your lordship will accept well of these my labours, the rather because your lordship in private speech 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, etc.

SIR FRANCIS BACON, OF THE LIKE ARGUMENT,
TO THE EARL OF NORTHAMPTON, WITH RE-

QUEST TO PRESENT THE BOOK TO HIS MA-
JESTY.

IT MAY PLEASE YOUR GOOD Lordship,

Having finished a work touching the advancement of learning, and dedicated the same to his sacred majesty, whom I dare avouch (if the records of time err not) to be the learnedest king that hath reigned; I was desirous in a kind of congruity, to present it by the learnedest counsellor in this kingdom, to the end, that so good an argument, lightening upon so bad an author, might receive some reparation by the hands into might receive some reparation by the hands into which, and by which, it should be delivered. And, therefore, I make it my humble suit to your lordship to present this mean, but well meant humble writing to his majesty, and with it my and zealous duty; and also my like humble request of pardon, if I have too 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, &c.

SIR FRANCIS BACON, HIS LETTER OF REQUEST
TO DOCTOR PLAYFER, TO TRANSLATE THE
BOOK OF ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING INTO

LATIN.

MR. DOCTOR PLAYFER,

for me, to have done as gardeners use to do, by
taking their seeds and slips, and rearing them
first into plants, and so uttering them in pots,
when they are in flower, and in their best state.
But, forasmuch, as my end was merit of the state
of learning, to my power, and not glory; and,
because my purpose was rather to excite other
men's wits, than to magnify my own, I was
desirous to prevent the uncertainness of my own
life and times, by uttering rather seeds than
plants; nay, and farther, as the proverb is, by
Sowing with the basket, than with the hand.
Wherefore, since I have only taken upon me to
ring a bell, to call other wits together, (which is
the meanest office,) it cannot but be consonant to
my desire, to have that bell heard as far as can
be. And, since that they are but sparks, which
can work but upon matter prepared, I have the
more reason to wish, that those sparks may fly
abroad, that they may the better find, and light
upon those minds and spirits which are apt to be
kindled. And, therefore, the privateness of the
language considered wherein it is written, exclud-
ing so many readers, (as, on the other side, the
obscurity of the argument, in many parts of it,
excludeth many others;) I must account it a
second birth of that work, if it might be translated
into Latin, without manifest loss of the sense and
matter. For this purpose, I could not represent
to myself any man, into whose hands I do more
earnestly desire that work should fall, than your-
self; for, by that I have heard and read, I know
no man a greater master in commanding words
to serve matter. Nevertheless, I am not ignorant
of the worth of your labours, whether such as
your place and profession imposeth on you, or
such as your own virtue may, upon your volun-
tary election, take in hand. But I can lay beforė
you no other persuasions, than either the work
itself may affect you with, or the honour of his
majesty, to whom it is dedicated, or your parti-
cular inclination to myself; who, as I never took
so much comfort in any labours of my own, so I
shall never acknowledge myself more obliged in
any thing to the labour of another, than in that
which shall assist this. Which your labour if I
can, by my place, profession, means, friends,
travail, word, deed, requite unto you, I shall
esteem myself so straitly bound thereunto, as I
shall be ever most ready, both to take and seek
And so leaving it,
occasions of thankfulness.
nevertheless, "Salva amicitia," (as reason is,) to
your own good liking, I remain, etc.

A great desire will take a small occasion to hope, and put in trial that which is desired. It pleased you a good while since, to express unto me, the good liking which you conceive of my book, of the Advancement of Learning, and that more significantly (as it seemed to me) than out of courtesy, or civil respect. Myself, as I then took contentment in your approbation thereof, so I should esteem and acknowledge, not only my contentment increased, but my labours advanced, if I might obtain your help in that nature which I desire. Wherein, before I set down in plain terms my request unto you, I will open myself, what it was which I chiefly sought, and propounded to myself, in that work, that you may perceive that which I now desire to be pursuant SIR FRANCIS BACON, TO SIR THOMAS BODLEY, thereupon, if I do not err. (For any judgment that a man maketh of his own doings, had need be spoken with a “Si nunquam fallit imago.") I have this opinion, that if I had sought my own commendation, it had been a much fitter course

