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
f In the Miscelan Works p. 137. 2d part of Resusc. The Fourteenth is The Elements of the Common Laws of England in a double Tract The one of the Rules and Maxims of the Common Law with their Latitude and Extent The other of the Vse of the Common Law for the preservation of our Persons Goods and good Names g In 4 â— Anno 1639. These he Dedicated to her Majesty whose the Laws were whilst the Collection was his The Fifteenth is a Draught of an Act against an usurious shift of Gain h See Resusc. part 2. p. 62. in delivering Commodities in stead of Money Touching these latter Pieces which may be termed Writings in Iuridical Polity and which he wrote as a debtor to his Profession it is beyond my Skill as well as out of the way of my Studies to pass a special Judgment on them Onely I may note it in the general that if he reached not so far in the Common Law as Sir Edward Cook and some other Ornaments of the long Robe the prepossession of his Mind by Philosophical Notions and his regard to Matters of Estate rather than to those of Law may be assigned as the true Causes of it For doubtless Parts were not wanting On this Subject it is that he thus writeth to Sir Thomas Bodley i Coll. of Letters in Resusc. p. 34. I think no Man may more truly say with the Psalm multùm incola fuit Anima mea than my self For I do confess since I was of any Understanding my Mind hath in effect been absent from that I have done And in absence are many Errors which I do willingly acknowledg and amongst the rest this great one that led the rest That knowing my self by inward Calling to be fitter to hold a Book than to play a Part I have led my Life in civil Causes for which I was not very fit by Nature and more unfit by the preoccupation of my Mind To a like purpose is this in a Manuscript Letter to the Lord Chancellor Egerton which I have sometimes perus'd I am not k M S. Letter of L. Bacons so deceived in my self but that I know very well and I think your Lordship is major Corde and in your Wisdom you note it more deeply than I can in my self that in Practising the Law I play not my best Game which maketh me accept it with a nisi quid potius as the best of my Fortune and a thing better agreeable to better Gifts than mine but not to mine And it appeareth by what he hath said in a Letter to the Earl of Essex l Coll. in Resusc. p. III. that he once thought not to practise in his Profession I am purposed said he not to follow the practice of the Law And my Reason is only because it drinketh too much Time which I have dedicated to better purposes To this Head of Polity relating to the Affairs of these Kingdoms we may reduce most of his Lordship's Letters published correctly in the Resuscitatio and in these Remains and from uncorrect Copies in the Cabala These they though often contain private Matters yet commonly they have Matters of Estate intermingled with them Thus his Letter to the Lord-Treasurer Burghley m P. 1. was writ in Excuse of his Speech in Parliament against the Triple Subsidy So many of the Letters to the Earl of Essex n Pag. â— 5 7. and Sir George Villiers o P. 76. relate plainly to the Irish Affairs So some Letters to King Iames relate to the Cases of Peacham p P. 48 51. Owen q P. 55. and others r P. 58. I S. to the Matter of his Revenue s 〈◊〉 57. to the New Company t P. 59 61 70. who undertook to Dye and Dress all the Cloaths of the Realm to the Praemunire in the Kings-Bench against the Chancery u P. 66. Most of the rest are a Miscellany and not reducible to one certain Head Last of all For his Lordship's Writings upon Pious Subjects though for the Nature of the Argument they deserve the first place yet they being but few and there appearing nothing so extraordinary in the composure of them as is found in his Lordships other Labours they have not obtain'd an earlier mention They are only these His Confession of Faith written by himself in English and turn'd into Latine by Dr. Rawley w Publ. in Engl. at the end of the Resus and in â—aâ—ine in the Oâ—â—scula p. 207. The Questions about an Holy War and the Prayers in these Remains And a Translation of certain of David's Psalms into English Verse With this last Pious Exercise he diverted himself in the time of his Sickness in the Year Twenty Five When he sent it abroad into the World x 'T was publ in Lond. An. 1625. in 4 â— and has lately been put into the 2d part of Resusc. he made a Dedication of it to his good Friend Mr. George Herbert For he judged the Argument to be sutable to him in his double Quality of a Divine and a Poet. His Lordship had very great judgment in Poetry as appeareth by his Discourse y In l. 2. de Augm. Scient c. 13. about it and he had some sort of Talent that way also Hence when the Queen had a purpose to Dine at his Lodging at Twicknam Park he prepared a Sonnet z See Apol. for the Earl of Essex p. 73. tending to the Reconcilement of her Majesty to the Earl of Essex then in Disfavour But it was very