity. Even AEschylus, who was not always as simple as he\nwas grand, does not completely escape the parodising test. But Homer is\nsafe. To parody Homer is to mistake him, and to stand so far beyond his\nscope that the truth and magic of his poetry can no longer be felt; and\nthis is the position of Shakespeare and Bacon. The imagination of Homer,\nand all that could be contemplated and felt by that imagination, namely,\nthe classical antiquity of the Greeks, are to them utterly foreign. We\ncannot understand Aristotle without Plato; nay, I maintain that we\ncannot contemplate with a sympathetic mind the Platonic world of ideas,\nif we have not previously sympathised with the world of the Homeric\ngods. Be it understood, I speak of the _form_ of the Platonic mind, not\nof its logical matter; in point of doctrine, the Homeric faith was no\nmore that of Plato than of Phidias. But these doctrinal or logical\ndifferences are far less than the formal and aesthetical affinity. The\nconceptions of Plato are of Homeric origin.\n\nThis want of ability to take an historical survey of the world is to be\nfound alike in Bacon and Shakspeare, together with many excellencies\nlikewise common to them both. To the parallel between them--which\nGervinus, with his peculiar talent for combination, has drawn in the\nconcluding remarks to his \"Shakespeare,\" and has illustrated by a series\nof appropriate instances--belongs the similar relation of both to\nantiquity, their affinity to the Roman mind, and their diversity from\nthe Greek. Both possessed to an eminent degree that faculty for a\nknowledge of human nature that at once pre-supposes and calls forth an\ninterest in practical life and historical reality. To this interest\ncorresponds the stage, on which the Roman characters moved; and here\nBacon and Shakspeare met, brought together by a common interest in these\nobjects, and the attempt to depict and copy them. This point of\nagreement, more than any other argument, explains their affinity. At the\nsame time there is no evidence that one ever came into actual contact\nwith the other. Bacon does not even mention Shakspeare when he\ndiscourses of dramatic poetry, but passes over this department of poetry\nwith a general and superficial remark that relates less to the subject\nitself than to the stage and its uses. As far as his own age is\nconcerned, he sets down the moral value of the stage as exceedingly\ntrifling. But the affinity of Bacon to Shakspeare is to be sought in his\nmoral and psychological, not in his aesthetical views, which are too much\nregulated by material interests and utilitarian prepossessions to be\napplicable to art itself, considered with reference to its own\nindependent value. However, even in these there is nothing to prevent\nBacon's manner of judging mankind, and apprehending characters from\nagreeing perfectly with that of Shakspeare; so that human life, the\nsubject-matter of all dramatic art, appeared to him much as it appeared\nto the great artist himself, who, in giving form to this matter,\nexcelled all others. Is not the inexhaustible theme of Shakspeare's\npoetry the history and course of human passion? In the treatment of this\nespecial theme is not Shakspeare the greatest of all poets--nay, is he\nnot unique among them all? And it is this very theme that is proposed by\nBacon as the chief problem of moral philosophy. He blames Aristotle for\ntreating of the passions in his rhetoric rather than his ethics; for\nregarding the artificial means of exciting them rather than their\nnatural history. It is to the natural history of the human passions that\nBacon directs the attention of philosophy. He does not find any\nknowledge of them among the sciences of his time. \"The poets and writers\nof histories,\" he says, \"are the best doctors of this knowledge; where\nwe may find painted forth with great life how passions are kindled and\nincited; and how pacified and refrained; and how again contained from\nact and further degree; how they disclose themselves; how they work; how\nthey vary; how they gather and fortify; how they are inwrapped one\nwithin another; and how they do fight and encounter one with another;\nand other the like particularities.\"[53] Such a lively description is\nrequired by Bacon from moral philosophy. That is to say, he desired\nnothing less than a natural history of the passions--the very thing that\nShakspeare has produced. Indeed, what poet could have excelled\nShakspeare in this respect? Who, to use a Baconian expression, could\nhave depicted man and all his passions more _ad vivum_? According to\nBacon, the poets and historians give us copies of characters; and the\noutlines of these images--the simple strokes that determine\ncharacters--are the proper objects of ethical science. Just as physical\nscience requires a dissection of bodies, that their hidden qualities and\nparts may be discovered, so should ethics penetrate the various minds of\nmen, in order to find out the eternal basis of them all. And not only\nthis foundation, but likewise those external conditions which give a\nstamp to human character--all those peculiarities that \"are imposed upon\nthe mind by the sex, by the age, by the region, by health and sickness,\nby beauty and deformity, and the like, which are inherent and not\nexternal; and, again, those which are caused by external\nfortune\"[54]--should come within the scope of ethical philosophy. In a\nword, Bacon would have man studied in his individuality as a product of\nnature and history, in every respect determined by natural and\nhistorical influences, by internal and external conditions. And exactly\nin the same spirit has Shakespeare understood man and his destiny;\nregarding character as the result of a certain natural temperament and a\ncertain historical position, and destiny as a result of character.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[53] \"Advancement of Learning,\" II. \"De Augment. Scient.,\" VII. 3.\n\n[54] \"Advancement of Learning,\" II. For the whole passage compare \"De\nAugment. Scient.,\" VII. 3.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIII.\n\nTHE TESTIMONY OF BACON'S CONTEMPORARIES.\n\n\nA distinguished member of the Bench in a recent post-prandial address\nreferred to Bacon as \"a shady lawyer.\" Irresponsible newspaper\ncorrespondents, when attacking the Baconian theory, indulge in epithets\nof this kind, but it is amazing that any man occupying a position so\nresponsible as that of an English judge should, either through ignorance\nor with a desire to be considered a wit, make use of such a term.\n\nWhatever may have been Francis Bacon's faults, one fact must stand\nunchallenged--that amongst those of his contemporaries who knew him\nthere was a consensus of opinion that his virtues overshadowed any\nfailings to which he might be subject.