PART II.

FROM THE DEATH OF ELIZABETH TO THE DEATH OF BACON.

CHAPTER I.

his majesty rather asked counsel of the time past, than of the time to come; but it is yet early to

FROM THE ACCESSION OF JAMES TILL THE PUB-ground any settled opinion."

LICATION OF THE WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS.

1603 to 1610.

UPON the death of the queen, Bacon had every thing to expect from the disposition of her successor, who was a lover of letters, was desirous

to be considered the patron of learning and learned men, was well acquainted with the attainments of Bacon, and his reputation both at home and abroad, and was greatly prepossessed in his favour by his brother Anthony, who was much esteemed by the king.

The title of knighthood had hitherto been considered an especial mark of royal favour; but the king, who perceived that the English gentry were willing to barter their gold for an empty honour, was no less ready to barter his honours for their for all persons possessing £40 a year in land either gold. A general summons was, therefore, issued commissioners; and on the 23d, the day of his to accept this title, or to compound with the king's received the honour of knighthood, amongst whom coronation, not less than three hundred gentlemen was Sir Francis Bacon, who thought that the title But neither the consciousness of his own pow-might gratify the daughter of Alderman Barnham, ers or of the king's discernment rendered Bacon inert or passive. He used all his influence, both in England and in Scotland, to insure the protection of James. He wrote to the Earl of Northumberland, and to Lord Southampton, who was imprisoned and tried with Essex, using these remarkable words, “I may safely be that to you now, which I was truly before."

whom he soon after married.

was publicly announced that a parliament would In the opening of the year 1604, (Æt. 44,) it be assembled early in the spring; and never could any parliament meet for the consideration of more eventful questions than at that moment agitated the public mind. It did not require Bacon's Upon the approach of the king he addressed sagacity to perceive this, or, looking forward, to foresee the approaching storm. Revolutions are his majesty in a letter written in the style of the times: and he submitted to the Earl of Northum-turbances happen not without their warning harsudden to the unthinking only. Political disberland, for the king's consideration, a proclama- bingers. Murmurs, not loud but portentous, ever tion, recommending "the union of England and Scotland; attention to the sufferings of unhappy precede these convulsions of the moral world: Ireland; freedom of trade and the suppression of murmurs which were heard by Bacon not the less

bribery and corruption; with the assurance, that every place and service that was fit for the honour or good of the commonwealth should be filled, and no man's virtue left idle, unemployed, or unrewarded, and every good ordinance and constitution, for the amendment of the estate and times, be revived and put in execution."

Soon after the arrival of James, which was on the 7th of May, Bacon having had an audience, and a promise of private access, thus describes the king to the Earl of Northumberland: "Your lordship shall find a prince the farthest from vainglory that may be, and rather like a prince of the ancient form than of the latter time. His speech is swift and cursory, and in the full dialect of his country; in speech of business, short; in speech of discourse, large. He affecteth popularity by gracing such as he hath heard to be popular, and not by any fashions of his own. He is thought somewhat general in his favours; and his virtue of access is rather, because he is much abroad and in press, than that he giveth easy audience. He hasteneth to a mixture of both kingdoms and occasions, faster perhaps than policy will well bear. I told your lordship once before, that methought

audibly from the apparent tranquillity with which James ascended the throne. "Tempests of state," he says, "are commonly greatest when things grow to equality; as natural tempests are greatest about the equinox: and as there are cerof seas before a tempest, so are there in states: tain hollow blasts of wind and secret swellings

"Ille etiam cæcos instare tumultus

Sæpe monet, fraudesque et operta tumescere bella." These secret swellings and hollow blasts, which arise from the conflicts between power, tenacious in retaining its authority, and knowledge, advancing to resist it, are materials certain to explode, unless judiciously dispersed. Of this Bacon constantly warned the community, by recommending the admission of gradual reform. "In your innovations," he said, "follow the example of time, which innovateth greatly, but quietly." The advances of nature are all gradual; scarce discernible in their motions, but only visible in their issue. The grass grows and the shadow moves upon the dial unperceived, until we reflect upon their progress.

