ticæ. Hæc enim tria, rerum faciem et statum in Orbe terrarum mutaverunt: primum, in Re Literaria; secundum, in Re Bellica: tertium, in Navigationibus: Unde innumeræ rerum mutationes sequutæ sunt, ut non imperium aliquod, non Secta, non Stella majorem efficaciam et quasi influxum super res humanas exercuisse videatur, quam ista Mechanica exercuerunt."1 § 5. VALERIUS TERMINUS. This too is clearly a rudiment of the "Advancement of Learning," as may be perceived almost in every page: for instance, by comparing, of this volume, Page 85 with page 173. It is also a rudiment of the "Novum Organum." In page 89 of this volume, he says, "Let the effect to be produced be whiteness; let the first direction be, that if air and water be intermingled, or broken in small portions together, whiteness will ensue, as in snow, in the breaking of the waves of the sea, and rivers, and the like." In the "Novum Organum," under the head of travelling instances, he says, "To give an example of a travelling instance; suppose the nature inquired after were whiteness, an instance advancing to generation is glass, whole, and in powder; and again, simple water, and water beat into froth; for whole glass, and simple water, are transparent bodies, not white; but powdered glass, and the froth of water, are white, not transparent." § 6. FILUM LABYRINTHI. The tract entitled "Filum Labyrinthi,"s of which there is a MSS. in the British Museum, seems to have been the rudiment of the tract in Latin in Gruter's collection, entitled "Cogitata et Visa,"5 the three first sections containing the same sentiments in almost the same words. That it is a rudiment of the "Advancement of Learning" is manifest, as will appear by comparing the beautiful passage in page 165 with the following sentence in page 97 of this volume, "He thought also, that knowledge is almost generally sought either for delight and satisfaction, or for gain or profession, or for credit and ornament, and that every of these are as Atalanta's balls, which hinder the race of invention." It is also a rudiment of the Novum Organum. Speaking of universities, he says, in page 98 of this volume, "In universities and colleges men's studies are almost confined to certain authors, from which if any dissenteth or propoundeth matter of redargution, it is enough to make him thought a person turbulent; whereas if it be well advised, there is a great difference to be made between matters contemplative and active. For in government change is suspected, though the better; but it is natural to arts to be in perpetual agitation and growth. Neither is the danger alike of new light, and of new motion or remove." In the Novum Organum he says, (Aph. 90,) "Again in the customs and institutions of schools, universities, colleges, and the like conventions, destined for the seats of learned men, and the promotion of knowledge, all things are found opposite to the advancement of the sciences; for the readings and exercises are here so managed, that it cannot easily come into any one's mind to think of things out of the common road. Or if here and there one should use a liberty of judging, he can only impose the task upon himself, without obtaining assistance from his fellows; and if he could dispense with this, he will still find his industry and resolution a great hindrance to the raising of his fortune. For the studies of men in such places are confined, and pinned down to the writings of certain authors; from which, if any man happens to differ, he is presently reprehended as a disturber and innovator. But there is surely a great difference between arts and civil affairs; for the danger is not the same from new light, as from new commotions. In civil affairs, it is true, a change even for the better is suspected, through fear of disturbance; because these affairs depend upon authority, consent, reputation, and opinion, and not upon demonstrations: but arts and sciences • Shaw's translation : "Again, it may not be improper to observe the power, the efficacy, and the consequences of inventions, which appear no where plainer, than in those three particulars, unknown to the ancients, and whose origins, though modern, are obscure and inglorious, viz. the art of printing, gunpowder, and the compass, which have altered the state of the world, and given it a new face; 1. With regard to learning; 2. With regard to war; and, 3. With regard to navigation. Whence number less vicissitudes of things have ensued, insomuch that no empire, no sect, no celestial body, could seem to have a greater efficacy, and, as it were, influence over human affairs than these three mechanical inventions have had." ? I have ventured in this preface to substitute "waves" for ways. * "Scala Intellectus, sive Filum Labyrinthi," is the title of the fourth part of the "Instauratio." • Catalogue Harleian, vol. iii. page 397. Art. 6797. • These will be explained hereafter. should be like mines, resounding on all sides with