hath loved, he loveth to the end. Let your Majefty's
Let your Majefty's grace, in this my de-
fire, ftream down upon me, and let it be out of the fountain and fpring-
head, and ex mero motu, that living or dying, the print of the goodness of
King James may be in my heart, and his praises in my mouth. This my
moft humble request granted, may make me live a year or two happily; and
denied, will kill me quickly. But yet the last thing that will die in me,
will be the heart and affection of

"

July 30. 1624.

Your Majesty's most humble, and true deveted fervant,

FR. ST. ALBAN.

CCXCII. In Answer to the foregoing, by King JAMES.
To our trusty and well-beloved, Thomas Coventry, our Attorney-General.
Trufty and Well-beloved, we greet you well:

W

HEREAS our right trufty and right well-beloved coufin, the
Viscount of St. Alban, upon a fentence given in the upper houfe of
parliament full three years fince, and more, hath endured lofs of his place,
imprisonment, and confinement alfo for a great time; which may fuffice
for the fatisfaction of juftice, and example to others: We being always gra-
ciously inclined to temper mercy with juftice, and calling to mind his for-
mer good fervices, and how well and profitably he hath fpent his time fince
his troubles; are pleased to remove from him that blot of ignominy which
yet remaineth upon him, of incapacity and difablement; and. to remit to
him all penalties whatsoever inflicted by that fentence. Having therefore for-
merly pardoned his fine, and releafed his confinement; thefe are to will
and require you to prepare, for our fignature, a bill containing a pardon in
due form of law, of the whole fentence: for which this fhall be
your fuffi-
cient warrant. Cabala p. 270. Edition of 1663.

+ His fentence forbid his coming within the verge of the court. [In confequence of this letter, my
Lord Bacon was fummoned to parliament in the first year of King Charles.]

CCXCIII The Lord Viscount ST. ALBAN to Dr. WILLIAMS,
Bishop of Lincoln, concerning his speeches, &c.

My very good Lord,

Aм much bound to your lordship for your honourable promife to Dr. Rawley: he chufeth rather to depend upon the fame in general, than to pitch upon any particular; which modelty of choice I commend.

I FIND that the ancients (as Cicero, Demofthenes, Plinius Secundus, and others) have preferved both their orations and their epiftles. In imitation of whom I have done the like to my own; which nevertheless I will not publish while I live: but I have been bold to bequeath them to your lordship, and Mr. Chancellor of the duchy. My fpeeches (perhaps) you will think t to publish the letters, many of them, touch too much upon late matters of ftate, to be published; yet I was willing they fhould not be loft. I have alfo by my will erected two lectures in perpetuity, in either univerfity one, with This title feems to imply that the date of this letter was after the bishop was remov'd from being lord keeper.

VOL. IV.

9 A

an

}

an endowment of 200 l. per annum apiece: they to be for natural philofophy, and the fciences thereupon depending; which foundations I have required my executors to order, by the advice and direction of your lordship, and my Lord Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield. These be my thoughts now. Your Lordship's most affectionate to do you fervice.

I reft

CCXCIV. The Bishop's Answer to the preceding Letter.*

Right honourable and my very noble Lord,

R. Doctor Rawley, by his modeft choice, hath much obliged me to be careful of him, when God fhall fend any opportunity. And if his Majefty fhall remove me from this fee, before any fuch occafion be offered, not to change my intentions with my bishoprick.

It is true that those antients Cicero, Demofthenes, and Plinius fecundus, have preferved their orations (the heads and effects of them at the leaft) and their epiftles; and I have ever been of opinion, that thofe two pieces are the principal pieces of our antiquities: Thofe orations discovering the form of adminiftring juftice, and the letters the carriage of the affairs in thofe times. For our hiftories (or rather lives of men) borrow as much from the affections and phantafies of the writers, as from the truth itself, and are for the most of them built altogether upon unwritten relations and traditions. But letters written è re nata, and bearing a fynchronism or equality of time cum rebus geftis, have no other fault, than that which was imputed unto Virgil, nihil peccat nifi, quod nihil peccet; they speak the truth too plainly, and caft too glaring a light for that age, wherein they were, or are written.

Your lordship doth most worthily therefore in preferving thofe two pieces, amongst the rest of those matchlefs monuments you fhall leave behind you; confidering that, as one age hath not bred your experience, fo is it not fit it fhould be confined to one age, and not imparted to the times to come. For my part therein, I do imbrace the honour with all thankfulness, and the truft impofed upon me, with all religion and devotion. For thofe two Lectures in natural Philofophy, and the fciences woven and involved with the fame; it is a great and a noble foundation both for the ufe, and the falary, and a foot that will teach the age to come, to guefs in part at the greatness of that Herculean mind, which gave them their exiftence. Only your lordship may be advised for the feats of this foundation. The two univerfities are the two eyes of this land, and fittest to contemplate the luftre of this bounty; thefe two lectures, are as the two apples of thefe eyes. An apple when it is fingle is an ornament, when double a pearl, or a blemish in the eye. Your lordship may therefore inform yourfelf if one Sidley of Kent hath not already founded in Oxford a lecture of this nature and condition. But if Oxford in this kind be an Argus, I am fure poor Cambridge is a right Polyphemus, it hath but one eye, and that not fo fteadily or artificially placed, but, bonum eft facile fui diffufivum; your lordship being fo full of goodness, will quickly find an object to pour it on. That which made me fay thus much, I will fay in verfe, that your lordfhip may remember it the better;

Sola ruinofis ftat Cantabrigia fannis

Atque inopi linguâ difertas invocat Artes.