seldom that he courted these Muses and therefore his Vein does not appear so Elegant and Happy as Exercise might have made it The truth is 't is one of the hardest things in the World to excel in Poetry and to Attempt and not to Excel is to lose both Time and Reputation For in this Art Mediocrity will not pass for Vertue In this squeamish Age as Mounsieur Rapine saith in his Iudicious Reflections Verses are Ridiculous if they be not Admirable They are it seems like some Modern Dishes which if they have not an high taste occasion Disgust Now of these several Works of his Lordship 's already Publish'd of which a great part a See them in S. W. Dugdale at the â—nd of these Remains was written in that non ignobile Quinquennium of his recess from Business there is not yet made any exact Collection either in Latine or English though some attempts have been made in both those Languages The first Latine Collection was set forth accurately for so much of it by Dr. Rawley under the Title of Opera Moralia Civilia b Londini 1638. in Fol. see Dr. Rawley's Letter to M. Deodate and his Answer But it contained only the History of Henry the Seventhâ— the Essaies the Book of the Wisdom of the Ancients the Dialogue of an Holy War the New Atlantis the Book de Augmentis the History of Winds the
History of Life and Death The second Latine Collection was lately publish'd c Fran. ad Moenum 1665. in Fol. at Francfort on the Meyn It pretendeth in the Title to contain all his Lordship's Extant Works whether Philosophical Moral Political or Historical Although besides the Books in the foremention'd Collection it containeth only his Lordship's Life without any mention of Dr. Rawley who wrote it the Organon the Scripta the Sylva Sylvarum the Felicities of Queen Elizabeth the Images of Julius and Augustus Caesar and the Epistle to Fulgentius without the Opuscula to which that Epistle is annexed In this Collection the Nova Atlantis is as I noted a while ago most absurdly called Novus Atlas and the other Books are most falsly Printed And yet the Stationer who I suppose by his performance was both Corrector and Publisher does tell us of this Edition that it was purged of all Faults But his Collection cannot be so purged unless the whole Volume be made one entire Blot Posterity I hope will do his Lordship Honour and Benefit to themselves in a larger and more accurate Collection of his Works These Latine ones as also the Miscellanies and the two parts of the Resuscitatio which are the only attempt in English being far short of perfection Thus far I have travell'd in an Account such as it is of those Genuine Writings of the Lord Bacon which are already publish'd and which being like Medals of Gold both rich in their Matter and beautiful in their Form have met with a very great and well nigh equal number of Purchasers and Admirers This general Acceptance of his Works has expos'd him to that ill and unjust usage which is common to Eminent Writers For on such are fathered sometimes Spurious Treatises sometimes most Corrupt Copies of good Originals sometimes their Essays and first Thoughts upon good Subjects though laid aside by them Unprosecuted and Uncorrected and sometimes the very Toys of their Youth written by them in trivial or loose Arguments before they had arriv'd either at ripeness of Judgment or sobriety of Temper The veriest Straws like that of Father Garnet are shewn to the World as admiral Reliques if the least stroaks of the Image of a celebrated Author does but seem to be upon them The Press hath been injurious in this kind to the Memory of Bishop Andrews to whom it owed a deep and solemn Reverence It hath sent forth a Pamphlet upon an Idle Subject under the venerable Name of that great Man who like the Grass in hot Countries of which they are wont to say that it groweth Hay was born Grave and Sober And still further to aggravate the Injury it hath given to that Idle Subject the idler Title of the Ex-ale-tation of Ale In such an unbecoming manner it hath dealt long ago d About the Year 1658. with the very Learned and Ingenious Author of the Vulgar Errors It hath obtruded upon him whilst alive a dull and worthless Book stollen for the most part out of the Physic's of Magirus by a very Ignorant Person A Plagiary so ignorant and so unskilful in his Rider that not distinguishing betwixt Laevis and Levis in the said Magirus he hath told us of the Liver that one part of it is gibboâ—s and the other light And yet he had the confidence to call this Scribble The Cabinet of Nature unlocked An arrogant and fanciful Title of which his true Humility would no more have suffer'd him to have been the Father than his great Learning could have permitted him to have been the Author of the Book For I can assure the Reader upon my knowledg that as he is a Philosopher very inward with Nature so he is one who never boasts of his Acquaintance with her Neither hath the Lord Bacon gone without his share in this Injustice from the Press He hath been ill