These admonitions have always been disregarded or resisted by governments, and, wanting this safety-valve, states have been periodically exposed

to convulsion. In England this appeared at Run- better, is to be suspected, through fear of disturbnymede in the reign of John, and in the subver-ance; because they depend upon authority, consion of the pope's authority in the reign of Henry the Eighth.

When the spirit of reform has once been raised, its progress is not easily stayed. Through the ruins of Catholic superstition various defects were discovered in other parts of the fabric: and the people, having been spirit-broken during the reign of Henry, and lulled during the reign of Elizabeth, reform now burst with accumulated impetuosity. So true is the doctrine of Bacon, that, "when any of the four pillars of government are mainly shaken, or weakened, which are religion, justice, counsel, and treasure, men had need to pray for fair weather."

The state of Bacon's mind at this period may be easily conceived. The love of order and the love of improvement, apparently not really opposed to each other, were his ruling passions: and his mode of improvement was the same in all science, natural or human, by experiment, and only by experiment; by proceeding with the greatest caution, and by remembering that, after the most careful research, we may be in the greatest error: "for who will take upon him, when the particulars which a man knows, and which he hath mentioned, appear only on one side, there may not lurk some particular which is altogether repugnant: as if Samuel should have rested in those sons of Jesse which were brought before him in the house, and should not have sought David, who was absent in the field." He never presumed to act until he had tried all things; never used one of Briareus's hundred hands, until he had opened all Argus's hundred eyes. He acted through life upon his father's favourite maxim, "Stay a little, that we may make an end the sooner."

sent, reputation, and opinion, and not upon demonstration; but arts and sciences should be like mines, resounding on all sides with new works and further progress."

Such was the state of his mind upon entering into public life at the commencement of the parliament, which assembled on the 19th of March, 1604, when, having already made some progress in the king's affections, he was returned both for St. Albans and for Ipswich, which borough he elected to represent; and, at this early period, so great a favourite was he with the House, that some of the members proposed him as speaker.

On the 22d of March, the king first addressed the parliament, recommending to their consideration the union of the two kingdoms; the termination of religious discontents; and the improvement of the law.

Upon the return of the Commons to the Lower House, the storm commenced. Prayers had scarcely been ended, and the House settled, when one member proposed the immediate consideration of the general abuse and grievance of purveyors ;-the burden and servitude to the subjects of the kingdom, attendant upon the wardship of children;-the oppression of monopolies ;-the abuses of the Exchequer, and the dispensation of penal statutes. After this proposal, received by an expressive silence, another member called the attention of the House to what he termed three main grievances: the burden, charge, and vexation of the commissaries' courts ;-the suspension of learned and grave ministers for preaching against popish doctrine;-and depopulations by enclosure.

the 26th Bacon made his report to the House of the result of their investigations.

This was his general mode of proceeding, To consider these weighty subjects a select which, when the experiment was attended with committee of the House was appointed, including difficulty, generated more caution; and he well Bacon as one of the members. This committee knew that, of all experiments, state alterations immediately entered upon their inquiries, and, so are the most difficult, the most fraught with danger. ready were the parties with their evidence, and so Zealous as he was for all improvement; believ-active the members in their proceedings, that on ing, as he did, in the omnipotence of knowledge, that the spirit of man is as the lamp of God, wherewith he searcheth the inwardness of all secrets;" and branding the idolaters of old times as a scandal to the new, he says, "It is good not to try experiments in states, except the necessity be urgent, or the utility evident: and well to beware that it be the reformation that draweth on the change, and not desire of change that pretendeth the reformation: that novelty, though it be not rejected, yet be always suspected; and, as the Scripture saith, that we make a stand upon the ancient way, and then look about us, and discover what is the straight and right way, and so to walk in it;' always remembering that there is a difference in innovations, between arts and civil affairs. In civil affairs, a change, even for the

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The political discontent, thus first manifested, increased yearly under the reign of James, and having brought his son to the scaffold, continued till the combustible matter was dispersed. "Cromwell," it was said, "became Protector, because the people of England were tired of kings, and Charles was restored because they were weary of Protectors." Such are the consequences of neglecting gradual reform.

