promovisti, nunc tandem (ô dulce prodigium!) etiam et litteras. Onerat Clientes beneficii hujus augustior Munificentia; cujus in accipiendo Honor apud nos manet, in fruendo emolumentum transit usque in Posteros. Quin ergo si Gratiarum talioni impares sumus, juncto robore alterius sæculi Nepotes succurrunt, qui reliquum illud, quod tibi non possunt, saltem nomini tuo persolvent. Felices illi, nos tamen quâm longè feliciores, quibus honorificè conscriptam tuâ manu Epistolam, quibus oculatissima lectitandi præcepta, et Studiorum Concordiam, in fronte voluminis demandâsti: quasi parum esset Musas de tuâ penu locupletare, nisi ostenderes quo modo et ipsæ discerent. Solenniori itaq; Osculo acerrimum judicii tui Depositum excepit frequentissimus Purpuratorum Senatus ; exceperunt pariter minoris ordinis Gentes; et quod omnes in publico Librorum Thesaurio, in Memoriâ singuli deposuerunt. "Dominationis vestræ Studiosissima "Academia Oxoniensis. "E Domo nostrâ Congregationis, "20 Decem. 1623." The superscription was thus: "To the Right Honourable Francis, Baron of Verulam, and Viscount of St. Alban, our very good Lord." The same letter in English, by Archbishop Tenison.* "MOST NOBLE AND (WHAT IN NOBILITY IS NEXT TO A MIRACLE) MOST LEARNED VISCOUNT, "Your Honour could have given nothing more agreeable, and the University could have received nothing Baconiana, 206. + Omitted by Archbishop Tenison. more acceptable, than the Sciences: and those Sciences which she formerly sent forth, poor, of low stature, unpolished, she hath received elegant, tall, and by the supplies of your wit, by which alone they could have been advanced, most rich in dowry. She esteemeth it an extraordinary favour to have a return with usury made of that by a stranger (if so near a relation may be called a stranger) which she bestows as a patrimony upon her children; and she readily acknowledgeth, that though the Muses are born in Oxford, they grow elsewhere. Grown they are, and under your pen, who, like some mighty Hercules in learning, have by your own hand further advanced those pillars in the learned world, which by the rest of that world were supposed immovable. "We congratulate you, you most accomplished combatant, who by your most diligent patronage of the virtues of others, have overcome other patrons, and, by your own writings, yourself. For by the eminent height of your honour you advanced only learned men, now at last (Oh, ravishing prodigy!) you have also advanced learning itself. "The ample munificence of this gift lays a burden upon your clients, in the receiving of which we have the honour, but in the enjoying of it the emolument will descend to late posterity. If therefore we are not able of ourselves to return sufficient and suitable thanks, our nephews of the next age ought to give their assistance, and pay the remainder, if not to yourself to the honour of your name. Happy they, but we how much more happy, &c. to whom you have pleased to do the honour of sending a letter, written by no other than by your own hand: to whom you have pleased to send the clearest instructions for reading (your work,) and for concord in our studies, in the front of your book: as if it were a small thing for your Lordship to enrich the Muses out of your own stock, unless you taught them also a method of getting wealth. Wherefore this most accurate pledg of your understanding has been, with the most solemn reverence, received in a very full congregation, both by the Doctors and Masters; and that which the common vote hath placed in our public Library, every single person has gratefully deposited in his memory. "Your Lordship's most devoted Servant, "The University of Oxford." "From our Convocation-house, "Decem. 20, 1623." "The fairest and most correct edition of this book is," says Archbishop Tenison, " in Latin, in folio, printed at London anno 1623 :* and whosoever 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."+ There is a copy at Cambridge and at Oxford. + The Cyphers in this volume are copies of Lord Bacon's. In the year 1624, this work was printed in 4to. at Paris, and according to Archbishop Tenison it was translated into French. He 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." "S * Juxta Exemplar Londini Impressum. Parisiis Typis Petrj Mettayer Typographi Regi MDCXXIV. + Of this edition I have never seen a copy. Baconiana, 27. § So too there was in 1626 a mutilated translation into French of the Essays and the Apophthegms. Every apophthegm where the name of a Pope or a Cardinal is mentioned, and where any religious opinion appears in the Essays unpleasing to Catholic ears, is altered to make it more harmonious. For instance Lord Bacon in his Essay on Union of Religion, says: "What, would he have said if he had known of the massacre in France, or the powder treason in England?" But in the French edition it is as follows: "Mais que'eust il dict s'il eust sceu les sanglantes executions, et les horribles entreprises advenùes de nostre temps pour cemesme sujet?" This work is entitled, "Les Œuvres Morales et Politiques de Messire Francois Bacon, Grand Chancelier d'Angleterre, de la Version de J. Baudoin. MDCXXVI." In the year 1635 an octavo edition was published on the Continent, and another edition by Dr. Rawley in 1638, in a folio, which contains many of his other works. This is nearly a transcript of the edition of 1623, and the Cyphers are the same.* In 1640 it was translated into English by Dr. Wats, of which translation Archbishop Tenison says: "The whole of this book was rendered into English by Dr. Gilbert Wats, of Oxford; and the translation has been well received by many; but some there were who wished that a translation had been set forth in which the genius and spirit of the Lord Bacon had more appeared; and I have seen a letter written by certain gentlemen to Dr. Rawley, wherein they thus importune him for a more accurate version by his own hand: 'It is our humble suit to you, and we do earnestly solicit you, to give yourself the trouble to correct the too much defective translation of De Augmentis Scientiarum, which Dr. Wats hath sent forth. It is a thousand pities that so worthy a piece should lose its grace and credit by an ill expositor; since those persons who read that translation, taking it for genuine, and upon that presumption not regarding the Latin Printed for Edward Griffin. It is not scarce: there is a copy in the British Museum, in the Lincoln's-Inn Library, and at Oxford. + Baconiana, 26, |