sight all that is most hidden and secret in the world, -that man (I thought) would be the benefactor indeed of the human race,-the propagator of man's empire over the universe, the champion of liberty, the conqueror and subduer of necessities.

For myself, I found that I was fitted for nothing so well as for the study of Truth; as having a mind nimble and versatile enough to catch the resemblances of things (which is the chief point), and at the same time steady enough to fix and distinguish their subtler differences; as being gifted by nature with desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to reconsider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and as being a man that neither affects what is new nor admires what is old, and that hates every kind of imposture. So I thought my nature had a kind of familiarity and relationship with Truth.

Nevertheless, because my birth and education had seasoned me in business of state; and because opinions (so young as I was) would sometimes stagger me; and because I thought that a man's own country has some special claims upon him more than the rest of the world; and because I hoped that, if I rose to any place of honour in the state, I should have a larger command of industry and ability to help me in my work ;-for these reasons I both applied myself to acquire the arts of civil life, and commended my service, so far as in modesty and honesty I might, to the favour of such friends as had any influence. In which also I had another motive: for I felt that those things I have spoken of-be they great or small-reach no further than the condition and culture of this mortal life; and I was not without hope (the condition of Religion being at that time not very prosperous) that if I came to hold office in the state, I might get something done too for the good of men's souls.

When I found however that my zeal was mistaken for ambition, and my life had already reached the turning-point, and my breaking health reminded me how ill I could afford to be so slow, and I reflected moreover that in leaving undone the good that I could do by myself alone, and applying myself to that which could not be done without the help and consent of others, I was by no means discharging the duty that lay upon me,-I put all those thoughts aside, and (in pursuance of my old determination) betook myself wholly to this work. Nor am I discouraged from

it because I see signs in the times of the decline and overthrow of that knowledge and erudition which is now in use. Not that I apprehend any more barbarian invasions (unless possibly the Spanish empire should recover its strength, and having crushed other nations by arms should itself sink under its own weight): but the civil wars which may be expected, I think, (judging from certain fashions which have come in of late) to spread through many countries,―together with the maliguity of sects, and those compendious artifices and devices which have crept into the place of solid crudition-seem to portend for literature and the sciences a tempest not less fatal, and one against which the Printing-office will be no effectual security. And no doubt but that fair-weather learning which is nursed by leisure, blossoms under reward and praise, which cannot withstand the shock of opinion, and is liable to be abused by tricks and quackery, will sink under such impediments as these. Far otherwise is it with that knowledge, whose dignity is maintained by works of utility and power. For the injuries therefore which should proceed from the times, I am not afraid of them; and for the injuries which proceed from men I am not concerned. For if any one charge me with seeking to be wise overmuch, I answer simply that modesty and civil respect are fit for civil matters; in contemplations nothing is to be respected but Truth. If any one call on me for works, and that presently; I tell him frankly, without any imposture at all, that for me-a man not old, of weak health, my hands full of civil business, entering without guide or light upon an argument of all others the most obscure,-I hold it enough to have constructed the machine, though I may not succeed in setting it on work. Nay with the same candour I profess and declare, that the Interpretation of Nature, rightly conducted, ought in the first steps of the ascent, until a certain stage of Generals be reached, to be kept clear of all application to Works. And this has in fact been the error of all those who have heretofore ventured themselves at all upon the waves of experience that being either too weak of purpose or too cager for display, they have all at the outset sought prematurely for works, as proofs and pledges of their progress, and upon that rock have been wrecked and cast away. If again any one ask me, not indeed for actual works, yet for definite promises and forecasts of the works that are to be, I would have him know

that the knowledge which we now possess will not teach a man even what to wish. Lastly-though this is a matter of less moment-if any of our politicians, who use to make their calculations and conjectures according to persons and precedents, must needs interpose his judgment in a thing of this nature,—I would but remind him how (according to the ancient fable) the lame man keeping the course won the race of the swift man who left it and that there is no thought to be taken about precedents, for the thing is without precedent.

Now for my plan of publication-those parts of the work which have it for their object to find out and bring into correspondence such minds as are prepared and disposed for the argument, and to purge the floors of men's understandings, I wish to be published to the world and circulate from mouth to mouth the rest I would have passed from hand to hand, with selection and judgment. Not but I know that it is an old trick of impostors to keep a few of their follies back from the public which are indeed no better than those they put forward: but in this case it is no imposture at all, but a sober foresight, which tells me that the formula itself of interpretation, and the discoveries made by the same, will thrive better if committed to the charge of some fit and selected minds, and kept private. This however is other people's concern. For myself, my heart is not set upon any of those things which depend upon external accidents. I am not hunting for fame: I have no desire to found a sect, after the fashion of heresiarchs; and to look for any private gain from such an undertaking as this, I count both ridiculous and base. Enough for me the consciousness of well-deserving, and those real and effectual results with which Fortune itself cannot interfere.

