Remains The Lord Bacon's Questions about the Lawfulness of a War for the Propagating of Religion Questions wherein I desire Opinion joyned with Arguments and Authorities WHether a War be lawful against Infidels only for the Propagation of the Christian Faith without other cause of Hostility Whether a War be lawful to recover to the Church Countries which formerly have been Christian though now Alienate and Christians utterly extirped Whether a War be lawful to free and deliver Christians that yet remain in Servitude and subjection to Infidels Whether a War be lawful in Revenge or Vindication of Blasphemy and Reproaches against the Deity and our Saviour or for the ancient effusion of Christian Blood and Cruelties upon Christians Whether a War be lawful for the Restoring and purging of the Holy Land the Sepulchre and other principal places of Adoration and Devotion Whether in the Cases aforesaid it be not Obligatory to Christian Princes to make such a War and not permissive only Whether the making of a War against the Infidels be not first in order of Dignity and to be preferr'd before extirpations of Heresies reconcilements of Schisms reformation of Manners pursuits of just Temporal Quarrels and the like Actions for the Publick Good except there be either a more urgent Necessity or a more evident Facility in those Inferior Actions or except they may both go on together in some Degree Two Prayers compos'd by Sir Francis Bacon Baron of Verulam and Viscount of St. Albans The First Prayer called by his Lordship The Student's Prayer TO God the Father God the Word God the Spirit we pour forth most humble and hearty Supplications that He remembring the Calamities of Mankind and the Pilgrimage of this our Life in which we wear out Days few and evil would please to open to us new Refreshments out of the Fountains of his Goodness for the alleviating of our Miseries This also we humbly and earnestly beg that Humane things may not prejudice such as are Divine neither that from the unlocking of the Gates of Sense and the kindling of a greater Natural Light any thing of Incredulity or Intellectual Night may arise in our Minds towards Divine Mysteries But rather that by our Mind throughly cleansed and purged from Phancy and Vanities and yet subject and perfectly given up to the Divine Oracles there may be given unto Faith the things that are Faith's Amen The Second Prayer called by his Lordship The Writer's Prayer THou O Father who gavest the Visible Light as the First-born of thy Creatures and didst pour into Man the Intellectual Light as the top and consummation of thy Workmanship be pleased to protect and govern this Work which coming from thy Goodness returneth to thy Glory Thou after Thou hadst review'd the Works which thy Hands had made beheldest that every Thing was very Good and Thou didst rest with Complacencie in them But Man reflecting on the Works which he had made saw that all was Vanity and vexation of Spirit and could by no means acquiesee in them Wherefore if we labour in thy Works with the sweat of our Brows Thou wilt make us partakers of thy Vision and thy Sabbath We humbly beg that this Mind may be stedfastly in us and that Thou by our Hands and also by the Hands of others on whom Thou shalt bestow the same Spirit wilt please to conveigh a largeness of new Alms to thy Family of Mankind These things we commend to Thy everlasting Love by our Iesus thy Christ God with us Amen Baconiana Bibliographica OR CERTAIN REMAINS OF THE LORD BACON Concerning His Writings To these are added Letters and Discourses by others upon the same Argument In which also are contained some Remarks concerning his Life LONDON Printed for R. C. at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard 1679. Remains Bibliographical Written by the Lord Bacon HIMSELF The Lord Chancellor Bacon's Letter to the Queen of Bohemia * Inâ—he year 1625. in Answer to one from her Majesty and upon sending to her his Book about a War with Spain It may please your Majesty IHave received your Majesties Gracious Letter from Mr. Secretary Morton who is now a Saint in Heaven It was at a time when the great Desolation of the Plague was in the City and when my self was ill of a dangerous and tedious Sickness The first time that I found any degree of Health nothing came sooner to my Mind than to acknowledg your Majesties great Favour by my most humble Thanks And because I see your Majesty taketh delight in my Writings and to say truth they are the best Fruits I now yield I presume to send your Majesty a little Discourse of mine touching a War with Spain which I writ about two Years since which the King your Brother liked well It is written without Bitterness or Invective as Kings Affairs ought to be carried But if I be not deceived it hath Edge enough I have yet some Spirits left and remnant of Experience which I consecrate to the King's Service and your Majestie 's for whom I pour out my daily Prayers to God that he would give your Majesty a Fortune worthy your rare Vertues Which some good Spirit tells me will be in the end I do in all reverence kiss your Majestie 's Hands ever resting Your Majestie 's most humble and devoted Servant Francis St. Alban A Letter of the Lord Bacon's to the University of Cambridg upon his sending to their Public Library his Book of the Advancement of Learning Franciscus Baro de Verulamio Vicecomes Sancti Albani Almae Matri inclytae Academiae Cantabrigiensi Salutem DEbita Filii qualia possum persolvo Quod verò facio idem â—vos hortor ut Augmentis Scientiarum strenuè incumbatis in Animi modestiâ— libertatem ingenii retineatis neque Talentum à veteribus concreditum in sudario reponatis Affuerit proculdubiò Affulserit divini Luminis Gratia si humiliatâ submissâ Religioni Philosophiâ Clavibus sensûs ligitimè dextrè utamini amoto omni contradictionis studio quisque cum Alio ac si ipse secum disputet Valete The same in English by the Publisher Francis Baron of Verulam and Viscount of St. Albans to the Indulgent Mother the famous University of Cambridg Health I Here repay you according to my Ability the Debts of a Son I exhort you also to do the same thing with my self That is to bend your whole might towards the Advancement of the Sciences and to retain freedom of Thought together with humility of Mind and not to suffer the Talent which the Ancients have deposited with you to lie dead in a Napkin Doubtless the favour of the Divine Light will be present and shine amongst you if Philosophy being submitted to Religion you lawfully and dextrously use the Keys of Sense and if all study of Opposition being laid aside every one of you so dispute with another as if he were arguing with himself Fare ye well A Letter of the
have truly laid open so looking up to your Majesty 's own self I should think I committed Cain's fault if I should despair Your Majesty is a King whose Heart is as unscrutable for secret motions of Goodness as for depth of Wisdom You are Creator-like Factive and not Destructive You are the Prince in whom hath been ever noted an aversation against any thing that savoured of an hard Heart as on the other side your Princely Eye was wont to meet with any motion that was made on the relieving part Therefore as one that hath had the happiness to know your Majesty near hand I have most Gracious Sovereign Faith enough for a Miracle much more for a Grace that your Majesty will not suffer your poor Creature to be utterly defaced nor blot that Name quite out of your Book upon which your Sacred Hand hath been so oft for new Ornaments and Additions Unto this degree of compassion I hope God above of whose Mercy towards me both in my Prosperity and Adversity I have had great Testimonies and Pledges though mine own manifold and wretched unthankfulnesses might have averted them will dispose your Princely Heart already prepared to all Piety And why should I not think but that thrice Noble Prince who would have pulled me out of the Fire of a Sentence will help to pull me if I may use that homely phrase out of the Mire of an abject and sordid condition in my last days And that excellent Favorite of yours the goodness of whose Nature contendeth with the greatness of his Fortune and who counteth it a Prize a second Prize to be a good Friend after that Prize which he carrieth to be a good Servant will kiss your Hands with joy for any Work of Piety you shall do for me And as all commiserable Persons especially such as find their Hearts void of all malice are apt to think that all Men pity them I assure my self that the Lords of your Council who out of their Wisdom and Nobleness cannot but be sensible of humane Events will in this way which I go for the Relief of my Estate further and advance your Majesty's Goodness towards me For there is as I conceive a kind of Fraternity between Great Men that are and those that have been being but the several Tenses of one Verb. Nay I do further presume that both Houses of Parliament will love their Justice the better if it end not in my ruin For I have been often told by many of my Lords as it were in excusing the severity of the Sentence that they knew they left me in good Hands And your Majesty knoweth well I have been all my life long acceptable to those Assemblies not by flattery but by moderation and by honest expressing of a desire to have all things go fairly and well But if it may please your Majesty for Saints I shall give them Reverence but no Adoration my Address is to your Majesty the Fountain of Goodness your Majesty shall by the Grace of God not feel that in Gift which I shall extreamly feel in Help For my Desires are moderate and my Courses measured to a Life orderly and reserved hoping still to do your Majesty honour in my way Only I most humbly beseech your Majesty to give me leave to conclude with those words which Necessity speaketh Help me dear Sovereign Lord and Master and pity me so far as I that have born a Bag be not now in my Age forced in effect to bear a Wallet nor I that desire to live to study may not be driven to study to live I most humbly crave pardon of a long Letter after a long silence God of Heaven ever bless preserve and prosper your Majesty Your Majesties poor ancient Servant and Beadsman Fr. St. Alb. Certain Apothegms of the Lord Bacon's hitherto unpublished 1. PLutarch said well It is otherwise in a Common-wealth of Men than of Bees The Hive of a City or Kingdom is in best condition when there is least of noise or Buzze in it 2. The same Plutarch said of Men of weak Abilities set in Great Place that they were like little Statues set on great Bases made to appear the less by their Advancement 3. He said again Good Fame is like Fire When you have kindled it you may easily preserve it but if once you extinguish it you will not easily kindle it again at least not make it burn as bright as it did 4. The Answer of Apollonius to Vespasian is full of excellent * This Apothegm is also found in his Essay of Empire P. 107 Instruction Vespasian asked him What was Nero's overthrow He answered Nero could touch and tune the Harp well but in Government sometimes he used to wind the Pins too high sometimes to let them down too low And certain it is that nothing destroyeth Authority so much as the unequal and untimely enterchange of Power pressed too far and relaxed too much 5. Queen Elizabeth seeing Sir Edward in her Garden look'd out at her Window and asked him in Italian What does a Man think of when he thinks of nothing Sir Edward who had not had the effect of some of the Queen's Grants so soon as he had hop'd and desir'd paused a little and then made answer Madam He thinks of a Woman's Promise The Queen shrunk in her Head but was heard to say Well Sir Edward I must not confute you Anger makes dull Men witty but it keeps them poor 6. When any Great Officer Ecclesiastical or Civil was to be made the Queen would enquire after the Piety Integrity Learning of the Man And when she was satisfied in these Qualifications she would consider of his Personage And upon such an Occasion she pleas'd once to say to me Bacon How can the Magistrate maintain his Authority when the Man is despis'd 7. In Eighty Eight when the Queen went from Temple-Bar along Fleetstreet the Lawyers were rank'd on one side and the Companies of the City on the other said Master Bacon to a Lawyer that stood next him do but observe the Courtiers If they bow first to the Citizens they are in Debt if first to us they are in Law 8. King Iames was wont to be very earnest with the Country Gentlemen to go from London to their Country Houses And sometimes he would say thus to them Gentlemen at London you are like Ships in a Sea which show like nothing but in your Country Villages you are like Ships in a River which look like great things 9. Soon after the death of a great Officer who was judged no advancer of the King's Matters the King said to his Sollicitor Bacon who was his Kinsman Now tell me truly what say you of your Cousin that is gone Mr. Bacon answered Sir since your Majesty doth charge me I 'le e'ne deal plainly with you and give you such a character of him as if I were to write his Story I do think he was no fit Counsellor to make your
