Nec tanto ceres labore, it in fabulis est, liberam fertur quæsivisse filiam, quanto ego hanc ta xxnx id:29, veluti pulcherrimam quandam imaginem, per omnes rerum formas et facies: (rumani gaię uegozd tüv suurimor) dies noctesque indagare soleo, et quasi certis quibusdam vestigiis ducentem sector. Unde fit, ut qui, spretis quæ vulgus prava rerum æstimatione opinatur, id sentire et loqui et esse audet; quod summa per omne ævum sapientia optimum esse docuit, illi me protinus, sicubi reperiam, necessitate qualam adjungam. Quod si ego sive natura, sive meo fato ita sum comparatus, ut nulla contentione, et laboribus meis ad tale decus et fastigium laudis ipse valeam emergere; tamen quo minus qui eam gloriam assecuti sunt, aut eo feliciter aspirant, illos semper colam, et suspiciam, nec Dii puto, nec homines prohibuerint.

THIS LIFE OF FRANCIS BACON

19

INSCRIBED TO

THE REVEREND AND LEARNED MARTIN DAVY, D. D.,

MASTER OF CAIUS COLLEGE,

HENRY BICKERSTETH, CLEMENT T. SWANSTON,

GEORGE TUTHILL,

AND

TO THE MEMORY OF SAMUEL ROMILLY.

B. M.

LIFE OF BACON.

1560 to 1560.

CHAPTER I.

such parents, but also at that happy time - when

learning had inade her third circuit; when the art FROM HIS BIRTA TILL THE DEATH OF HIS FATHER. of printing gave books with a liberal hand to men

of all fortunes ; when the nation had emerged from

the dark superstitions of popery; when peace, Francis Bacon was born at York-House, in throughout all Europe, permitted the enjoyment the Strand, on the 22d of January, 1560. He was of foreign travel and free ingress to foreign schothe youngest son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, and of lars; and, above all, when a sovereign of the Anne, a daughter of the learned and contemplative highest intellectual attainments, at the same time Sir Anthony Cooke, tutor to King Edward the that she encouraged learning and learned men, Sixth.

gave an impulse to the arts, and a chivalric and Of Sir Nicholas, it has been said that he was a refined tone to the manners of the people.” man full of wit and wisdom, a learned lawyer, and Bacon's health was always delicate, and his a true gentleman; of a mind the most comprehen- temperament was of such sensibility, as to be sive to surround the merits of a cause; of a me- affected, even to fainting, by very slight alteramory to recollect its least circumstance;o of the tions in the atmosphere; a constitutional infirmity deepest search into affairs of any man at the which seems to have attended him through life. council table, and of a personal dignity so well While he was yet a child, the signs of genius, suited to his other excellencies, that his royal for which he was in after life distinguished, could mistress was wont to say, “ My lord keeper's not have escaped the notice of his intelligent soul is well lodged.”

parents. They must have been conscious of his He was still more fortunate in the rare qualities extraordinary powers, and of their responsibility of his mother, for Sir Anthony Cooke, acting upon that, upon the right direction of his mind, his his favourite opinion then very prevalent, that wo- future eminence, whether as a statesman or as a men were as capable of learning as men, carefully philosopher, almost wholly depended. instructed his daughters every evening, in the He was cradled in politics; he was not only lessons which he had taught the king during the the son of the lord keeper, but the nephew of day; and amply were his labours rewarded; for Lord Burleigh. He had lived from his infancy he lived to see all his daughters happily married ; amidst the nobility of the reign of Elizabeth, who and Lady Anne distinguished, not only for her was herself delighted, even in his childhood, to conjugal and maternal virtues, but renowned as converse with him, and to prove him with quesan excellent scholar, and the translator, from the tions, which he answered with a maturity above Italian, of various sermons of Ochinus, a learned his years, and with such gravity that the queen divine; and, from the Latin, of Bishop Jewel's would often call him her young lord keeper. Apologia, recommended by Archbishop Parker Upon the queen's asking him, when a child, for general use.s

how old he was, he answered, “two years younger It was his good fortune not only to be born of than your majesty's happy reign.” : “He who cannot contract his sight as well as dilate it, higher nature. When a boy, while his compa

But there were dawnings of genius of a much wanteth a great faculty;" says Lord Bacon.