During the whole of the conflicts in the commencement of this stormy session, Bacon's exertions were unremitting. He spoke in every debate. He sat upon twenty-nine committees, many of them appointed for the consideration of the important questions agitated at that eventful time. He

was selected to attend the conferences of the privy council; to report the result; and to prepare various remonstrances and addresses; was nominated as a mediator between the Commons and the Lords; and chosen by the Commons to present to the king a petition touching purveyors.

To his address, clothed in language the most respectful, yet distinctly pointing out what was expected by the people, the king listened with the patience due from a sovereign to his suffering and oppressed subjects; and instead of the displeasure felt by Elizabeth at his firm and honest boldness, he received it kindly, and replied to it graciously.

Many of his speeches are fortunately preserved: they are all distinguished for their fitness for the hearers and the occasion, their knowledge of affairs, and their pithy, weighty eloquence.

The king had hitherto continued to employ Bacon, in the same manner in which he had served the late queen; but he now thought fit to show him higher marks of favour than he had received from her majesty; and, accordingly, on the 25th of August, 1604, constituted him by patent his counsel learned in the law, with a fee of forty pounds a year, which is said to have been a 66 grace scarce known before;" and he granted him the same day, by another patent under the great seal, a pension of sixty pounds a year, for special services received from his brother Anthony Bacon and himself.

It must not be supposed that either political altercations or legal promotions diverted his attention from the acquisition and diffusion of knowledge. He knew well the relative worth of politics and philosophy.

To Sir Henry Saville. Coming back from your invitation at Eton, where I had refreshed myself with company, which I loved; I fell into a consideration of that part of policy whereof philosophy speaketh too much, and laws too little; and that is, of education of youth. Whereupon fixing my mind a while, I found straightways, and noted, even in the discourses of philosophers, which are so large in this argument, a strange silence concerning one principal part of that subject. For as touching the framing and seasoning of youth to moral virtues, (as tolerance of labours, continency from pleasures, obedience, honour, and the like,) they handle it; but touching the improvement and helping of the intellectual powers, as of conceit, memory, and judgment, they say nothing; whether it were, that they thought it to be a matter wherein nature only prevailed, or that they intended it, as referred to the several and proper arts, which teach the use of reason and speech.

But for the former of these two reasons, howsoever it pleaseth them to distinguish of habits and powers; the experience is manifest enough, that the motions and faculties of the wit and memory may be not only governed and guided, but also confirmed and enlarged, by customs and exercise daily applied: as if a man exercise shooting, he shall not only shoot nearer the mark, but also draw a stronger bow. And as for the latter, of comprehending these precepts within arts of logic and rhetoric: if it be rightly considered, their office is distinct altogether from this point; for it is no part of the doctrine of the use or handling of an instrument, to teach how to whet or grind the instrument, to give it a sharp edge, or how to quench it, or otherwise, whereby to give it a stronger temper.

His love of knowledge was never checked, perhaps it was increased by his occupations in active Wherefore, finding this part of knowledge not life. "We judge," he says, "that mankind may broken, I have, but "tanquam aliud agens," enconceive some hopes from our example, which tered into it, and salute you with it; dedicating we offer, not by way of ostentation, but because it, after the ancient manner, first as to a dear it may be useful. If any one therefore should friend, and then as to an apt person; for as much despair, let him consider a man as much employ- as you have both place to practise it, and judged in civil affairs as any other of his age, a man ment and leisure to look deeper into it than I of no great share of health, who must therefore have done. Herein you must call to mind, have lost much time, and yet, in this undertak- "Apisov pèv úd☎p. Though the argument be not ing he is the first that leads the way, unassisted of great height and dignity, nevertheless it is by any mortal, and steadfastly entering the true of great and universal use. And yet I do not see path, that was absolutely untrod before, and sub-why, to consider it rightly, that should not be a mitting his mind to things, may somewhat have advanced the design." Politics employed, but the love of knowledge occupied his mind. It advanced like the river, which is said to flow without mingling her streams with the waters of the lake through which it passes.