new works, and farther progress. And thus it ought to be, according to right reason; but the case, in fact, is quite otherwise. For the abovementioned administration and policy of schools and universities generally opposes and greatly prevents the improvement of the sciences." It is not the correctness of these opinions respecting universities, which is now attempted to be investigated. The only object is to explain the similarity of the sentiments in this tract, entitled ،، Valerius Terminus," and the "Novum Organum;" but it seems not undeserving observation that this opinion must have been entertained by him very early in life, probably when resident in Cambridge, which he quitted soon after he was sixteen years of age, when the torpor of university pursuits would ill accord with his active mind, anxious only to invent and advance. At this early period, he, without considering whether universities are not formed rather for diffusing the knowledge of our predecessors, than for the discovery of unexplored truths; without considering the evil of youthful attempts not to believe first what others know, would naturally feel "that in the universities of Europe they learn nothing but to believe: first, to believe that others know that which they Know not; and after, themselves know that which they know not." He would naturally enough say, "They are like a becalmed ship; they never move but by the wind of other men's breath, and have no oars of their own to steer withal." But this opinion, thus early impressed upon his mind, seems to have been regulated in the year 1605, when he published the Advancement of Learning, and where, in his tract upon universities, after having enumerated many of their defects, he says, "The last defect which I will note is, that there hath not been, or very rarely been, any public designation of writers or inquirers concerning such parts of knowledge as may appear not to have been already sufficiently laboured or undertaken."1 § 7. DE CALORE ET FRIGORE. This is obviously the rudiment of the Affirmative Table in the Novum Organum. § 8. HELPS FOR INTELLECTUAL POWERS. The tract entitled "Helps for Intellectual Powers," was published by Rawley in his Resuscitatio, in 1657. In a letter from Gruter to Dr. Rawley, dated July 1, 1659, and thanking him for a present of Lord Bacon's Posthumous Works, in Latin, (probably Opuscula cum Vita, published in 1658,) he says, " one paper I wonder I saw not amongst them, The Epistle of the Lord Bacon to Sir Henry Savil, about the Helps of the Intellectual Powers,' spoken of long ago in your letters under that, or some such title, if my memory does not deceive me. If it was not forgotten and remains among your private papers, I should be glad to see a copy of it, in the use of which, my faithfulness shall not be wanting. But, perhaps, it is written in the English tongue, and is a part of that greater volume, which contains only his English works." § 9. THE APOPHTHEGMES. In the Advancement of Learning, Bacon divides the Appendices to History into-1. Memorials. 2. Epistles. 3. Apophthegmes. And, after lamenting the loss of Cæsar's book of Apophthegmes, he says, "as for those which are collected by others, either I have no taste in such matters, or else their choice hath not been happy:" but yet it seems that he had stored his mind with a collection of these "Mucrones Verborum," as, for his recreation in his sickness in the year preceding his death, he fanned the old, and dictated what he thought worth preservation. Archbishop Tenison, in his Baconiana, page 47, says, "The Apophthegmes (of which the first is the best Edition) were (what he saith also of his Essays) but as the Recreations of his other Studies. They were dictated one morning, out of his memory; and if they seem to any, a birth too inconsiderable for the brain of so great a man; they may think with themselves how little a time he went with it, and from thence make some allowance. Besides, his lordship hath received much injury by late editions, of which some have much enlarged, but not at all enriched the collection; stuffing it with tales and sayings, too infacetious for a ploughman's chimney-corner. And particularly, in the collection not long since published, and call'd The Apothegms of King James, King Charles, the Marquess of Worcester, the Lord Bacon, and Sir Thomas Moor; his Lordship is dealt with very rudely. For besides the addition of insipid tales, there are some put in which are beastly and immoral :1 such as were fitter to be joyned to Aretine, or Aloysia, than to have polluted the chaste labours of the Baron of Verulam." 1 See his New Atlantis. 2 See the original in Latin, with the translation from which this extract is copied in the Baconiana, 239, 240, and note he was right in this supposition. 3 Apoth. printed in Oct. Lon. 1625. The title page of this edition is "Apophthegmes, New and Old, collated by the Right Honorable Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount St. Alban.