sixty years of age, and if, after the vexations that tower, that he did acknowledge to have re

and labours of a professional and political life, the varieties and sprightliness of youthful imagination are not to be found, yet the peculiar properties of his mind may easily be traced, and the stateliness of the edifice be seen in the magnificence of the ruins.

His vigilance in recording every fact tending to alleviate misery, or to promote happiness, is noticed by Bishop Sprat, in his History of the Royal Society, where he says, "I shall instance in the sweating sickness. The medicine for it was almost infallible: but, before that could be generally published, it had almost dispeopled whole towns. If the same disease should have returned, it might have been again as destructive, had not the Lord Bacon taken care to set down the particular course of physic for it in his History of Henry the Seventh, and so put it beyond the possibility of any private man's invading it."

One of his maxims of government for the enlargement of the bounds of the empire is to be found in his comment upon the ordinance, stated in the treatise "De Augmentis." "Let states and kingdoms that aim at greatness by all means take heed how the nobility, and grandees, and those which we call gentlemen, multiply too fast; for that makes the common subject grow to be a peasant and base swain, driven out of heart, and in effect nothing else but the nobleman's bondslaves and labourers. Even as you may see in coppice-wood, if you leave your studdles too thick, you shall never have clean underwood, but shrubs and bushes: so in a country, if the nobility be too many, the commons will be base and heartless, and you will bring it to that, that not the hundredth poll will be fit for a helmet, especially as to the infantry, which is the nerve of an army; and so there will be great population, and little strength."

His love of familiar illustration is to be found in various parts of the history: as when speaking of the commotion by the Cornish men, on behalf of the impostor Perkin Warbeck: "The king judged it his best and surest way to keep his strength together in the seat and centre of his kingdom; according to the ancient Indian emblem, in such a swelling season, to hold the hand upon the middle of the bladder, that no side might rise."

And his kind nature and holy feeling appear in his account of the conquest of Granada. "Some

covered that kingdom by the help of the Almighty; nor would he stir from his camp till he had seen a little army of martyrs, to the number of seven hundred and more Christians, that had lived in bonds and servitude, as slaves to the Moors, pass before his eyes, singing a psalm for their redemption."

The work was published in folio, in 1622: and is dedicated to Prince Charles. Copies were presented to the king, to Buckingham, to the Queen of Bohemia, and to the lord keeper.

It had scarcely been published when he felt and expressed anxiety that it should be translated into Latin, " as these modern languages will, at one time or other, play the bankrupts with books; and, since I have lost much time with this age, I would be glad, as God shall give me leave, to recover it with posterity:" a wish which was more than gratified, as it was published, not only in various editions, in England, but was soon translated into French and into Latin.

Such was the nature of his literary occupations in the first year after his retirement, during which he corresponded with different learned foreigners upon his works; and great zeal having been shown for his majesty's service, he composed a treatise entitled, "An Advertisement touching a Holy War," which he inscribed to the Bishop of Winchester.

In the beginning of this year, (1623,) a vacancy occurred in the Provostship of Eton college, where, in earlier years, he had passed some days with Sir Henry Savile, pleasant to himself and profitable to society. His love of knowledge again manifested itself.

Having, in the spirit of his father, unfortunately engaged, in his youth, in active life, he now, in the spirit of his grandfather, the learned and contemplative Sir Anthony Cooke, who took more pleasure to breed up statesmen than to be one, offered himself to succeed the provost: as a fit occupation for him in the spent hour-glass of his life, and a retreat near London to a place of study.

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 from the errors of learned men, from their fortunes; 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

meanness of employment, that which is most traduced to contempt is, that the government of youth is commonly allotted to them; which age, because it is the age of least authority, it is transferred to the disesteeming of those employments wherein youth is conversant, and which are conversant about youth. But how unjust this traducement is, if you will reduce things from

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 seasoned; and what mould they lay about a young plant, than about a plant corroborate; so as the weakest terms and times of all things used to have the best applications and helps; and, therefore, the ancient wisdom of the best times did always make a just complaint, that states were too busy with their laws, and too negligent in point of education: which excellent part of ancient discipline hath been in some sort revived of late times, by the colleges of the Jesuits; of whom, although in regard of their superstition I may say, quo meli- | ores, eo deteriores; yet in regard of this, and some other points concerning human learning and moral matters, I may say, as Agesilaus said to his enemy, Pharnabasus, Talis quum sis, utinam noster

esses."