cherish'd the hopeful Parts of Mr. Bacon who also studied his Fortunes and Service Yet Mr. Bacon himself where he professeth his unwillingness to be short in the commemoration of the favours of that Earl is in this great one perfectly silent n Bacon's Apol. conc the Eaerl of Essex p. 54 55. But there is in his Apologie another Story which may seem to have given to Mr. Bushel the occasion of his Mistake After the Queen had deny'd to Mr. Bacon the Solicitor's Place for the which the Earl of Essex had been a long and earnest suitor on his behalf it pleased that Earl to come to him from Richmond to Twicknam-Park and thus to break with him Mr. Baconâ— the Queen hath deny'd me the Place for you you fare ill because you have chosen me for your Mean and Dependance You have spent your thoughts and time in my Matters I die if I do not do somewhat towards your Fortune You shall not deny to accept a piece of Land which I will bestow upon you And it was it seems so large a piece that he under-sold it for no less than Eighteen Hundred Pounds His Third Invention was a kind of Mechanical Index of the Mind And of this Mr. Bushel o In his Extract p. 17 18. hath given us the following Narrative and Description His Lordship presented to Prince Henry Two Triangular Stones as the First-fruits of his Philosophy to imitate the Sympathetical Motion of the Load-stone and Iron although made up by the Compounds of Meteors as Star-shot Jelly and other like Magical Ingredients with the reflected Beams of the Sun on purpose that the warmth distill'd into them through the moist heat of the Hand might discover the affection of the Heart by a visible sign of their Attraction and Appetite to each other like the hand of a Watch within ten Minutes after they are laid on a Marble Table or the Theatre of a great Looking-Glass I write not this as a feigned Story but as a real Truth for I was never quiet in my Mind till I had procured these Jewels of my Lord's Philosophy from Mr. Archy Primrose the Prince's Page Of this I find nothing either in his Lordship's Experiments p Nat. Hist. Cent. 10. Exp. 939. c. p. 205. touching Emission or Immateriate Virtues from the Minds and Spirits of Men or in those concerning the secret Virtue of Sympathy and Antipathy q Ibid. Exp. 960. c. p. 211. Wherefore I forbear to speak further in an Argument about which I am so much in the dark I proceed to subjects upon which I can speak with much more assurance his Inimitable Writings Now of the Works of the Lord Bacon many are extant and some are lost in whole or in part His Abecedarium Naturae is in part lost and there remaineth nothing of it besides the Fragment lately retrieved and now first publish'd But this loss is the less to be lamented because it is made up with advantage in the second and better thoughts of the Author in the two first Parts of his Instauration The World hath sustain'd a much greater loss in his Historia Gravis Levis which I fear is wholly perished It is true he had gone no further than the general Delineation of this Work but those Out-lines drawn by so great an Artist would have much directed others in describing those important Phenomena of Nature Also his Collection of Wise and Acute Sentences entituled by him Ornamenta Rationalia is either wholly lost or in some obscure place committed to Moths and Cobwebs But this is here in some sort supplied partly out of his own Works and partly out of those of one of the Ancients Lost likewise is a Book which he wrote in his Youth he call'd it Temporis Partus Maximus r See the Eâ—ist to Fulgen. the Greatest Birth of Time Or rather Temporis Partus Masculus the Masculine Birth of Time For so Gruter found it call'd in some of the Papers of Sir William Boswel s See the Page afâ—er the Title of Scripta Philosophica This was a kind of Embrio of the Instauration and if it had been preserved it might have delighted and profited Philosophical Readers who could then have seen the Generation of that great Work as it were from the first Egg of it Of those Works of the Lord Bacon's which are Extant some he left imperfect that he might pursue his Design in others As the New Atlantis Some he broke off on purpose being contented to have set others on-wards in their way as The Dialogue of a Holy War In some he was prevented by Death as in the History of Henry the Eighth Of some he despaired as of the Philosophia Prima of which he left but some few Axioms And lastly some he perfected as some parts of the Great Instauration And amongst all his Works that of his Instauration deserveth the first place He thought so himself saying to Dr. Andrews then Lord Bishop of Winchester t In Epist. Dedic before his Advertisement touching a holy War This is the Work which in my own judgment Si nunquam fallit Imago I do most esteem In this Work he designed to take in pieces the former Model of Sciences to lay aside the rotten Materials to give it a new Form and much Enlargement and to found it not upon Imagination but Reason helped by Experience This Great Instauration was to consist of Six Parts The First Part proposed was the Partitions of the Sciences And this the Author perfected in that Golden Treatise of the Advancement of Learning addressed to King Iames a Labour which he termed u In his Letter to Sir T. Bodley p. 34. Resus the comfort of his other Labours This he first wrote in two Books in the English Tongue in which his Pen excelled And of this First Edition that is to be meant which with some Truth and more Modesty he wrote to the Earl of Salisbury telling him w In a Letter in Resusc. p. 31. That in his Book he was contented to awake better Spirits being himself like a Bell-ringer who is first up to call others to Church Afterwards he enlargeth the Second of those Two Discourses which contained especially the abovesaid Partition and divided the Matter of it into Eight Books And knowing that this Work was desired beyond the Seas and being also aware that Books written in a modern Language which receiveth much change in a few Years were out of use he caus'd that part of it which he had written in English to be translated into the Latine Tongue by Mr. Herbert and some others who were esteemed Masters in the Roman Eloquence Notwithstanding which he so suted the Style to his Conceptions by a strict Castigation of the whole Work that it may deservedly seem his own The Translation of this Work that is of much of the Two Books written by him in English he first commended to Dr. Playfer
a Professour of Divinity in the University of Cambridg using amongst others these words to him The x Collect of Letters in Resusc. p. 33 34. privateness of the Language considered wherein the Book is written excluding so many Readers as on the other side the obscurity of the Argument in many parts of it excludeth many others I must account it a second Birth of that Work if it might be translated into Latine without manifest loss of the Sence and Matter For this purpose I could not represent to my self any Man into whose hands I do more earnestly desire that Work should fall than your Self For by that I have heard and read I know no Man a greater Master in commanding Words to serve Matter The Doctor was willing to serve so Excellent a Person and so worthy a Design and within a while sent him a Specimen of a Latine Translation But Men generally come short of themselves when they strive to out-doe themselves They put a force upon their Natural Genius and by straining of it crack and disable it And so it seems it happened to that Worthy and Elegant Man Upon this great Occasion he would be over-accurate and he sent a Specimen of such superfine Latinity that the Lord Bacon did not encourage him to labour further in that Work in the penning of which he desired not so much neat and polite as clear Masculine and apt Expression The whole of this Book was rendred 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 sute to you and we do earnestly solicit you to give your self the Trouble to correct the too much defective Translation of de Augmentis Scientiarum which Dr. Watts hath set 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 Latine Edition are thereby robbed of that benefit which if you would please to undertake the Business they might receive This tendeth to the dishonour of that Noble Lord and the hindrance of the Advancement of Learning 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 in one place he makes his Lordship to magnifie the Legend A Book sure of little Credit with him when he thus began one of his Essays * Essay of Atheism 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 The fairest and most correct Edition of this Book in Latine is that in Folio printed at London Anno 1623. And whosoever would understand the Lord Bacon's Cypher y In l. 6. c. 1. 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 Mysterie consisteth is not observed But the Roman and Italic shapes of them are confounded To this Book we may reduce the first four Chapters of that imperfect Treatise published in Latine by Isaac Gruter z Inter Scripta Philos. fol. 75. and called The Description of the Intellectual Globe they being but a rude draught of the Partition of the Sciences so accurately and methodically disposed in this Book of the Advancement of Learning To this Work also we may reduce the Treatise called Thema Coeli published likewise in Latine by Gruter And it particularly belongeth to the Fourth Chapter and the Third Book of it as being a Discourse tending to an improvement of the System of the Heavens which is treated of in that place the Houses of which had God granted him life he would have understood as well almost as he did his own For the same Reason we may reduce to the same place of the Advancement the Fifth Sixth and Seventh Chapters of the Descriptio Globi Intellectualis above remembred a See Verulam's Scripta Philos. p. 90 c. The Second Part of his Great Instauration and so considerable a part of it that the Name of the whole is given to it is his Novum Organum Scientiarum written by himself in the Latine Tongue and printed also most beautifully and correctly in Folio at London b 1620. and in 2dâ— part Res. part of this Orga. is publ in an Engl. Version This Work he Dedicated to King Iames with the following Excuse That if he had stolen any time for the Composure of it from his Majestie 's other Affairs he had made some sort of Restitution by doing Honour to his Name and his Reign The King wrote to him then Chancellor a Letter of thanks with his own Hand c Dated Octob. 16. 1620. See Collect. of Letters in Resusc. p. 83. and this was the first part of it My Lord I have received your Letter and your Book than the which you could not have sent a more acceptable Present to me How thankful I am for it cannot better be expressed by me than by a firm Resolution I have taken First to read it through with Care and Attention though I should steal some Hours from my Sleep having otherwise as little spare Time to read it as you had to write it And then to use the liberty of a true Friend in not sparing to ask you the question in any Point whereof I stand in doubt Nam ejus est explicare cujus est condere as on the other part I will willingly give a due commendation to such Places as in my Opinion shall deserve it In the mean time I can with comfort assure you that you could not have made choice of a Subject more befitting your Place and your Universal and Methodical Knowledg Three Copies of this Organum were sent by the Lord Bacon to Sir Henry Wotton one who took a pride as himself saith in a certain Congeniality with his Lordship's Studies And how very much he valued the Present we may learn from his own words You Lordship said he * Sir H. Wotton ' s Remains p. 298 299. hath done a great and ever-living Benefit to all the Children of Nature and to Nature her self in her uttermost extent of Latitude Who never before had so noble nor so true an Interpreter or as I am readier to style your Lordship never so inward a Secretary of her Cabinet But of your Work which came but this Week to my hands I shall find occasion to speak
