The following Letters, wanting both dates and circumstances to determine such dates, are placed here together. To King James I. May it please your Majesty, Thinking often, as I ought, of your majesty's virtue and fortune, I do observe, not without admiration, that those civil acts of sovereignty, which are of the greatest merit, and therefore of truest glory, are, by the providence of God, manifestly put into your hands, as a chosen vessel to receive from God, and an excellent instrument to work amongst men the best and noblest things. The highest degree of sovereign honour is to be founder of a kingdom or estate; for, as in the acts of God, the creation is more than the conservation; and as among men the birthday is accounted the chiefest of the days of life; so, to found a kingdom is more worthy than to augment, or to administer the same. And this is an honour that no man can take from your majesty, that the day of your coming to the crown of England was as the birthday of the kingdom intire Britain. The next degree of sovereign honour, is the plantation of a country or territory, and the reduction of a nation, from waste soil and barbarous manners, to a civil population. And in this kind also your majesty hath made a fair and prosperous beginning in your realm of Ireland. The third eminent act of sovereignty is to be a lawgiver, whereof he speaketh, Pace datà terris, animum ad civilia vertit Jura suum, legesque tulit justissimus author. And another saith, "Ecquid est, quod tam propriè dici potest actum ejus, qui togatus in republicâ cum potestate imperioque versatur, quam lex. Quære acta Gracchi; leges Semproniæ proferentur: quære Syllæ, Corneliæ quid? Cnei Pompeii tertius consulatus in quibus actis consistit? Nempe legibus. A Cæsare ipso si quæreres quidnam egisset in urbe et toga; leges multas se respondeat et præclaras tulisse." To the King. It may please your Majesty, A full heart is like a full pen; it can hardly make any distinguished work. The more I look upon my own weakness, the more I must magnify your favours; and the more I behold your favours, the more I must consider mine own weakness. This is my hope, that God, who hath moved I your heart to favour me, will write your service in my heart. Two things I may promise; for, though they be not mine own, yet they are surer than mine own, because they are God's gifts; that is integrity and industry. And, therefore, whensoever I shall make my account to you, shall do it in these words, ecce tibi lucrifeci, and not ecce mihi lucrifeci. And for industry, I shall take to me, in this procuration, not Martha's part, to be busied in many things, but Mary's part, which is to intend your service; for the less my abilities are, the more they ought to be contracted ad unum. For the present, I humbly pray your majesty to accept my most humble thanks and vows as the forerunners of your service, which I shall always perform with a faithful heart. Your Majesty's most obedient Servant, FR. BACON. To the Marquis of Buckingham. My very good Lord, I hear yesterday was a day of very great honour to his majesty, which I do congratulate. I hope, also, his majesty may reap honour out of my adversity, as he hath done strength out of my posperity. His majesty knows best his own ways; and for me to despair of him, were a sin not to be forgiven. I thank God, I have overcome the bitterness of this cup by Christian resolution, so that worldly matters are but mint and cumin. God ever preserve you. Indorsed To my Lord Buckingham, after my troubles. To the Marquis of Buckingham. My very good Lord, I thought it my duty to take knowledge to his majesty, from your lordship, by the inclosed, that, much to my comfort, I understand his majesty doth not forget me nor forsake me, but hath a gracious inclination to me, and taketh care of me; and to thank his majesty for the same. I perceive, by some speech, that passed between your lordship and Mr. Meautys, that some wretched detractor hath told you, that it were strange I should be in debt; for that I could not but have received an hundred thousand pounds gifts since I had the seal; which is an abominable falsehood. Such tales as these made St. James say, that the tongue is a fire, and itself fired from hell, whither when these tongues shall return, they will beg a drop of water to VOL. XII. HH cool them. I praise God for it, I never took penny for any benefice or ecclesiastical living; I never took penny for releasing any thing I stopped at the seal; I never took penny for any commission, or things of that nature; I never shared with any servant for any second or inferior profit. My offences I have myself recorded, wherein I studied, as a good confessant, guiltiness, and not excuse; and therefore I hope it leaves me fair to the king's grace, and will turn many men's hearts to me. As for my debts, I shewed them your lordship, when you saw the little house and the farm, besides a little wood or desert, which you saw not. If these things were not true, although the joys of the penitent be sometimes more than the joys of the innocent, could not be as I am. God bless you, and reward you for your me. I rest, &c. constant love to Draught of a Letter to the Marquis of Buckingham, not sent.