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

matter, and to be freed, one way or other, from the suspense of his thoughts. His friend returning, told him plainly that he must thenceforth despair of that grant, how much soever his fortunes needed it. “Be it so," said his lordship; and then he dismissed his friend very cheerfully, with thankful acknowledgments of his service. His friend being gone, he came straightway to Dr. Rawley, and said thus to him, "Well, sir, yon business won't go on, let us go on with this, for this is in our power:" and then he dictated to him afresh, for some hours, without the least hesitancy of speech, or discernible interruption of thought.

He proceeded with his literary labours, and, 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

provostship was given to Sir Henry Wotton, into Latin by Mr. Herbert, and some other " who had for many years, like Sisyphus, rolled friends, and published in Latin in 1623, in a the restless stone of a state employment; knowing | volume entitled De Dignitate et Augmentis Sciexperimentally that the great blessing of sweet entiarum.

content was not to be found in multitudes of men This treatise De Augmentis is an improvement, or business," and that a college was the fittest by expunging, enlarging, and arranging, of the place to nourish holy thoughts, and to afford rest | Advancement of Learning.

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 Philoso

morrow,' 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.

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 a final answer, touching the effect of a grant which had been made him by King James. He|tions:

In the annexed outline of the work the parts marked in italics exhibit the material altera

1. General.

1. Subject. 2. Preter generations. Marvels.

51. Memorials.

51. Chronicles.

1. Fragments. 2. Antiquities.

2. Civil.

1. Different histories.

1. Simple. 32. Lives.

3. Apophthegms.

VOL. I.-(14)

Of this extraordinary work various editions | Copies were presented to the king, to whom it and translations have been since published.1

1 Different editions of the treatise De Augmentis. 1. The first edition is thus described by Tenison: "The fairest and most correct edition of this book in Latin is that in folio, printed at London, 1623; and whoever would understand the Lord Bacon's cypher, let him consult that accurate edition: for, in some other editions which I have perused, the form of the letters of the alphabet, in which much of the mystery consisteth, is not observed, but the roman and italic shapes of them are confounded." The following is a copy of the title page: "Francisci Baconi Baronis de Vervlamio, Vice-Comitis Sancti Albani, de Dignitate et Augmentis | tates assertor avdax, scientiaru' reparator felix mundi men

Londini impressum. Parisiis, typis Petri Metayer, typogra- | of Learning, or the Partitions of Sciences, Ix Bookes.

In the year 1674 another edition of the translation by Wats was published in London, but instead of the engravings which were prefixed to the edition of 1640, there is prefixed to the annexed title page only a portrait of Lord Bacon. The following is the title page: "Of the Advancement and ProfiAugmentis Scientiarum. Libri ix. Ad Regem suum. Edi-cience of Learning: or the Partitions of Sciences. Nine tio nova, cum Indice rerum et verborum locupletissimo. | Books. Written in Latin by the most eminent, illustrious

ham, Trinity College, Cambridge, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Oxford. The present was gratefully acknowledged by the different patrons to whom it was presented, and by all the learning of England.

Fifty years after its publication it was included at Rome in the list " Librorum Prohibitorum," in which list it is now included in Spain.

The vanity of these attempts to resist the progress of knowledge might, it should seem, by this time be understood even at the Vatican.

How beautifully are the consequences of this intolerance thus stated by Fuller: "Hitherto the corpse of John Wickliffe had quietly slept in his grave about forty-one years after his death, till

princes is commonly more sad and besieged with melancholy; but of knowledge there is no satiety, but vicissitude,

perpetually and interchangeably returning of fruition and appetite; so that the good of this delight must needs be simpler, without accident or fallacy."

