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PREFACE.

IT

Ir may, perhaps, be expected, that some reason should be assigned for the appearance of the present volume so soon after the publication of a Life of Bacon by the learned editor of the last collection of his writings. Without presuming to offer any remarks upon a work already submitted to public criticism, I venture to express a hope that the following pages will be found not altogether destitute of interest, nor even of novelty.

To those who are conversant with lord Bacon's works, it is well known that

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his valuable Letters contain many most interesting personal notices, strongly illustrative of his character:-these I have assiduously collected; and weaving them into the narrative of his life, have thus endeavoured to give it something of the nature and interest of autobiography. Such letters as are written from wise men,' (lord Bacon himself observes,) 'are of all the words of man, in my judgment, the best; for they are more natural than orations and public speeches, and more advised than conferences or present speeches. They are the best instructions for history, and, to a diligent reader, the best histories in themselves.'

Another object steadily kept in view, has been to give a popular, yet brief, ac

count of lord Bacon's principal works,— not a mere naked abstract, for that would present little or no attraction to the general reader; but an account illustrated, when necessary, with examples drawn from those splendid discoveries in science which have been made since the introduction of the Baconian System. Some remarks are likewise offered on the influence of lord Bacon's Philosophy upon the progress of knowledge, chiefly with the view of showing how destitute of foundation is the opinion, that it did not accelerate the advancement of science-an opinion, indeed, so glaringly erroneous, that it could scarcely have justified any consideration, had it not been broadly. and unhesitatingly avowed by sir Da

vid Brewster, in his late Life of New

ton.

The curious verses by lord Bacon, which will be found at page 297, were first printed in Farnaby's Florilegium Epigrammatum, etc., together with a Greek version, in rhyme, by that singularly gifted man, and published in 1629. They are not, I believe, inserted

in

any edition of Bacon's works, nor do any of his biographers appear to have been aware of their existence. Having unsuccessfully sought for the Florilegium in the Library of the British Museum, and several other extensive collections, I at length discovered, from a reference in the last excellent edition of Wood's Athena Oxonienses, that a copy was preserved in the Bodleian Library, from

which I have been favoured with a transcript both of Bacon's poem and Farnaby's version, through the courtesy and kindness of the reverend Dr. Bliss, of St. John's College, Oxford.

For the beautiful medal by Mr. Wyon, of the Mint, from which the head of Bacon in the title-page has been engraved, I am indebted to that gentleman; who obligingly directed a fresh impression to be struck, for the purpose of the present work.

LINCOLN'S INN,

June 30th, 1835.

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