\n\nThe following testimonies establish this fact:--\n\nLet BEN JONSON speak first:\n\n \"Yet there happened in my time one noble speaker, who was full of\n gravity in his speaking. His language (where he could spare or pass\n a jest) was nobly censorious. No man ever spake more neatly, more\n pressly, more weightily, or suffered less emptiness, less idleness,\n in what he uttered. No member of his speech, but consisted of his\n own graces. His hearers could not cough, or look aside from him,\n without loss. He commanded where he spoke; and had his judges angry\n and pleased at his devotion. No man had their affections more in his\n power. The fear of every man that heard him was, lest he should make\n an end,\" and, after referring to Lord Ellesmere, Jonson\n continues:--\n\n \"But his learned and able (though unfortunate) successor, (_i.e._,\n Bacon) is he who hath filled up all numbers, and performed that in\n our tongue, which may be compared or preferred either to insolent\n Greece, or haughty Rome. In short, within his view, and about his\n times, were all the wits born, that could honour a language, or help\n study. Now things daily fall, wits grow downward, and eloquence\n grows backward: so that he may be named, and stand as the mark and\n [Greek: akoe] of our language.\n\n \"My conceit of his person was never increased toward him by his\n place, or honours: but I have and do reverence him, for the\n greatness that was only proper to himself, in that he seemed to me\n ever, by his work, one of the greatest men, and most worthy of\n admiration, that had been in many ages. In his adversity I ever\n prayed God would give him strength; for greatness he could not want.\n Neither could I condole in a word or syllable for him, as knowing no\n accident could do harm to virtue, but rather help to make it\n manifest.\"\n\nSIR TOBY MATTHEW describes Francis Bacon as\n\n \"A friend unalterable to his friends;\n A man most sweet in his conversation and ways\";\n\nand adds:\n\n \"It is not his greatness that I admire, but his virtue.\"\n\nTHOMAS BUSHEL, his servant, in a letter to Mr. John Eliot, printed in\n1628, in a volume called \"The First Part of Youth's Errors,\" says:\n\n \"Yet lest the calumnious tongues of men might extenuate the good\n opinion you had of his worth and merit, I must ingenuously confess\n that my selfe and others of his servants were the occasion of\n exhaling his vertues into a darke exlipse; which God knowes would\n have long endured both for the honour of his King and the good of\n the Commonaltie; had not we whom his bountie nursed, laid on his\n guiltlesse shoulders our base and execrable deeds to be scand and\n censured by the whole senate of a state, where no sooner sentence\n was given, but most of us forsoke him, which makes us bear the badge\n of Jewes to this day. Yet I am confident there were some Godly\n Daniels amongst us.... As for myselfe, with shame I must acquit the\n title, and pleade guilty; which grieves my very soule, that so\n matchlesse a Peer should be lost by such insinuating caterpillars,\n who in his owne nature scorn'd the least thought of any base,\n unworthy, or ignoble act, though subject to infirmites as ordained\n to the wisest.\"\n\nIn FULLER'S \"Worthies\" it is written:\n\n \"He was a rich Cabinet filled with Judgment, Wit, Fancy and Memory,\n and had the golden Key, Elocution, to open it. He was singular in\n singulis, in every Science and Art, and being In-at-all came off\n with Credit. He was too Bountifull to his Servants, and either too\n confident of their Honesty, or too conniving at their Falsehood.\n 'Tis said he had 2 Servants, one in all Causes Patron to the\n Plaintiff, the other to the Defendant, but taking bribes of both,\n with this Condition, to restore the Mony received, if the Cause went\n against them. Such practices, tho' unknown to their Master, cost him\n the loss of his Office.\"\n\nIn \"The Lives of Statesmen and Favourites of Elizabeth's Reign\" it is\nsaid:--\n\n \"His religion was rational and sober, his spirit publick, his love\n to relations tender, to Friends faithful, to the hopeful liberal, to\n men universal, to his very Enemies civil. He left the best pattern\n of Government in his actions under one king and the best principles\n of it in the Life of the other.\"\n\nThe following is a translation from the discourse on the life of Mr.\nFrancis Bacon which is prefixed to the \"Histoire Naturelle,\" by PIERE\nAMBOISE, published in Paris in 1631:\n\n \"Among so many virtues that made this great man commendable,\n prudence, as the first of all the moral virtues, and that most\n necessary to those of his profession, was that which shone in him\n the most brightly. His profound wisdom can be most readily seen in\n his books, and his matchless fidelity in the signal services that he\n continuously rendered to his Prince. Never was there man who so\n loved equity, or so enthusiastically worked for the public good as\n he; so that I may aver that he would have been much better suited to\n a Republic than to a Monarchy, where frequently the convenience of\n the Prince is more thought of than that of his people. And I do not\n doubt that had he lived in a Republic he would have acquired as much\n glory from the citizens as formerly did Aristides and Cato, the one\n in Athens, the other in Rome. Innocence oppressed found always in\n his protection a sure refuge, and the position of the great gave\n them no vantage ground before the Chancellor when suing for justice.\n\n \"Vanity, avarice, and ambition, vices that too often attach\n themselves to great honours, were to him quite unknown, and if he\n did a good action it was not from the desire of fame, but simply\n because he could not do otherwise. His good qualities were entirely\n pure, without being clouded by the admixture of any imperfections,\n and the passions that form usually the defects in great men in him\n only served to bring out his virtues; if he felt hatred and rage it\n was only against evil-doers, to shew his detestation of their\n crimes, and success or failure in the affairs of his country brought\n to him the greater part of his joys or his sorrows. He was as truly\n a good man as he was an upright judge, and by the example of his\n life corrected vice and bad living as much as by pains and\n penalties. And, in a word, it seemed that Nature had exempted from\n the ordinary frailities of men him whom she had marked out to deal\n with their crimes. All these good qualities made him the darling of\n the people and prized by the great ones of the State. But when it\n seemed that nothing could destroy his position, Fortune made clear\n that she did not yet wish to abandon her character for instability,\n and that Bacon had too much worth to remain so long prosperous. It\n thus came about that amongst the great number of officials such as a\n man of his position must have in his house, there was one who was\n accused before Parliament of exaction, and of having sold the\n influence that he might have with his master. And though the probity\n of Mr. Bacon was entirely exempt from censure, nevertheless he was\n declared guilty of the crime of his servant and was deprived of the\n power that he had so long exercised with so much honour and glory.