often taken his name in vain, not only in the dedication, but in the voucher of the authority of his speeches and writings. And so I remain, etc. TO SIR THOMAS BODLEY, UPON SENDING HIM HIS BOOK OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.1 Sir, I think no man may more truly say with the Psalm Multum incola fuit anima mea, than myself. For I do confess, since I was of any understanding, my mind hath in effect been absent from that I have done; and in absence are many errors which I do willingly acknowledge; and amongst the rest this great one that led the rest; that knowing myself by inward calling to be fitter to hold a book than to play a part, I have led my life in civil causes; for which I was not very fit by nature, and more unfit by the preoccupation of my mind. Therefore calling myself home, I have now for a time enjoyed myself; whereof likewise I desire to make the world partaker. My labours (if I may so term that which was the comfort of my other labours) I have dedicated to the King; desirous, if there be any good in them, it may be as the fat of a sacrifice, incensed to his honour: and the second copy I have sent unto you, not only in good affection, but in a kind of congruity, in regard of your great and rare desert of learning. For books are the shrines where the Saint is, or is believed to be and you having built an Ark to save learning from deluge, deserve propriety in any new instrument or engine, whereby learning should be improved or advanced. TO THE EARL OF SALISBURY, UPON SENDING HIM ONE OF HIS BOOKS OF ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.3 It may please your good Lordship, I present your Lordship with a work of my vacant time, which if it had been more, the work had been better. It appertaineth to your Lordship (besides my particular respects) in some propriety, in regard you are a great governor in a province of learning, and (that which is more) you have added to your place affection towards learning, and to your affection judgment; of which the last I could be content were (for the time) less, that 1 Resuscitatio, p. 34. The copy of this letter in the MS. seems to be less correct. 2 Errors are committed, MS. 3 Add. MSS. 5503, f. 28. 4 The Earl of Salisbury was Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. you might the less exquisitely censure that which I offer to you. But sure I am the argument is good, if it had lighted upon a good author. But I shall content myself to awake better spirits, like a bell-ringer, which is first up to call others to church. So with my humble desire of your Lordship's good acceptation, I remain. TO THE LORD TREASURER BUCKHURST, UPON THE SAME OCCASION OF SENDING HIS BOOK OF ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.1 May it please your good Lordship, I have finished a work touching the Advancement or setting forward of Learning, which I have dedicated to his Majesty, the most learned of a sovereign or temporal prince that time hath known. And upon reason not unlike, I humbly present one of the books to your Lordship, not only as a Chancellor of an University, but as one that was excellently bred in all learning, which I have ever noted to shine in all your speeches and behaviours. And therefore your Lordship will yield a gracious aspect to your first love, and take pleasure in the adorning of that wherewith yourself are so much adorned. And so humbly desiring your favourable acceptation thereof, with signification of humble duty, I remain. A LETTER OF THE LIKE ARGUMENT TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR.2 May it please your good Lordship, I humbly present your Lordship with a work, wherein as you have much commandment over the author, so your Lordship hath also great interest in the argument. For, to speak without flattery, few have like use of learning, or like judgment in learning, as I have observed in your Lordship. And again, your Lordship hath been a great planter of learning, not only in those places in the Church which have been in your own gift; but also in your commendatory vote, no man hath more constantly held, detur digniori: and therefore both your Lordship. is beholding to learning, and learning beholding to you. Which maketh me presume with good assurance that your Lordship 1 Rawley's Resuscitatio. 2 Ib. will accept well of these my labours; the rather because your Lordship in private specch hath often begun to me in expressing your admiration of his Majesty's learning, to whom I have dedicated this work, and whose virtue and perfection in that kind did chiefly move me to a work of this nature. And so with signification of my most humble duty and affection towards your Lordship, I remain. 4. The appearance of such a book by such a man was not likely in those days to make so much talk in the world as it would now; though the publication of "Sir F. Bacon's new book on Learning" was not forgotten by Chamberlain in reporting to Carleton the news of London on the 7th of November, 1605.' But its appearance happened to coincide with an event which at any time would have drawn public attention away from everything else. In sending a copy to Toby Matthew, who had left England about the end of April, and was now in Italy, Bacon enclosed a 'relation,' which was apparently a short account drawn up by himself of the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot. But as I have not been able to find any paper answering the description, and Bacon does not appear to have had any part either in the investigation of the conspiracy or the trials of the conspirators, and as the