more hereafter having yet read only the First Book thereof and a few Aphorisms of the Second For it is not a Banquet that Men may superficially taste and put up the rest in their Pockets but in truth a solid Feast which requireth due Mastication Therefore when I have once my self perused the whole I determine to have it read piece by piece at certain Hours in my Domestic College as an Ancient Author For I have learned thus much by it already that we are extremely mistaken in the Computation of Antiquity by searching it backwards because indeed the first Times were the youngest especially in points of Natural Discovery and Experience This Novum Organum containeth in it Instructions concerning a better and more perfect use of Reason in our Inquisitions after things And therefore the Second Title which he gave it was Directions concerning Interpretations of Nature And by this Art he designed a Logick more useful than the Vulgar and an Organon apter to help the Intellectual Powers than that of Aristotle For he proposed here not so much the Invention of Arguments as of Arts and in Demonstration he used Induction more than Contentious Syllogism and in his Induction he did not straightway proceed from a few particular Sensible Notions to the most general of all but raised Axioms by degrees designing the most general Notions for the last place and insisting on such of them as are not merely Notional but coming from Nature do also lead to her This Book containeth Three Parts The Preface the Distribution of the Work of the Great Instauration Aphorisms guiding to the Interpretation of Nature The Preface considereth the present unhappy state of Learning together with Counsels and Advices to advance and improve it To this Preface therefore are to be reduced the Indicia and the Proem in Gruter d Script p. 285. 479. concerning the Interpretation of Nature the First Book de Augmentis Scientiarum which treateth generally of their Dignity and Advancement and his Lordship ' s Cogitata Visa e Pub. by Gruter among the Scripta written by him in Latine without Intention of making them publick in that Form and sent to Dr. Andrews f Annâ— 1607. see Resusc. p. 35. as likewise to Sir Thomas Bodely with a desire to receive their Censures and Emendations The latter returned him a free and friendly Judgment of this Work in a large and learned Letter published in the Cabala in the English Tongue and by Gruter in the Latine g Inter Scripta Philos. p. 62. The like perhaps was done by the former though his Answer be not extant To the Distribution belongeth that Latine Fragment in Gruter h Inter Scripta p. 293. called The Delineation and Argument of the Second Part of the Instauration So doth that i Pag. 208. of the Philosophy of Parmenides and Telesius and especially Democritus For as he sheweth in the beginning of that Part he designed first to consider the Learning of which the World was possessed and then to perfect that and that being done to open new Ways to further Discoveries To the Aphorisms is reducible his Letter to Sir Henry Savil touching Helps for the Intellectual Powers written by his Lordship in the English k Reusc p 225 â— Tongue A part of Knowledg then scarce broken l 〈…〉 â— late Sâ—â—noza on that Subject Men believing that Nature was here rather to be follow'd than guided by Art and as necessary in his Lordship's Opinion as the grinding and whetting of an Instrument or the quenching it and giving it a stronger Temper Also there belong to this place the Fragment call'd Aphorismi Consilia de Auxiliis mentis And Sententiae Duodecim de Interpretatione Naturae both published by Gruter in the Latine Tongue in which his Lordship wrote them m See Script p. 448 451. In the bringing this Labour to Maturity he used great and deliberate Care insomuch that Dr. n D. R in Life of Lord Bacon Rawley saith he had seen Twelve Copies of it revised Year by Year one after another and every Year alter'd and amended in the Frame thereof till at last it came to the Model in which it was committed to the Press It was like a mighty Pyramid long in its Erection and it will probably be like to it in its Continuance Now he received from many parts beyond the Seas Testimonies touching this Work such as beyond which he could not he saith * In Epi. to Bishop Andrews expect at the first in so abstruse an Argument yet nevertheless he saith again he had just cause to doubt that it flew too high over Mens Heads He purpos'd therefore though he broke the order of Time to draw it down to the sense by some Patterns of Natural Story and Inquisition And so he proceeded to The Third Part of the Instauration which he called the Phaenomena of the Vniverse or the History Natural and Experimental subservient to the building of a true Philosophy This Work consisteth of several Sections The First is his Parasceve or Preparatory to the History Natural and Experimental It is a short Discourse written in Latine by the Author and annexed to the Novum Organum Scientiarum There is delivered in it in Ten Aphorisms the general manner of framing a Natural History After which followeth a Catalogue of particular Histories of Coelestial and Aereal Bodies and of those in the Terrestrial Globe with the Species of them Such as Metals Gems Stones Earths Salts Plants Fishes Fowls Insects Man in his Body and in his Inventions mechanic and liberal A late Pen has travelled in the Translation of this little Description of Natural History and it is extant in the Second Part of the Resuscitation To this Parasceve it is proper to reduce the Fragment of the Abecedarium Naturae and a short Discourse written in Latine by his Lordship and published by Gruter n Seâ— Ver. 〈◊〉 Phil. p. 323. It being what also its Title shews a Preface to the Phaenomena of the Vniverse or The Natural History Neither do we here unfitly place the Fable of the New Atlantis For it is the Model of a College to be Instituted by some King who philosophizeth for the Interpreting of Nature and the Improving of Arts. His Lordship did it seems think of finishing this Fable by adding to it a Frame of Laws or a kind of Vtopian Commonwealth but he was diverted by his desire of Collecting the Natural History which was first in his esteem This Supplement has been lately made by another Hand o See R. H. contin of N. Atlantis Octo. Lon. 1660. A great and hardy Adventure to finish a Piece after the Lord Verulam's Pencil This Fable of the New Atlantis in the Latine Edition of it and in the Franckfort Collection goeth under the false and absurd Title of Novus Atlas As if his Lordship had alluded to a Person or a Mountain and not to a great
the Laws of England But other Studies together with want of Time and Assistance prevented the ripening of these Thoughts Now his Lordship's Writings in this Argument of Civil Polity are either more General or such as have more Especial respect to the several Dominions of the King of England His Political Writings of a more general Nature are his Apothegms and Essays besides the Excerpta out of the Advancement above remembred Both these contain much of that Matter which we usually call Moral distinguishing it from that which is Civil In the handling of which sort of Argument his Lordship has been esteemed so far to excel that he hath had a Comment written on him as on an Author in Ethics f See V. Placcii Comment in l. 7. Aug. Scient de Philosophiâ Morali augendâ in Octavo Franc. an 1677. and an Advancer of that most useful part of Learning Notwithstanding which I am bold to put these Books under this Head of Matter Political Both because they contain a greater portion of that Matter and because in true Philosophy the Doctrine of Politics and Ethics maketh up but one Body and springeth from one Root the End of God Almighty in the Government of the World The Apothegms of which the first g Apoth printed in Oct. Lon. 1625. is the best Edition were what he saith also h See his Epistle to Bishop Andrews of his Essays but as the Recreations of his other Studies They were dictated one Morning out of his Memory and if they seem to any a Birth too inconsiderable for the Brain of so great a Man they may think with themselves how little a time he went with it and from thence make some allowance Besides his Lordship hath receiv'd much Injury by late Editions i Even by that added but not by Dr. Rawley to the Resuscitatio 〈◊〉 3d. of which some have much enlarged but not at all enriched the Collection stuffing it with Tales and Sayings too infacetiou◠for a Ploughman's Chimney-Corner And particularly in the Collection not long since publish'd k In Octavo Lon. 1669. and call'd The Apothegms of King James King Charles the Marquess of Worcester the Lord Bacon and Sir Thomas Moor his Lordship is dealt with very rudely For besides the addition of Insipid Tales there are some put in which are Beastly and Immoral l Ex. gr Apotheg 183 184. Such as were fitter to have been joyned to Aretine or Aloysia than to have polluted the chaste Labours of the Baron of Verulam To those Apothegms may be referred these now publish'd The Essays or Counsels Civil and Moral though a By-work also do yet make up a Book of greater weight by far than the Apothegms And coming home to Men's Business and Bosomes his Lordship entertain'd this persuasion concerning them m See Epist. Ded. to the D. of Bucks that the Latine Volume might last as long as Books should last His Lordship wrote them in the English Tongue and enlarged them as Occasion serv'd and at last added to them the Colours of Good and Evil which are likewise found in his Book De Augmentis n Lib. 6. c. 3. p. 453. The Latine Translation of them was a Work performed by divers Hands by those of Doctor Hacket late Bishop of Lichfield Mr. Benjamin Iohnson the learned and judicious Poet and some others whose Names I once heard from Dr. Rawley but I cannot now recal them To this Latine Edition he gave the Title of Sermones Fideles after the manner of the Iews who call'd the words Adagies or Observations of the Wise Faithful Sayings that is credible Propositious worthy of firm Assent and ready Acceptance And as I think he alluded more particularly in this Title to a passage in Ecclesiastes * Eccles. 12. 10 11. where the Preacher saith that he sought to find out Verba Delectabilia as Tremellius rendreth the Hebrew pleasant Words that is perhaps his Book of Canticles and Verba Fidelia as the same Tremellius Faithful Sayings meaning it may be his Collection of Proverbs In the next Verse he calls them Words of the Wise and so many Goads and Nails given Ab eodem Pastore from the same Shepherd of the Flock of Israel In a late Latine Edition of these Essays there are subjoyned two Discourses the one call'd De Negotiis the other Faber Fortunae But neither of these are Works newly publish'd but Treatises taken out of the Book De Augmentis o Lib. 8. c. 2. p. 585 c. To this Book of Essays may be annexed that Fragment of an Essay of Fame which is extant already in the Resuscitatio p Resusc p. 281. His Lordship 's Political Writings of a more special Nature as relating to the Polity and various Affairs of the several Dominions of the King of England are very many though most of them short As First a Discourse of the Union of England and Scotland q In Resusc. p. 197. Secondly Articles and Considerations touching the Union aforesaid r Page 206. Thirdly Considerations touching the Plantation in Ireland s Pag. 255. Fourthly Considerations touching the Queen's Service in Ireland t P. 16. Of Coll. of Letters Fifthly Considerations touching a War with Spain u Pub. in the Mis. works in Quarto An. 1629. reprinted in 2d part of Resusc. then the Over-match in this part of the World though now in meaner Condition Sixthly His several Speeches by which I mean not only those which go under that Name but likewise his several Charges they being much of the same Nature though deliver'd ex Officio which the other were not always These Speeches and Charges are generally Methodically Manly Elegant Pertinent and full of Wise Observations as those are wont to be which are made by Men of Parts and Business And I shall not pass too great a Complement upon his Lordship if I shall say That 't was well for Cicero and the honour of his Orations that the Lord Bacon compos'd his in another Language Now his Speeches and Charges are very many and I set them down in the following Catalogue His Speeches in Parliament to the Lower House are Eight The First 39 Elizabeth upon the Motion of Subsidy w Resusc p. 1. of D. R's Edition The Second 5 Iacobi concerning the Article of General Naturalization of the Scotish Nation x P. 10. The Third concerning the Union of Laws y P. 24. The Fourth 5 Iacobi being a Report in the House of Commons of the Earls of Salisbury and Northampton concerning the Grievances of the Merchants occasioned by the Practice of Spain z P. 29. The Fifth 7 Iacobi persuading the House of Commons to desist from further Question of receiving the King's Messages by their Speaker and from the Body of the Council as well as from the King's Person a P. 45. The Sixth 7 Iacobi in the end of the Session of Parliament persuading some Supply to be
