had before inhabited; and which mariners, who had only seen as rocks, had esteemed an inaccessible and enchanted place."

This temperate region was not unforeseen by the chancellor.

restore him again, if they, in their honours, should | of a new, temperate, frui.ful region, where none not be sensible of his merits. Now, though my lord saw his approaching ruin, and told his majesty there was little hopes of mercy in a multitude, when his enemies were to give fire, if he did not plead for himself: yet such was his obedience to him from whom he had his being, that he resolved his majesty's will should be his only law; and so took leave of him with these words: Those that will strike at your chancellor, it is much to be feared, will strike at your crown; and wished, that as he was then the first, so he might be the last of sacrifices.

"Soon after, according to his majesty's commands, he wrote a submissive letter to the House, and sent me to my Lord Windsor to know the result, which I was loath, at my return, to acquaint him with; for, alas! his sovereign's favour was not in so high a measure, but he, like the phoenix, must be sacrificed in flames of his own raising, and so perished, like Icarus, in that his lofty design: the great revenue of his office being lost, and his titles of honour saved but by the bishops' votes, whereto he replied, that he was only bound to thank his clergy.

In a letter to the king, on the 20th March, 1622, he says, "In the beginning of my trouble, when in the midst of the tempest, I had a kenning of the harbour, which I hope now by your majesty's favour I am entering into: now my study is my exchange, and my pen my practice for the use of my talent."

It is scarcely possible to read a page of his works without seeing that the love of knowledge was his ruling passion; that his real happiness consisted in intellectual delight. How beautifully does he state this when enumerating the blessings attendant upon the pursuit and possession of knowledge:

"The pleasure and delight of knowledge and learning far surpasseth all other nature: for, shall the pleasures of the affections so exceed the senses, as much as the obtaining of desire or victory exceedeth a song or a dinner; and must not, "The thunder of which fatal sentence did much of consequence, the pleasures of the intellect or perplex my troubled thoughts as well as others, to understanding exceed the pleasures of the affecsee that famous lord, who procured his majesty tions? we see in all other pleasures there is satito call this parliament, must be the first subject ety, and after they be used their verdure departeth, of their revengeful wrath, and that so unparalleled which showeth well they be but deceits of pleaa master should be thus brought upon the public sure, and not pleasures; and that it was the novelty stage, for the foolish miscarriage of his own ser- which pleased, and not the quality; and therefore vants, whereof, with grief of heart, I confess we see that voluptuous men turn friars, and ambimyself to be one. Yet, shortly after, the king tious princes turn melancholy; but of knowledge dissolved the parliament, but never restored that there is no satiety, but satisfaction and appetite are matchless lord to his place, which made him then perpetually interchangeable; and therefore appearto wish the many years he had spent in state eth to be good in itself simply, without fallacy or policy and law study had been solely devoted to accident. Neither is that pleasure of small effitrue philosophy: for, said he, the one, at the best, cacy and contentment to the mind of man, which doth but comprehend man's frailty in its greatest the poet Lucretius describeth elegantly, splendour; but the other, the mysterious know- Suave mari magno, turbantibus æquora ventis, &c. ledge of all things created in the six days' work." On the 11th of July the great seals were deli-It is a view of delight, to stand or walk the vered to Williams, who was now Lord Keeper of shore-side, and to see a ship tossed with tempest England and Bishop of Lincoln, with permission upon the sea; or to be in a fortified tower, and to to retain the deanery of Westminster, and to see two battles join upon a plain; but it is a pleahold the rectory of Waldegrave in commendam. sure incomparable for the mind of man to be settled, landed, and fortified in the certainty of truth; and from thence to decry and behold the errors, perturbations, labours, and wanderings up and down of other men.''

CHAPTER IV.

FROM HIS FALL TO HIS DEATH.

1621 to 1626.

upon

Happy would it have been for himself and society, if, following his own nature, he had passed his life in the calm but obscure regions of philosophy.

SUCH was the storm in which he was wrecked. He now, however, had escaped from worldly "Methinks," says Archbishop Tennison, "they turmoils, and was enabled, as he wrote to the are resembled by those of Sir George Summers, king, to gratify his desire "to do, for the little who being bound by his employment to another time God shall send me life, like the merchants roast, was by tempest cast upon the Bermudas: of London, which, when they give over trade, and there a shipwrecked man made full discovery lay out their money upon land: so, being freed

from civil business, I lay forth my poor talent upon those things, which may be perpetual, still having relation to do you honour with those powers I have left."