general history of it is sufficiently notorious, it will not be necessary for me to go further into the particulars. The letter which enclosed the lost 'relation' comes from Matthew's collection, and has the following heading "Mr. Bacon to a friend and servant of his; by way of advertisement concerning some books and writings of his own." It has no date, and the title "Mr." would suggest a wrong one. But the matters alluded to prove that to be an error, and point clearly enough to the early part of November 1605 as the time when it must have been written. And I suppose there is no reason to doubt that the "friend and servant" was Matthew himself. Sir, To MR. MATTHEW.2 I perceive you have some time when you can be content to think of your friends; from whom since your have borrowed yourself, you do well, not paying the principal, to send the in 1 Domestic Papers, James I. vol. xvi. 2 Collection of Letters made by Sir Tobie Mathews, Knt., London, 1660, p. 11. terest at six months day. The relation which here I send you inclosed, carries the truth of that which is public; and though my little leisure might have required a briefer, yet the matter would have endured and asked a larger. I have now at last taught that child to go, at the swadling whereof you were. My work touching the Proficiency and Advancement of Learning, I have put into two books; whereof the former, which you saw, I count but as a Page to the latter. I have now published them both; whereof I thought it a small adventure to send you a copy, who have more right to it than any man, except Bishop Andrews, who was my inquisitor. The death of the late great Judge concerned not me, because the other was not removed. I write this in answer to your good wishes; which I return not as flowers of Florence, but as you mean them; whom I conceive place cannot alter, no more than time shall me, except it be to the better. Dr. Launcelot Andrews, who had been Dean of Westminster since 4 July 1601,' was made Bishop of Chichester on the 3d of November, 1605. He was a friend of Bacon's student-days, being then preacher at St. Giles's; and a man whom throughout his life he held in special reverence. The nature of the inquisitorial office which he performed for the Advancement of Learning may be partly inferred from a letter of later date asking him to perform a similar office for the Cogitata et Visa. "Now let me tell you" (Bacon writes) "what my desire is: If your Lordship be so good now as when you were the good Dean of Westminster, my request to you is that not by pricks, but by notes, you would mark unto me whatsoever shall seem unto you either not current in the stile, or harsh to credit or opinion, or inconvenient for the person of the writer; for no man can be judge and party; and when our minds judge by reflexion on ourselves they are more subject to error. And though for the matter itself, my judgment be in some things fixed, and not accessible by any man's judgment that goeth not my way, yet even in those things the admonition of a friend may make me express myself diversely." He had consulted him, no doubt, upon the Advancement of Learning in the same way, when he was "the good Dean of Westminster;" and sent him a presentation-copy shortly after he became Bishop of Chichester. 1 Chamberlain to Carleton, 8 July, 1601, p. 112. Do. 7 Nov. 1605. Domestic Papers James I. vol. xvi. In The light allusion to the "death of the late great Judge" as not concerning him because "the other" was not removed (in which I strongly suspect that the names have been suppressed by the editor) covers a fact which did really concern Bacon a good deal. August 1605 Sir Edmund Anderson, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, died. It was another opportunity for advancing Bacon, had the authorities wished to do it. If Coke had been promoted to the Common Pleas, and Doderidge succeeded him as Attorney, Bacon might have been made Solicitor. But Coke kept his place; Sir Francis Gawdy, one of the puisne Judges of King's Bench, succeeded Anderson; and Bacon remained where he was. In this case, as in the last, we hear of no application and no complaint; but unless there was some better reason against the arrangement than we know of, he could not but feel it as a discouragement. 5. I have said that Bacon had no part, so far as we know, in the investigations or trials which followed the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot. And indeed the only extant writing of his which connects him with it at all is a short note to Cecil (now Earl of Salisbury) enclosing an examination of a shoemaker's servant, who had heard a man say that" the plot would have been brave sport, if it had gone forwards." It was taken at the request of the Principal and Ancients of Staples Inn and (to judge by the tone of his letter) was not thought by himself to be a matter of much importance. : The letter was printed (but without the enclosure) by Mr. Dixon in his “Personal History of Lord Bacon.” TO THE EARL OF SALISBURY.1 It may please your Lordship, I send an examination of one was brought to me by the Principal and Ancients of Staple Inn, touching the words of one Beard, suspected for a Papist and practiser; being general words, but bad; and I thought not good to neglect anything at such a time. So with signification of humble duty I remain At your Lordship's honourable commandments, most humbly FR. BACON. 1 Domestic Papers James I. vol. xvi. fo. 29. Original: own hand. Docketed (but in another hand, and apparently at a later time) 8 Nov. 1605 which seems unlikely. VOL. III. S |