dealt with in the Letters printed in the Cabala and Scrinia under his Name For Dr. Rawley professed that though they were not wholly False yet they were very corrupt and embased Copies This I believe the rather having lately compar'd some Original Letters with the Copies in that Collection and found them imperfect And to make a particular Instance in comparing the Letter of Sir Walter Raleigh to Sir Robert Car of whom a Fame had gone that he had begg'd his Estate I found no fewer then forty Differences of which some were of moment Our Author hath been still worse dealt with in a Pamphlet in Octavo concerning the Trial of the Earl and Countess of Somerset And likewise in one in Quarto which beareth the Title of Bacon's Remains though there cannot be spied in it so much as the Ruines of his beautiful Genius His Lordship and other such memorable Writers having formerly been subject to such Abuses it is probable that many will at first suspect the faithfulness of this Collection and look upon that as adulterate Ware which is of such a sudden here brought forth to them out of the Dark But let them first make trial and then pass Sentence And if they have sufficient knowledg of the peculiar Air of this Author they will not only believe that these Remains are his but also set a value upon them as none of his most useless and wast Papers They say the Feather of a Phoenix is of price And here such will own they have some little of the Body as well as part of the Plumage It is difficult to imitate such great Authors in so lively and exact a form as without suspicion to pass for them They who are the most artificial Counterfeits in this way do not resemble them as the Son does the Father but at best as the dead Picture does the living Person And those who have true skill in the Works of the Lord Verulam like great Masters in Painting can tell by the Design the Strength the way of Colouring whether he was the Author of this or the other Piece though his Name be not to it For the Reader who has been less versed in his Books he may understand that nothing is here offered to him as the Labour of that Lord which was not written either by his own Hand or in Copies transcrib'd by the most faithful Pen of his Domestic Chaplain Dr. William Rawley A Person whom his Lordship chiefly us'd in his Life-time in Writing down Transcribing Digesting and Publishing his Composures and to whom at his death he expressed his Favour by bequeathing to him in Money One Hundred Pounds and in Books the great Bibles of the King of Spain I refer him who doubteth of my Veracity in this Matter to my worthy Friend Mr. Iohn Rawley the Executor of the said Reverend Doctor by whose care most of these Papers have been preserved for the public Good and who can bear me witness if occasion serveth that I have not herein impos'd upon the World It is true that Dr. Rawley in his Preface to the Opuscula of his Lordship hath
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
The Right Hon ble S r Francis Bacon Baron of Verulam Viscount of S t Albans L d High Chancellor of England BACONIANA Or Certain Genuine REMAINS OF S R. Francis Bacon Baron of VERULAM AND Viscount of St. ALBANS In Arguments Civil and Moral Natural Medical Theological and Bibliographical Now the First time faithfully Published An ACCOUNT of these Remains and of all his Lordship 's other Works is given by the Publisher in a Discourse by way of INTRODUCTION LONDON Printed by I. D. for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1679. A TABLE OF THE Contents Baconiana Politico-moralia Under this Head are Contained 1. SIR Francis Bacon 's Charge against Frances Countess of Somerset about poysoning of Sir Tho. Overbury p. 3. 2. His Charge against Robert Earl of Somerset touching the same matter p. 14. 3. His Letter to the Vniversity of Cambridg when he was sworn Privy-Counsellor In Latine p. 37. In English p. 39. 4. His Letter to King James touching the Chancellor's Place p. 41. 5. His Letter to King James for the Relief of his Estate p. 45. 6. His Remaining Apothegms p. 53. 7. A Supply of his Ornamenta Rationalia or Judicious Sentences 1. Out of the Mimi of Publius in Latine and English p. 60. 2. Out of his own Writings p. 65. Baconiana Physiologica Containing I. A Fragment of his Abecedarium Naturae in Latine p. 77. and English p. 84. II. His Inquisition touching the Compounding of Metals p. 92. III. His Articles of Questions touching Minerals 1. Concerning the Incorporation and Union of Metals p. 104. 2. Dr. Meveril's Answers to them p. 110. 3. Concerning the Separation of Metals and Minerals p. 114. 4. Dr. Meverel's Answers to them p. 116. 5. Concerning the Variation of Metals and Minerals p. 118. 6. Dr. Meverel's Answers p. 123. 7. Concerning the Restitution of Metals p. 127. 