In a letter to Buckingham, on the 20th of March, 1621, he says, "I find that, building upon your lordship's noble nature and friendship, I have built upon the rock, where neither winds nor waves can cause overthrow :" and, in the conclusion of the same year, "I am much fallen in love with a private life, but yet I shall so spend my time, as shall not decay my abilities for use."

66

lustre and reputation to my name than those other which I have in hand. But I count the use that a man should seek of the publishing his own writings before his death to be but an untimely anticipation of that which is proper to follow a man, and not to go along with him.”

work of Instauration had in contemplation the general good of men in their very being, and the dowries of nature; and in my work of laws, the general good of men likewise in society, and the dowries of government: I thought in duty 1 owed somewhat to my country, which I ever loved; insomuch, as, although my place hath been far above my desert, yet my thoughts and cares concerning the good thereof were beyond and over and above my place: so now, being as I am, no more able to do my country service, it remained unto me to do it honour; which I have endeaAnd in a letter to the Bishop of Winchester, voured to do in my work of the reign of King in which, after having considered the conduct in Henry VII. As for my Essays, and some other their banishments, of Demosthenes, Cicero, and particulars of that nature; I count them but as the Seneca, he proceeds thus: "These examples con- recreation of my other studies, and in that sort I firmed me much in a resolution, whereunto I was purpose to continue them; though I am not ignootherwise inclined, to spend my time wholly in rant that those kind of writings would, with less writing, and to put forth that poor talent, or half-pains and embracement, perhaps, yield more talent, or what it is that God hath given me, not as heretofore to particular exchanges, but to banks or mounts of perpetuity, which will not break. Therefore having not long since set forth a part of my Instauration, which is the work that, in mine own judgment, si nunquam fallit imago, I may most esteem, I think to proceed in some new The sentence now remained to be executed. parts thereof; and although I have received On the last day of May, Lord St. Albans was from many parts beyond the seas testimonies committed to the Tower; and, though he had touching that work, such as beyond which I could placed himself altogether in the king's hands, not expect at the first in so abstruse an argument, confident in his kindness, it is not to be supposed yet, nevertheless, I have just cause to doubt that that he could be led to prison without deeply it flies too high over men's heads. I have a pur-feeling his disgrace. In the anguish of his mind pose, therefore, though I break the order of time, he instantly wrote to Buckingham and to the to draw it down to the sense by some patterns of king, submitting, but maintaining his integrity ja natural story and inquisition. And, again, for as chancellor. that my book of Advancement of Learning may be some preparative or key for the better opening "Good my lord,-Procure the warrant for my of the Instauration, because it exhibits a mixture discharge this day. Death, I thank God, is so of new conceits and old; whereas the Instauration far from being unwelcome to me, as I have called gives the new unmixed, otherwise than with for it (as Christian resolution would permit) any some little aspersion of the old, for taste's sake, time these two months. But to die before the I have thought good to procure a translation of time of his majesty's grace, and in this disgracethat book into the general language, not without ful place, is even the worst that could be; and great and ample additions and enrichment there- when I am dead, he is gone that was always in of, especially in the second book, which handlethone tenor, a true and perfect servant to his master, the partition of sciences, in such sort, as I hold it and one that was never author of any immodemay serve in lieu of the first part of the Instaura- rate, no, nor unsafe, no, (I will say it,) not unfor tion, and acquit my promise in that part. tunate counsel; and one that no temptation could ever make other than a trusty, and honest, and Christ-loving friend to your lordship: and, howsoever I acknowledge the sentence just, and for reformation sake fit, the justest chancellor that hath been in the five changes since Sir Nicholas Bacon's time. God bless and prosper your lordship, whatsoever become of me. "Your lordship's true friend, living and dying, Tower, 31st May, 1612. "FR. ST. ALBAN."