\n In this I see the working of monstrous ingratitude and unparalleled\n cruelty--to say that a man who could mark the years of his life\n rather by the signal services that he had rendered to the State than\n by times or seasons, should have received such hard usage for the\n punishment of a crime which he never committed; England, indeed,\n teaches us by this that the sea that surrounds her shores imparts to\n her inhabitants somewhat of its restless inconstancy. This storm did\n not at all surprise him, and he received the news of his disgrace\n with a countenance so undisturbed that it was easy to see that he\n thought but little of the sweets of life since the loss of them\n caused him discomfort so slight.\" Thus ended this great man whom\n England could place alone as the equal of the best of all the\n previous centuries.\"\n\nPETER BOENER, who was private apothecary to Bacon for a time, wrote in\n1647 a Life, of portions of which the following are translations:--\n\n \"But how runneth man's future. He who seemed to occupy the highest\n rank is alas! by envious tongues near King and Parliament deposed\n from all his offices and chancellorship, little considering what\n treasure was being cast in the mire, as afterwards the issue and\n result thereof have shown in that country. But he always comforted\n himself with the words of Scripture--nihil est novi; that means\n 'there is nothing new.' Because so is Cicero by Octavianus;\n Calisthenes by Alexander; Seneca (all his former teachers) by Nero;\n yea, Ovid, Lucanus, Statius (together with many others), for a small\n cause very unthankfully the one banished, the other killed, the\n third thrown to the lions. But even as for such men banishment is\n freedom--death their life, so is for this author his deposition a\n memory to greater honour and fame, and to such a sage no harm can\n come.\n\n * * * * *\n\n \"Whilst his fortunes were so changed, I never saw him--either in\n mien, word or acts--changed or disturbed towards whomsoever; _ira\n enim hominis non implet justitiam Dei_, he was ever one and the\n same, both in sorrow and in joy, as becometh a philosopher; always\n with a benevolent allocution--_manus nostrae sunt oculatae, credunt\n quod vident_.... A noteworthy example and pattern for everyone of\n all virtue, gentleness, peacefulness, and patience.\"\n\nFRANCIS OSBORN, in his \"Advice to a Son,\" writes:--\n\n \"And my memory neither doth nor (I believe possible ever) can direct\n me towards an example more splendid in this kind, than the Lord\n Bacon Earl of St. Albans, who in all companies did appear a good\n Proficient, if not a Master in those Arts entertained for the\n Subject of every ones discourse. So as I dare maintain, without the\n least affectation of Flattery or Hyperbole, That his most casual\n talk deserveth to be written, As I have been told his first or\n foulest Copys required no great Labour to render them competent for\n the nicest judgments. A high perfection, attainable only by use, and\n treating with every man in his respective profession, and what he\n was most vers'd in. So as I have heard him entertain a Country Lord\n in the proper terms relating to Hawks and Dogs. And at another time\n out-Cant a London Chirurgeon. Thus he did not only learn himself,\n but gratifie such as taught him; who looked upon their Callings as\n honoured through his Notice; Nor did an easie falling into Arguments\n (not unjustly taken for a blemish in the most) appear less than an\n ornament in Him: The ears of the hearers receiving more\n gratification, than trouble; And (so) no less sorry when he came to\n conclude, than displeased with any did interrupt him. Now this\n general Knowledge he had in all things, husbanded by his wit, and\n dignifi'd by so Majestical a carriage he was known to own, strook\n such an awful reverence in those he question'd, that they durst not\n conceal the most intrinsick part of their Mysteries from him, for\n fear of appearing Ignorant, or Saucy. All which rendered him no less\n Necessary, than admirable at the Council Table, where in reference\n to Impositions, Monopolies, &c. the meanest Manufacturers were an\n usual Argument: And, as I have heard, did in this Baffle, the Earl\n of Middlesex, that was born and bred a Citizen &c. Yet without any\n great (if at all) interrupting his other Studies, as is not hard to\n be Imagined of a quick Apprehension, in which he was Admirable.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIV.\n\nTHE MISSING FOURTH PART OF \"THE GREAT INSTAURATION.\"\n\n\nIt has been urged by critics that Bacon, whilst professing to take all\nknowledge for his province, ignored one-half of it--that half which was\na knowledge of himself; that to him the external world was everything,\nthe internal nothing. All that Nature revealed was external; nothing\nthat was internal was of much importance.\n\nIt must be remembered that all that we have of Bacon's was written as he\nwas passing into the \"vale of life.\" Of his early productions nothing\nhas come down to the present times under his own name. The following\nextracts from his acknowledged works establish two facts:--(1) That the\nforegoing criticism is unfounded, for he placed the study of man's mind\nand character above all other enquiries. (2) That he had prepared\nexamples, being \"actual types and models, by which the entire process of\nthe mind and the whole fabric and order of invention from the beginning\nto the end in certain subjects and those various and remarkable should\nbe set, as it were, before the eyes.\" Where are these works to be found?\n\nBacon never tires of quoting from the Roman poet the line--\n\n \"Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci,\"\n\nwhich, in an Elizabethan handwriting, may be seen in a contemporary\nvolume thus rendered--\n\n \"He of all others fittest is to write\n Which with some profit allso ioynes delight.\"\n\nHe repeats in different forms, until the reiteration becomes almost\ntedious, the following incident:--\n\n \"And as Alexander Borgia was wont to say, of the expedition of the\n French for Naples, that they came with chalk in their hands to\n marke up their lodgings not with weapons to fight; so we like\n better, that entry of truth, which comes peaceably where the Mindes\n of men, capable to lodge so great a guest, are signed, as it were,\n with chalke; than that which comes with Pugnacity, and forceth\n itselfe a way by contentions and controversies.\"\n\nThe same idea is embodied in the following example of the antitheta:--\n\n \"A witty conceit is oftentimes a convoy of a Truth which otherwise\n could not so handsomely have been ferried over.