been the depths of his Mercy as even those Noble-mens Bloods against whom the proceeding was at Winchester Cobham and Grey were attainted and corrupted but not spilt or taken away but that they remained rather Spectacles of Justice in their continual Imprisonment than Monuments of Justice in the memory of their Suffering It is true that the Objects of his Justice then and now were very differing For then it was the Revenge of an Offence against his own Person and Crown and upon Persons that were Male-contents and Contraries to the State and Government But now it is the the Revenge of the Blood and Death of a particular Subject and the Cry of a Prisoner It is upon Persons that were highly in his Favour whereby his Majesty to his great Honour hath shewed to the World as if it were written with a Sun-beam that he is truly the Lieutenant of him with whom there is no respect of Persons That his Affections Royal are above his Affections Private That his Favours and Nearness about him are not like Popish Sanctuaries to privilege Malefactours and that his being the best Master in the World doth not let him from being the best King in the World His People on the other side may say to themselves I will lie down in peace for God and the King and the Law protect me against the great and small It may be a Discipline also to great Men specially such as are swollen in their Fortunes from small beginnings that The King is as well able to level Mountains as to fill Valleys if such be their desert In another place l Page 119. Of the Arraignment of the L. of Somerset he thrusteth into the Speech of Sir Edward Cook a part of Sir Francis Bacon's and like the worser sort of Thieves he does not only rob but mangle him Sir Francis Bacon spake on this manner My Lords He is not the Hunter alone that lets slip the Dog upon the Deer but he that lodges the Deer or rouses him or puts him out or he that sets a Toyl that he cannot escape Instead of which the Relator hath substituted this absurd Sentence It is not he only that slips the Dog but he that loves the Toyl that kills the Deer This I thought was not unnecessary to be said in Vindication of Mr. Attorney's Honour which is vilely traduc'd in this Pamphlet where the Daw would personate the Orator The Second Paper is his Letter to the University of Cambridg to whom he was of Counsel upon occasion of his being Sworn of the Privy-Council to the King This I judged fit to bear that other company which is already printed m Resusc Letters p. 82 83. and answereth to their Congratulation at his first coming to the Place of Lord-Keeper The Third is his Letter to King Iames touching the Place of Lord High Chancellour of England upon the approaching death of the Chancellour Egerton The Fourth is a Letter to the same Prince for the relief of his Estate This with that other of Submission in the Cabala seem to some to blemish his Lordship's Honour to others to clear it For in this he appealeth to the King himself whether he had not ever found him direct and honest in his Service so as not once to be rebuked by him during Nineteen Years Employment He sheweth that his Fall was not the King's Act and that the Prince was ready to reach out his Hand to stay him from falling In the other he maketh this profession of his being free from malicious Injustice For the Bribery and Gifts wherewith I am charged when the Books of Hearts shall be opened I hope I shall not be found to have the troubled Fountain of a corrupt Heart in a depraved habit of taking Rewards to pervert Justice howsoever I may be frail and partake of the abuses of the Times The Fifth Paper is a Collection of his remaining Apothegms inferiour in number to those already published but not in weight Some of these he took from Eminent Persons and some from meaner ones having set it down from his Observation n In Impet. Philosoph p. 476. Rusticorum Proverbia nonnulla apposite ad veritatatem dicuntur Sus rostro c. that The Bolt of the Rustic often hits the Mark and that the Sow in rooting may describe the letter A though she cannot write an entire Tragedy The Sixth is a Supply of his Collection of Judicious and Elegant Sentences called by him Ornamenta Rationalia He also gave to those Wise and Polite Sayings the Title of Sententiae Stellares either because they were Sentences which deserved to be pointed to by an Asterisc in the Margent or because they much illustrated and beautify'd a Discourse in which they were disposed in due place and order as the Stars in the Firmament are so many glorious Ornaments of it and set off with their Lustre the wider and less adorned Spaces This Collection is either wholly lost or thrown into some obscure Corner but I fear the first I have now three Catalogues in my Hands of the unpublish'd Papers of Sir Francis Bacon all written by Dr. Rawley himself In every one of these appears the Title of Ornamenta Rationalia but in the Bundles which came with those Catalogues there 's not one of those Sentences to be found I held my self oblig'd in some sort and as I was able to supply this defect it being once in my power to have preserved this Paper For a Copy of it was long since offer'd me by that Doctor 's only Son and my dear Friend now with God Mr. William Rawley of whom if I say no more it is the greatness of my Grief for that irreparable loss which causeth my Silence I was the more negligent in taking a Copy presuming I might upon any occasion command the Original and because that was then in such good Hands Now there remains nothing with me but a general Remembrance of the quality of that Collection It consisted of divers short Sayings aptly and smartly expressed and containing in them much of good Sense in a little room These he either made or took from others being moved so to do by the same Reason which caus'd him to gather together his Apothegms which he saith he collected for his Recreation his Lordship's Diversions being of more value than some Men's Labours Nor do such Sentences and Apothegms differ much in their Nature For Apothegms are only somewhat longer and fuller of Allusion and tell the Author and the occasion of the Wise Saying and are but the same Kernel with the Shell and Leaf about it That which he faith of the one is true of the other They are both Mucrones Verborum o In Preface to his Apothegms pointed Speeches or Goads Cicero saith he calleth them Salinas Salt-pits that you may extract Salt out of and sprinkle it where you will They serve to be interlaced in continued Speech They serve to be recited upon occasion in
without noise or observation And the last is Because it containeth not only the destruction of the maliced Man but of any other Quis modo tutus erit For many times the Poison is prepared for one and is taken by another So that Men die other Mens Deaths Concidit infelix alieno vulnere and it is as the Psalm calleth it Sagitta nocte volans The Arrow that flies by night it hath no aim or certainty Now for the third Degree of this particular Offence which is that it was committed upon the King's Prisoner who was out of his own Defence and meerly in the King's protection and for whom the King and State was a kind of Respondent it is a thing that aggravates the Fault much For certainly my Lord of Somerset let me tell you this That Sir Tho. Overbury is the first Man that was murdered in the Tower of London since the murder of the two young Princes For the Nature of the Proofs your Lordships must consider that Impoisonment of Offences is the most secret So secret as if in all Cases of Impoisonment you should require Testimony you were as good proclaim Impunity I will put Book-Examples Who could have impeached Livia by Testimony of the impoisoning of the Figs upon the Tree which her Husband was wont for his pleasure to gather with his own hands Who could have impeached Parisatis for the poisoning of one side of the Knife that she carved with and keeping the other side clean so that her self did eat of the same piece of Meat that the Lady did that she did impoison The Cases are infinite and indeed not fit to be spoken of of the secrecy of Impoisonments But wise Triers must take upon them in these secret Cases Solomon's Spirit that where there could be no Witnesses collected the Act by the Affection But yet we are not to come to one Case For that which your Lordships are to try is not the Act of Impoisonment for that is done to your hand all the World by Law is concluded â—â—t to say that Overbury was impoisoned by Weston But the Question before you is of the procurement only and of the abetting as the Law termeth it as accessary before the Fact Which abetting is no more but to do or use any Act or Means which may aid or conduce unto the Impoisonment So that it is not the buying or making of the Poison or the preparing or confecting or commixing of it or the giving or sending or laying the Poison that are the only Acts that do amount unto Abetment But if there be any other Act or Means done or used to give the opportunity of Impoisonment or to facilitate the execution of it or to stop or divert any impediments that might hinder it and this be with an intention to accomplish and atchieve the Impoisonment all these are Abetments and Accessaries before the Fact I will put you a familiar Example Allow there be a Conspiracy to murder a Man as he journies by the ways and it be one Man's part to draw him forth to that Journey by invitation or by colour of some business and another takes upon him to disswade some Friend of his whom he had a purpose to take in his Company that he be not too strong to make his defence And another hath the part to go along with him and to hold him in talk till the first blow be given All these my Lords without scruple are Abetters to this Murder though none of them give the Blow nor assist to give the Blow My Lords he is not the Hunter alone that lets slip the Dog upon the Deer but he that lodges the Deer or raises him or puts him out or he that sets a Toyle that he cannot escape or the like But this my Lords little needeth in this present Case where there is such a Chain of Acts of Impoisonment as hath been seldom seen and could hardly have been expected but that Greatness of Fortune maketh commonly Grossness in offending To descend to the Proofs themselves I shall keep this course First I will make a Narrative or Declaration of the Fact it self Secondly I will break and distribute the Proofs as they concern the Prisoner And thirdly according to that distribution I will produce them and read them or use them So that there is nothing that I shall say but your Lordship my Lord of Somerset shall have three thoughts or cogitations to answer it First when I open it you may take your aim Secondly when I distribute it you may prepare your Answers without confusion And lastly when I produce the Witnesses or Examinations themselves you may again ruminate and readvise how to make your defence And this I do the rather because your Memory or Understanding may not be oppressed or overladen with length of Evidence or with confusion of order Nay more when your Lordship shall make your Answers in your time I will put you in mind when cause shall be of your omissions First therefore for the simple Narrative of the Fact Sir Tho. Overbury for a time was known to have had great Interest and great Friendship with my Lord of Somerset both in his meaner Fortunes and after Insomuch as he was a kind of Oracle of Direction unto him and if you will believe his own vaunts being of an insolent Thrasonical disposition he took upon him that the Fortune Reputation and Understanding of this Gentleman who is well known to have had a better Teacher proceeded from his Company and Counsel And this Friendship rested not only in Conversation and Business of Court but likewise in Communication of Secrets of Estate For my Lord of Somerset at that time exercising by his Majesties special favour and trust the Office of the Secretary provisionally did not forbear to acquaint Overbury with the King's Packets of Dispatches from all parts Spain France the Low Countries c. And this not by glimpses or now and then rounding in the Ear for a favour but in a setled manner Packets were sent sometimes opened by my Lord sometimes unbroken unto Overbury who perused them copied registred them made Tables of them as he thought good So that I will undertake the time was when Overbury knew more of the Secrets of State than the Council Table did Nay they were grown to such an inwardness as they made a Play of all the World besides themselves So as they had Ciphers and Iargons for the King the Queen and all the great Men things seldom used but either by Princes and their Embassadours and Ministers or by such as work and practise against or at least upon Princes But understand me my Lord I shall not charge you this day with any Disloyalty only I say this for a foundation That there was a great communication of Secrets between you and Overbury and that it had relation to Matters of Estate and the greatest Causes of this Kingdom But my Lords as it is a principle in Nature that