She translated from the Italian fourteen sermons con- nions were diverting themselves near to his facerning the predestination and election of God, without date, 8vo. See Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica, title, Ochinus | ther's house in St. James's Park, he stole to the and Anne Cooke.-N.B. There is a publication entitled, brick conduit to discover the cause of a singular * Sermons to the number of twenty-five, concerning the predestination." London: Printed by J. Day, without date, * See Bacon's beautiful conclusion of Civil Knowledge, in 8v0.-Query, If by Lady Bacon?

the Advancement of Learning, p. 000. 3 Ochinus Barnardin, an Italian monk of extraordinary • See Paradise Regained, b. i. “When I was yet a child," merit, born at Sienna, 1487. Died 1594. Watts (8. A.)

“I saw thee seek the sounding shore, Jewel's Apologia translated by Anne Bacon, 1600, 1606, 1609, &c.-See Beattie's Minstrel: “Baubles he heeded not, Fol. 1626, 12mo. 1685, 1719, 8vo. See Watts, tit." Jewel.”

(12)

&c.-- See Burns :

&c.

VOL. 1.-(3)

echo;t and, in his twelfth year he was meditating both admitted of Trinity College, under the care upon the laws of the imagination.3

of Dr. John Whitgift,* a friend of the lord keepAt the early age of thirteen, it was resolved to er's, then master of the college, afterwards Archsend him to Cambridge, of which university, he, bishop of Canterbury, and distinguished through with his brother Anthony, was matriculated as a life, not only for his piety, but for his great learnmember, on the 10th of June, 1573.3 They were ing, and unwearied exertions to promote the public

good. 1 The laws of sound were always a subject of his

What must have passed in his youthful, thoughts. In the third century of the Sylva, he says, “we ise laboured, as may appear, in this inquisition of sounds thoughtful, ardent mind, at this eventful moment, diligently; both because sound is one of the most hidden portions of nature, and because it is a virtue which may be when he first quitted his father's house to engage Clied incorporeal and immateriate, whereof there be in 'na- in active life? What must have been his feelture but few."

A one of the facts, he says in his Sylva Sylvarum, (Art. ings when he approached the university, and saw, 144) There is in St. James's fields a conduit of brick, unto in the distance, the lofty spires, and towers, and Whh joineth a low vault; and at the end of that a round mure of stone; and in the brick conduit there is a window; venerable walls, raised by intellect and piety,

; and in the round house a slit or rift of some little breadth: if you cry out in the rift, it will make a fearful roaring at the

6 and hollowed by the shrines where the works from inore narrow to more broad, do amplify the sound at and by the labours of the mighty living, with

W. The cause is, for that all concaves, that proceed of the mighty dead are preserved and reposed,5 till sing out.

a in the tenth century of the Sylva, after having enume- joint forces directing their strength against nature rited many of the idle imaginations by which the world then wand, more or less, always will be, misled, he says, herself, to take her high towers, and dismantle "With these vast and bottomless follies meo have been in her fortified holds, and thus enlarge the borders por: ertertained. But we, that hold firm to the works of Gosil, and to the sense, which is God's lamp, lucerna Dei spi- of man's dominion, so far as Almighty God of his ?i n'r'm hominis, wil inquire with all sobriety and serverity, goodness shall permit ?":6 Wiether there be to be found in the footsteps of nature, any Bulele transmission and intlux of immateriate virtues : and at the force of imagination is, either upon the body ima- of heaven, or the springs of the earth, doth scatter

“ As water,” he says, “ whether it be the dew gut, or upon another body."

It hen proceeds to state the different kinds of the power and lose itself in the ground, except it be collected Tidlagination, saying it is in three kinds : the first, upon the od of the imaginant, including likewise the child in the mo- into some receptacle, where it may by union Is vomb; the second is, the power of it upon dead bodies; comfort and sustain itself, and for that cause the its polnils, wood, stone, metal, &c.; the third is, the power of 1 slot the spirits of men and living creatures; and with this industry of man hath made and framed spring

! !V will only meddle.