-London: printed for Hanna Barret and Richard Whittaker, and are to be sold at the King's Head in Paul's Church, 1625." • See his Epistle to Bishop Andrews. Even by that added (but not by Dr. Rawley) to the Resuscitatio.--Baconiana VOL. I.-2 6 In Octavo. Lon. 1669. And Stephens, in the preface to the Memoirs, published in 1734, when speaking of Blackburn's edition of Bacon, says, "Would any one, that had consulted the reputation of the Lord Bacon, or indeed his own, have published several Apophthegmes under his Lordship's Name, which he himself, as well as Dr. Tenison, allowed to be scandalous and spurious? Those which his Lordship compiled as an amusement, during his indisposition in the year 1625, were printed in the same year, amounting to the number of two hundred and eighty: And were not reprinted by Doctor Rawley in the first edition of the Resuscitatio in 1657: but, upon the republishing that work, with a dedication to King Charles the Second, the Bookseller contrived to insert them with some alteration and additions; which, instead of increasing, diminished the value of the whole." This volume contains a copy of the first edition of 1625,3 with an appendix containing the Apophthegmes, published by Archbishop Tenison in his Baconia. I have, to use Bacon's own words, fanned the collection published under his name, and rejected the spurious additions. They are inserted in a note.4 The use which Lord Bacon made of these "Mucrones Verborum," may be seen by comparing Apophthegme 251, with the same anecdote as incorporated in the Advancement of Learning. § 10. THE ORNAMENTA RATIONALIA, &c. Are inserted from the Baconiana. - The short notes, of which there is a MS. in the British Museum,5 are taken from the Remains published in 1645.- The Essay on Death, of which there is a Manuscript in the British Museum, 6 is inserted from the Remains. I know not by what authority this fragment is ascribed to Lord Bacon. It appears not to be in his style; and, excepting the following passages, I do not find any similarity in this Essay with his general sentiments upon death; PAGE 133 OF THIS VOLUME. "There is nothing more awakens our resolve and readiness to die, than the quieted conscience, strengthened with opinion that we shall be well spoken of upon earth by those that are just and of the family of virtue; the opposite whereof is a fury to man, and makes even life unsweet. “ Therefore, what is more heavy than evil fame deserved? Or, likewise, who can see worse days, than he that yet living doth follow at the funerals of his own reputation." PAGE 12 OF THIS VOLUME. "A mind fixed and bent upon somewhat that is good, doth avert the dolours of death; but, above all, believe it, the sweetest canticle is, Nunc dimittis,' when a man hath obtained worthy ends and expectations." 1 Ex. gr. Apotheg. 183, 184. 2 But note that this edition was published in 1661, during Rawley's life, who died in 1667. 3 Amongst the Apophthegmes inserted in the note, the following, which, from its internal evidence, I can scarcely think spurious, would have admirably illustrated Bacon's favourite opinion, that all men should be engaged in active life; that, in this theatre of man's life, it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on. "When his Lordship was newly advanced to the Great Seal, Gondomar came to visit him: My Lord said, 'That he was to thank God and the King for that honour; but yet, so he might be rid of the burthen, he could very willingly forbear the honour. And that he formerly had a desire, and the same continued with him still, to lead a private life. Gondomar answered, that he would tell him a tale, 'Of an old rat that would needs leave the world: and acquainted the young rats that he would retire into his hole, and spend his days solitary; and would enjoy no more comfort: and commended them upon his high displeasure, not to offer to come in unto him. They forbore two or three days; at last, one that was more hardy than the rest, incited some of his fellows to go in with him, and he would venture to see how his father did; for he might be dead. They went in, and found the old rat sitting in the midst of a rich Parmesan cheese. So he applied the fable after his witty manner," 6 Harleian, vol. ii. p. 196. • See end of Apophthegmes. • Lansdowne Collection, No. 205, fo. 217. ESSAYS. I. OF TRUTH. WHAT IS truth? said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer. Certainly there be that delight in giddiness; and count it a bondage to fix a belief; affecting free-will in thinking, as well as in acting. And though the sects of phi light upon the face of the matter, or chaos; then he breathed light into the face of man; and still he breatheth and inspireth light into the face of his chosen. The poet that beautified the sect, that was otherwise inferior to the rest, saith yet excellently well: "It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tossed