UPON SENDING HIM HIS BOOK OF THE AD.
VANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

SIR,

I think no man may more truly say with the For 1 psalm, "multum incola fuit anima mea."

do confess, since I was of any understanding, my acquaintance with scholarship or learning, you mind hath, in effect, been absent from that I have should have culled forth the quintessence, and done, and in absence errors are committed, which sucked up the sap of the chiefest kind of learnI do willingly acknowledge; and amongst the ing. For, howsowever, in some points, you do rest, this great one that led the rest; that know- vary altogether from that which is and hath been ing myself by inward calling to be fitter to hold a ever the received doctrine of our schools, and book, than to play a part, I have led my life in was always by the wisest (as still they have been civil causes, for which I was not very fit by deemed) of all nations and ages, adjudged the nature, and more unfit by the preoccupation of truest; yet it is apparent, in those very points, in my mind. Therefore, calling myself home, I all your proposals and plots in that book, you have now for a time enjoyed myself, where like-show yourself a master workman. For myself, wise I desire to make the world partaker; my I must confess, and I speak it ingenuè, that for labours (if so I may 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 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, in propriety, any new instrument or engine, whereby learning should be improved or advanced. So, etc.

SIR THOMAS BODLEY TO SIR FRANCIS BACON,
UPON HIS NEW PHILOSOPHY.

SIR,

As soon as the term was ended, supposing your leisure was more than before, I was coming to thank you two or three times, rather choosing to do it by word than letter; but I was still disappointed of my purpose, as I am at this present upon an urgent occasion, which doth tie me fast to Fulham, and hath now made me determine to impart my mind in writing. I think you know I have read your " Cogitata et visa;" which, I protest, I have done with great desire, reputing it a token of your singular love, that you joined me with those your friends, to whom you would commend the first perusal of your draught; for which I pray give me leave to say but this unto you. First, that if the depth of my affection to your person and spirit, to your works and your words, and to all your ability, were as highly to be valued as your affection is to me, it might walk with your's arm in arm, and claim your love by just desert; but there can be no comparison, where our states are so uneven, and our means to demonstrate our affections, so indifferent: insomuch as, for mine own, I must leave it to be prized in the nature that it is; and you shall evermore find it most addicted to your worth. As touching the subject of your book, you have set afoot so many noble speculations, as I cannot choose but wonder and I shall wonder at it ever, hat your expense of time considered in your public profession, which hath in a manner no

the matter of learning, I am not worthy to be reckoned in the number of smatterers; and yet, because it may seem that being willing to communicate your treatise with your friends, you are likewise willing to listen to whatsoever I or others can except against it; I must deliver unto you, for my private opinion, that I am one of the crew, that say there is, and we profess a greater holdfast of certainty in your sciences, than you by your discourse will seem to acknowledge: for where, at first, you do object the ill success and errors of practitioners of physic, you know as well, they do proceed of the patient's unruliness, for not one of a hundred doth obey his physician in their own indisposition; for few are able in that kind to explicate themselves; or by reason their diseases are by nature incurable, which is incident, you know, to many sort of maladies; or for some other hidden cause, which cannot be discovered by course of conjecture; howbeit, I am full of this belief, that as physic is ministered now-a-days by physicians, it is much ascribed to their negligence or ignorance, or other touch of imperfection, that they speed no better in their practice: for few are found, of that profession, so well instructed in their art, as they might by the precepts which their art doth afford; which, though it be defective in regard of such perfection, yet for certain it doth flourish with admirable remedies, such as tract of time hath taught by experimental effects, and are the open highway to that knowledge that you recommend. As for alchemy, and magic, some conclusions they have that are worthy the preserving: but all their skill is so accompanied with subtilties and guiles, as both the crafts and the crafts-masters are not only despised, but named with derision. Whereupon to make good your principal assertion, methinks you should have drawn the most of your examples from that which is taught in the liberal sciences, not by picking out cases that happen very seldom, and may, by all confession, be subject to reproof, but by controlling the generals, and grounds, and eminent positions and aphorisms, which the greatest artists and philosophers have from time to time defended; for it goeth for current among all men of learning, that those kinds of arts which clerks in times past did term Quadrivials,

