busiest with all its cares, and as anxious as the most anxious to discharge the functions o its journeyman. His engagements appear to have been those which demanded an almost undivided attention; and yet while engaged in the most practical of pursuits, he was dis tinguished beyond all comparison in those which are strictly theoretical. Belonging to profession the most noble and arduous-in which, from the multiplicity of the subjects which it embraces, and the responsibility of dealing with the emergent cases of daily occurrence there is necessitated a vision at once contracted and intense; and engaging largely in th politics of the day, which require of their votary as absolute a devotion,-in both of which he had to compete with the first men of his time—with the vast knowledge and sub tlety of Coke, with those wily panderers to prerogative and popularity the Cecils, with th crafty and sullen Somerset, with the rapacious and unconscienced Buckingham,—for subordi nates; and with the mistress of modern Europe and her wayward successor,-for principals and in those assemblies of his fellow-citizens in both Houses of Parliament, which hav tried and tasked the highest powers, without a rival in oratorical and senatorial abilities -he yet commanded the leisure that is requisite for pursuits of the highest and most bene ficial nature, in which he has earned his immortal repute-succeeding beyond all contem porary success in the former avocations, and working out for himself an endless repu tation in the latter. The intellect of Bacon was such as to make way through a obstacles to its destiny. It made for itself a solitude in the midst of society, and create for itself a retirement in the very midst of the most bustling, pressing, and exciting crow of engagements. His delights, in common with those of all the true benefactors of th species, have been realized in the midst of them; and he sighs not for the sounding sea shore, or the up-country waterfall, which almost drive man into himself; or the sequestere valley, or the solemn woods, whose stillness leads to reflection, and is therefore, with th most of those that fly to them, a mere place of resort for physical activity; but th habitable portions of the earth, and the children of men, are ever the spheres and the object of all these delights-thinking in the midst of distraction, accumulating in the midst of pr vations, and gathering every where the materials of profit and action. This is that ment absorption, which takes in all, and makes uses of all; to which every thing is aliment, by vi tue of a vigour that tires not, a charity that fails not, a humility for which nothing is too lo and a comprehension for which, humanly speaking, nothing is too high or too minute.

It would comparatively be an easy task, to discriminate between the various powers this wonderful intellect,-to ascribe to him a reason of the most comprehensive grasp, exe cising itself upon multifarious subjects, or an imagination keeping pace with that reaso and as wonderful in all its creations as the reason was wonderful in the premises up which it dealt; but we must leave these things to the reader, to whom we have be catering throughout our prologue. Bacon was enabled to feel that he lived in a gra juncture of affairs, requiring the union of high genius and wisdom answerably to deal wit and he foresaw it, felt it, and turned it to the best account. He devoted himself to t exigencies not only of his time, but of his race. He was, as we have seen, busy with t one; but the fact of his opinions being valuable now-a-days, shows that he was devoted the other; and that it was not merely for the times in which he lived that he was livin but for succeeding times as well. He was literally, that man, with whom all men shou be acquainted; both by way of encouragement and instruction-by way of failure a example. To act for the moment, and yet act for posterity; to act for a party, and yet for a people; to be the glory of a faction and also of a nation; to act for a kingdom as minister, and yet for the human race as their servitor; to be bold before the intellect of all p times, and weak before minions; to serve princes, to discuss with judges, to attend assembli and to control legislative gatherings,—and yet to electrify and revivify science; to be Hercu abroad, and to fall before the most trumpery vanity in his own breast;-was FRANCIS BACO

THERE were, under the law, excellent king, both daily sacrifices, and freewill offerings; the one proceeding upon ordinary observance, the other upon a devout cheerfulness: in like manner there belongeth to kings from their servants, both tribute of duty, and presents of affection. In the former of these, I hope I shall not live to be wanting, according to my most humble duty, and the good pleasure of your majesty's employments: for the latter, I thought it more respective to make choice of some oblation, which might rather refer to the propriety and excelMency of your individual person, than to the business of your crown and state.