I will conclude with this vow: tempus quam longiffimum tribuat.

Buckden the last of
December, 1625.

I

Deus, qui animum iftum tibi, animo ifti
It is the most affectionate prayer of
Your Lordship's most humble fervant,
Jo. LINCOLN.

CCXCV. To the † QUEEN of BOHEMIA. 1625.

It may please your Majesty,

:

HAVE received your Majefty's gracious letter from Mr. Secretary Moreton, who is now a faint in heaven. It was at a time when the great defolation of the plague was in the city, and when my felf was ill of a dangerous and tedious fickness. The first time that I found any degree of health, nothing came fooner to my mind, than to acknowledge your Majesty's great favour, by my most humble thanks and becaufe I fee your Majefty taketh delight in my writings, (and to fay the truth, they are the best fruits I now yield,) I prefume to fend your Majefty a little difcourfe of mine, touching a war with Spain, which I writ about two SeeV 1.III. years fince; which the King your brother liked well. It is written with-P. 513. out bitterness or invective, as Kings affairs ought to be carried; but if I be not deceived, it hath edge enough. I have yet fome fpirits left, and rem

nant of experience, which I confecrate to the King's fervice, and your Majefty's; for whom I pour out my daily prayers to God, that he would give your Majefty a fortune worthy your rare virtues; which fome good fpirit tells me will be in the end. I do in all reverence kifs your Majefty's hands, ever refting

Your Majesty's most humble and devoted fervant,

FR. ST. ALBAN.

The Princess Elizabeth, eldest daughter of King James, was married to Frederick V. Elector Palatine, who by accepting the crown of Bohemia, was foon deprived both of that and his ancient principality. Under all her afflictions fhe had the happiness of being mother of many fine children, and at length of feeing her fon reftored to the Palatinate, and her nephew to his kingdoms. To her, who had been fo much injur'd by Spain, my Lord St. Alban prefents his difcourfe, touching a war with Spain, in acknowledgment of the favour of her Majesty's letter, fent by her Secretary Sir Albertus Moreton; in which quality he had ferv'd his uncle Sir Henry Wotton, in fome of his embaffies and as he was tenderly beloved by him in his life, and mush lamented in his death; fo Sir Harry profeffed no lefs admiration of this Queen, and the fplendor of her virtues under the darkness of her fortunes. Stephens.

CCXCVI. A letter of the Lord BACON's, in French, to the
Marquis FIAT, relating to his Effays.

Monfieur l'Ambassadeur mon File,

ΟΥΑΝΤ

Vor que voftre Excellence faict & traite mariages, non feulement

entre les Princes d'Angleterre & de France, mais auffi entre les langues (puis que faictes traduire non livre de l' advancement des fciences en Francois) i'ai bien voulu vous envoyer mon livre dernierement imprimé, que i'avois pourveu pour vous, mais i' eftois en doubte, de le vous envoyer, pour ce qu' il eftoit efcrit en Anglois. Mais a' ceft' heure raifon fufdicte ie le vous envoye. C'est un Recompilement de mes Effayes pour la

Morales

Morales & Civiles; mais tellement enlargiés & enrichiés, tant de nombre
que de poix, que c' eft de fait un oeuvre nouveau. Je vous baife les mains,
& refle,

CCXCVII. To the
fore his death,

I

My very good Lord,

Voftre tres affectionée ami, & tres humble ferviteur.

Earl of ARUNDEL and SURREY: juft be-
being the last letter he ever wrote.

WAS likely to have had the fortune of Caius Plinius the elder, who
loft his life by trying an experiment about the burning of the moun-
tain Vefuvius: for I was also defirous to try an experiment or two, touch-
ing the confervation and induration of bodies. As for the experiment it
felf, it fucceeded excellently well; but in the journey (between London
and Highgate) I was taken with such a fit of cafting, as I knew not whether
it were the ftone, or fome furfeit, or cold, or indeed a touch of them
all three. But when I came to your lordship's house, I was not able to
go back, and therefore was forced to take up my lodging here, where
your house-keeper is very careful and diligent about me; which I affure
my felf your lordship will not only pardon towards him, but think the better
of him for it. For indeed your lordship's houfe was happy to me;
and I kiss your noble hands for the welcome which I am fure you give
me to it, &c.

I KNOW how unfit it is for me to write to your lordship with any other
hand than my own; but by my troth my fingers are fo disjointed with this
fit of fickness, that I cannot fteadily hold a pen.

INDEX