\"\n\nIn the \"Advancement of Learning,\" Lib. II., again the same view is\ninsisted on:--\n\n \"Besides in all wise humane Government, they that sit at the helme,\n doe more happily bring their purposes about, and insinuate more\n easily things fit for the people, by pretexts, and oblique courses;\n than by downe-right dealing. Nay (which perchance may seem very\n strange) in things meerely naturall, you may sooner deceive nature,\n than force her; so improper, and selfe impeaching are open direct\n proceedings; whereas on the other side, an oblique and an insinuing\n way, gently glides along and compasseth the intended effect.\"\n\nOne other fact must be realised before the full import of the quotations\nabout to be made can be appreciated. In the \"Distributio Operis\"\nprefixed to the \"Novum Organum\" the following significant passage\noccurs[55]:--\n\n \"For as often as I have occasion to report anything as deficient,\n the nature of which is at all obscure, so that men may not perhaps\n easily understand what I mean or what the work is which I have in\n my head, I shall always (provided it be a matter of any worth) take\n care to subjoin either directions for the execution of such work,\n or else a portion of the work itself executed by myself as a sample\n of the whole: thus giving assistance in every case either by work\n or by counsel.\"\n\nIn the \"Advancement of Learning,\" Book II., chap. i., it is written:\n\n \"That is the truest Partition of humane Learning, which hath\n reference to the three Faculties of Man's soule, which is the feat\n of Learning. History is referred to Memory, Poesy to the\n Imagination, Philosophy to Reason. By Poesy, in this place, we\n understand nothing else, but feigned History, or Fables. As for\n Verse, that is only a style of expression, and pertaines to the Art\n of Elocution, of which in due place.\"\n\n \"Poesy, in that sense we have expounded it, is likewise of\n Individuals, fancied to the similitude of those things which in\n true History are recorded, yet so as often it exceeds measure; and\n those things which in Nature would never meet, nor come to passe,\n Poesy composeth and introduceth at pleasure, even as Painting doth:\n which indeed is the work of the Imagination.\"\n\nAnd in the same book, Chapter XIII.:--\n\n \"Drammaticall, or Representative Poesy, which brings the World upon\n the stage, is of excellent use, if it were not abused. For the\n Instructions, and Corruptions, of the Stage, may be great; but the\n corruptions in this kind abound, the Discipline is altogether\n neglected in our times. For although in moderne Commonwealths,\n Stage-plaies be but estimed a sport or pastime, unlesse it draw\n from the Satyre, and be mordant; yet the care of the Ancients was,\n that it should instruct the minds of men unto virtue. Nay, wise\n men and great Philosophers, have accounted it, as the Archet, or\n musicall Bow of the Mind. And certainly it is most true, and as it\n were, a secret of nature, that the minds of men are more patent to\n affections, and impressions, Congregate, than solitary.\"\n\nThe third chapter of Book VII. of the \"De Augmentis\" is devoted to\nemphasising the importance of a knowledge of the internal working of the\nmind and of the disposition and character of men. The following extracts\nare of special moment:--\n\n \"Some are naturally formed for contemplation, others for business,\n others for war, others for advancement of fortune, others for love,\n others for the arts, others for a varied kind of life; so among the\n poets (heroic, satiric, tragic, comic) are everywhere interspersed,\n representations of characters, though generally exaggerated and\n surpassing the truth. And this argument touching the different\n characters of dispositions is one of those subjects in which the\n common discourse of men (as sometimes, though very rarely, happens)\n is wiser than books.\"\n\nThe drama as the only vehicle through which this can be accomplished at\nonce suggests itself to the reader. But in order to emphasize this point\nhe proceeds--\n\n \"But far the best provision and material for this treatise is to\n be gained from the wiser sort of historians, not only from the\n commemorations which they commonly add on recording the deaths of\n illustrious persons, but much more from the entire body of history\n as often as such a person enters upon the stage.\"\n\nBacon becomes still more explicit. He continues:--\n\n \"Wherefore out of these materials (which are surely rich and\n abundant) let a full and careful treatise be constructed. Not,\n however, that I would have their characters presented in ethics (as\n we find them in history, or poetry, or even in common discourse) in\n the shape of complete individual portraits, but rather the several\n features and simple lineaments of which they are composed, and by\n the various combinations and arrangements of which all characters\n whatever are made up, showing how many, and of what nature these\n are, and how connected and subordinated one to another; that so we\n may have a scientific and accurate dissection of minds and\n characters, and the secret dispositions of particular men may be\n revealed; and that from a knowledge thereof better rules may be\n framed for the treatment of the mind. And not only should the\n characters of dispositions which are impressed by nature be\n received into this treatise, but those also which are imposed upon\n the mind by sex, by age, by region, by health and sickness, by\n beauty and deformity and the like; and again, those which are\n caused by fortune, as sovereignty, nobility, obscure birth, riches,\n want, magistracy, privateness, prosperity, adversity and the like.\"\n\nShortly after follows this remarkable pronouncement.\n\n \"But to speak the truth the poets and writers of history are the\n best doctors of this knowledge,[56] where we may find painted forth\n with great life and dissected, how affections are kindled and\n excited, and how pacified and restrained, and how again contained\n from act and further degree; how they disclose themselves, though\n repressed and concealed; how they work; how they vary; how they are\n enwrapped one within another; how they fight and encounter one with\n another; and many more particulars of this kind; amongst which this\n last is of special use in moral and civil matters; how, I say, to\n set affection against affection, and to use the aid of one to\n master another; like hunters and fowlers who use to hunt beast with\n beast, and catch bird with bird, which otherwise perhaps without\n their aid man of himself could not so easily contrive; upon which\n foundation is erected that excellent and general use in civil\n government of reward and punishment, whereon commonwealths lean;\n seeing these predominant affections of fear and hope suppress and\n bridle all the rest. For as in the government of States it is\n sometimes necessary to bridle one faction with another, so is it in\n the internal government of the mind.