of the body are sequestered) again revived and restored: such a light of nature I have observed in your majesty, and such a readiness to take flame and blaze from the least occasion presented, or the least spark of another's knowledge delivered. And as the Scripture saith of the wisest king, "That his heart was as the sands of the sea;" which though it be one of the largest bodies, yet it consisteth of the smallest and finest portions; so hath God given your majesty a composition of understanding admirable, being able to compass and comprehend the greatest matters, and nevertheless to touch and apprehend the least; whereas it should seem an impossibility in nature, for the same instrument to make itself fit for great and small works. And for your gift of speech, I call to mind what Cornelius Tacitus saith of Augustus Cæsar: " Augusto profluens, et quæ principem deceret, eloquentia fuit." For, if we note it well, speech that is uttered with labour and difficulty, or speech that savoureth of the affectation of art and precepts, or speech that is framed after the imitation of some pattern of elo

Wherefore, representing your majesty many times into my mind, and beholding you not with the inquisitive eye of presumption, to discover that which he Scripture telleth me is inscrutable, but with the bservant eye of duty and admiration; leaving aside he other parts of your virtue and fortune, I have en touched, yea, and possessed with an extreme onder at those your virtues and faculties, which the ilosophers call intellectual; the largeness of your apacity, the faithfulness of your memory, the swift-quence, though never so excellent; all this has someess of your apprehension, the penetration of your udgment, and the facility and order of your elocuion: and I have often thought, that of all the perons living, that I have known, your majesty were he best instance to make a man of Plato's opinion, hat all knowledge is but remembrance, and that the nind of man by nature knoweth all things, and ath but her own native and original notions (which the strangeness and darkness of this tabernacle

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what servile, and holding of the subject. But your majesty's manner of speech is indeed prince-like, flowing as from a fountain, and yet streaming and branching itself into nature's order, full of facility and felicity, imitating none, and inimitable by any. And as in your civil estate there appeareth to be an emulation and contention of your majesty's virtue with your fortune; a virtuous disposition with a fortunate regiment; a virtuous expectation, when time

In the entrance to the former of these, to clear t way, and, as it were, to make silence, to have t true testimonies concerning the dignity of learni to be better heard, without the interruption of ta objections; I think good to deliver it from the d credits and disgraces which it hath received, a from ignorance, but ignorance severally disguise appearing sometimes in the zeal and jealousy divines, sometimes in the severity and arrogancy politicians, and sometimes in the errors and impe fections of learned men themselves.

I hear the former sort say, that knowledge is those things which are to be accepted of with gre limitation and caution; that the aspiring to ove much knowledge, was the original temptation a sin, whereupon ensued the fall of man; that kno ledge hath in it somewhat of the serpent, and ther fore where it entereth into a man it makes hi swell; Scientia inflat: that Solomon gives a ce sure, "That there is no end of making books, an that much reading is a weariness of the flesh;" a again in another place, "That in spacious kno ledge there is much contristation, and that he th increaseth knowledge increaseth anxiety;" that S Paul gives a caveat, "That we be not spoil through vain philosophy;" that experience demo strates how learned men have been arch-hereti how learned times have been inclined to atheis and how the contemplation of second causes do derogate from our dependence upon God, who is t first cause.