During the vacation of this year, he escaped from exertions respecting the Union, to Eton, where he conversed on the subject of education with his friend, Sir Henry Saville, then provost of the college; to whom, upon his return, he wrote the following letter:

learning of height which teacheth to raise the highest and worthiest part of the mind. But howsoever that be, if the world take any light and use by this writing, I will the gratulation be to the good friendship and acquaintance between us two. And so recommend you to God's divine protection.

With this letter he presented a tract upon "Helps to the Intellectual Powers," which contains similar observations upon the importance of knowledge and improvement of the body.

From these suggestions, the germ of his opi- | search of knowledge, and in the judgments it nions upon the same subject in the Advancement makes: yet the last resort a man has recourse of Learning, it appears that he considered the object of education to be knowledge and improvement of the body and of the mind.

to in the conduct of himself is his understanding. A few rules of logic are thought sufficient in this case for those who pretend to the highest improvement: and it is easy to preceive that men are guilty of a great many faults in the exercise and improvement of this faculty of the mind, which hinder them in their progress, and keep them in ignorance and error all their lives."

At some future period our youth will, perhaps, be instructed in the different properties of our minds, understanding, reason, imagination, memory, will, and be taught the nature and extent of our powers for the discovery of truth;-our different motives for the exercise of our powers;— the various obstacles to the acquisition of knowledge, and the art of invention, by which our reason will be "rightly guided, and directed to the place where the star appears, and point to the very house where the babe lies."

These subjects, considered of importance by Bacon, by the ancients, and by all physiologists, In the English universities there are not any do not form any part of our university education. lectures upon the passions; but this subject, The formation of bodily habits, upon which our deemed important by all philosophy, human and happiness and utility must be founded, are left to divine, is disregarded, except by such indirect inchance, to the customs of our parents, or the formation as may be obtained from the poets and practices of our first college associates. All nahistorians; by whom the love of our country is ture strives for life and for health. The smallest taught-perhaps, if only one mode is adopted, moss cannot be moved without disturbing my-best taught in the midst of Troy's flames: and riads of living beings. If any part of the animal friendship by Nisus eagerly sacrificing his own frame is injured, the whole system is active in restoring it: but man is daily cut off or withered in his prime; and, at the age of fifty, we stand amidst the tombs of our early friends.

At some future time the admonition of Bacon, that "although the world, to a Christian travelling to the land of promise, be as it were a wilderness, yet that our shoes and vestments be less worn away while we sojourn in this wilderness, is to be esteemed a gift coming from divine goodness," may, perhaps, be considered deserving at

tention.

life to save his beloved Euryalus: and with such slight information we are suffered to embark upon our voyage, without any direct instruction as to the tempests by which we may be agitated; by which so many, believing they are led by light from heaven, are wrecked and lost; and so few reach the true haven of a well ordered mind; "that temple of God which he graceth with his perfection and blesseth with his peace, not suffering it to be removed, although the earth be removed, and although the mountains be carried into the midst

of the sea."

At some future time it may be deemed worthy

Bacon arranges knowledge respecting the mind of consideration, whether inquiry ought not to be

by a few lectures, some meager explanations of In this work, in which, he says, he has not any logic, and some indirect instruction by mathe-purpose vainly to represent this greatness, as in matics upon mental fixedness, any information water, which shows things bigger than they are, imparted upon the nature or conduct of the understanding, and Locke might now repeat what he said more than a century ago: "Although it is of the highest concernment that great care should be taken of the mind, to conduct it right in the VOL. I—(7)

but rather, as by an instrument of art, helping the sense to take a true magnitude and dimension, he intended an investigation of the general truths upon which the prosperity of states depends, with a particular application of them to this island.

(E)

He has, however, only drawn the outline, and | but when tney decayed in arms, then greatness filled up two or three detached parts, reserving the minute investigation of the whole subject for other works.

Having thus generally refuted this erroneous opinion, he beautifully explains that the power of territory, as to extent, consists in compactness, So impressed was he with the importance of -with the heart sufficient to support the extremi-elevating the national character, that, three years ties; the arms, or martial virtues, answerable to the greatness of dominion;-and every part of the state profitable to the whole. Each of these sections is explained with his usual extensive and minute investigation, and his usual felicity of familiar illustration.