\"\n\nIn his \"Distributio Operis\" Bacon thus describes the missing fourth part\nof his \"Instauratio Magna\":--\n\n \"Of these the first is to set forth examples of inquiry and\n invention[57] according to my method exhibited by anticipation in\n some particular subjects; choosing such subjects as are at once the\n most noble in themselves among those under enquiry, and most\n different one from another, that there may be an example in every\n kind. I do not speak of these precepts and rules by way of\n illustration (for of these I have given plenty in the second part\n of the work); but I mean actual types and models, by which the\n entire process of the mind and the whole fabric and order of\n invention from the beginning to the end in certain subjects, and\n those various and remarkable, should be set as it were before the\n eyes. For I remember that in the mathematics it is easy to follow\n the demonstration when you have a machine beside you, whereas,\n without that help, all appears involved and more subtle than it\n really is. To examples of this kind--being, in fact, nothing more\n than an application of the second part in detail and at large--the\n fourth part of the work is devoted.\"\n\nThe late Mr. Edwin Reed has, in his \"Francis Bacon our Shakespeare,\"\npage 126, drawn attention to a remarkable circumstance. In 1607 Bacon\nhad written his \"Cogitata et Visa,\" which was the forerunner of his\n\"Novum Organum.\" It was not published until twenty-seven years after his\ndeath, namely, in 1653, by Isaac Gruter, at Leyden. In 1857 Mr. Spedding\nfound a manuscript copy of the \"Cogitata\" in the library of Queen's\nCollege at Oxford. This manuscript had been corrected in Bacon's own\nhandwriting. It contained passages which were omitted from Gruter's\nprint. Spedding did not realise the importance of the omitted passages,\nbut Mr. Edwin Reed has made this manifest. The following extract is\nspecially noteworthy, the portion printed in italics having been omitted\nby Gruter:--\n\n \"... So he thought best, after long considering the subject and\n weighing it carefully, first of all to prepare _Tabulae Inveniendi_\n or regular forms of inquiry; in other words, a mass of particulars\n arranged for the understanding, and to serve, as it were, for an\n example and almost visible representation of the matter. For\n nothing else can be devised that would place in a clearer light\n what is true and what is false, or show more plainly that what is\n presented is more than words, and must be avoided by anyone who\n either has no confidence in his own scheme or may wish to have his\n scheme taken for more than it is worth.\n\n \"_But when these Tabulae Inveniendi have been put forth and seen, he\n does not doubt that the more timid wits will shrink almost in\n despair from imitating them with similar productions with other\n materials or on other subjects; and they will take so much delight\n in the specimen given that they will miss the precepts in it.\n Still, many persons will be led to inquire into the real meaning\n and highest use of these writings, and to find the key to their\n interpretation, and thus more ardently desire, in some degree at\n least, to acquire the new aspect of nature which such a key will\n reveal. But he intends, yielding neither to his own personal\n aspirations nor to the wishes of others, but keeping steadily in\n view the success of his undertaking, having shared these writings\n with some, to withhold the rest until the treatise intended for the\n people shall be published._\"\n\nNow what conclusions may be drawn from the foregoing extracts? Bacon\nattached the greatest importance to the consideration of the internal\nlife of man. He affirms that dramaticall or representative poesy, which\nbrings the world upon the stage, is of excellent use if it be not\nabused. The discipline of the stage was neglected in his time, but the\ncare of the ancients was that it should instruct the minds of men unto\nvirtue, and wise men and great philosophers accounted it as the musical\nbow of the mind. He has devoted the fourth part of his \"Instauratio\nMagna\" to setting forth examples of inquiry and invention, choosing such\nsubjects as are at once the most noble in themselves and the most\ndifferent one from another, that there may be an example in every kind.\nHe is not speaking of precepts and rules by way of interpretation, but\nactual types and models by which the entire process of the mind, and the\nwhole fabric and order of invention, should be set, as it were, before\nthe eyes.\n\nNot only should the characters of dispositions which are impressed by\nnature be received into this treatise, but those also which are imposed\nupon the mind by sex, by age, by region, by health and sickness, by\nbeauty and deformity, and the like; and, again, those that are caused by\nfortune, as sovereignty, nobility, obscure birth, riches, want,\nmagistracy, privateness, prosperity, adversity, and the like.\n\n_The fourth part of Bacon's \"Great Instauration\" is missing._ The above\nrequirements are met in the Shakespeare plays. Could the dramas be more\naccurately described than in the foregoing extracts?\n\nFrom a study of the plays let a list be made out of the qualifications\nwhich the author must have possessed. It will be found that the only\nperson in whom every qualification will be found who has lived in any\nage of any country was Francis Bacon. Any investigator who will devote\nthe time and trouble requisite for an exhaustive examination of the\nsubject can come to no other conclusion.\n\nOne cannot without feeling deep regret recognise that we have to turn to\na foreigner to give \"reasons for the faith which we English have in\nShakespeare.\" It was a German, Schlegel, who discovered the great\ndramatist, and to-day we must turn to his \"Lectures on the Drama\" for\nthe most penetrating description of his plays. The following is a\ntranslation of a passage which in describing the plays almost adopts the\nwords Bacon uses in the foregoing passages as to the scope and object of\nthe fourth part of his \"Great Instauration.\"\n\n\"Never, perhaps, was there so comprehensive a talent for the delineation\nof character as Shakespeare's. It not only grasps the diversities of\nrank, sex, and age, down to the dawnings of infancy; not only do the\nking and the beggar, the hero and the pickpocket, the sage and the idiot\nspeak and act with equal truth; not only does he transport himself to\ndistant ages and foreign nations, and portray in the most accurate\nmanner, with only a few apparent violations of costume, the spirit of\nthe ancient Romans, of the French in their wars with the English, of the\nEnglish themselves during a great part of their history, of the Southern\nEuropeans (in the serious part of many comedies), the cultivated society\nof that time, and the former rude and barbarous state of the North; his\nhuman characters have not only such depth and precision that they cannot\nbe arranged under classes, and are inexhaustible, even in conception;\nno, this Prometheus not merely forms men, he opens the gates of the\nmagical world of spirits, calls up the midnight ghost, exhibits before\nus his witches amidst their unhallowed mysteries, peoples the air with\nsportive fairies and sylphs; and these beings, existing only in\nimagination, possess such truth and consistency that even when deformed\nmonsters like Caliban, he extorts the conviction that if there should be\nsuch beings they would so conduct themselves. In a word, as he carries\nwith him the most fruitful and daring fancy into the kingdom of nature;\non the other hand, he carries nature into the regions of fancy, lying\nbeyond the confines of reality. We are lost in astonishment at seeing\nthe extraordinary, the wonderful, and the unheard of in such intimate\nnearness.