the best things are in their corruption the worst And the sweetest Wine makes the sharpest Vinegar So fell it out with them that this excess as I may term it of Friendship ended in mortal Hatred on my Lord of Somerset's part For it fell out some twelve months before Overbury's imprisonment in the Tower that my Lord of Somerset was entred into an unlawful love towards his unfortunate Lady then Countess of Essex which went so far as it was then secretly projected chiefly between my Lord Privy Seal and my Lord of Somerset to effect a Nullity in the Marriage with my Lord of Essex and so to proceed to a Marriage with Somerset This Marriage and Purpose did Overbury mainly oppugn under pretence to do the true part of a Friend for that he counted her an unworthy Woman but the truth was that Overbury who to speak plainly had little that was solid for Religion or Moral Vertue but was a Man possessed with Ambition and vain Glory was loth to have any Partners in the favour of my Lord of Somerset and specially not the House of the Howards against whom he had always professed hatred and opposition So all was but miserable Bargains of Ambition And my Lords that this is no sinister construction will well appear unto you when you shall hear that Overbury makes his brags to my Lord of Somerset that he had won him the love of the Lady by his Letters and Industry So far was he from Cases of Conscience in this Matter And certainly my Lords howsoever the tragical misery of that poor Gentleman Overbury ought somewhat to obliterate his Faults yet because we are not now upon point of Civility but to discover the Face of Truth to the Face of Justice And that it is material to the true understanding of the state of this Cause Overbury was nought and corrupt the Ballades must be amended for that point But to proceed When Overbury saw that he was like to be dispossessed of my Lord here whom he had possessed so long and by whose Greatness he had promised himself to do wonders and being a Man of an unbounded and impetuous spirit he began not only to disswade but to deter him from that Love and Marriage and finding him fixed thought to try stronger Remedies supposing that he had my Lord's Head under his Girdle in respect of communication of Secrets of Estate or as he calls them himself in his Letters Secrets of all Natures and therefore dealt violently with him to make him desist with menaces of Discovery of Secrets and the like Hereupon grew two streams of hatred upon Overbury The one from the Lady in respect that he crossed her Love and abused her Name which are Furies to Women The other of a deeper and more Mineral Nature from my Lord of Somerset himself who was afraid of Overbury's Nature and that if he did break from him and fly out he would mine into him and trouble his whole Fortunes I might add a third stream from the Earl of Northampton's Ambition who desires to be first in favour with my Lord of Somerset and knowing Overbury's malice to himself and his House thought that Man must be removed and cut off So it was amongst them resolved and decreed that Overbury must die Hereupon they had variety of Devices To send him beyond Sea upon occasion of Employment that was too weak and they were so far from giving way to it as they crost it There rested but two ways Quarrel or Assault and Poison For that of Assault after some proposition and attempt they passed from it It was a thing too open and subject to more variety of chances That of Poison likewise was a hazardous thing and subject to many preventions and cautions especially to such a jealous and working Brain as Overbury had except he were first fast in their hands Therefore the way was first to get him into a Trap and lay him up and then they could not miss the Mark. Therefore in execution of this Plot it was devised that Overbury should be designed to some honourable Employment in Foreign Parts and should under-hand by the Lord of Somerset be encouraged to refuse it and so upon that contempt he should be laid Prisoner in the Tower and then they would look he should be close enough and Death should be his Bail Yet were they not at their end For they considered that if there was not a fit Lieutenant of the Tower for their purpose and likewise a fit under-keeper of Overbury First They should meet with many Impediments in the giving and exhibiting the Poison Secondly They should be exposed to note and observation that might discover them And thirdly Overbury in the mean time might write clamorous and furious Letters to other his Friends and so all might be disappointed And therefore the next Link of the Chain was to displace the then Lieutenant Waade and to place Helwisse a principal Abetter in the Impoisonment Again to displace Cary that was the under-Keeper in Waade's time and to place Weston who was the principal Actor in the Impoisonment And this was done in such a while that it may appear to be done as it were with one breath as there were but fifteen days between the commitment of Overbury the displacing of Waade the placing of Helwisse the displacing of â—ary the under-Keeper the placing of Weston and the first Poison given two days after Then when they had this poor Gentleman in the Tower close Prisoner where he could not escape nor stir where he could not feed but by their Hands where he could not speak nor write but through their Trunks then was the time to execute the last Act of this Tragedy Then must Franklin be purveyour of the Poisons and procure five six seven several Potions to be sure to hit his Complexion Then must Mris Turner be the Say-Mistris of the Poisons to try upon poor Beasts what 's present and what works at distance of time Then must Weston be the Tormenter and chase him with Poison after Poison Poison in Salts Poison in Meats Poison in Sweetmeats Poison in Medicines and Vomits until at last his Body was almost come by use of Poisons to the state that Mithridate's Body was by the use of Treacle and Preservatives that the force of the Poisons were blunted upon him Weston confessing when he was chid for not dispatching him that he had given him enough to poison twenty Men. Lastly Because all this asked time courses were taken by Somerset both to divert all means of Overbury's Delivery and to entertain Overbury by continual Letters partly of Hopes and Projects for his Delivery and partly of other Fables and Negotiations somewhat like some kind of Persons which I will not name which keep Men in talk of Fortune-telling when they have a fellonious meaning And this is the true Narrative of this Act of Impoisonment which I have summarily recited Now for the Distribution of the Proofs there
Weston touching Overbury's state of Body or Health were ever sent up to the Court though it were in Progress and that from my Lady such a thirst and listening this Lord had to hear that he was dispatched Lastly There was a continual Negotiation to set Overbury's Head on work that he should make some recognition to clear the honour of the Lady and that he should become a good Instrument towards her and her Friends All which was but entertainment For your Lordships shall plainly see divers of my Lord of Northampton's Letters whose hand was deep in this Business written I must say it in dark Words and Clauses That there was one thing pretended and another intended That there was a real Charge and there was somewhat not real a main drift and a dissimulation Nay further there be some passages which the Peers in their wisdom will discern to point directly at the Impoisonment After this Inducement followed the Evidence it self The Lord Bacon's Letter to the University of Cambridg Rescriptum Procuratoris Regis Primarii ad Academiam Cantabrigiensem quando in Sanctius Regis Consilium cooptatus fuit GRatae mihi fuere Literae vestrae atque Gratulationem vestram ipse mihi gratulor Rem ipsam ita mihi Honori voluptati fore duco si in hâc mente maneam ut Publicis Utilitatibus studio indefesso perpetuis curis puro affectu inserviam Inter partes autem Reipublicae nulla Animo meo charior est quà m Academiae Literae Idque vita mea anteacta declarat scripta Itaque quicquid mihi accesserit id etiam vobis accessisse existimare potestis Neque vero Pacrocinium meum vobis sublatum aut diminutum esse credere debetis Nam ea pars Patroni quae ad consilium in causis exhibendum spectat integra manet Atque etiam si quid gravius accideriâ— ipsum perorandi Munus licentiâ Regis obtentâ relictâ—m est Quodque Iuris Patrocinio deerit id auctiore potestate compensabitur Mihi in votis est ut quemadmodum à privatorum clientelarum negotiis ad Gubeâ—nacula Reipublicae translatus jam sum Ita postrema Aetatis meae pars si vita suppetit etiam à publicis curis ad otium Literas devehi possit Quinetiam saepius subit illa Cogitatio ut etiam in tot tantis Negotiis tamen singulis annis aliquos dies apud vos deponam Vt ex majore vestrarum rerum notitiâ vestris utilitatibus melius consulere possim 5. Julij 1616. Amicus vesâ—er maximè Fidelis Benevolus Fr. Bacon The same in English by the Publisher The Answer of the Lord Bacon then Attorney General to the University of Cambridg when he was sworn of the Privy Council to the King YOur Letters were very acceptable to me and I give my self joy upon your Congratulation The thing it self will I suppose conduce to my Honour and Satisfaction if I remain in the mind I now am in by unwearied study and perpetual watchfulness and pure affection to promote the Publick Good Now among the Parts of the Common-wealth there are none dearer to me than the Vniversities and Learning And This my manner of Life hitherto and my Writings do both declare If therefore any good Fortune befalls me you may look upon it as an accession to your selves Neither are you to believe that my Patronage is either quite removed from you or so much as diminished For that part of an Advocate which concerneth the giving of Counsel in Causes remaineth entire Also if any thing more weighty urgent falleth out the very Office of Pleading the King's leave being obtained is still allow'd me And whatsoever shall be found wanting in my Juridical Patronage will be compensated by my more ample Authority My wishes are that as I am translated from the Business of private Men and particular Clients to the Government of the Common-wealth so the latter part of my Age if my Life be continued to me may from the Publick Cares be translated to leisure and study Also this thought comes often into my mind amidst so many Businesses and of such moment every year to lay aside some days to think on You That so having the greater insight into your Matters I may the better consult your Advantage Iuly the 5th 1616. Your most faithful and kind Friend Fr. Bacon Sir Francis Bacon's Letter to King Iames touching the Chancellors Place It may please Your most Excellent Majesty YOur worthy Chancellour * Chaenc Egerton I fear goeth his last day God hath hitherto used to weed out such Servants as grew not fit for Your Majesty But now He hath gather'd to Himself one of the choicer Plants in Your Majesties Garden But Your Majesties Service must not be mortal Upon this heavy Accident I pray your Majesty in all humbleness and sincerity to give me leave to use a few words I must never forget when I moved your Majesty for the Attorney's Place that it was your own sole Act and not my Lord of Somerset's who when he knew your Majesty had resolv'd it thrust himself into the Business to gain thanks And therefore I have no reason to pray to Saints I shall now again make Oblation to your Majesty first of my Heart then of my Service thirdly of my Place of Attorney and fourthly of my Place in the Star-Chamber I hope I may be acquitted of Presumption if I think of it both because my Father had the Place which is some civil inducement to my desire and I pray God your Majesty may have twenty no worse years than Queen Elizabeth had in her Model after my Father's placing and chiefly because the Chancellor's place after it went to the Law was ever conferred upon some of the Learned Counsel and never upon a Judg. For Audley was raised from King's Serjeant my Father from Attorney of the Wards Bromlie from Sollicitor Puckering from Queen's Serjeant Egerton from Master of the Rolls having newly left the Attorney's place For my self I can only present your Majesty with Gloria in Obsequio yet I dare promise that if I sit in that Place your Business shall not make such short turns upon you as it doth But when a Direction is once given it shall be pursued and performed And your Majesty shall only be troubled with the true Care of a King which is to think what you would have done in chief and not how for the Passages I do presume also in respect of my Father's Memory and that I have been always gracious in the Lower-House I have some interest in the Gentlemen of England and shall be able to do some good Effect in rectifying that Body of Parliament which is Cardo Rerum For let me tell your Majesty That that part of the Chancellor's place which is to judg in equity between Party and Party that same Regnum Iudiciale which since my Father's time is but too much enlarged concerneth your Majesty