the

confirm their propositions by infallible demon- a new substitution of others in their places, what strations. And likewise in Trivials, such les-hope may we have of any benefit of learning by sons and directions are delivered unto us, as will this alteration? assuredly, as soon as the new effect very near, or as much altogether, as every | are brought ad ȧxμηv by the inventors and their of faculty doth promise. Now, in case we should followers, by an interchangeable course concur to do as you advise, which is, to renounce natural things, they will fall by degrees in our common notions, and cancel all our theorems, oblivion to be buried, and so in continuance to axioms, rules, and tenets, and so to come babes perish outright; and that perchance upon the "ad regnum naturæ," as we are willed by scrip- like to your present pretences, by proposal of tures to come "ad regnum cœlorum." There is some means to advance all our knowledge to a nothing more certain, in my understanding, than higher pitch of perfectness; for still the same that it would instantly bring us to barbarism, defects that antiquity found, will reside in manand, after many thousand years, leave us more kind, and therefore other issues of their actions, unprovided of theorical furniture, than we are at devices, and studies, are not to be expected than this present: For that were indeed to become is apparent, by records, were in former times “Tabula rasa,” when we shall leave no impres- observed. I remember here a note which Patersion of any former principles, but be driven to culus made of the incomparable wits of the begin the world again, to travel by trials of Grecians and Romans, in their flourishing state; actions and sense, (which are your proofs by that there might be this reason of their notable particulars,) what to place in "intellectu" for our downfall, in their issue that came after, because general conceptions, it being a maxim of all by nature, "Quod summo studio petitum est, men's approving; "in intellectu nihil esse quod ascendit in summum, difficilisque in perfecto mora non prius fuit in sensu." And so in appearance est;" insomuch that men perceiving that they it would befall us, that till Plato's year be come could not go farther, being come to the stop, they about, our insight in learning would be of less turned back again of their own accord, forsaking reckoning than now it is accounted. As for that those studies that are most in request, and bewhich you inculcate, of a knowledge more taking themselves to new endeavours, as excellent than now is among us, which expe- thing they sought had been by prevention forerience might produce, if we would but essay to prized by others. So it fared in particular with extract it out of nature by particular probations, the eloquence of that age, that when their sucit is no more upon the matter, but to incite us cessors found that hardly they could equal, by unto that which, without instigation, by a natu- no means excel their predecessors, they began to ral instinct men will practise themselves; for it neglect the study thereof, and speak for many cannot in reason be otherwise thought, but that hundred years in a rustical manner, till this later there are infinite, in all parts of the world, (for resolution brought the wheel about again, by we may not in this case confine our cogitations inflaming gallant spirits to give the onset a fresh, within the bounds of Europe,) which embrace the with straining and striving to climb unto the top course which you purpose, with all diligence and height of perfection, not in that gift alone, and care, that any ability can perform. For but in every other skill in any part of learning. every man is born with an appetite of knowledge, For I do not hold it any erroneous conceit to wherewith he cannot be glutted, but still, as in a think of every science, that as now they are prodropsy, thirst after more. But yet, why men fessed, so they have been before in all precedent should so hearken to and such persuasions, as ages, though not alike in all places, nor at all wholly to abolish those settled opinions, and times alike in one and the same; but according general theorems, to which they have attained by to the changes and turning of times with a more their own and their ancestors' experience, I see exact and plain, or with a more rude and obscure nothing alleged to induce me to think it. More- kind of teaching. over, I may speak, as I suppose, with good pro- And if the question should be asked, what bability, that if we should make a mental survey, proof I have of it; I have the doctrine of Ariswhat is like to be effected all the world over; totle, and of the deepest learned clerks, of whom those five or six inventions which you have we have any means to take any notice; that as selected, and imagined to be but of modern there is of other things, so there is of sciences, standing, would make but a slender show among" ortus et interitus:" which is also the meaning so many hundreds of all kinds of natures, which are daily brought to light by the enforcement of wit or casual events, and may be compared, or partly preferred, above those that you have named. But were it so here, that all were admitted that you can require, for the augmentation of our knowledge, and that all our theorems and general positions were utterly extinguished with