was, of your greater fortune, with a prosperous possession thereof in the due time; a virtuous observation of the laws of marriage, with most blessed and happy fruit of marriage; a virtuous and most christian desire of peace, with a fortunate inclination in your neighbour princes thereunto: so likewise in these intellectual matters, there seemeth to be no less contention between the excellency of your majesty's gifts of nature, and the universality and perfection of your learning. For I am well assured, that this which I shall say is no amplification at all, but a positive and measured truth; which is, that there hath not been since Christ's time any king, or temporal monarch, which hath been so learned in all literature and erudition, divine and human. For let a man seriously and diligently revolve and peruse the succession of the emperors of Rome; of which Cæsar the dictator, who lived some years before Christ, and Marcus Antoninus, were the best learned: and so descend to the emperors of Græcia, or of the West; and then to the lines of France, Spain, England, Scotland, and the rest, and he shall find this judgment is truly made. For it seemeth much in a king, if, by the compendious extractions of other men's wits and labours, he can take hold of any superficial ornaments and shows of learning, or if he countenance and prefer learning and learned men ; but to drink indeed of the true fountains of learning, nay, to have such a fountain of learning in himself, in a king, and in a king born, is almost a miracle. And the more, because there is met in your majesty a rare conjunction, as well of divine and sacred literature, as of profane and human; so as your majesty standeth invested of that triplicity, which in great veneration was ascribed to the ancient Hermes; the power and fortune of a king, the knowledge and illumination of a priest, and the learning and universality of a philosopher. This propriety, inherent and individual attribute in your majesty, deservething unto their proprieties, which gave the occasi to be expressed, not only in the fame and admiration of the present time, nor in the history or tradition of the ages succeeding; but also in some solid work, fixed memorial, and immortal monument, bearing a character or signature, both of the power of a king, and the difference and perfection of such a king.

Therefore I did conclude with myself, that I could not make unto your majesty a better oblation, than of some treatise tending to that end, whereof the sum will consist of these two parts; the former concerning the excellency of learning and knowledge, and the excellency of the merit and true glory in the augmentation and propagation thereof; the latter, what the particular acts and works are, which have been embraced and undertaken for the advancement of learning; and again, what defects and undervalues I find in such particular acts: to the end, that though I cannot positively or affirmatively advise your majesty, or propound unto you framed particulars; yet I may excite your princely cogitations to visit the excellent treasure of your own mind, and thence to extract particulars for this purpose, agreeable to your magnanimity and wisdom.

To discover then the ignorance and error of th opinion, and the misunderstanding in the groun thereof, it may well appear these men do not obser or consider, that it was not the pure knowledge nature and universality, a knowledge by the lig whereof man did give names unto other creatures paradise, as they were brought before him, accor

to the fall; but it was the proud knowledge of go and evil, with an intent in man to give law un himself, and to depend no more upon God's co mandments, which was the form of the temptatio Neither is it any quantity of knowledge, how gre soever, that can make the mind of man to swel for nothing can fill, much less extend the soul man, but God, and the contemplation of God; a therefore Solomon, speaking of the two princi senses of inquisition, the eye and the car, affirme that the eye is never satisfied with seeing, nor t ear with hearing; and if there be no fulness, th is the continent greater than the content; so knowledge itself, and the mind of man, whereto t senses are but reporters, he defineth likewise these words, placed after that calendar or ephen rides, which he maketh of the diversities of tim and seasons for all actions and purposes; and e cludeth thus: "God hath made all things beat ful, or decent, in the true return of their season Also he hath placed the world in man's heart, cannot man find out the work which God work from the beginning to the end:" declaring, not scurely, that God hath framed the mind of man a mirror, or glass, capable of the image of the u

