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achieved.

And this I write, with no dislike of increasing our knowledge with new-found devices, (which is undoubtedly a practice of high commendation) in regard of the benefit they will yield for the present, that the world hath ever been, and will for ever continue, very full of such devisers; whose industry that way hath been very obstinate and eminent, and hath produced strange effects, above the reach and the hope of men's common capacities; and yet our notions and theorems have always kept in grace both with them, and with the rarest that ever were named among the learned.

By this you see to what boldness I am brought by your kindness; that (if I seem to be too saucy in this contradiction) it is the opinion that I hold of your noble disposition, and of the freedom in these cases, that you will afford your special friend, that hath induced me to it. And although I myself, like a carrier's horse, cannot balk the beaten way, in which I have been trained, yet since it is my censure of your Cogitata that I must tell you, to be plain, you have very much wronged yourself and the world, to smother such a treasure so long in your coffer: for though I stand well assured (for the tenor and subject of your main discourse) you are not able to impanel a jury in any university that will give up a verdict to acquit you of error; yet it cannot be gainsaid, that all your treatise over doth abound with choice conceit of the present state of learning, and with so worthy contemplations of the means to procure it, as may persuade with any student to look more narrowly to his business, not only by aspiring to the greatest perfection, of that which is now-a-days divulged in the sciences, but by diving yet deeper, as it were, into the bowels and secrets of nature, and by enforcing of the powers of his judgment and wit to learn of St. Paul, "Consectari meliora dona:" which course, would to God (to whisper so much into your ear) you had followed at the first, when you fell to the study of such a

study as was not worthy such a student. Nevertheless, being so as it is, that you are therein settled, and your country soundly served; I cannot but wish with all my heart, as I do very often, that you may gain a fit reward to the full of your deserts, which I hope will come with heaps of happiness and honour.

Yours to be used, and commanded,

From Fulham, Feb. 19, 1607.

THO. BODLey.

Sir, one kind of boldness doth draw on another; insomuch as methinks I should offend to signify, that before the transcript of your book be fitted for the press, it will be requisite for you to cast a censor's eye upon the style and the elocution; which, in the framing of some periods, and in divers words and phrases, will hardly go for current, if the copy brought to me be just the same that you would publish. THO. BODLEY.

Sir Francis Bacon to the Bishop of Ely, upon sending his writing intituled, Cogitata et Visa.

My very good Lord,

Now your lordship hath been so long in the church and the palace, disputing between kings and popes, methinks you should take pleasure to look into the field, and refresh your mind with some matter of philosophy; though that science be now, through age, waxed a child again, and left to boys and young men. And because you are wont to make me believe you took liking to my writings, I send you some of this vacation fruits, and thus much more for my

mind and purpose. "I hasten not to publish, perishing I would prevent." And I am forced to respect as well my times, as the matter; for with me it is thus, and I think with all men, in my case: if I bind myself to an argument, it loadeth my mind; but if I rid my mind of the present

Cogitation, it is rather a recreation: this hath put me into these miscellanies, which I purpose to suppress, if God give me leave to write a just and perfect volume of philosophy, which I go on with, though slowly. I send not your lordship too much, lest it may glut you. Now, let me tell you 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 style, or harsh to credit and opinion, or inconvenient for the person of the writer, for no man can be judge and party; and when our minds judge by reflection 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 diversly. I would have come to your lordship, but that I am hastening to my house in the country, and so I commend your lordship to God's goodness.

Sir Francis Bacon to Sir Thomas Bodley, after he had imparted to him a writing intituled, Cogitata et Visa.

SIR,

In respect of my going down to my house in the country I shall have miss of my papers, which I pray you therefore return unto me. You are, I bear you witness, slothful, and you help me nothing; so as I am half in conceit that you affect not the argument; for myself, I know well you love and affect. I can say no more to you, but, canimus surdis, respondent omnia silvæ." If you be not of the lodgings chalked up (whereof I speak in my preface) I am but to pass by your door. But if I had you but a fortnight at Gorhambury, I would make you tell me another

"non

tale, or else I would add a cogitation against libraries, and be revenged on you that way: I pray you send me some good news of Sir Thomas Smith, and commend me very kindly to him. So I rest,

Sir Francis Bacon to Mr. Matthew, upon sending him part of Instauratio Magna.

Mr. Matthew,

I plainly perceive by your affectionate writing touching my work, that one and the same thing affecteth us both, which is the good end to which it is dedicated for as to any ability of mine, it cannot merit that degree of approbation: For your caution for church-men, and church-matters; (as for any impediment it might be to the applause and celebrity of my work, it moveth me not) but as it may hinder the fruit and good which may come of a quiet and calm passage to the good port to which it is bound, I hold it a just respect, so as to fetch a fair wind I go not too far about: But troth is, I shall have no occasion to meet them in my way, except it be, as they will needs confederate themselves with Aristotle, who, you know is intemperately magnified with the school-men, and is also allied (as I take it) to the Jesuits by Faber, who was a companion of Loyola, and a great Aristotelian. I send you at this time, the only part which hath any harshness, and yet I framed to myself an opinion, that whosoever allowed well of that preface, which you so much commend, will not dislike, or at least ought not dislike this other speech of preparation; for it is written out of the same spirit, and out of the same necessity. Nay, it doth more fully lay open, that the question between me and the ancients is not of the virtue of the race, but of the rightness of the way. And to speak truth, it is to the other but as Palma to Pugnus, part of the same thing, more large. You conceive aright, that in this, and the other, you have commission to impart and communicate them to

others, according to your discretion; other matters I write not of: Myself am like the miller of Huntington, that was wont to pray for peace among the willows; for while the winds blew the wind-mills wrought, and the water-mill was less customed. So I see that controversies of religion must hinder the advancement of sciences. Let me conclude with my perpetual wish towards yourself, that the approbation of yourself by your own discreet and temperate carriage, may restore you to your country, and your friends to your society. And so I commend you to God's goodness.

Grays-Inn, this 10th

of October, 1609.

Sir Francis Bacon to Mr. Matthew, touching Instauratio Magna.

Mr. Matthew, I heartily thank you for your letter of the 10th of February, and I am glad to receive from you matter both of encouragement and advertisement, touching my writings. For my part, I do wish that since there is almost no" Lumen Siccum" in the world, but all, "Madidum, Maceratum," infused in affections, and bloods, or humours, that these things of mine had those separations that might make them more acceptable; so that they claim not so much acquaintance of the present times, as they be thereby the less like to last. And to shew you that I have some purpose to new mould them, I send you a leaf or two of the preface, carrying some figure of the whole work; wherein I purpose to take that which is real and effectual of both writings, and chiefly to add pledge, if not payment to my promise I send I send you also a memorial of Queen Elizabeth, to requite your eulogy of the late Duke of Florence's felicity. Of this, when you were here, I shewed you some model, though at that time methought you were as willing to hear Julius Cæsar as Queen Elizabeth commended. But this

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