“Again, because I cannot altogether desert the civil person that I have borne, which if I should forget, enough would remember, I have also entered into a work touching laws, propounding a Character of justice in a middle term, between the speculative and reverend discourses of philosophers and the writings of lawyers, which are tied, and obnoxious to their particular laws; and although it be true that I had a purpose to make a particular digest, or recompilement of the laws of mine own nation, yet because it is a work of assistance, and that I cannot master by my own forces and pen, I have laid it aside. Now, having in the

After two days' imprisonment he was liberated; and, the sentence not permitting him to come within the verge of the court, he retired, with the

king's permission, to Sir John Vaughan's house | smile, "Well, do what we can, this man scorns at Parson's Green, from whence, although anx- to go out like a snuff." ious to continue in or near London, he went, in compliance with his majesty's suggestion, for a temporary retirement to Gorhambury, where he was obliged to remain till the end of the year, but with such reluctance, that, with the hope of quieting the king's fears, he at one time intended to present a petition to the House of Lords to remit this part of his sentence.

Unmindful that the want of prudence can never be supplied, he was exposed, in the decline of life, not only to frequent vexation, and his thoughts to continual interruption, but was frequently compelled to stoop to degrading solicitations, and was obliged to encumber Gorhambury and sell York House, dear to him from so many associations, the seat of his ancestors, the scene of his former splendour. These worldly troubles seem, however, not to have affected his cheerful

In the month of July he wrote, both to Buckingham and to the king, letters in which may be seen his reliance upon them for pecuniary assist-ness, and never to have diverted him from the ance, his consciousness of innocence, a gleam of hope that he should be restored to his honours, and occasionally allusions to the favours he had conferred. To these applications he received the following answer from Buckingham:

To the Lord St. Alban.

My noble lord :-The hearty affection I have borne to your person and service hath made me ambitious to be a messenger of good news to you, and an eschewer of ill; this hath been the true reason why I have been thus long in answering you, not any negligence in your discreet, modest

servant you sent with your letter, nor his who now returns you this answer, ofttimes given me by your master and mine; who, though by this may seem not to satisfy your desert and expectation, yet, take the word of a friend who will never fail you, hath a tender care of you, full of a fresh memory of your by-past service. His majesty is but for the present, he says, able to yield unto the three years' advance, which if you please to accept, you are not hereafter the farther off from obtaining some better testimony of his favour, worthier both of him and you, though it can never be answerable to what my heart wishes you, as your lordship's humble servant,

G. BUCKINGHAM.

That he was promised some compensation for the loss of his professional emoluments seems probable, not only from his letters to the king, and from the aid received, but from his having lived in splendour after his fall, although his certain annual income seems not to have exceeded £2500. With this income he, with prudence, might, although greatly in debt, have enjoyed worldly comfort: but in prudence he was culpably negligent. Thinking that money was only the baggage of virtue, that this interposition of earth erlipsed the clear sight of the mind, he lived not as a philosopher ought to have lived, but as a nobleman had been accustomed to live. It is related that the prince, coming to London, saw at a distance a coach followed by a considerable number of people, on horseback; and, upon inquiry, was told it was the Lord St. Albans, attended by his friends; on which his highness said, with a

great object of his life, the acquisition and advancement of knowledge. When an application was made to him to sell one of he beautiful woods of Gorhambury, he answered, "No, I will not be stripped of my feathers."

In September the king signed a warrant for the release of the parliamentary fine, and, to prevent the immediate importunities of his creditors, assigned it to Mr. Justice Hutton, Mr. Justice Chamberlain, Sir Francis Barnham, and Sir Thomas Crew, whom Bacon, in his will, directed to of his debts and legacies, having a charitable care apply the funds for the payment and satisfaction that the poorest creditors or legatees should be

first satisfied.

He had scarcely retired to Gorhambury, in the summer of 1621, when he commenced his History of Henry the Seventh.

During the progress of the work considerable expectation of his history was excited: in the composition of which he seems to have laboured with much anxiety, and to have submitted his manuscript to the correction of various classes of society; to the king, to scholars, and to the uninformed. Upon his desiring Sir John Danvers to give his opinion of the work, Sir John said, "Your lordship knows that I am no scholar.' 'Tis no matter,' said my lord, I know what a scholar can say: I would know what you can say.' Sir John read it, and gave his opinion what he misliked, which my lord acknowledged to be true, and mended it. Why,' said he, a scholar would never have told me this;' notwithstanding this labour and anxiety, the public expectation was not realized.