least more than the acquitting of your Conscience for Justice But it is the other Parts of a Moderator amongst your Council of an Overseer over your Iudges of a Planter of fit Iustices and Governors in the Country that importeth your Affairs and these Times most I will add likewise that I hope by my Care the Inventive Part of your Council will be strengthned who now commonly do exercise rather their Iudgments than their Inventions and the Inventive Part cometh from Projectors and Private Men which cannot be so well In which kind my Lord of Salisbury had a good Method To conclude If I were the Man I would be I should hope that as your Majesty of late hath won Hearts by Depressing you should in this lose no Hearts by Advancing For I see your People can better skill of Concretum than Abstractum and that the Waves of their Affection flow rather after Persons than Things So that Acts of this nature if this were one do more good than twenty Bills of Grace If God call my Lord Chancellor the Warrants and Commissions which are requisite for the taking of the Seal and for working with it and for reviving of Warrants under his Hand which die with him and the like shall be in readiness And in this Time presseth more because it is the end of a Term and almost the beginning of the Circuits so that the Seal cannot stand still But this may be done as heretofore by Commission till your Majesty hath resolved on an Officer God ever preserve your Majesty Your Majesties most humble Subject and bounden Servant F. Bacon A Letter written * About a year and half after his Retirement by the Lord Bacon to King James for Relief of his Estate May it please your most Excellent Majesty IN the midst of my misery which is rather asswaged by Remembrance than by Hope my chiefest worldly comfort is to think That since the time I had the first Vote of the Commons House of Parliament for Commissioner of the Union until the time that I was this last Parliament chosen by both Houses for their Messenger to your Majesty in the Petition of Religion which two were my first and last Services I was ever more so happy as to have my poor Services graciously accepted by your Majesty and likewise not to have had any of them miscarry in my Hands Neither of which points I can any ways take to my self but ascribe the former to your Majestie 's Goodness and the latter to your prudent Directions which I was ever careful to have and keep For as I have often said to your Majesty I was towards you but as a Bucket and a Cistern to draw forth and conserve your self was the Fountain Unto this comfort of nineteen years prosperity there succeded a comfort even in my greatest adversity somewhat of the same nature which is That in those offences wherewith I was charged there was not any one that had special relation to your Majesty or any your particular Commandments For as towards Almighty God there are Offences against the first and second Table and yet all against God So with the Servants of Kings there are Offences more immediate against the Sovereign Although all Offences against Law are also against the King Unto which Comfort there is added this Circumstance That as my Faults were not against your Majesty otherwise than as all Faults are so my Fall was not your Majesties Act otherwise than as all Acts of Justice are yours This I write not to insinuate with your Majesty but as a most humble Appeal to your Majesties gracious remembrance how honest and direct you have ever found me in your Service whereby I have an assured belief that there is in your Majesties own Princely Thoughts a great deal of serenity and clearness to me your Majesties now prostrate and cast-down Servant Neither my most gracious Sovereign do I by this mention of my Services lay claim to your Princely Grace and Bounty though the priviledg of Calamity doth bear that form of Petition I know well had they been much more they had been but my bounden Duty Nay I must also confess that they were from time to time far above my merit over and super-rewarded by your Majesties Benefits which you heaped upon me Your Majesty was and is that Master to me that raised and advanced me nine times thrice in Dignity and six times in Office The places indeed were the painfullest of all your Services But then they had both Honour and Profits And the then Profits might have maintained my now Honour if I had been wise Neither was your Majesties immediate liberality wanting towards me in some Gifts if I may hold them All this I do most thankfully acknowledg and do herewith conclude That for any thing arising from my self to move your Eye of pity towards me there is much more in my present Misery than in my past Services save that the same your Majesties Goodness that may give relief to the one may give value to the other And indeed if it may please your Majesty this Theme of my Misery is so plentiful as it need not be coupled with any thing else I have been some Body by your Majesties singular and undeserved favour even the prime Officer of your Kingdom Your Majesties Arm hath been over mine in Council when you presided at the Table so near I was I have born your Majesties Image in Metal much more in Heart I was never in nineteen years Service chidden by your Majesty but contrariwise often overjoyed when your Majesty would sometimes say I was a good Husband for you though none for my self sometimes That I had a way to deal in Business suavibus modis which was the way which was most according to your own Heart And other most gracious speeches of Affection and Trust which I feed on to this day But why should I speak of these things which are now vanished but only the better to express the Downfal For now it is thus with me I am a year and an half old in Misery though I must ever acknowledg not without some mixture of your Majesties Grace and Mercy For I do not think it possible that any you once loved should be totally miserable Mine own Means through mine own Improvidence are poor and weak little better than my Father left me The poor Things which I have had from your Majesty are either in Question or at Courtesy My Dignities remain Marks of your Favour but Burdens of my present Fortune The poor Remnants which I had of my former Fortunes in Plate or Jewels I have spread upon poor Men unto whom I owed scarce leaving my self a convenient Subsistence So as to conclude I must pour out my Misery before your Majesty so far as to say Si deseris tu perimus But as I can offer to your Majesties compassion little arising from my self to move you except it be my extream Misery which I
Affairs better but yet he was fit to have kept them from growing worse The King said On my So'l Man in the first thou speakest like a True Man and in the latter like a Kinsman 10. King Iames as he was a Prince of great Judgment so he was a Prince of a marvellous pleasant humour and there now come into my mind two instances of it As he was going through Lusen by Greenwich he ask'd what Town it was they said Lusen He ask'd a good while after What Town is this we are now in They said still 't was Lusen On my So'l said the King I will be King of Lusen 11. In some other of his Progresses he ask'd how far 't was to a Town whose name I have forgotten they said Six miles Half an hour after he ask'd again one said Six miles and an half The King alighted out of his Coach and crept under the Shoulder of his Led Horse And when some ask'd his Majesty what he meant I must stalk said he for yonder Town is shie and flies me 12. Count Gondomar sent a Complement to my Lord St. Albans wishing him a good Easter My Lord thank'd the Messenger and said He could not at present requite the Count better than in returning him the like That he wished his Lordship a good Passover 13. My Lord Chancellor Elsmere when he had read a Petition which he dislik'd would say What! you would have my hand to this now And the Party answering yes He would say further Well so you shall Nay you shall have both my hands to 't And so would with both his hands tear it in pieces 14. I knew a * See this also in his Essay of Dispatch p. 143. Wise Man that had it for a by-word when he saw Men hasten to a Conclusion Stay a little that we may make an end the sooner 15. Sir Francis Bacon was wont to say of an angry Man who suppressed his Passion That he thought worse than he spake and of an angry Man that would chide That he spoke worse than he thought 16. He was wont also to say That Power in an ill Man was like the Power of a black Witch He could do hurt but no good with it And he would add That the Magicians could turn Water into Blood but could not turn the Blood again to Water 17. When Mr. Attourney Cook in the Exchequer gave high words to Sr. Francis Bacon and stood much upon his higher Place Sir Francis said to him Mr. Attourney The less you speak of your own greatness the more I shall think of it and the more the less 18. Sir Francis Bacon coming into the Earl of Arundel's Garden where there were a great number of Ancient Statues of naked Men and Women made a stand and as astonish'd cryed out The Resurrection 19. Sir Francis Bacon who was always for moderate Counsels when one was speaking of such a Reformation of the Church of England as would in effect make it no Church said thus to him Sir The Subject we talk of is the Eye of England And if there be a speck or two in the Eye we endeavour to take them off but he were a strange Oculist who would pull out the Eye 20. The same Sir Francis Bacon was wont to say That those who left useful Studies for useless Scholastic Speculations were like the Olympic Gamsters who abstain'd from necessary Labours that they might be fit for such as were not so 21. He likewise often used this Comparison * See the Substance of this in Nov. Org. Ed. Lugd. Bat. p. 105. inter Cogitata visa p. 53. The Empirical Philosophers are like to Pismires they only lay up and use their Store The Rationalists are like to Spiders they spin all out of their own Bowels But give me a Philosopher who like the Bee hath a middle faculty gathering from abroad but digesting that which is gathered by his own virtue 22. The Lord St. Alban who was not overhasty to raise Theories but proceeded slowly by Experiments was wont to say to some Philosophers who would not go his Pace Gentlemen Nature is a Labyrinth in which the very hast you move with will make you lose your way 23. The same Lord when he spoke of the Dutchmen used to say That we could not abandon them for our safety nor keep them for our profit And sometimes he would express the same sense on this manner We hold the Belgic Lion by the Ears 24. The same Lord when a Gentleman seem'd not much to approve of his Liberality to his Retinue said to him Sir I am all of a Piece If the Head be lifted up the inferiour parts of the Body must too 25. The Lord Bacon was wont to commend the Advice of the plain old Man at Buxton that sold Beesoms A proud lazy young Fellow came to him for a Beesom upon Trust to whom the Old Man said Friend hast thou no Mony borrow of thy Back and borrow of thy Belly they 'l ne're ask thee again I shall be dunning thee every day 26. Solon * See this in his Essay of the true Greatness of Kingdoms p. 171. said well to Craesus when in ostentation he shewed him his Gold Sir if any other come that has better Iron than you he will be master of all this Gold 27. Iack Weeks said of a great Man just then dead who pretended to some Religion but was none of the best livers Well I hope he is in Heaven Every Man thinks as he wishes but if he be in Heaven 't were pity it were known Ornamenta Rationalia A supply by the Publisher of certain weighty and elegant Sentences some made others collected by the Lord Bacon and by him put under the above-said Title and at present not to be found A Collection of Sentences out of the Mimi of Publius Englished by the Publisher 1. A Leator quantò in Arte est melior tantò est nequior A Gamster the greater Master he is in his Art the worse Man he is 2. Arcum intensio frangit Animum remissio Much bending breaks the Bow much unbending the Mind 3. Bis vincit qui se vincit in Victoriâ He conquers twice who upon Victory overcomes himself 4. Cùm vitia prosint peccat Qui rectè facit If Vices were upon the whole matter profitable the virtuous Man would be the sinner 5. Benè dormit qui non sentit quòd malè dormiat He sleeps well who feels not that he sleeps ill 6. Deliberare utilia mora est tutissima To deliberate about useful things is the safest delay 7. Dolor decrescit ubi quò crescat non habet The flood of Grief decreaseth when it can swell no higher 8. Etiam Innocentes cogit mentiri dolor Pain makes even the Innocent Man a Lyar. 9. Etiam celeritas in desiderio mora est 〈◊〉 in desire swiftness it self is delay 10. Etiam capillus unus habet umbram suam The smallest Hair casts a
