Of making gold,

Of the several natures of gold,

Of inducing and accelerating putrefaction,

Of prohibiting and preventing putrefaction,

Of rotten wood shining,

Of acceleration of birth,

Of acceleration of growth and stature,

Of bodies sulphureous and mercurial,

Of the chameleon,

Of subterrany fires,

Of nitrous water,

Of congealing of air,

Of congealing of water into crystal,

Of preserving the smell and colour in rose leaves,

Of the lasting of flame,

Of sweet smells,

Of the goodness and choice of waters,

Of temperate heats under the equinoctial,

Of the coloration of black and tawny moors,

Of motion after the instant of death,

CENTURY V.

361

364

377

ibid.

378

382

Of infusions or burials of divers bodies in earth,

Of the effects of men's bodies from several winds, 383

Of winter and summer sicknesses,

384

Of pestilential years,

ibid.

Of epidemical diseases,

ibid.

Of preservation of liquors in wells, or deep vaults, 385

Of stutting,

ibid.

386

ibid.

367

370

372

ibid.

Of compound fruits and flowers,

Of sympathy and antipathy of plants,

Of making herbs and fruits medicinable,

373

375

376

ibid.

ibid.

387

388

ibid.

389

Of accelerating or hastening forward germination, 391

Of retarding or putting back germination,

Of meliorating, or making better, fruits and plants,

395

397

410

411

417

CENTURY VI.

419

Of curiosities about fruits and plants,

Of the degenerating of plants, and of their transmuta-
tion one into another,

424.

Of the procerity and lowness of plants, and of artificial
dwarfing them,

428

Of the rudiments of plants, and of the excrescences of
plants, or super-plants,

Of producing perfect plants without seed,

Of foreign plants,

437

438

Of the seasons of several plants,

Of the lasting of plants,

440

Of several figures of plants,

442

443

Of some principal differences in plants,

Of all manner of composts and helps for ground, 445

Of the different heats of fire and boiling water,

Of the qualification of heat by moisture,

Of yawning,

Of the hiccough,

Of sneezing,

Of the tenderness of the teeth,

429

435

CENTURY VII.

Of the affinities and differences between plants, and
bodies inanimate,
449

Of affinities and differences between plants and living

creatures, and of the confiners and participles of
both,

451

452

472

Of plants experiments promiscuous,

Of the healing of wounds,

Of fat diffused in flesh,

Of ripening drink speedily,

Of pilosity and plumage,

Of the quickness of motion in birds,

473

ibid.

ibid.

474

Of the clearness of the sea, the north wind blowing,

Of the tongue,

Of the mouth out of taste,

Of some prognostics of pestilential seasons,

ibid.

ibid.

475

ibid.

476

ibid.

ibid.

477

ibid.

ibid.

Of special simples for medicines,

Of Venus,

Of the insecta, or creatures bred of putrefaction, 480

Of leaping,

484

Of the pleasures and displeasures of hearing, and of the
other senses,

ibid.

CENTURY VIII.

Of veins of earth medicinal,

Of spunges,

Of sea-fish in fresh waters,

Of attraction by similitude of substance,

Of certain drinks in Turkey,

Of drunkenness,

Of the hurt or help of wine, taken moderately,

Of caterpillars,

Of the flies cantharides,

Of lassitude,

478

ibid.

Of sweat,

Of the glow-worm,

490

Of the impressions upon the body from several passions

ibid.

of the mind,

486

ibid.

ibid.

spirits,

Of paintings of the body,

Of the use of bathing and anointing,

Of chambletting of paper,

487

488

ibid.

Of species visible,

Of impulsion and percussion

495

496

498

Of casting the skin, and shell, in some creatures, ibid.

Of the postures of the body,

Of pestilential years,

497

ibid.

Of some prognostics of hard winters,

500

Of certain medicines that condense and relieve the

ibid.

499

ibid.

501

ibid.

502

ibid.

ibid.

Of cuttle ink,

Of earth increasing in weight,

Of sleep,

503

Of teeth, and hard substances in the bodies of living

504

creatures,

Of the generation, and bearing of living creatures in

the womb,

507

509

510

THE LIFE

OF

FRANCIS BACON,

LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND.

THE ancient Egyptians had a law, which ordained that the actions and characters of their dead should be solemnly. canvassed before certain judges, in order to regulate what was due to their memory. No quality, however exalted; no abilities, however eminent; could exempt the possessors from this last and impartial trial. To ingenuous minds this was a powerful incentive, in the pursuit of virtue; and a strong restraint on the most abandoned, in their career of vice. Whoever undertakes to write the

life of any person, deserving to be remembered by posterity, ought to look upon this law as prescribed to him. He is fairly to record the faults as well as the good qualities, the failings as well as the perfections, of the dead; with this great view, to warn and improve the living. For this reason, though I shall dwell with pleasure on the shining part of my lord Bacon's character, as a writer; I shall not dare either to conceal or palliate his blemishes, as a man. It equally concerns the public to be made acquainted with both.

}

Sir Nicholas Bacon was the first lord keeper of the seals invested with all the dignity, and trusted with all the power, of a lord chancellor. This high employment he held under queen Elizabeth

VOL. I.

b

near twenty years: a minister considerably learned, of remarkable prudence and honesty; serving his country with the integrity of a good man, and preserving, through the whole course of his prosperity, that moderation and plainness of manners which adorn a great man. His second wife was a daughter of Sir Antony Cooke, who had been preceptor to Edward the sixth, and of whom historians have made honourable mention for his skill in the learned languages. Neither have they forgot to celebrate this lady on the same account. To the truth of which the Jesuit. even an enemy bore testimony, while he reproached her with having translated, from the Latin, bishop Jewel's Apology for the Church of England.

Parsons

1561.

Such were the parents of Francis Bacon, whose life I am writing. Of two sons, by this marriage, he was the youngest: and born at York-house, in the Strand, the twenty-second of January, 1561. As hẹ had the good fortune to come into the world at a period of time when arts and sciences were esteemed and cultivated, by the great and powerful, almost in the same degree they are now neglected, so he brought with him a capacity for every kind of knowledge, useful and ornamental. An original genius, formed not to receive implicit notions of thinking and reasoning from what was admitted and taught before him; but to prescribe laws himself, in the empire of learning, to his own and succeeding ages.

He gave marks, very early, of a pregnant and happy disposition, far above his years. We are told that queen Elizabeth took a particular delight in trying him with questions; and received so much satisfaction from the good sense and manliness of his answers, that she was wont to call him, in mirth, her young lord keeper. One saying of his deserves to be remembered. The queen having asked him his age, while he was yet a boy; he answered readily, that he was just two years younger than her happy reign.

Of his education I know no particulars, till he was sent to study in the university of Cambridge,