* My Lord, I say to myself, that your lordship hath forsaken me; and I think I am one of the last, that findeth it, and in nothing more, than that twice at London your lordship would not vouchsafe to see me, though the latter time I begged it of you. If your lordship lack any justification about York House, good my lord, think of it better; for I assure your lordship, that motion to me was to me as a second sentence; for I conceived it sentenced me to the loss of that, which I thought was saved from the former sentence, which is your love and favour. But sure it could not be that pelting matter, but the being out of sight, out of use, and the ill offices done me, perhaps, by such as have your ear. Thus I think, and thus I speak; for I am far enough from any baseness or detracting, but shall ever love and honour you, howsoever I be Your forsaken Friend and freed Servant, Among Lord Bacon's printed letters, is one without a date, in which he complains, as in this, that he, being twice now in London, the marquis did not vouchsafe to see him. To the Marquis of Buckingham. It is in vain to cure the accidents of a disease, except the cause be found and removed. I know adversity is apprehensive; but I fear it is too true, that now I have lost honour, power, profit, and liberty, I have, in the end, lost that which to me was more dear than all the rest, which is my friend. A change there is apparent and great; and nothing is more sure, than that nothing hath proceeded from and since my troubles, either towards your lordship or towards the world, which hath made me unworthy of your undeserved favours or undesired promises. Good my lord, deal so nobly with me, as to let me know whether I stand upright in your favour, that either I may enjoy my wonted comfort, or see my griefs together, that I may the better order them; though, if your lordship should never think more of me, yet your former favours should bind me to be Your Lordship's most obliged and faithful Servant, To the Marquis of Buckingham. My very good Lord, This extreme winter hath turned, with me, a weakness of body into a state that I cannot call health, but rather sickness, and that more dangerous than felt, as whereby I am not likely to be able to wait upon your lordship, as I desired, your lordship being the person of whom I promise myself more almost than of any other; and, again, to whom, in all loving affection, I desire no less to approve myself a true friend and servant. My desire to your lordship is to admit this gentleman, my kinsman and approved friend, to explain to you my business, whereby to save further length of letter, or the trouble of your lordship's writing back. To Mr. Tobie Matthew. Good Mr. Matthew, my heart The event of the business, whereof you write, is, it may be, for the best: for seeing my lord, of himself, beginneth to come about, quorsum as yet? I could not in suffer my Lord Digby to go hence without my thanks and acknowledgments. I send my letter open, which I pray seal and deliver. Particulars I would not touch. Your most affectionate and assured Friend, FR. ST. ALBAN. To Mr. Tobie Matthew. Good Mr. Matthew, When you write by pieces, it sheweth your continual care; for a flush of memory is not so much; and I shall be always, on my part, ready to watch for you, as you for me. I will not fail, when I write to the lord marquis, to thank his lordship for the message, and to name the nuntius. And, to tell you plainly, this care they speak of, concerning my estate, was more than I looked for at this time; and it is that which pleaseth me best. For my desires reach but to a fat otium. That is truth; and so would I have all men think, except the greatest; for I know patents, absque aliquid inde reddendo, are not so easily granted. I pray my service to the Spanish ambassador, and present him my humble thanks for his favour. I am much his servant; and ashes may be good for somewhat. I ever rest Your most affectionate and assured Friend, FR. ST. ALBAN. I have sought for your little book, and cannot find it. I had it one day with me in my coach. But sure it is safe; for I seldom lose books or papers. To the Lord Viscount St. Alban. Most honoured Lord, I have received your great and noble token and favour of the 9th of April, and can but return the humblest of my thanks for your lordship's vouchsafing so to visit this poorest and unworthiest of your servants. It doth me good at heart, that, although I be not where I was in place, yet I am in the fortune of your lordship's favour, if I may call that fortune, which I observe to be so unchangeable. I pray hard that it may once come in my power to serve you for it; and who can tell but that, as fortis imaginatio generat casum, so strange desires may do as much? Sure I am, that mine are ever waiting on your lordship; and wishing as much happiness as is due to your incomparable virtue, I humbly do your lordship reverence. Your Lordship's most obliged and humble Servant, TOBIE MATTHEW. P. S. The most prodigious wit that ever I knew of my nation, and of this side of the sea, is of your lordship's name, though he be known by another. |