but,

If, however, in the History of Henry the Seventh, it is vain to look for the vigour or beauty with which the Advancement of Learning abounds: if the intricacies of a court are neither discovered nor illustrated with the same happiness as the intricacies of philosophy: if, in a work written when the author was more than

The objection which would, of course, be made from what we, in our importance, look down upon as beneath his dignity, he had many years before anticipated in the Advancement of Learning, when investigating the objections to learning And his kind nature and holy feeling appear in from the errors of learned men, from their forhis account of the conquest of Granada. "Some- tunes; their manners; and the meanness of their what about this time came letters from Ferdinan-employments: upon which he says, "As for do and Isabella, king and queen of Spain, signifying the final conquest of Granada from the Moors; but the king would not by any means in person enter the city until he had first aloof seen the cross set up upon the great tower of Granada, whereby it became Christian ground; and, before he would enter, he did homage to God above, pronouncing by a herald from the height of

www

popularity of opinion to measure of reason, may | had hitherto only hope of it, and hope deferred; appear in that, we see men are more curious what and he was desirous to know the event of the they put into a new vessel than into a vessel season-matter, and to be freed, one way or other, from ed; and what mould they lay about a young plant, the suspense of his thoughts. His friend returnthan about a plant corroborate; so as the weakest ing, told him plainly that he must thenceforth terms and times of all things used to have the best despair of that grant, how much soever his forapplications and helps; and, therefore, the ancient tunes needed it. "Be it so," said his lordship; wisdom of the best times did always make a just and then he dismissed his friend very cheerfully, complaint, that states were too busy with their with thankful acknowledgments of his service. laws, and too negligent in point of education: His friend being gone, he came straightway to which excellent part of ancient discipline hath Dr. Rawley, and said thus to him, “Well, sir, been in some sort revived of late times, by the yon business won't go on, let us go on with this, colleges of the Jesuits; of whom, although in for this is in our power :" and then he dictated to regard of their superstition I may say, quo meli-him afresh, for some hours, without the least heores, eo deteriores; yet in regard of this, and some sitancy of speech, or discernible interruption of other points concerning human learning and moral | thought. matters, I may say, as Agesilaus said to his

He proceeded with his literary labours, and,

enemy, Pharnabasus, Talis quum sis, utinam noster | during this year, published in Latin his celebrated

treatise, "De Augmentis Scientiarum," and his important "Historia Vitæ et Mortis."

Between the year 1605, when the Advancement was published, and the year 1623, he made great progress in the completion of the work, which, having divided into nine books, and subdivided each book into chapters, he caused to be translated into Latin by Mr. Herbert, and some other friends, and published in Latin in 1623, in a volume entitled De Dignitate et Augmentis Scientiarum.

His application was not successful; the king answered that it had been designed for Sir William Beecher, but that there was some hope that, by satisfying him elsewhere, his majesty might be able to comply with the request. Sir William was satisfied by the promise of £2500, but the provostship was given to Sir Henry Wotton, "who had for many years, like Sisyphus, rolled the restless stone of a state employment; knowing experimentally that the great blessing of sweet content was not to be found in multitudes of men or business," and that a college was the fittest place to nourish holy thoughts, and to afford rest both to his body and mind, which he much re- In the first part there are scarcely any alteraquired from his age, being now almost threescore tions, except the omission of his beautiful praise years, and from his urgent pecuniary wants; for of Elizabeth, not, perhaps, very acceptable to her he had always been as careless of money as successor. The material alterations are in the though our Saviour's words, Care not for to-analysis of Natural History and Natural Philosomorrow,' were to be literally understood." He, therefore, upon condition of releasing a grant, which he possessed, of the mastership of the rolls, was appointed provost.

This treatise De Augmentis is an improvement, by expunging, enlarging, and arranging, of the Advancement of Learning.

phy; in his expansion of a small portion of the science of "Justitia Universalis ;" in that part of human philosophy under the head of Government, which relates to man as a member of society; and in his arrangement of the important subject of revealed religion.

At this disappointment Bacon could not be much affected. One day, as he was dictating to Dr. Rawley some of the experiments in his Sylva, he had sent a friend to court, to receive for him In the annexed outline of the work the parts a final answer, touching the effect of a grant marked in italics exhibit the material alterawhich had been made him by King James. He ❘tions: