THE importance of the part which had fallen to Bacon in the business of the last session-and that not through official patronage or private favour, but merely from experience of his ability and the necessities of the time calling for help-followed as it was by such happy success in his latest service-might have seemed to promise a speedy rise in his fortunes, had no opportunity occurred of making the promise good. But it so happened that on the 28th of October 1604 (the day after the first meeting of the Commissioners for the Union) the Solicitor General was made Chief Baron of the Exchequer, thereby vacating the very place to which a man in Bacon's position would naturally and reasonably aspire. It was given however on the same day to Sergeant Doderidge; a lawyer of good reputation, but no further conspicuous than as holding the office of Serjeant to the Prince of Wales. And the neglect of so fair an opportunity to raise Bacon looked almost like an intention to leave him below. I do not find traces however either of any application from him at the time for the place, or any complaint of having been passed over. And the truth perhaps is that (as he had formerly said that "he could not expect that Coke and himself should ever serve as Attorney and Solicitor together "2) he really felt the relation which subsisted between them to be a valid objection to his appointment, and would not himself have asked for or recommended it.

2.

However that may be, the experience of the past year proved that, whether the King or Cecil or Coke wanted his help or not,

1 Unless the following expression in a letter to the Lord Chancellor two years after, be taken to include an allusion to this appointment: "Otherwise for mine own private comfort it were better that... I should turn my course to endeavour to serve in some other kind, than for me to stand thus at a stop; and to have that little reputation which by my industry I gather to be scattered and taken away by continual disgraces, every new man coming above me.”

2 See above, p. 4.

his country had work for him to do; and that he must not reckon upon having his time to himself, but if he meant to reform philosophy, must make the most of all intervals of leisure. The present interval--the longest and least interrupted which he was destined to enjoy for many years-came very seasonably to enable him to finish the Advancement of Learning: which with due allowance made for time consumed in the duties of courtship and the other business which a treaty of marriage with an alderman's daughter would naturally involve, supplied work enough for nine or ten months.

The "two books of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning, divine and human" were published in a single volume. But an examination of the signatures of the sheets shows that the first book must have been printed off before the second was sent to the press : from which I infer that some considerable interval occurred in the composition of them. And it seems very probable, as I have already intimated, that the first book, which, though less important in its argument than the other, is very full and elaborate in composition, was written in 1603, when he expected an abundance of leisure for such work; and that the second, which has many marks of haste both in the writing and the printing, and is in several parts professedly unfinished, was hurried through in 1605; when he foresaw that his times of leisure were not likely to come often or last long. I speak of course only of the composition,-the arrangement of the matter, the wording, and the putting into shape:-for the matter itself was the accumulation of his life, and many portions of it had been already digested, no doubt, in notes and essays.

This great work excepted, I find only one piece among the extant writings of Bacon which appears to have been composed between January and October, 1605; and that was probably suggested in the progress of the work itself-being in fact a leaf taken out of it for immediate use.

Near the beginning of the second book of the Advancement of Learning, in speaking of the deficiencies of literature in the matter of Civil History, he had pointed out the want of a better history of England. And this being a thing which might, by the help of men in authority, be put in course at once, and which through the perishing of records and corruption of traditions would become more difficult with every year's delay, it occurred to him to bring the subject immediately under the consideration of the government. With this view he wrote, in April 1605, a letter to the Lord Chancellor Ellesmere; the original of which-a beautiful specimen of his fairest handwriting is still to be seen among the manuscripts at Bridg water House.

It was first printed by Rawley in the Resuscitatio (p. 28),—I presume from a copy preserved by Bacon himself in his Register-Book of letters; and shortly afterwards in Sir Toby Matthew's collection, probably from an independent copy of his own. But both these are evidently taken from the first draft; in which Bacon made, as he wrote it fair, many alterations-as his manner was; without taking the trouble to have them copied into the draft which he kept. The letter which was actually sent was first printed by Mr. Payne Collier in his bibliographical catalogue of the Bridgwater library : and a comparison of the two, which may be made here by the help of the foot-notes, will illustrate and confirm my conjecture (vol. ii. p. 94) as to the true history of the differences between the letters as given in the Cabala and in the Resuscitatio, in certain cases.

A LETTER TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR, TOUCHING THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN.1

It may please your good Lordship,

Some late act of his Majesty, referred to some former speech which I have heard from your Lordship, bred in me a great desire, and by strength of desire a boldness to make an humble proposition to your Lordship, such as in me can be no better than a wish: but if your Lordship should apprehend it, may3 take some good and worthy effect. The act I speak of, is the order given by his Majesty, as I understand,' for the erection of a tomb or monument for our late sovereign Lady Queen Elizabeth: wherein I may note much, but this at this time; That as her Majesty did always right to his Highness's hopes, so his Majesty doth in all things right to her memory; a very just and princely retribution. But from this occasion, by a very easy ascent, I passed furder, being put in mind, by this Representative of her person, of the more true and more firm' Representative1o, which is of her life and government. For as Statuaes and Pictures are dumb histories, so histories are speaking Pic

1 The text is taken from the original. The collations are with the copy in the British Museum (Additional MSS. 5503. 25.b., which I call A.), and that in the Resuscitatio, which I call R.