In the year 1632 a translation into French was published in Paris. The following is a copy of the title page: "Neve Livres de la Dignité et de l'Accroissement des Sciences, composez par Francois Bacon, Baron de Verulam et Vicomte de Saint Aubain, et traduits de Latin en Francois par le Sieur de Golefer, Conseiller et Historiographe du Roy. A Paris, chez Jaques Dugast, rue Sainct Jean de Beauvais, a l'Olivier de Robert Estienne et en sa boutique au bas de la rue de la Harpe. M.DC.XXXII. avec privilege du Roy." -Of this edition Archbishop Tenison says, "This work hath been also translated into French, upon the motion of the Marquis Fiat; but in it there are many things wholly omitted, many things perfectly mistaken, and some things, especially such as relate to religion, wilfully perverted. Insomuch that, in one place, he

makes his lordship to magnify the Legend: a book sure of

little credit with him, when he thus began one of his essays, 'I had rather believe all the fables in the Legend, and

the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame

is without a mind." " I have a copy of this edition.

A letter of the Lord Bacon's, in French, to the Marquess Fiat,

relating to his Essays.

Monsieur l' Ambassadeur mon File,-Voyant que vostre

excellence faict et trait mariages, non seulement entre les princes d'Angletere et de France, mais aussi entre les langues (puis que faictes traduire non liure de l'Advancement des Sciences en Francois) i' ai bien voulu vous envoyer, &c.

There is a translation into French in the edition of Lord Bacon's works, published in the eighth year of the French Republic. The following is the title page of this edition : "Œuvres de François Bacon, Chancelier d'Angletaire; traduites par Ant. La Salle; avec des notes critiques, historiques et litteraires. Tome premier. A Dijon, de l'Imprimerie de L. N. Frantin, an 8 de la Republique Française."

4th edit.

•

•

• •

1652

12mo

5th edit.

6th edit.

...

•

1765....8νο

7th edit.

..

...

...

Haviland
Moirardum
Wynyard
Ravestein

1779.... 8vo.... Stahel Riegelii 1829....8νο

....

..

...

•

* ....

.....

•

•

Translations.

1640.. English. G. Wats
1674.... English. G. Wats
1632.... French. Dugast
8th year
Rep....French.. Frantin

Wirceburgi. Sth. 2 vols.
Nuremberg. 9th. 2 vols.

cvir

his body was reduced to bones and his bones al-
most to dust. For though the earth in the chan-
cel of Lutterworth, in Leicestershire, where he
was interred, hath not so quick a digestion with
the earth of Aceldama, to consume flesh in twen-
ty-four hours, yet such the appetite thereof, and
all other English graves, to leave small rever-
sions of a body after so many years. But now
such the spleen of the council of Constance, as
they not only cursed his memory as dying an ob-
stinate heretic, but ordered that his bones (with
this charitable caution,- if it may be discerned
from the bodies of other faithful people) be taken
out of the ground, and thrown far off from any
Christian burial. In obedience hereunto, Richard
Fleming, Bishop of Lincoln, Diocesan of Lutter-
worth, sent his officers, vultures with a quick sight
scent at a dead carcass, to ungrave him. Accord-
ingly to Lutterworth they come; summer, com-
missary, official, chancellor, proctors, doctors,
and their servants, so that the remnant of the
body would not hold out a bone amongst so many
hands, take what was left out of the grave, and
burnt them to ashes, and cast them into Swift, a
Thus
neighbouring brook running hard by.
this brook hath conveyed his ashes into Avon,
Avon into Severn, Severn into the narrow
seas, they into the main ocean; and thus the
ashes of Wickliffe are the emblem of his
doctrine, which now is dispersed all the world
over."

If Bacon had completed his intended work upon "Sympathy and Antipathy," the constant antipathy of ignorance to intellect, originating sometimes in the painful feeling of infericrity, sometimes in the fear of worldly injury, but always in the influence of some passion more powerful than the love of truth, would not have escaped his notice.

In this year he also published his History of Life and Death, which, of all his works, is one of the most extraordinary, both for the extent of his views, and the minute accuracy with which each part is investigated. It is addressed, not, to use his own expression, "to the Adonises of literature, but to Hercules's followers; that is, the more severe and laborious inquirers into truth."

Upon his entrance, in the Advancement of Learning, on the science of human nature, he says, "The knowledge of man, although only a portion of knowledge in the continent of nature, is to man the end of all knowledge:" and, in furtherance of this opinion, he explains that the object of education ought to be knowledge and improvement of the body and the mind.

Of the importance of knowledge of the body, that, "while sojourning in this wilderness, and travelling to the land of promise, our vestments should be preserved," he is incessant in his observations. He divides the subject into