\"\n\n\"If Shakespeare deserves our admiration for his characters he is equally\ndeserving of it for his exhibition of passion, taking this word in its\nwidest signification, as including every mental condition, every tone\nfrom indifference or familiar mirth to the wildest rage and despair. He\ngives us the history of minds, he lays open to us in a single word a\nwhole series of preceding conditions. His passions do not at first stand\ndisplayed to us in all their height, as is the case with so many tragic\npoets who, in the language of Lessing, are thorough masters of the legal\nstyle of love. He paints, in a most inimitable manner, the gradual\nprogress from the first origin. 'He gives,' as Lessing says, 'a living\npicture of all the most minute and secret artifices by which a feeling\nsteals into our souls; of all the imperceptible advantages which it\nthere gains, of all the stratagems by which every other passion is made\nsubservient to it, till it becomes the sole tyrant of our desires and\nour aversions.' Of all poets, perhaps, he alone has portrayed the mental\ndiseases--melancholy, delirium, lunacy--with such inexpressible, and in\nevery respect definite truth, that the physician may enrich his\nobservations from them in the same manner as from real cases.\"\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[55] A Translation by Spedding, \"Works,\" Vol. IV., p. 23.\n\n[56] The knowledge touching the affections and perturbations which are\nthe diseases of the mind.\n\n[57] Tabulae inveniendi.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXV.\n\nTHE PHILOSOPHY OF BACON.\n\n\nTo attempt anything of the nature of a review of Bacon's acknowledged\nworks is a task far too great for the scope of the present volume. To\nattempt a survey of the whole of his works would require years of\ndiligent study, and would necessitate a perusal of nearly every book\npublished in England between 1576 and 1630. Not that it is suggested\nthat all the literature of this period was the product of his pen or was\nproduced under his supervision, but each book published should be read\nand considered with attention to arrive at a selection.\n\nThere has been no abler judgment of the acknowledged works than that\nwhich will be found in William Hazlitt's \"Lectures on the Literature of\nthe Age of Elizabeth.\" Lecture VII. commences with an account of the\n\"Character of Bacon's Works.\"\n\nIt may not, however, be out of place here to try and make plain in what\nsense Bacon was a philosopher.\n\nIn Chapter CXVI. of the \"Novum Organum\" he makes his position clear in\nthe following words:--\n\n \"First then I must request men not to suppose that after the\n fashion of ancient Greeks, and of certain moderns, as Telesius,\n Patricius, Severinus, I wish to found a new sect in philosophy. For\n this is not what I am about; nor do I think that it matters much to\n the fortunes of men what abstract notions one may entertain\n concerning nature and the principles of things; and no doubt many\n old theories of this kind can be revived, and many new ones\n introduced; just as many theories of the heavens may be supposed\n which agree well enough with the phenomena and yet differ with\n each other.\n\n \"For my part, I do not trouble myself with any such speculative and\n withal unprofitable matters. My purpose on the contrary, is to try\n whether I cannot in very fact lay more firmly the foundations and\n extend more widely the limits of the power and greatness of man ...\n I have no entire or universal theory to propound.\"\n\nSo the idea that there was what is termed a system of philosophy\nconstructed by Bacon must be abandoned. What justification is there for\ncalling him the father of the Inductive Philosophy?\n\nIt is difficult to answer this question. Spedding admits that Bacon was\nnot the first to break down the dominion of Aristotle. That followed the\nawakening throughout the intellectual world which was brought about by\nthe Reformation and the revival of learning. Sir John Herschel justifies\nthe application to Bacon of the term \"The great Reformer of Philosophy\"\nnot on the ground that he introduced inductive reasoning, but because of\nhis \"keen perception and his broad and spirit-stirring, almost\nenthusiastic announcement of its paramount importance, as the Alpha and\nOmega of science, as the grand and only chain for linking together of\nphysical truths and the eventual key to every discovery and\napplication.\"\n\nBacon was 60 years of age when his \"Novum Organum\" was published. It was\nfounded on a tract he had written in 1607, which he called \"Cogitata et\nVisa,\" not printed until long after his death. He had previously\npublished a portion of his Essays, the two books on \"The Advancement of\nLearning\" and \"The Wisdom of the Ancients.\" Just at the end of his life\nhe gave to the world the \"Novum Organum,\" accompanied by \"The\nParasceve.\" Certainly it was not understood in his time. Coke described\nit as only fit to freight the Ship of Fools, and the King likened it\n\"to the peace of God which passeth all understanding.\" It is admittedly\nincomplete, and Bacon made no attempt in subsequent years to complete\nit. It is a book that if read and re-read becomes fascinating. Taine\ndescribes it as \"a string of aphorisms, a collection as it were of\nscientific decrees as of an oracle who foresees the future and reveals\nthe truth.\" \"It is intuition not reasoning,\" he adds. The wisdom\ncontained in its pages is profound. An understanding of the\ninterpretation of the Idols and the Instances has so far evaded all\ncommentators. Who can explain the \"Latent Process\"? But the book\ncontains no scheme of arrangement. Therein is found a series of\ndesultory discourses--full of wisdom, rich in analogies, abundant in\nobservation and profound in comprehension. From here and there in it\nwith the help of the \"Parasceve\" one can grasp the intention of the\ngreat philosopher.\n\nIn Chapter LXI. he says:--\"But the course I propose for the discovery of\nsciences is such as leaves but little to the acuteness and strength of\nwits, but places all wits and understandings on a level.\" How was this\nto be accomplished? By the systemization of labour expended on\nscientific research. A catalogue of the particulars of histories which\nwere to be prepared is appended to the \"Parasceve.