do it deliberately and avowedly; some few may stoop to disparage a rival in order to obtain his place; but far fewer will do it in a business-like, thorough, and methodical manner, setting down on paper, under the formal heading of their rival's "Disparagement," elaborate entries of points and epigrams, so that, beneath the guise of casual utterances, they may undermine his influence; and still fewer-perhaps only one in the human race-could be found to jot down these petty details of a rival's depreciation among sketches of schemes for the establishment of a great Protestant Monarchy in the West, and for the foundation of a Philosophy which was to make mankind lords over the material world.

$22 LITERARY WORK

This year and the next (1608, 1609) still found Bacon's political path obstructed by Salisbury, and consequently gave him leisure for literature. Besides a treatise on Queen Elizabeth (In felicem memoriam Elizabethae)—interesting because it shows the respect which he entertained for a sovereign from whom he could no longer hope anything, his admiration for her administrative ability, and his approval of her policy towards Recusants -he also wrote (1609) Considerations touching the Plantation in Ireland, in which he deprecates excess of paper-government ("that there be not too much of the line and compass"), and advocates freedom from taxes and customs, and the addition of an Irish title to the Prince of Wales. But the paper does not touch the really important part of the question, the treatment of the native population.

The Great Instauration was not neglected. "My Instauration sleeps not "so he writes (1609) to Toby Matthew; and again in the same year :—

"As for the Instauration, your so full approbation thereof I read with much comfort; by how much more my heart is upon it, and by how much less I expected consent and concurrence in a matter so obscure. Of this I can assure you, that though many things of great hope decay with youth (and multitude of civil businesses is wont to diminish the price, though not the delight, of contemplations) yet the proceeding in that work doth gain with me upon my affection and desire, both by years and business."

During this year (1609) he carried out two projects sketched (1608) in the Commentarius Solutus. "To discourse scornfully of the Grecians with some better respect to the Egyptians, Persians, and Chaldees, and the utmost antiquities and the mysteries of the poets "--so he had written in the note-book of 1608; and accordingly he produced in 1609 a short contemptuous treatise on Greek philosophy entitled Refutation of the Philosophies (Redargutio Philosophiarum), which he sent to Toby Matthew with the following letter::

"For your caution for churchmen 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 much about. But the truth is, I shall have no occasion to meet them in my way, except it be as they will needs confederate themselves with Aristotle, who, as you know, is intemperately magnified with the Schoolmen; 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;1 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. . . Myself am like the miller of Huntingdon, that was wont to pray for peace amongst 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.

"Gray's Inn, this 10th of October, 1609."

Matthew's caution about " churchmen and church matters" refers to the great pen-and-ink war in which Cardinal Bellarmin, having answered King James's book in defence of the oath of allegiance against the Pope, was himself answered by Bishop 1 The Redargutio Philosophiarum, for the details of which see § 51.

Andrews, who had been selected by the King as his champion.1 This will also explain the following letter which accompanied a copy of the Cogitata et Visa sent by Bacon to the Bishop about October, 1609:

"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 were wont to make me believe you took liking to my writings, I send you some of this vacation's fruits and thus much more of 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 of 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."

1 A choice creditable to the King's judgment, as Mr. Spedding remarks, if only he could have refrained from interfering with his champion. See Carleton's letter (11 November, 1608), "I doubt he [Andrews] be not at leisure for any bye matters, the King doth so hasten and spur him on in this business of Bellarmin's ; which he were likely to perform very well (as I hear by them that can judge) if he might take his own time, and not be troubled nor entangled with arguments obtruded to him continually by the King."

There is an interesting note about him in the Commentarius Solutus (1608) showing how Bacon valued his aid: "Not desisting to drawe in the Bp. Aund(rews) being single, rych, sickly, a professor to some experiments."

2 This must not be taken literally; for at the beginning of the vacation in July, 1608, Bacon speaks of "imparting my Cogitata et Visa, with choice, ut videbitur." Probably he had revised or re-written the work in the vacation

of 1609.

M

The second project mentioned in the Commentarius Solutus was a treatise on what Bacon calls "the utmost antiquities and mysteries of the poets." It was his genuine belief that the old Greek and Latin myths contained secrets of religion and policy, "sacred relics or abstracted arts of better times, which, by tradition from more ancient nations, fell into the trumpets and tunes of the Grecians." His attempt to interpret these myths and unfold their secrets he embodied in a little Latin treatise called the Sapientia Veterum or Wisdom of the Ancients. This he sent to Matthew with the following letter:

"MR. MATTHEW,

"I do heartily thank you for your letter of the 24th of August from Salamanca; and in recompense thereof I send you a little work of mine that hath late begun to pass the world. They tell me my Latin is turned silver and become current. Had you been here you should have been my inquisitor before it came forth: but I think the greatest inquisitor in Spain will allow it. But one thing you must pardon me, if I make no haste to believe that the world should be grown to such an ecstasy as to reject truth in philosophy because the author dissenteth in religion.

"My great work goeth forward; and after my manner I alter ever when I add so that nothing is finished till all be finished.

"This I have written in the midst of a term and parliament, thinking no time so precious but that I should talk of these matters with so good and dear a friend. And so with my wonted wishes I leave you to God's goodness.

"From Gray's Inn, the 17th of February, 1610."

Parliament had met

This was a busy time with Bacon. (9 February, 1610), and all through the session he had his hands full, supporting the Great Contract, defending the King's rights or claims, and endeavouring to keep the House of Commons in good humour. Whether on account of the pressure of political work, or for whatever reason, no literary production of this year has been handed down to us beyond a fragment which he sent to James entitled A Beginning of a History of His Majesty's Time. It is fortunate that the King gave him no encouragement that induced him to continue his work. No courtier should write contemporary history, least of all such a courtier as Francis Bacon, who volunteers a readiness to alter anything in his book upon the King's "least beck."

1 For a description of this, see § 52.

"It may please your Majesty,

"Hearing that you are at leisure to peruse story, a desire took me to make an experiment what I could do in your Majesty's times. Which being but a leaf or two, I pray your pardon if I send it for your recreation, considering that love must creep where it cannot go. But to this I add these petitions, first, that if your Majesty do dislike anything, you would conceive that I can amend it upon your least beck. Next, if I have not spoken of your Majesty encomiastically, your Majesty will be pleased only to ascribe it to the law of an history, which doth not clatter together praises upon the first mention of a name, but rather disperseth and weaveth them throughout the whole narration; and as for the proper place of commemoration (which is in the period of life) I pray God I may never live to write it. . . ."

In this year (1610) his mother died, over eighty years of age. The last mention of her is in 1600, when her health is said to be "worn." In 1608, making an entry of his property, Bacon includes Gorhambury, his mother's estate, and makes no deduction from the income of the estate on her account; a circumstance that confirms the statement of Bishop Goodman, who writes that Bacon's mother was "little better than frantic (mad) in her age." In the following letter Bacon invites his kindly friend Sir Michael Hickes to be present at the funeral:

"SIR MICHAEL HICKES,

"It is but a wish, and not any ways to desire it to your trouble. But I heartily wish I had your company here at my mother's funeral, which I purpose on Thursday next in the forenoon. I dare promise you a good sermon to be made by Mr. Fenton, the preacher of Gray's Inn; for he never maketh other. Feast I make none. But if I might have your company for two or three days at my house I should pass over this mournful occasion with more comfort. If your son had continued at St. Julian's it mought have been an adamant to have drawn you: but now, if you come, I must say it is only for my sake. I commend myself to your Lady, and commend my wife to you both, and rest

"This Monday the 27th of August, 1610."

Yours ever assured

FR. BACON.