upon the sea: a losophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain pleasure to stand in the window of a castle, and certain discoursive wits, which are of the same veins, though there be not so much blood in them as was in those of the ancients. But it is not only the difficulty and labour which men take in finding out of truth, nor again, that when it is found, it imposeth upon men's thoughts, that doth bring thoughts, that doth bring lies in favour, but a natural though corrupt love of the lie itself. One of the later schools of the Grecians examineth the matter, and is at a stand to think what should be in it, that men should love lies; where neither they make for pleasure, as with poets; nor for advantage, as with the merchant, but for the lie's sake. But I cannot tell : this same truth is a naked and open daylight, naked and open daylight, and triumphs of the world, half so stately and daintily as candlelights. ats. Truth may perhaps come to the price of a pearl, that showeth best by day, but it will not rise to the price of a diamond or carbuncle, that showeth best in varied lights. that doth not show the masks, and mummeries, A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure. Doth any man doubt, that if there were taken out of men's minds, vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one would, and the like, but it would leave the minds of a number of men, poor shrunken things, full of melancholy and indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves? One of the fathers, in great severity, called poesy "vinum dæmonum," because it filleth the imagination, and yet it is but with the shadow of a lie. But it is not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the lie that sinketh in, and settleth in it, that doth the hurt, such as we spake of before. But howsoever these things are thus in men's depraved judgments and affections, yet truth, which only doth judge itself, teacheth, that the inquiry of truth, which is the love-making, or wooing of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature. The first creature of God, in the works of the days, was the light of the sense: the last was the light of reason; and his Sabbath work ever since, is the illumination of his Spirit. First, he breathed to see a battle, and the adventures thereof below: but no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of truth, (a hill not to be commanded, and where the air is always clear and serene,) and to see the errors, and wanlow:" so always that this prospect be with pity, derings, and mists, and tempests in the vale beand not with swelling or pride. Certainly, it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth. To pass from theological and philosophical truth, to the truth of civil business; it will be ac that clean and round dealing is the honour of man's knowledged even by those that practise it not, nature, and that mixture of falsehood is like alloy in coin of gold and silver, which may make the metal work the better, but it embaseth it. For these winding and crooked courses are the goings of the serpent; which goeth basely upon the belly, and not upon the feet. There is no vice that doth so cover a man with shame as to be found false and perfidious; and therefore Mon of the lie should be such a disgrace, taigne saith prettily, when he inquired the reason, why the word and such an odious charge, saith he, "If it be well weighed, to say that a man lieth, is as much as to say, that he is brave towards God, and a coward towards men. For a lie faces God, and shrinks from man." Surely the wickedness of falsehood and breach of faith cannot possibly be so highly expressed, as in that it shall be the last peal to call the judgments of God upon the genera tions of men: it being foretold, that when "Christ cometh," he shall not "find faith upon the earth." II. OF DEATH.* MEN fear death, as children fear to go into the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other. Certainly, the contemplation of death, as the wages of sin, and passage to another world, is holy and religious; but the fear of it, as a tribute due unto na* See note A, at the end of the Essays. 11 ture, is weak. Yet in religious meditations, there | is sometimes mixture of vanity and of superstition. You shall read in some of the friars' books of mortification, that a man should think with himself, what the pain is, if he have but his finger's end pressed or tortured; and thereby imagine what the pains of death are, when the whole body is corrupted and dissolved; when many times death passeth with less pain than the torture of a limb: for the most vital parts are not the quickest of sense. And by him that spake only as a philosopher, and natural man, it was well said, " Pompa mortis magis terret, quam mors ipsa." Groans, and convulsions, and a discoloured face, and friends weeping, and blacks, and obsequies, and the like, show death terrible. It is worthy | the observing, that there is no passion in the mind of man so weak, but it mates and masters III. OF UNITY IN RELIGION.