* problem therefore is, whether a man constantly and heads, conduits, cisterns, and pools, which men tromly believing that such a thing shall be ; as that such a have accustomed likewise to beautify and adorn

i love him; or that such a one will grant him his re

*, or that such a one shall recover a sickness, or the with accomplishments of magnificence and state, 1, i doth belp any thing to the effecting of the thing as well as of use and necessity; so this excellent

the solution of this problem he, according to his custom, liquor of knowledge, whether it descend from en rates a variety of instances, and, among others, the divine inspiration, or spring from human sense, Domoving fact, which occurred to him when a child, for he left his father's house when he was thirteen.

would soon perish and vanish to oblivion, if it were For example, he says, I related one time to a man, that was euritis and vain enough in these things, that I saw a kind not preserved in books, traditions, conferences, and ou ler, that had a pair of cards, and would tell a man places appointed; as universities, colleges, and 11.cit card he thought. This pretended learned man told me, List was a mistaking in me; for, said he, it was not the schools, for the receipt and comforting of the knowledge of man's thought, (for that is proper to God,) but

same. All tending to quietness and privateness it was the enforcing of a thought upon him, and binding his 11. 19:ation by a stronger, that he could think no other card. of life, and discharge of cares and troubles; much thought he did but cunningly, knowing before what used to like the stations which Virgil prescribeth for the be he feats of the juggler. Sir, said he, do you remember hiving of bees: W3rier he told the card the man thought himself, or bade 3111!: r to tell it. I answered, (as was true,) that he bade

Principio sedes a pibus statioque petenda, another tell it. Whereunto he said, so I thought ; for, said

Quo neque sit ventis aditus, etc. be, huself could not have put on so strong an imagination, but by telling the other the card, who believed that the juga mler was some strange man, and could do strange things, * See the Biog. Brit. In 1565, Whitgift so distinguished that ther man caught a strong imagination. I hearkened himself in the pulpit, that the lord keeper recommended him unti bim, thinking for a vanity he spoke prettily. Then he to the queen. uni me another question; saith he, do you remember whe- 3 But the works touching books are chiefly two; first, Libra

17!. bade the man think the card first, and afterwards ries, wherein, as in famous shrines, the relics of the all101, the other man in his ear what he should think, or else cient saints, full of virtue, are reposed. Secondly, New Edi12 did whisper first in the man's ear, that he should tell tions of Authors, with correct impressions; more faithful the rird, telling that such a man should think such a card, Translations, more profitable glosses, more diligent annotations; and after bade the man think a card: I told him, as was with the like train furnished and adorned. true, what he did first whisper the man in the ear, that such In a letter to Sir Thomas Bodley, he says, "and the second a man should think such a card; upon this the learned man copy I have sent unto you, not only in good affection, but in Cuch exult, and please himself, saying, lo, you may see a kind of congruity, in regard of your great and rare desert the my opinion is right ; for if the man had thought first, his of learning. For books are the shrines where the saint is, or It had been fixed; but the other imagining first, bound is believed to be. And you, having built an ark to save his all ught. Which, though it did somewhat sink with me, learning from deluge, deserve propriety in any new instruyell made lighter than I thought, and said, I thought it was ment or engine, wliereby learning should be improved or adconcracy between the juggler and the two servants ; vanced."-Steph. 19. th, indeed, I had no reason so to think; for they were Nor doth our trumpet summon, and encourage men to tochiny father's servants, and he had never played in the tear and rend one another with contradictions; and in a civil 1. before.

rage to bear arms, and wage war against themselves; but • A!i. 1573, June 10. Antonius Bacon Coll. Trin. Convict. rather, a peace concluded between them, they may with a missus in matriculam Acad. Cantabr.

joint force direct their strength against Nature herself; and Franciscus Bacon Loll. Trin. Convict. i. admissus in ma