bridleth their Power and the other their Will 30. Things will have their first or second agitation If they be not tossed upon the Arguments of Counsel they will be tossed upon the Waves of Fortune 31. The true composition of a Counsellor is rather to be skill'd in his Masters Business than his Nature for then he is like to advise him and not to feed his humour 32. Private Opinion is more free but Opinion before others is more reverend 33. Fortune is like a Market where many times if you stay a little the price will fall 34. Fortune sometimes turneth the handle of the Bottle which is easie to be taken hold of and after the belly which is hard to grasp 35. Generally it is good to commit the beginning of all great Actions to Argus with an hundred Eyes and the ends of them to Briareus with an hundred hands first to watch and then to speed 36. There 's great difference betwixt a cunning Man and a wise Man There be that can pack the Cards who yet can't play well they are good in Canvasses and Factions and yet otherwise mean Men. 37. Extreme self-lovers will set a Man's House on fire tho it were but to roast their Eggs. 38. New Things like Strangers are more admir'd and less favour'd 39. It were good that Men in their Innovations would follow the Example of Time it self which indeed innovateth greatly but quietly and by degrees scarce to be perceived 40. They that reverence too much old Time are but a scorn to the New 41. The Spaniards and Spartans have been noted to be of small dispatch Mi venga la muerte de Spagna let my death come from Spain for then it will be sure to be long a coming 42. You had better take for Business a Man somewhat absurd than overformal 43. Those who want Friends to whom to open their Griefs are Cannibals of their own Hearts 44. Number it self importeth not much in Armies where the People are of weak courage For as Virgil says it never troubles a Wolf how many the Sheep be 45. Let States that aim at Greatness take heed how their Nobility and Gentry multiply too fast In Coppice Woods if you leave your Staddles too thick you shall never have clean Vnderwood but Shrubs and Bushes 46. A Civil War is like the heat of a Feaver but a Forreign War is like the heat of Exercise and serveth to keep the Body in health 47. Suspicions among thoughts are like Bats among Birds They ever fly by twilight 48. Base Natures if they find themselves once suspected will never be true 49. Men ought to find the difference between saltness and bitterness Certainly he that hath a Satyrical Vein as he maketh others afraid of his Wit so he had need be afraid of others Memory 50. Discretion in Speech is more than Eloquence 51. Men seem neither well to understand their Riches nor their Strength of the former they believe greater things than they should and of the latter much less And from hence certain fatal Pillars have bounded the progress of Learning 52. Riches are the Baggage of Vertue they can't be spar'd nor left behind but they hinder the march 53. Great Riches have sold more Men than ever they have bought out 54. Riches have Wings and sometimes they fly away of themselves and sometimes they must be set flying to bring in more 55. He that defers his Charity 'till he is dead is if a Man weighs it rightly rather liberal of another Man's than of his own 56. Ambition is like Choler if it can move it makes Men active if it be stop'd it becomes adust and makes Men melancholy 57. To take a Souldier without Ambition is to pull off his Spurs 58. Some ambitious Men seem as Skreens to Princes in matters of Danger and Envy For no Man will take such parts except he be like the Seeld Dove that mounts and mounts because he cannot see about him 59. Princes and States should chuse such Ministers as are more sensible of Duty than Rising and should discern a busy Nature from a willing Mind 60. A Man's Nature runs either to Herbs or Weeds Therefore let him seasonably water the one and destroy the other 61. If a Man look sharply and attentively he shall see Fortune for though she be blind she is not invisible 62. Vsury bringeth the Treasure of a Realm or State into few hands For the Usurer being at certainties and others at uncertainties at the end of the Game most of the Mony will be in the Box. 63. Beauty is best in a Body that hath rather dignity of Presence than beauty of Aspect The beautiful prove accomplish'd but not of great Spirit and study for the most part rather Behaviour than Vertue 64. The best part of Beauty is that which a Picture cannot express 65. He who builds a fair House upon an ill Seat commits himself to Prison 66. If you will work on any Man you must either know his Nature and Fashions and so lead him or his Ends and so perswade him or his weaknesses â—â—d disadvantages and so awe hiâ—â— or those that have interest in him and so govern him 67. Costly Followers among whom we may reckon those who are importunate in Suits are not to be liked lest while a Man maketh his Train longer he maketh his Wings shorter 68. Fame is like a River that beareth up things light and swollen and drowns things weighty and solid 69. Seneca saith well That Anger is like Rain which breaks it self upon that it falls 70. Excusations Cessions Modesty it self well govern'd are but Arts of Ostentation 71. High Treason is not written in Ice that when the Body relenteth the Impression should go away 72. The best Governments are always subject to be like the fairest Crystals wherein every Isicle or Grain is seen which in a fouler Stone is never perceiv'd 73. Hollow Church Papists are like the Roots of Nettles which themselves sting not but yet they bear all the stinging Leaves Baconiana Physiologica Or Certain REMAINS OF Sir Francis Bacon Baron of Verulam and Viscount of St. Alban IN ARGUMENTS Appertaining to Natural Philosophy LONDON Printed for R. C. at the Rose aâ—d Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard 1679. THE Lord Bacon's Physiological Remains Fragmentum Libri Verulamiani cui Titulus Abecedarium Naturae CVm tam multa producantur à Terrâ Aquis tam multa pertranseant Aerem ab eo excipiantur tam multa mutentur solvantur ab Igne minus perspicuae forent Inquisitiones caeterae nisi Naturâ Massarum istarum quae toties occurrunt bene cognitâ explicatâ His adjungimus Inquisitiones de Coelestibus Meteoricis cum ipsae sint Massae Majores ex Catholicis Mass. Maj. Inquisitio sexagesima septima Triplex Tau sive de Terrâ Mass. Maj. Inquisitio sexagesima octava Triplex Upsilon sive de Aquâ Mass. Maj. Inquisitio sexagesima nona Triplex Psy sive de
plainly a Work for a King or a Pope or for some College or Order and cannot be by Personal Industry performed as it ought Those Portions of it which have already seen the Light to wit concerning Winds and touching Life and Death They are not pure History by reason of the Axioms and larger Observations which are interposed But they are a kind of mixed Writings composed of Natural History and a rude and imperfect Instrument or Help of the Understanding And this is the Fourth Part of the Instauration Wherefore that Fourth Part shall follow and shall contain many Examples of that Instrument more exact and much more fitted to Rules of Induction Fifthly There shall follow a Book to be entitled by us Prodromus Philosophiae Secundae The Fore-runner of Secondary Philosophy This shall contain our Inventions about new Axioms to be raised from the Experiments themselves that they which were before as Pillars lying uselesly along may be raised up And this we resolve on for the Fifth Part of our Instauration Lastly There is yet behind the Secondary Philosophy it self which is the Sixth Part of the Instauration Of the perfecting this I have cast away all hopes but in future Ages perhaps the Design may bud again Notwithstanding in our Prodromiâ— or Prefatory Works such I mean only which touch almost the Vniversals of Nature there will be laid no inconsiderable foundations of this Matter Our Meanness you see attempteth great Things placing our hopes only in this that they seem to proceed from the Providence and Immense Goodness of God And I am by two Arguments thus persuaded First I think thus from that zeal and constancy of my Mind which has not waxed old in this Design nor after so many Years grown cold and indifferent I remember that about Forty Years ago I compos'd a Iuvenile Work about these things which with great Confidence and a Pompous Title I called Temporis Partum Maximum * Or it may â—e Masculum as I find it â—ead eâ—sewhere or the most considerable Birth of Time Secondly I am thus persuaded because of its infinite Vsefulness for which reason it may be ascribed to Divine Encouragement I pray your Fatherhood to commend me to that most Excellent Man Signior Molines to whose most delightful and prudent Letters I will return answer shortly if God permit Farewel most Reverend Father Your Most assured Friend Francis St. Alban A Letter of the Lord Bacon's in French to the Marquess Fiat relating to his Essays Monsieur l' Ambassadeur mon Filâ—z VOyant que vostre Excellence faict et traite Mariages non seulement entre les Princes d' Angleterre et de France mais aussi entre les Langues puis que faictes traduire â—on Liure de l' Advancement des Sciences en Francois i' ai bien voulu vous envoyer mon Liure dernierement imprimé que i' avois pourveu pour vous mais i' estois en doubte de le vous envoyer pour ce qu' il estoit escrit en Anglois Mais a' cest ' Heure pour la raison susdicte ie le vous envoye C ' est un Recompilement de mes Essayes Morales et Civiles mais tellement enlargiés et enrichiés tant de Nombre que de Poix que c ' est de fait un Oeuvre nouveau Ie vous baise les Mains et reste Vostre tres Affectionée Ami 〈◊〉 tres humble Serviteur The same in English by the Publisher My Lord Embassador My Son SEeing that your Excellency makes and treats of Marriages not only betwixt the Princes of France and England but also betwixt their Languages for you have caus'd my Book of the Advancement of Learning to be Translated into French I was much inclin'd to make you a Present of the last Book which I published and which I had in readiness for you I was sometimes in doubt whether I ought to have sent it to you because it was written in the English Tongue But now for that very Reason I send it to you It is a Recompilement of my Essaies Moral and Civil but in such manner enlarged and enriched both in Number and Weight that it is in effect a new Work I kiss your Hands and remain Your most Affectionate and most humble Servant c. A Transcript by the Publisher out of the Lord Bacon's last Will relating especially to his Writings FIrst I bequeath my Soul and Body into the Hand of God by the blessed Oblation of my Saviour the one at the time of my Dissolution the other at the time of my Resurrection For my Burial I desire it may be at St. Michael's Church near St. Albans There was my Mother buried and it is the Parish Church of my Mansion-House of Gorhambury and it is the only Christian Church within the Walls of Old Verulam I would have the Charge of my Funeral not to exceed 300 l. at most For my Name and Memory I leave it to Foreign Nations and to mine own Country-Men after some Time be passed over But towards that durable part of Memory which consisteth in my Writings I require my Servant Henry Percy to deliver to my Brother Constable all my Manuscript-Compositions and the Fragments also of such as are not Finished to the end that if any of them be fit to be Published he may accordingly dispose of them And herein I desire him to take the advice of Mr. Selden and Mr. Herbert of the Inner Temple and to publish or suppress what shall be thought fit In particular I wish the Elegie which I writ in felicem Memoriam Elizabethae may be Published Papers written by others concerning the Writings of the Lord Bacon A Letter from the University of Oxford to the Lord Bacon upon his sending to them his Book De Augmentis Scientiarum Praenobilis quod in Nobilitate paenè miraculum est Scientissime Vicecomes NIhil concinnius tribuere Amplitudo vestra nihil gratius accipere potuit Academia quà m Scientias Scientias quas prius inopes exiguas incultas emiserat accepit tandem nitidas proceras Ingenii tui copiis quibus unicè augeri potuerant uberrimè dotatas Grande ducit munus illud sibi à peregrino si tamen peregrinus sit tam propè consanguineus auctius redire quod Filiolis suis instar Patrimonii impendit libentèr agnoscit hic nasci Musas alibi tamen quam domi suae crescere Creverunt quidem sub Calamo tuo qui tanquam strenuus literarum Alcides Columnas tuas Mundo immobiles propriâ Manu in Orbe Scientiarum plus ultrà statuisti Euge exercitatissimum Athletam qui in aliorum patrocinandis virtutibus occupatissimus alios in scriptis propriis teipsum superâsti Quippe in illo Honorum tuorum fastigio viros tantùm literatos promovisti nunc tandem ô dulce prodigium etiam literas Onerat Clientes beneficii hujus augustior Munificentia cujus in accipiendo Honor apud nos manet in