\" It embraces every\nsubject conceivable. In Chapter CXI. he says, \"I plainly confess that a\ncollection of history, natural and experimental, such as I conceive it,\nand as it ought to be, is a great, I may say a royal work, and of much\nlabour and expense.\"\n\nIn the \"Parasceve\" he says:--\"If all the wits of all the ages had met or\nshall hereafter meet together; if the whole human race had applied or\nshall hereafter apply themselves to philosophy, and the whole earth had\nbeen or shall be nothing but academies and colleges and schools of\nlearned men; still without a natural and experimental history such as I\nam going to prescribe, no progress worthy of the human race could have\nbeen made or can be made in philosophy and the sciences. Whereas on the\nother hand let such a history be once provided and well set forth and\nlet there be added to it such auxiliary and light-giving experiments as\nin the very course of interpretation will present themselves or will\nhave to be found out; and the investigation of nature and of all\nsciences will be the work of a few years. This therefore must be done or\nthe business given up.\"\n\nTo carry out this work an army of workers was required. In the\npreparation of each history some were to make a rough and general\ncollection of facts. Their work was to be handed over to others who\nwould arrange the facts in order for reference. This accomplished,\nothers would examine to get rid of superfluities. Then would be brought\nin those who would re-arrange that which was left and the history would\nbe completed.\n\nFrom Chapter CIII. it is clear that Bacon contemplated that eventually\nall the experiments of all the arts, collected and digested, _should be\nbrought within one man's knowledge and judgment_. This man, having a\nsupreme view of the whole range of subjects, would transfer experiments\nof one art to another and so lead \"to the discovery of many new things\nof service to the life and state of man.\"\n\nNearly three hundred years have passed since Bacon propounded his\nscheme. The arts and sciences have been greatly advanced. They might\nhave proceeded more rapidly had the histories been prepared, but since\nhis time there has arisen no man who has taken \"all knowledge to be his\nprovince\"--no man who could occupy the position Bacon contemplated.\n\nThe method by which the induction was to be followed is described in\nChapter CV. There must be an analysis of nature by proper rejections\nand exclusions, and then, after a sufficient number of negatives, a\nconclusion should be arrived at from the affirmative instances. \"It is\nin this induction,\" Bacon adds, \"that our chief hope lies.\"\n\nBacon's new organ has never been constructed, and all wits and\nunderstandings have not yet been placed on a level.\n\nWe come back to the mystery of Francis Bacon, the possessor of the most\nexquisite intellect that was ever bestowed on any of the children of\nmen. As an historian, he gives us a taste of his quality in \"Henry VII.\"\nIn the Essays and the \"Novum Organum,\" sayings which have the effect of\naxioms are at once striking and self-evident. But he is always\ndesultory. In perceiving analogies between things which have nothing in\ncommon he never had an equal, and this characteristic, to quote\nMacaulay, \"occasionally obtained the mastery over all his other\nfaculties and led him into absurdities into which no dull man could have\nfallen.\" His memory was so stored with materials, and these so diverse,\nthat in similitude or with comparison he passed from subject to subject.\nIn the \"Advancement of Learning\" are enumerated the deficiencies which\nBacon observed, _nearly the whole of which were supplied during his\nlifetime_.\n\nThe \"Sylva Sylvarum\" is the most extraordinary jumble of facts and\nobservations that has ever been brought together. It is a literary\ncuriosity. The \"New Atlantis\" and other short works in quantity amount\nto very little. Bacon's life has hitherto remained unaccounted for. In\nthe foregoing pages an attempt has been made to offer an intelligible\nexplanation of the work to which he devoted his life, namely, to supply\nthe deficiencies which he had himself pointed out and which retarded the\nadvancement of learning.\n\nHallam has said of Bacon: \"If we compare what may be found in the sixth,\nseventh, and eighth books of the 'De Augmentis,' and the various short\ntreatises contained in his works on moral and political wisdom and on\nhuman nature, with the rhetoric, ethics, and politics of Aristotle, or\nwith the historians most celebrated for their deep insight into civil\nsociety and human character--with Thucydides, Tacitus, Phillipe de\nComines, Machiavel, David Hume--we shall, I think, find that one man may\nalmost be compared with all of these together.\"\n\nPope wrote: \"Lord Bacon was the greatest genius that England, or perhaps\nany other country, ever produced.\" If an examination, more thorough than\nhas hitherto been made, of the records and literature of his age\nestablishes beyond doubt the truth of the suggestions which have now\nbeen put forward, what more can be said? This at any rate, that to him\nshall be given that title to which he aspired and for which he was\nwilling to renounce his own name. He shall be called \"The Benefactor of\nMankind.\"\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX.\n\n\nSir Thomas Bodley left behind him a short history of his life which is\nof a fragmentary description. One-fourth of it is devoted to a record of\nhow much he suffered in permitting Essex to urge his advancement in the\nState. The following is the passage:--\n\n \"Now here I can not choose but in making report of the principall\n accidents that have fallen unto me in the course of my life, but\n record among the rest, that from the very first day I had no man\n more to friend among the Lords of the Councell, than was the Lord\n Treasurer Burleigh: for when occasion had beene offered of\n declaring his conceit as touching my service, he would alwaies tell\n the Queen (which I received from her selfe and some other\n ear-witnesses) that there was not any man in _England_ so meet as\n myselfe to undergoe the office of the Secretary. And sithence his\n sonne, the present Lord Treasurer, hath signified unto me in\n private conference, that when his father first intended to advance\n him to that place, his purpose was withall to make me his\n Colleague. But the case stood thus in my behalf: before such time\n as I returned from the Provinces united, which was in the yeare\n 1597, and likewise after my returne, the then Earle of _Essex_ did\n use me so kindly both by letters and messages, and other great\n tokens of his inward favours to me, that although I had no meaning,\n but to settle in my mind my chiefest desire and dependance upon the\n Lord _Burleigh_, as one that I reputed to be both the best able,\n and therewithall the most willing to worke my advancement with the\n Queene, yet I know not how, the Earle, who fought by all devices to\n divert her love and liking