(if I should expound it) of "nihil novum sub sole," and is as well to be applied "ad facta,” as "ad dicta; ut nihil neque dictum neque factum, quod non est dictum aut factum prius." I have farther for my warrant, that famous complaint of Solomon to his son, against the infinite making of books in his time, of which, in all congruity great part were of observations and instructions

c 2

your main discourse) you are not able to impanel
a jury in any university that will give up a ver-
dict to acquit you of error; yet it cannot be gain-
said, 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,
THO. BODLEY.

in all kind of literature, and of those there is not | stand well assured (for the tenor and subject of now so much as one pamphlet (only some parcels of the Bible excepted) remaining to posterity. As then there was not in like manner to be found any footing of millions of authors that were long before Solomon, and yet we must give credit to that which he affirmed; that whatsoever was then or before, it could never be truly pronounced of it, “Behold, this is new." Whereupon I must for my final conclusion infer, seeing all the endeavours, study, and knowledge of mankind, in whatsoever art or science, have ever been the same as they are at this present, though full of mutabilities, according to the changes and accidental occasions of ages and countries, and clerks' dispositions; which can never but be subject to intention and remission, both in their devices and practices of their knowledge. If now we should accord in opinion with you; first, to condemn our present knowledge of doubt and incertitude (which you confer but by averment) without other force of argument, and then to disclaim all our axioms and maxims, and general assertions that are left by tradition from our elders to us; which, (for so it is to be pretended) have passed all probations of the sharpest wits that ever were Abecedarii, by the frequent spelling of particulars, to come to the notice of new generals, and so afresh to create new principles of sciences, the end of all would be, that when we should be dispossessed of the learning which we have, all our consequent travail will but help us in a circle, to conduct us to the place from whence we set forwards, and bring us to the happiness to be restored "in integrum," which will require as many ages as have marched before us, to be perfectly 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 forever 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 baulk 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 pain, you have very much wronged yourself and the world, to smother such a treasure so long in your coffer: for though I

From Fulham, Feb. 19, 1607.

SIR,-One kind of holdness 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 diversely. 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,

(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 the 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
to 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 Huntingdon, 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 advance-
ment of sciences. Let me conclude with my
perpetual wish towards yourself, that the appro-
bation of yourself by your own discreet and tem-
perate carriage, may restore you to your country,
and your friends to your society. And so I com-
mend you to God's goodness.
Gray's Inn, this 10th of October, 1609.

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 I can say no more to you, but, “non 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 fort- SIR FRANCIS BACON TO MR. MATTHEW, TOUCHnight at Gorhambury, I would make you tell me another 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.

ING INSTAURATIO MAGNA.

your

letter of the 10th of February, and I am glad to
MR. MATTHEW, I heartily thank
you for
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 the affections, and bloods,

SIR FRANCIS BACON TO MR. MATTHEW, UPON or humours, that these things of mine had those

SENDING HIM PART OF INSTAURATIO MAGNA.

MR. MATTHEW,

separations that might make them more acceptable; so that they claim not so much acquaintance I plainly perceive by your affectionate writing of the present times, as they be thereby the less touching my work, that one and the same thing like to last. And to show you that I have some affecteth us both, which is the good end to which purpose to new mould them, I send you a leaf or it is dedicated: for as to any ability of mine, it two of the preface, carrying some figure of the cannot merit that degree of approbation. For whole work; wherein I purpose to take that which your caution for church men, and church matters, is real and effectual of both writings, and chiefly