7 I never opened my mouth for the greater place; XCI. To the Earl of SALISBURY, upon a Rawley's It may please your good Lordship, HAVING no gift to present you with in any degree proportionable to my mind, I desire nevertheless to take the advantage of a ceremony to express myself to your lordship; it being the first time I could make the like acknowledgment, when I stood out of the per son of a suitor : wherefore I most humbly pray your lordship to think of me, that, now it hath pleased you, by many effectual and great benefits, to add the assur ance and comfort of your love and favour to that pre cedent disposition, which was in me, to admire your virtue and merit; I do esteem whatsoever I have or Resuscitatio may have in this world, but as trash, in comparison of having the honour and happiness to be a near and well accepted kinsman to so rare and worthy a counsellor, governor, and patriot: for having been a studious, if not a curious observer of antiquities of virtue, as of late pieces, I forbear to say to your lordship what I find and conceive; but to any other I would think to make myself believed. But not to be tedious in that which may have the shew of a compliment, I can but wish your lordship many happy years, many more than your father had; even so many more, as we may need you more. So I remain Rawley's XCII. To Mr. MATTHEW, imprisoned for Resuscita tio. sad Mr. Matthew, religion. Do not think me forgetful or altered towards you: but if I should say, I could do you any good, I should make my power more than it is. I do hear that which I am right sorry for; that you grow more impatient and busy than at first; which maketh me exceedingly fear the issue of that which seemeth not to stand at a stay. I myself am out of doubt, that you have been miserably abused, when you were first seduced; but that which I take in compassion, others may take in severity. I pray God, that understandeth us all better than we understand one another, contain you, even as I hope he will, at the least, within the bounds of loyalty to his majesty, and natural piety towards your country. And I intreat you much, sometimes to meditate upon the extreme effects of superstition in this last powder treason; fit to be tabled and pictured in the chambers of meditation, as another hell above the ground: and well justifying the censure of the heathen, that superstition is far worse than atheism; by how much it is less evil to have no opinion of God at all, than such as is impious towards his divine majesty and goodness. Good Mr. Matthew, receive yourself back from these courses of perdition. Willing to have written a great deal more, I continue, etc.247 ngibase XCIII. To Mr. MATTHEW. mollymosentin orsoidest ei saiteost all mid SIR, h Sir Tobie Matthew's collection of Letters, Two letters of mine are now already walking to- P. 14. wards you; but so that we might meet, it were no matter though our letters should lose their way. I make a shift in the mean time to be glad of your approaches, and would be more glad to be an agent for your presence, who have been a patient by your absence. If your body by indisposition make you acknowledge the healthful air of your native country; much more do I assure myself, that you continue to have your mind no way estranged. And as my trust with the state is above suspicion, so my knowledge both of your loyalty and honest nature will ever make me shew myself your faithful friend without scruple. You have reason to commend that gentleman to me, by whom you sent your last, although his having travelled so long amongst the sadder nations of the world make him much the less easy upon small acquaintance to be understood. I have sent you some copies of my book of the Advancement, which you desired; and a little work of my recreation, which you desired not. My Instauration I reserve for our conference; it sleeps not. Those works of the Alphabet are in my opinion of less use to you where you are now, than at Paris; and therefore I conceived, that you had sent me a kind of tacit countermand of your former request. But in regard that some friends of yours have still insisted here, I send them to you; and for my part, I value your own reading more than your publishing them to others. Thus, in extreme haste, I have scribbled to you I know not what, which therefore is the less affected, and for that very reason will not be esteemed the less by you. Resuscita 2 Rawley's XCIV. To Sir GEORGE CAREW, on sending him the treatise In felicem memoriam Elizabethæ. tio, BEING asked a question by this bearer, an old servant of my brother Anthony Bacon's, whether I would command him any thing into France; and being at better leisure than I would, in regard of sickness, I began to remember that neither your business nor mine, though great and continual, can be, upon an exact account, any just occasion why so much good-will as hath passed between us should be so much discontinued as it hath been. And therefore, because one must begin, I thought to provoke your remembrance of me by a letter: and thinking to fill it with somewhat besides salutations, it came to my mind, that this last summer vacation, by occasion of a factious book that endeavoured to verify Misera Fœmina, the addition of the pope's bull, upon queen Elizabeth, I did write a few lines in her memorial, which I thought you would be pleased to read, both for the argument, and because you were wont to bear affection to my pen. Verum, ut aliud ex alio, if it came handsomely to pass, I would be glad the president De Thou, who hath written an history, as you know, of that fame and diligence, saw it; chiefly because I know not whether it may not serve him for some use in his story; wherein I would be glad he did write to the truth, and to the memory of that lady, as I perceive by that he hath already written he is well inclined to do. I would be glad also, it were some occasion, such as absence may 2 Sir George Carew of Cornwall was master in chancery in the time of queen Elizabeth; and in 1597 sent ambassador into Poland; and in 1606 went to the court of France with the like character. After about three years continuance, he was recalled by the king to make use of his services at home; but he survived not many years. M. De Thou in a letter to Mr. Camden in 1613, very much laments his death; as losing a friend he much valued, and an assistant in the prosecution of his history: having received helps from him in that part which relates to the dissensions between the Poles and the Swedes in the year 1599, as appears fore the contents of book CXXI. Stephens. be permit, of some acquaintance or mutual notice between us. For though he hath many ways the precedence, chiefly in worth, yet this is common to us both, that we serve our sovereigns in places of law eminent : and not ourselves only, but that our fathers did so before us. And lastly, that both of us love learning and liberal sciences, which was ever a bond of friendship in the greatest distance of places. But of this I make no farther request, than your own occasions and respects, to me unknown, may further or limit; my principal purpose being to salute you, and to send you this token: whereunto I will add my very kind commendations to my lady; and so commit you both to God's holy protection. XCV. To the KING, upon presenting the Dis- Rawley's course touching the Plantation of Ireland. It may please your excellent Majesty, I KNOW not better how to express my good wishes of a new-year to your majesty, than by this little book, which in all humbleness I send you. The stile is a stile of business, rather than curious or elaborate. And herein I was encouraged by my experience of your majesty's former grace, in accepting of the like poor field fruits touching the union. And certainly I reckon this action as a second brother to the union. For I assure myself that England, Scotland, and Ireland well united, is such a trefoil as no prince except yourself, who are the worthiest, weareth in his crown; Si potentia reducatur in actum. I know well, that for me to beat my brains about these things, they be majora quam pro fortuna; but yet they be minora quam pro studio ac voluntate. For as I do yet bear an extreme zeal to the memory of my old mistress Queen Elizabeth, to whom I was rather bound for her trust than her favour; so I must acknowledge myself more bound to your majesty both for trust and favour; whereof I will never deceive the one, as I can never deserve the other. And so, in all humbleness kissing your ma jesty's sacred hand, I remain. Resuscita tio. |