Such then was the project with which Bacon was all this time labouring in secret; such, and no less, the issues which he believed to be involved in it. But though his faith in the principle never failed, he knew that it could not be fairly tried without the cooperation of many men and of more than one generation; and when he came to sound men's opinions in the matter, he discovered that he had a preliminary difficulty to encounter in finding any who would listen to him.1

1 "Et quos socios habes? Ego certe inquam profecto nullos; quin nec quenquam habeo quocum familiariter de hujusmodi rebus colloqui possini, ut me saltem explicem et exacuam."-Philosophical Works, Vol. III. p. 559.

Now if he could get the King to take an interest in it, a great part of this difficulty would be removed; and to bring this about, the best chance would be to produce some practical and notable proof of proficiency in matters of which the King was already quali fied to judge. For experimental philosophy James had not as yet shown any taste; and having been trained in the ancient learning, he was not likely to be attracted by a proposal to set aside all received doctrines and begin afresh from the beginning; but a general survey and criticism of the existing stock of knowledge was a work which few men then living were better qualified to appreciate, and in which he was almost sure to take a lively interest; and such a survey being the natural and legitimate foundation of any attempt at a large and general reform, it seems to have occurred to Bacon that this was the thing to begin with, and this the very time for it. Here was a King, still in the prime of life, devoted to peace, sympathizing largely with the interests of mankind, eminent even among learned men in a learned age for proficiency in all kinds of learning, coming out of straits and troubles into a great fortune, his imagination raised, his habits unfixed, his direction not yet taken: why should he not be excited to seek his greatness in a work like this? Accordingly, when Bacon told Cecil, on the 3rd of July, 1603, that he should put his ambition only upon his pen, it seems to me probable that he had newly conceived the design of writing his work on the Proficience and Advancement of Learning.' I say newly, for it was certainly not the same work on which he had been engaged before, nor any part of it: nor was it till some years after that he determined to include it in the general design. If so, the first book,—— which may be described as a kind of inaugural lecture on the dignity and merit of learning as a work for the kings and potentates of the earth,―must apparently have been written during this year;2 and we need seek no further for an account of the way in which his time during the remainder of it was chiefly spent.

1.

It was not, however, his only occupation. Though he had little or nothing to do this year as a member of the King's Learned Counsel, there were one or two subjects of such pressing importance in the political department, that he made bold to offer his opinion upon

them.

See my preface to the De Augmentis Scientiarum. Philos. Works, Vol. I. p. 416. 2 See my preface to the Advancement of Learning.' Philos. Works, Vol. III.

p. 255.

The first that had to be dealt with was the union of England and Scotland. We have seen that he had come away from his first interview with the King with an impression that he was "hastening to a mixture of both kingdoms and nations, faster perhaps than policy would conveniently bear." Now as much haste as was compatible with good speed, no man could wish for more than Bacon himself: for no man saw sooner or more clearly that England, well united with Scotland, had all natural requirements for becoming the greatest monarchy in the world. But he knew that things would not unite by being merely put together, and that perfect mixture required many conditions, of which time was one of the most indispensable. And I suppose it was in the hope, not merely of drawing a little attention to his own pretensions as a scholar and a thinker (though that was something), but also of tempering the King's impatience and reconciling him to the cautious pace at which it would be necessary to go, that he took leave to present him with a short philosophical treatise concerning the conditions under which perfect union takes place in nature-an essay still interesting, both as a specimen of the Philosophia Prima, applied to a particular business in the details and practical management of which he was soon to be deeply engaged, and as showing that it was not as a member of the Learned Counsel, but as a scholar, a student, and a man of contemplation, that he chose to make his first approaches:-a fact agreeing very well with my supposition that he regarded this as (for the present at least) his proper vocation and most promising career. And yet his aim is not the less practical, and bearing on the immediate business; for the conclusion is, that Nature and Time must be left to do the work, and that artificial forcing will only spoil the operation: the very warning which the King stood most in need of.

This little tract is said to have been printed in 1603, in 12mo,1 but I never met with a copy. There is, however, a good manuscript of it in the Harleian Collection, in the hand (if I am not mistaken) of the transcriber of the Valerius Terminus;' and if so, contemporary and authentic,2 and it is printed in the Resuscitatio. The text here given is formed upon a collation of these two.

Whence Bacon derived his idea of the nature of the Persian Magic, is a question with which we need not trouble ourselves here. For the present occasion it is enough to know that it was formerly the subject of many speculations; inferences perhaps from a remark in Plato, that the princes of Persia were instructed in politics and in magic by the same persons;-and that the method of analogy in

1 Birch's edition of Bacon's Works, vol. ii. p. 257.

See Philosophical Works, Vol. III. 206.