TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS THE EARL OF SALISBURY, LORD HIGH TREASURER OF ENGLAND, AND CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE. THINGS dedicated to the University of Cambridge accrue to you as Chancellor; to all that proceeds from me you have a personal title. The question is, whether as these things are yours, so they are worthy of you. Now for that which is least worth in them (the wit of the author), your kindness towards me will let that pass; and there is nothing else in the matter to disgrace you. For if time be regarded,—primæval antiquity is an object of the highest veneration; if the form of exposition, — parable has ever been a kind of arc, in which the most precious portions of the sciences were deposited; if the matter of the work, it is philosophy, the second grace and ornament of life and the human soul. For be it said, that however philosophy in this our age, falling as it were into a second childhood, be left to young men and almost to boys, yet I hold it to be of all things, next to religion, the most important and most worthy of human nature. Even the art of politics, wherein you are so well approved both by faculty and by merits, and by the judgment of a most wise king, springs from the same fountain, and is a great part thereof. And if any man think these things of mine to be common and vulgar, it is not for me of course to say what I have effected; but my aim has been, passing by things obvious and obsolete and commonplace, to give some help towards the difficulties of life and the secrets of science. To the vulgar apprehension therefore they will be vulgar; but it may be that the deeper intellect will not be left aground by them, but rather (as I hope) carried along. While however I strive to attach some worth to this work, because it is dedicated to you, I am in danger of transgressing the bounds of modesty, seeing it is undertaken by myself. But you will accept it as a pledge of my affection, observance, and devotion to yourself, and will accord it the protection of your name. Seeing therefore that you have so many and so great affairs on your shoulders, I will not take up more of your time, but make an end, wishing you all felicity, and ever remaining yours, Most bounden to you both by my zeal and your benefits, FRA. BACON. TO HIS NURSING-MOTHER THE FAMOUS UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE. SINCE without philosophy I care not to live, I must needs hold you in great honour, from whom these defences and solaces of life have come to me. To you on this account I profess to owe both myself and all that is mine; and therefore it is the less strange, if I requite you with what is your own; that with a natural motion it may return to the place whence it came. And, yet I know not how it is, but there are few footprints pointing back towards you, among the infinite number that have gone forth from you. Nor shall I take too much to myself (I think), if by reason of that little acquaintance with affairs which my kind and plan of life has necessarily carried with it, I indulge a hope that the inventions of the learned may receive some accession by these labours of mine. Certainly I am of opinion that speculative studies when transplanted into active life acquire some new grace and vigour, and having more matter to feed them, strike their roots perhaps deeper, or at least grow taller and fuller leaved. Nor do you yourselves (as I think) know how widely your own studies extend, and how many things they concern. Yet it is fit that all should be attributed to you and be counted to your honour, since all increase is due in great part to the beginning. You will not however expect from a man of business anything exquisite; any miracles or prerogatives of leisure; but you will attribute to my great love for you and yours even this, that among the thorns of business these things have not quite perished, but there is preserved for you so much of your own. Your most loving pupil, FRA. BACON. INDEX OF THE FABLES OF ANCIENT WISDOM CONTAINED IN THIS BOOK. 1. CASSANDRA, or Plainness 17. CUPID, or the Atom. of Speech. 2. TYPHON, or the Rebel. 3. THE CYCLOPES, or Minis- 4. NARCISSUS, or Self-love. 6. PAN, or Nature. 7. PERSEUS, or War. 8. ENDYMION, or the Favour- ite. 18. DIOMEDES, or Zeal. 19. DÆDALUS, or the Mechanic. ture. 21. DEUCALION, or Restora- 22. NEMESIS, or the Vicissitude 23. ACHELOUS, or the Battle. 9. THE SISTER OF THE GI- 25. ATALANTA, or Profit. |