both from the Father and the Son (but\n from the Sonne in speciall) to withdraw my affection from the one\n and the other, and to winne mee altogether to depend upon himselfe,\n did so often take occasion to entertaine the Queene with some\n prodigall speeches of my sufficiency for a Secretary, which were\n ever accompanied with words of disgrace against the present Lord\n Treasurer, as neither she her selfe, of whose favour before I was\n thoroughly assured, took any great pleasure to preferre me the\n sooner, (for she hated his ambition, and would give little\n countenance to any of his followers) and both the Lord _Burleigh_\n and his Sonne waxed jealous of my courses, as if under hand I had\n beene induced by the cunning and kindnesse of the Earle of _Essex_,\n to oppose my selfe against their dealings. And though in very truth\n they had no solid ground at all of the least alteration in my\n disposition towards either of them both, (for I did greatly respect\n their persons and places, with a settled resolution to doe them any\n service, as also in my heart I detested to be held of any faction\n whatsoever) yet the now Lord Treasurer, upon occasion of some\n talke, that I have since had with him, of the Earle and his\n actions, hath freely confessed of his owne accord unto me, that his\n daily provocations were so bitter and sharpe against him, and his\n comparisons so odious, when he put us in a ballance, as he thought\n thereupon he had very great reason to use his best meanes, to put\n any man out of hope of raising his fortune, whom the Earle with\n such violence, to his extreame prejudice, had endeavoured to\n dignifie. And this, as he affirmed, was all the motive he had to\n set himselfe against me, in whatsoever might redound to the\n bettering of my estate, or increasing of my credit and countenance\n with the Queene. When I hae thoroughly now bethought me, first in\n the Earle, of the slender hold-fast that he had in the favour of\n the Queene, of an endlesse opposition of the cheifest of our\n Statesmen like still to waite upon him, of his perillous, and\n feeble, and uncertain advice, as well in his owne, as in all the\n causes of his friends: and when moreover for my selfe I had fully\n considered how very untowardly these two Counsellours were affected\n unto me, (upon whom before in cogitation I had framed all the\n fabrique of my future prosperity) how ill it did concurre with my\n naturall disposition, to become, or to be counted either a stickler\n or partaker in any publique faction, how well I was able, by God's\n good blessing, to live of my selfe, if I could be content with a\n competent livelyhood; how short time of further life I was then to\n expect by the common course of nature: when I had, I say, in this\n manner represented to my thoughts my particular estate, together\n with the Earles, I resolved thereupon to possesse my soule in peace\n all the residue of my daies, to take my full farewell of State\n imployments, to satisfie my mind with that mediocrity of worldly\n living that I had of my owne, and so to retire me from the Court,\n which was the epilogue and end of all my actions and endeavours of\n any important note, till I came to the age of fifty-three.\"\n\nThe experience of Bodley and Bacon appears to have been identical. It\ncertainly materially strengthens the case of those who contend that\nBacon's conduct to Essex was not deserving of censure on the ground of\ningratitude for favours received from him.\n\nThe words which Robert Cecil addressed to Bodley, namely, that \"he had\nvery great reason to use his best meanes, to put any man out of hope of\nraising his fortune whom the Earle with such violence, to his extreame\nprejudice had endeavoured to dignifie,\" would with equal force have been\napplied to Bacon's case. The drift of Bodley's account of the matter\npoints to his feeling that Essex's conduct had not been of a\ndisinterested character, and suggests that he felt the Earle had been\nmaking a tool of him.\n\nThe effect of this was that Bodley adopted the course which Bacon\nthreatened to adopt when refused the office of Attorney-General,\nsolicited for him by Essex--he took a farewell of State employments and\nretired from the Court to devote himself to the service of his \"Reverend\nMother, the University of Oxford,\" and to the advancement of her good.\nTo this end he became a collector of books, whereas Bacon would have\nbecome \"some sorry book-maker or a true pioner in that mine of truth\nwhich Anaxagoras said lay so deep.\"\n\n\nROBERT BANKS AND SON, RACQUET COURT, FLEET STREET.\n\n\n [Illustration:_ Figure VI._]\n\n [Illustration: _Figure VII._]\n\n [Illustration: _Figure VIII._]\n\n [Illustration: _Figure IX._]\n\n [Illustration: _Figure XX._]\n\n [Illustration: THE XXXVIII. BOOKE.\n\n THE ARGVMENT\n\n _Marfisa doth present herselfe before\n King Charles, and in his presence is baptized:\n Astolfo doth Senapos sight restore,\n By whom such hardie feats are enterprised,\n That Agramant therewith molested sore\n Is by Sobrino finally aduised,\n To make a challenge on Rogeros hed,\n To end the troubles that the warre had bred._\n\n _Figure XIII._\n\n _Figure XIV._]\n\n [Illustration: _Figure X._]\n\n [Illustration: _Figure XV._]\n\n [Illustration: _Figure XI._]\n\n [Illustration: _Figure XII._]\n\n [Illustration: _Figure XXI._\n\n THE GENEALOGIES RECORDED IN THE SACRED SCRIPTVRES,\n ACcording to euery FAMILY and TRIBE.\n\n WITH\n\n The Line of our Sauiour IESVS CHRIST obserued from _Adam_\n to the blessed VIRGIN MARY.\n\n _By_\n I. S.\n\n CVM PRIVILEGIO.]\n\n [Illustration: _Figure XVI._]\n\n [Illustration: _Figure XVII._]\n\n [Illustration: _Figure XVIII._]\n\n [Illustration: _Figure XIX._]\n\n\n * * * * *\n\n\n\n\nTRANSCRIBER'S NOTES\n\n\n1. Passages in italics are surrounded by _underscores_.\n\n2. Passages in bold are indicated by =bold=.\n\n3. Long \"s\" has been modernized.\n\n4. Images have been moved from the middle of a paragraph to the closest\nparagraph break.\n\n5. Footnotes have been renumbered and moved to the end of the chapters\nin which they are referenced.\n\n6. The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version\nthese letters have been replaced with transliterations.\n\n7. Certain words use oe ligature in the original.\n\n8. The following misprints have been corrected:\n \"obain\" corrected to \"obtain\" (page 27)\n \"Shakespere\" corrected to \"Shakespeare\" (page 39)\n \"Bodly\" corrected to \"Bodley\" (page 85)\n \"Shakepeare's\" corrected to \"Shakespeare's\" (page 107)\n \"commenceed\" corrected to \"commenced\" (page 108)\n \"Proecepta\" corrected to \"Praecepta\" (page 135)\n \"deficiences\" corrected to \"deficiencies\" (page 191)\n \"numercial\" corrected to \"numerical\" (footnote 35)\n\n9. Other than the corrections listed above, printer's inconsistencies in\nspelling, hyphenation, and ligature usage have been retained.","title":"The Mystery of Francis Bacon","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":57561}