* RELIGION being the chief band of human society, it is a happy thing when itself is well contained within the true band of unity. The quarrels and divisions about religion were evils unknown to the heathen. The reason was, because the religion of the heathen consisted rather in rites and ceremonies, than in any constant belief: for you may imagine what kind of faith theirs was, when the chief doctors and fathers of their church were the poets. But the true God hath this attribute, that he is a jealous God; and therefore his worship and religion will endure no mixture nor partner. We shall therefore speak a few words concerning the unity of the church; what are the fruits thereof; what the bounds; and what the means. The fruits of unity (next unto the well pleasing the fear of death; and therefore death is no such of God, which is all in all) are two; the one toterrible enemy when a man hath so many attend-wards those that are without the church, the other ants about him that can win the combat of him. towards those that are within. For the former, Revenge triumphs over death; love slights it; it is certain, that heresies and schisms are of all honour aspireth to it; grief flieth to it; fear pre-occupateth it: nay, we read, after Otho the emperor had slain himself, pity (which is the tenderest of affections) provoked many to die out of mere compassion to their sovereign, and as the truest sort of followers. Nay, Seneca adds, niceness and satiety: "Cogita quamdiu eadem feceris; mori velle, non tantum fortis, aut miser, sed etiam fastidiosus potest." A man would die, though he were neither valiant nor miserable, only upon a weariness to do the same thing so oft and over and over. It is no less worthy to observe, how little alteration in good spirits the approach of death make: for they appear to be the same men till the last instant. Augustus Cæsar died in a compliment: "Livia, conjugii nostra memor, vive et vale." | Tiberius in dissimulation, as Tacitus saith of him, "Jam Tiberium vires et corpus, non dissimulatio, deserebant:" Vespasian in a jest, sitting upon the stool, "Ut puto Deus fio:" Galba with a sen- discordant and contrary opinions in religion, it others the greatest scandals; yea, more than corruption of manners: for as in the natural body a wound or solution of continuity is worse than a corrupt humour, so in the spiritual: so that nothing doth so much keep men out of the church, and drive men out of the church, as breach of unity; and, therefore, whensoever it cometh to that pass that one saith, "ecce in deserto," another saith, "ecce in penetralibus;" that is, when some men seek Christ in the conventicles of heritics, and others in an outward face of a church, that voice had need continually to sound in men's ears, "nolite exire," -" go not out." The doctor of the Gentiles (the propriety of whose vocation drew him to have a special care of those without) saith, "If a heathen come in, and hear you speak with several tongues, will he not say that you are mad?" and, certainly, it is little better: when atheists and profane persons do hear of so many indeed, every sect of them hath a diverse posture, or cringe, by themselves, which cannot but move derision in worldlings and depraved politics, who are apt to contemn holy things. tence, "Feri, si ex re sit populi Romani," holding doth avert them from the church, and maketh forth his neck: Septimus Severus in despatch, them, "to sit down in the chair of the scorners." "Adeste, si quid mihi restat agendum," and the It is but a light thing to be vouched in so serious like. Certainly the Stoics bestowed too much a matter, but yet it expresseth well the deformity. cost upon death, and by their great preparations | There is a master of scoffing that in his catalogue made it appear more fearful. Better, saith he, of books of a feigned library, sets down this title "qui finem vitæ extremum inter munera ponat of a book, "The Morris-Dance of Heretics;" for, naturæ." It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other. He that dies in an earnest pursuit, is like one that is wounded in hot blood; who, for the time, scarce feels the hurt; and therefore a mind fixed and bent upon somewhat that is good, doth avert the dolours of death; but, above all, believe it, the sweetest canticle is, " Nunc dimittis" when a man hath obtained worthy ends and expectations. Death hath this also, that it openeth the good fame, and extinguisheth envy: "Extinctus amabitur idem." As for the fruit towards those that are within, it is peace, which containeth infinite blessings; it establisheth faith; it kindleth charity; the outward peace of the church distilleth into peace of conscience, and it turneth the labours of writing and reading of controversies into treatises of mortification and devotion. * See Note at the end of the Essays. |