from the Hague had occasioned so late an Answer to it He deserves pardon who offends against his will And who will endeavour to make amends for this involuntary delay by the study of such kindness as shall be vigilant in Offices of Friendship as often as occasion shall be offer'd The Design of him who translated into French the Natural History of the Lord Bacon of which I gave account in my former Letters is briefly exhibited in my Brother's Preface which I desire you to peruse as also in your next Letter to send me your Judgment concerning such Errors as may have been committed by him That Edition of my Brother's of which you write that you read it with a great deal of Pleasure shall shortly be set forth with his Amendments together with some Additions of the like Argument to be substituted in the place of the New Atlantis which shall be there omitted These Additions will be the same with those in the Version of the formentioned Frenchman put into Latine seeing we could not find the English Originals from which he translates them Unless you when you see the Book shall condemn those Additions as adulterate For your Observations on those Places either not rightly understood or not accurately turned out of the English by you published which from one not a Native in his first Essay and growing in Knowledg together with his Years if they be many no Man needs wonder at it who understands the Physiological variety of an Argument of such extent and rendred difficult by such an heap of things of which it consists and for the expressing of which there is not a supply of words from the Ancients but some of a new stamp and such as may serve for present use are required I intreat you not to deny me the sight of them That so I may compare them with the Corrections which my Brother now with God did make with a very great deal of pains But whether the truth of them answers his diligence will be best understood by your self and those few others by whom such Elegancies can be rightly judged of I send you here a Catalogue of those writings a These were the Papers which J. Gruter afterwards publish'd under the title of Scripta Philosophica which I had in MS. out of the study of Sir William Boswel and which I now have by me either written by the Lord Bacon himself or by some English Amanuensis but by him revised as the same Sir Willam Boswel who was pleased to admit me to a most intimate familiarity with him did himself tell me Among my Copies as the Catalogue which comes with this Letter shews you will find the History of rare and dense Bodies but imperfect though carried on to some length I had once in my hands an entire and thick Volume concerning Heavy and Light Bodies but consisting only of a naked delineation of the Model which the Lord Bacon had framed in his Head in titles of Matters without any description of the Matters themselves There is here enclosed a Copy of that Contexture b This Letter came to my hands without that Copy See in lieu of it Topica de Gravi Levi in lib. 5. cap. 3. de Augm. Scien containing only the Heads of the Chapters and wanting a full handling from that rude Draught which supplement I dispair of For the Book of Dense and Rare Bodies which you have by you perfected by the Author's last Hand as likewise the Fragments which are an Appendix to it I could wish that they might be here publish'd in Holland together with those hitherto unpublish'd Philosophical Papers copied by me out of M S S. of Sir William Boswel seeing if they come out together they will set off and commend one another I have begun to deal with a Printer who is a Man of great Diligence and Curiosity I will so order the matter that you shall have no reason to complain of my Fidelity and Candor if you leave that Edition to me Care shall be taken by me that it be not done without honourable mention of your self But be it what it will you shall resolve upon it shall abate nothing of the offices of our Friendship which from this beginning of it shall still further be promoted upon all occasions Lewis Elzevir wrote me word lately from Amsterdam that he was designed to begin shortly an Edition in Quarto of all the Works of the Lord Bacon in Latine or English But not of the English without the Translation of them into Latine And he desir'd my advice and any assistance I could give him by Manuscripts or Translations to the end that as far as possible those Works might come abroad with advantage which have been long receiv'd with the kindest Elogies and with the most attested Applause of the Learned World If you have any thing in your Mind or your Hands whence we may hope for assistance in so famous a Design and conducing so much to the Honour of those who are Instrumental in it pray let me know it and reckon me henceforth amongst the devout Honourers of the name of the Lord Bacon and of your own Vertues I expect from you what you know about the Ancestors of the Lord Bacon especially concerning his Father Nicholas Bacon concerning his Youth his Studies in Cambridg his Travels his Honours his Office of Chancellour and his deposal from it by Sentence of Parliament The former I will undertake in a more florid and free Style expatiating in his just Praises the latter with a wary Pen lest out of my Commentary of the Life of this most Learned Man matter be offered of pernicious Prating to Slanderers and Men of dishonest Tempers From the Hague May 29. 1652. The second Letter of Mr. Isaac Gruter to Dr. Rawley concerning the Writings of the Lord Bacon V. R. Gulielmo Rawlejo S. S. Theologiae Doctori S. P. D. Isaacus Gruterus Vir Reverende DE responsi tui tarditate queri non licet cùm difficultas trajectûs facile moram injiciat ex anno in hiemem declivi dum tuas dares atque abunde in iis inveniat quo se pascat desiderium tantò uberiori accessione quantò cunctantius ad manus nostras fortassis pervenisse dici potest Et quamvis pauxillum erat quod praeter gratias proindiculo reponerem ejus tamen id momenti visum est ut supprimere diutius noluerim praesertim cùm nefas mihi haberetur Smithum responso carere virum amicissimum cujus in Res nostras studio quicquid in me est curae debetur affectúsque nihil imminuti parte in quam sane non levem Rawleius venit ut in Trigam coäluisse dici queat optimè consentientes animos Illustrissimi Herois Verulamii quà m sancta apud me sit existimatio etsi perquam sollicitè ostendisse me putabam faciam tamen ut in posterum religiosius me operam dedisse quo hoc literato orbi innotesceret
negari haud possit Neque enim procedet ista contrahendi omnia Baconiana in unum volumen molitio nisi te consulto ad symbolas tam insigni editione dignas invitato ut lectoris jam pridem ex praevio eorum quae circumferuntur gustu cupidi concilietur gratia ex illibatâ auctarii non poenitendi novitate Gallo interpreti qui sua nescio unde consarcinavit centonésque consuit locus non dabitur in magno Syngrammate Ut autem separatim cum Historia Naturali excudatur exoticum opus per excerpta hinc inde corrogatum latinitate meâ donatum spero à te impetrari patieris Interesse enim puto cum Verulamiana genuina Gallici Sermonis induta cultu passim prostent ut sciat transmarinus lector è quibus filis contexta sit istius libri tela quà m verum sit quod Anonymus iste in prefatione ad Lectorem de te innominato scribit Verba ejus frater meus B. M. Latinè 〈◊〉 in primâ editione Historiae Naturalis cùm de fide Authoris ignoti dubitaret Ego in secundâ dabo repetita justis confossa notis ut moneantur in quorum manus perventurum sit istud opus supposititium esse aâ—t potius ex avulsis sparsim laciniis consutum quicquid specioso Verulamii titulo munitum venditat Author Nisi forte speciatim tuo nomine suggerere libet isti loco inserenda in cautelam ne quid Gloriae celeberimi viri detrahat vel malignitas vel inconsideratum studium Virgil. Si me fata meis paterentur ducere vitam auspiciis in Angliam evolarem ut quicquid Verulamianae officinae servas in scriniis tuis ineditum coram inspicerem oculos saltem haberem arbitros si possessio negetur mercis nondum publicae Nunc vota impatientis desiderii sustentabo spe aliquando videndi quae fidis mandata latebris occasionem exspectant ut tutò in lucem educantur non enecentur suffocato partu Utinam interim videre liceat Apographum epistolae ad Henricum Savilium circa adjumenta facultatum intellectualium caetera enim Latinae monetae persuadeor statione sua moveri non posse in temporarium usum Vale. Trajecti ad Mosam Martii 20. S. N. CIO IOC LV. The same in English by the publisher To the Reverend William Rawley D. D. Isaac Gruter wisheth much health Reverend Sir IT is not just to complain of the slowness of your Answer seeing that the difficulty of the Passage in the season in which you wrote which was towards Winter might easily cause it to come no faster Seeing likewise there is so much to be found in it which may gratifie Desire and perhaps so much the more the longer it was e're it came to my Hands And although I had little to send back besides my Thanks for the little Index a A Note of some Papers of the Lord Bacon's in D. R's hands yet that seemed to me of such moment that I would no longer suppress them especially because I accounted it a Crime to have suffer'd Mr. Smith b Of Christ's Colledg in Cambridg and Keeper of the publick Library there to have been without an Answer Mr. Smith my most kind Friend and to whose care in my Matters I owe all Regard and Affection yet without diminution of that part and that no small one neither in which Dr. Rawley hath place So that the Souls of us Three so throughly agreeing may be aptly said to have united in a Triga Though I thought that I had already sufficiently shew'd what Veneration I had for the Illustrious Lord Verulam yet I shall take such care for the future that it may not possibly be deny'd that I endeavour'd most zealously to make this thing known to the learned World But neither shall this Design of setting forth in one Volume all the Lord Bacon's Works proceed without consulting you and without inviting you to cast in your Symbol worthy such an excellent Edition That so the Appetite of the Reader provoked already by his publish'd Works may be further gratifi'd by the pure novelty of so considerable an Appendage For the French Interpreter who patch'd together his Things I know not whence c Certain spurious Papers added to his Translation of the Advancement of Learning and tack'd that motley piece to him they shall not have place in this great Collection But yet I hope to obtain your leave to publish apart as an Appendix to the Natural History that Exotick Work gather'd together from this and the other place of his Lordships Writings and by me translated into Latine For seeing the genuine Pieces of the Lord Bacon are already Extant and in many Hands it is necessary that the Forreign Reader be given to understand of what Threds the Texture of that Book consists and how much of Truth there is in that which that shameless person does in his Preface to the Reader so stupidly write of you My Brother of blessed Memory turn'd his words into Latine in the first Edition of the Natural History having some suspition of the Fidelity of an unknown Author I will in the second Edition repeat them and with just severity animadvert upon them That they into whose hands that Work comes may know it to be suppositious or rather patch'd up of many distinct Pieces how much soever the Authour bears himself upon the specious Title of Verulam Unless perhaps I should particularly suggest in your Name that these words were there inserted by way of Caution and lest Malignity and Rashness should any way blemish the Fame of so eminent a Person Si me Fata meis paterentur ducere vitam Auspiciis to use the words of Virgil. If my Fate would permit me to live according to my Wishes I woâ—ud flie over into England that I might behold whatsoever remaineth in your Cabinet of the Verulamian Workmanship and at least make my Eyes witnesses of it if the possession of the Merchandize be yet denied to the Publick At present I will support the Wishes of my impatient desire with hope of seeing one Day those Issues which being committed to faithful Privacie wait the time 'till they may safely see the Light and not be stifled in their Birth I wish in the mean time I could have a sight of the Copy of the Epistle to Sir Henry Savil concerning the Helps of the Intellectual Powers For I am persuaded as to the other Latine Remains that I shall not obtain for present use the removal of them from the place in which they now are Farewel Maestricht March 20. New Style 1655. The Third Letter written by Mr. Isaac Gruter to Dr. Rawley concerning the Writings of the Lord Bacon Reverendo Doctissimoque viro Gulielmo Rawleio S. Theologiae Doctori S. P. D. Isaacus Gruterus Vir Reverende amicissime QVanta in parte honoris deputarem missa Verulamii posthuma quae è tuo non ita pridem Museo Latina prodiere