sort, the proximate cause of death is, that the blood ceases to be either decarbonised or oxyginated, owing to the air-cells being, as it were, plastered over with a mucous, secreted by the membrane lining them, and which the debilitated patient is unable to expectorate.

He was buried near his mother in St. Michael's Church, St. Albans, according to his own express desire; and a monument of white marble, executed by an Italian artist, representing him in full portraiture, in his accustomed attitude of contemplation, with an inscription composed by sir Henry Wotton, was erected to his memory by his tried friend and secretary, sir Thomas Meautys,* who faithfully adhered to him through all his misfortunes; and, when dead, was laid at his master's feet.

* A beautiful engraving of St. Michael's Church and of Bacon's monument, is given in Mr. Montagu's edition of his works.

By his will, Bacon directed, that after his debts and legacies had been fully satisfied, the surplus should be laid out in the purchase of so much land of inheritance, as would be sufficient for the purpose of erecting and endowing two lectureships in natural philosophy and the sciences connected therewith, in either of the Universities, to be established by the advice of the bishops of Lincoln and Coventry. He had before imparted his intention to the bishop of Lincoln, in December, 1625, who highly ap proved of the plan, calling it a great and noble foundation, and a foot that would teach the age to come, to guess, in part, at the greatness of that Herculean mind which gave it existence.'* Lord Bacon's estate, however, was too much encumbered to realize so noble a design.

As to his person, concerning which the reader will naturally feel some curiosity, he

* Bacon's Works, vol. 15, p. 43.

is described by those who knew him well,* as of a middling stature; he had a spacious forehead, and piercing eye of a delicate, lively, hazel colour, which Dr. Harvey, the celebrated discoverer of the circulation of the blood, compared to the bright, beautiful eye of a viper; his countenance was indented, as if with age, before he was old; his presence was grave and comely.

He was noted for his lively wit and a marvellously strong and active memory. One of his contemporaries observes, † that his most casual talk deserved to be written, adding (as an illustration of his various knowledge) that he had heard him entertain a country lord in the proper terms relating to hawks and dogs, and at another time out-cant a

London surgeon. He delighted, whilst

meditating, to have music in the next room;

* Wilson's Life and Reign of James, in Bp. Kennet's Hist. vol. 2, p. 736; Aubrey, vol. 2, p. 226; Evelyn on Medals, p. 340.

+ Osborn's Works, p. 137, (tenth edit.)

memory.

and, according to the season of the year, had his table strewed with sweet herbs and flowers, which, he said, refreshed his spirits and In spring-time, when it rained, he would ride out in his open coach, to receive the benefit of irrigation, which, he was wont to say, was very wholesome, because of the nitre in the air; and not to omit even the most trifling peculiarity of so great a man, we may mention, that, before going to bed, Bacon would often drink a good draught of strong March-beer, to lay his working fancy asleep, which otherwise would keep him awake the greater part of the night.* Concerning his diet and the regimen of his health, Dr. Rawley, his chaplain, has observed, that, in his younger years, he used the finer and lighter sorts of meat, as fowls and such like; but afterwards preferred those of a stronger, more juicy, and nutritious nature. Every morning for

* Aubrey, vol. 2, pp. 223, 226, 235.

thirty years before his death, he took three grains of nitre in thin warm broth; and for physic, he commonly used, immediately before dinner or supper, a maceration of rhubarb infused into a draught of white wine and beer. His recipe for the gout, to which he refers in the first century of his Sylva Sylvarum, § 60, seldom failed him as a remedy.

*

Of the esteem in which Bacon was held by his contemporaries, no particular testimonies need be given; for, as Aubrey emphatically observes, All that were great and good loved and honoured him. He is destined,' says one whose splendid genius and scientific attainments entitled him to speak

+ See this recipe in Bacon's Works, vol. 7, p. 237, which differs very much from that used by his own physician, the celebrated Dr. Harvey; who, when he was troubled with the gout, would sit with his legs bare, if it were frost, on the leads of Cockaine house, put them into a pail of water, till he was almost dead with cold, and then betake himself to his stove, and so 'twas gone.'-Aubrey, vol. 2, p. 384.