versal world, and joyful to receive the impression | darkness: and that the wise man's eyes keep watch thereof, as the eye joyeth to receive light; and not in his head, whereas the fool roundeth about in only delighted in beholding the variety of things, darkness: but withal I learned, that the same morand vicissitude of times, but raised also to find out tality involveth them both." And for the second, and discern the ordinances and decrees, which certain it is, there is no vexation or anxiety of throughout all those changes are infallibly observed. mind which resulteth from knowledge, otherwise And although he doth insinuate, that the supreme than merely by accident; for all knowledge and or summary law of nature, which he calleth, "The wonder (which is the seed of knowledge) is an work which God worketh from the beginning to the impression of pleasure in itself: but when men end, is not possible to be found out by man;" yet fall to framing conclusions out of their knowledge, that doth not derogate from the capacity of the applying it to their particular, and ministering to mind, but may be referred to the impediments, as themselves thereby weak fears, or vast desires, there of shortness of life, ill conjunction of labours, ill groweth that carefulness and trouble of mind which tradition of knowledge over from hand to hand, and is spoken of: for then knowledge is no more Lumen many other inconveniences, whereunto the condition siccum, whereof Heraclitus the profound said, of man is subject. For that nothing parcel of the "Lumen siccum optima anima;" but it becometh world is denied to man's inquiry and invention, he Lumen madidum, or maceratum, being steeped and doth in another place rule over, when he saith, infused in the humours of the affections. And as "The spirit of man is as the lamp of God, where- for the third point, it deserveth to be a little stood with he searcheth the inwardness of all secrets." If upon, and not to be lightly passed over: for if any then such be the capacity and receipt of the mind man shall think by view and inquiry into these of man, it is manifest, that there is no danger at sensible and material things to attain that light, all in the proportion or quantity of knowledge, how whereby he may reveal unto himself the nature or large soever, lest it should make it swell or out- will of God, then indeed is he spoiled by vain phicompass itself; no, but it is merely the quality of losophy: for the contemplation of God's creatures knowledge, which, be it in quantity more or less, if and works produceth (having regard to the works it be taken without the true corrective thereof, hath and creatures themselves) knowledge; but having in it some nature of venom or malignity, and some regard to God, no perfect knowledge, but wonder, effects of that venom, which is ventosity or which is broken knowledge. And therefore it was swelling. This corrective spice, the mixture most aptly said by one of Plato's school," That the whereof maketh knowledge so sovereign, is charity, sense of man carrieth a resemblance with the sun, which the apostle immediately addeth to the former which, as we see, openeth and revealeth all the terclause; for so he saith," knowledge bloweth up, restrial globe; but then again it obscureth and conbut charity buildeth up;" not unlike unto that cealeth the stars and celestial globe: so doth the which he delivereth in another place: "If I sense discover natural things, but it darkeneth and spake," saith he," with the tongues of men and shutteth up divine." And hence it is true, that it angels, and had not charity, it were but as a hath proceeded, that divers great learned men have tinkling cymbal;" not but that it is an excellent been heretical, whilst they have sought to fly up to thing to speak with the tongues of men and the secrets of the Deity by the waxen wings of the angels, but because, if it be severed from charity, senses and as for the conceit, that too much knowand not referred to the good of men and mankind, it ledge should incline a man to atheism, and that the nath rather a sounding and unworthy glory, than a ignorance of second causes should make a more meriting and substantial virtue. And as for that devout dependence upon God, who is the first cause : ensure of Solomon, concerning the excess of writ- First, it is good to ask the question which Job asked ng and reading books, and the anxiety of spirit of his friends: "Will you lie for God, as one man which redoundeth from knowledge; and that admo- will do for another, to gratify him ?" For certain ition of St. Paul, "That we be not seduced by it is, that God worketh nothing in nature but by rain philosophy;" let those places be rightly under- second causes; and if they would have it otherwise tood, and they do indeed excellently set forth the believed, it is mere imposture, as it were in favour rue bounds and limitations, whereby human know- towards God; and nothing else but to offer to the edge is confined and circumscribed; and yet without Author of truth the unclean sacrifice of a lie. But ny such contracting or coarctation, but that it may farther, it is an assured truth, and a conclusion of omprehend all the universal nature of things: for experience, that a little or superficial knowledge of hese limitations are three: the first, that we do not philosophy may incline the mind of man to atheo place our felicity in knowledge, as we forget our ism, but a farther proceeding therein doth bring the ortality. The second, that we make application mind back again to religion; for in the entrance of of our knowledge, to give ourselves repose and con- philosophy, when the second causes, which are entment, and not distaste or repining. The third, next unto the senses, do offer themselves to the mind hat we do not presume by the contemplation of of man, if it dwell and stay there, it may induce ature to attain to the mysteries of God. some oblivion of the highest cause: but when a ouching the first of these, Solomon doth excellently man passeth on farther, and seeth the dependence xpound himself in another place of the same book, of causes and the works of providence; then, accordhere he saith; "I saw well that knowledge re- ing to the allegory of the poets, he will easily believe edeth as far from ignorance, as light doth from that the highest link of nature's chain must needs

For as