2 the: R.

3 it may: A, R.

5

Lady om. A, R.

6" His M. hath commanded two stately tombs to be begun at Westminster, one for the Queen Elizabeth, and the other for his Majesty's mother.”—Edmund

Lascelles to the E. of Shrewsbury: April 11, 1605. Lodge, iii. 145.

Majesty's, A, R.

10 representation: R.

perfect, A; vive, R.

tures. Wherein if my affection be not too great, or my reading too small, I am of this opinion, that if Plutarch were alive to write lives by parallels, it would trouble him for virtue and fortune both to find for her a parallel amongst women. And though she was of the passive sex, yet her government was so active, as, in my simple opinion, it made more impression upon the several states of Europe, than it received from thence. But I confess unto your Lordship I could not stay here, but went a little furder into the consideration of the times which have passed since king Henry the 8th; wherein I find the strangest variety that in like1 number of successions of any hereditary monarchy hath ever been known. The reign of a child; the offer of an usurpation, (though it were but as a Diary Ague); the reign of a lady married to a foreign Prince; and the reign of a lady solitary and unmarried. So that as it cometh to pass in massive bodies, that they have certain trepidations and waverings before they fix and settle; so it seemeth that by the providence of God this monarchy, before it was to settle in his Majesty and his generations (in which I hope it is now established for ever), it had these prelusive changes in these barren princes. Neither could I contain myself here (as it is easier to produce than to stay a wish), but calling to remembrance the unworthiness of the history of England (in the main continuance thereof), and the partiality and obliquity of that of Scotland, in the latest and largest author that I have seen: I conceived it would be honour for his Majesty, and a work very memorable, if this island of Great Britain, as it is now joined in Monarchy for the ages to come, so were joined in History for the times past; and that one just and complete History were compiled of both nations. And if any man think it may refresh the memory of former discords, he may satisfy himself with the verse, olim hæc meminisse juvabit: for the case being now altered, it is matter of comfort and gratulation to remember former troubles.

Thus much, if it may please your Lordship, was in the optative mood. It is true that I did look a little in the potential; wherein the hope which I conceived was grounded upon three

1 so little: A, R.

2 foreigner: A, R.

4 easier to multiply: R; easier for a man to multiply: A.

6

so it were:
A, R.

7 is: R.

3 hath: A, R.
5 offer: R.

8 and it was time: A, R.

observations. The first, of the times, which do flourish in learning, both of art and language; which giveth hope not only that it may be done, but that it may be well done. For when good things are undertaken in ill times, it turneth but to loss; as in this very particular we have a fresh example of Polydore Vergile, who being designed to write the English History by K. Henry the 8th (a strange choice to chuse a stranger), and for his better instruction having obtained into his hands many registers and memorials out of the monasteries, did indeed deface and suppress better things than those he did collect and reduce. Secondly, I do see that which all the world seeth in his Majesty, both a wonderful judgment in learning, and a singular affection towards learning, and the works of true honour which are of the mind and not of the hand. For there cannot be the like honour sought in the building of galleries, or the planting of elms along highways, and the like manufactures, things rather of magnificence than of magnanimity, as there is in the uniting of states, pacifying of controversies, nourishing and augmenting of learning and arts, and the particular actions appertaining unto these; of which kind Cicero judged truly, when he said to Cæsar, Quantum operibus tuis detrahet vetustas, tantum addet laudibus. And lastly, I called to mind, that your Lordship at sometimes hath10 been pleased to express unto me a great desire, that something of this nature should be performed;11 answerably12 indeed to your other noble and worthy courses and actions, wherein your Lordship sheweth yourself not only an excellent Chancellor and Counsellor, but also an exceeding favourer and fosterer of all good learning and virtue, both in men and matters, persons and actions 13 joining and adding unto the great services towards his Majesty, which have, in small compass of time, been accumulated1 upon your Lordship, many other15 deservings both of the Church and Commonwealth and particulars; so as the opinion of so great and wise a man doth seem unto16 me a good

1 the nature of these times: R.

2 do, om. A, R.

3 This whole sentence, from "For when," etc., is omitted in A and R.

11 done: A.

8 and the outward ornaments wherein France now is busy: A, R.

10 had: R.

9 call: R.

12 answerable: A, R.

15 other great (many om.) : A, R.

13 This whole clause, from "wherein," is omitted in A and R.

14 performed by: A. put upon : R.

16 to: A, R.