8. Dr. Meverel's Answer p. 128. IV. The Lord Bacon's Inquisition concerning the Versions Transmutations Multiplications and Effections of Bodies p. 129. V. His Speech about the Recovery of Drown'd Mineral Works p. 131. VI. His Experiments about Weight in Air and Water p. 134. VII His Experiments for Profit p. 138. VIII His Experiments about the Commixâ—ure of Liquors by Simple Composition only p. 140. IX A Catalogue of Bodies Attractive and not Attractive with Observations upon them in Latine p. 145. in English p. 149. Baconiana Medica Under this Head are Contained 1. His Paper about Prolongation of Life called by him Grains of Youth p. 155. 2. A Catalogue of Astringents Openers and Cordials instrumental to long Life p. 161. 3. An Extract by his Lordship out of his Book of the Prolongation of Life for his own use p. 167. 4. His Medical Receipts against the Stone c. p. 171. Baconiana Theologica Under this Head are Contained 1. His Questions of the Lawfulness of a War for the Propagation of Religion p. 179. 2. Two Prayers of his one called the Students the other the Writers Prayer p. 181 182. Baconiana Bibliographica Under this Head are Contained I. Papers written by Himself relating to his Books As 1. His Letter to the Queen of Bohemia to whom he sent his Book of a War with Spain p. 187. 2. A Letter of the Lord Bacon's to the Vniversity of Cambridg upon his sending to them his Book De Augm. Scient in Latine p. 189 in English p. 190. 3. His Letter to the same Vniversity upon his sending to them his Novum Organum in Latin p. 191. in Engl. p. 192. 4. His Letter to Trinity College in Cambridg upon his sending to them his Book of the Advancement of Learning in Latine p. 193. in English p. 194. 5. His Letter to the Bishop of Lincoln about his Speeches c. p. 195. 6. His Letter to Father Fulgentio about all his Writings in English p. 196. 7. To Marquess Fiat about his Essays in French p. 201. in English p. 202. 8. Part of his last Testament concerning his Writings p. 203. II. Papers written by others relating to his Books and Life As 1. A Letter to him from the Vniversity of Oxford in Latine p. 204. in English p. 206. upon his having sent to them his Book De Augmentis Scientiarum 2. A Letter from Dr. Maynwaring to Dr. Rawley about the Lord Bacon's Confession of Faith p. 209. 3. A Letter from Dr. Rawley to Mounsieur Aelius Deodate in Latine p. 214. in English p. 215. concerning his publishing the Lord Bacon's Works 4. Mounsieur Deodate's Answer in Latine p. 217. and English p. 219. 5. Mr. Isaac Gruter's Three Letters to Dr. Rawley in Latine p. 221 231 238. in English p. 225 234 240. concerning the Lord Bacon's Works 6. An Account of the Life and Writings of the Lord Bacon by Sir W. Dugdale together with Insertions by the Publisher p. 242. 7. A Character of the Lord Bacon by Dr. Heylin p. 263. 8. A Character by Dr. Sprat p. 264. 9. A Character of his Philosophy by Mr. Cowley p. 267. Liber cui Titulus Baconiana c. IMPRIMATUR Ex Aedibus Lambethanis Nov. 20. 1678. Geo. Thorp Rev mo in C. P. D. Dom. Gulielmo Archiep. Cant. a Sacris Domesticis ERRATA In the Introduction PAge 6. Line 24. Read Sprang P. 11. l. 12. r. Site l. 28. for that r. the. P. 13. Margent l. 2. for with r. inter P. 15. l. 26. for to r. and. P. 16 l. 9. for to r. for P. 24. l. 18. r. â—nlarged l. 25. for were r. wear P. 27. l. 23. for his r. this P. 40. l. 9. for precious r considerable P. 43. l. 29. r. compare them P. 57. l. 13. for of r. the. P. 59. l. 16. for Edward 3d. r. Edit 3d. P. 60. l. 8. put a period after publish'd P. 62. l. 19. r. Methodical P. 71. l. 24. r. though they In the Book P. 20. l. 11. blot out but. P. 33. l. 4. for in r. is P. 37. l. 23. r. relictum P. 61. l. 21. blot out even P. 79. l. 24. blot out Add. P. 83. l. 12. r. vellâ—cationes P. 85. l. 21. for Impossibility r. in Possibility P. 89. l. 20. for interspect r. intersperse P. 95. l. 19. r. it will P. 119. l. 2. r. Arborescents P. 125. l. 18. r. fittest P. 132. l. 26 27. for the whole Intellects r. your noble Intellects P. 135. l. 29. r. differ P. 139. l. 11. r. rawns P. 146. l. 7. for hewed r. â—eaved P. 148. l. 10. r. ipsam P. 149. l. 10. for Sheaves r. Shivers P. 16. 2 l. 9. r. mullein P. 165. l. 13. r. Cupparus P. 167. l. 2. r. Puls P. 168. l 28. for with juyce r. which I use P. 189. l. 16. r. legitimè P. 192. l. 15. r. it is P. 199. l. 19 20. r. prodromi P. â—01 l. 4. for file r. filz l. 9. for non r. mon. l. 23. for ex r. et P. 208. l. 9. blot out c. P. 215. l. 3. r. generosissime Domine l. 4. r. addictissimus P.
from the Bondage of Paul the Fifth who attempted to set his Foot upon it Galileo further improv'd the Doctrine of Copernicus discover'd by Telescopes new Stars in the Heavens wrote Dialogues concerning the System of the World and touching Local Motion which latter is the Key that openeth Nature But he descended not to the several Classes of Bodies in Nature and the particulars contained in them and their respective Motions and Uses Neither did he publish any thing till many Years had pass'd since Mr. Bacon had form'd and modelled in his thoughts his larger Idea of Experimental Knowledg His Sidereus Nuncius came not forth till towards the midst of the Reign of King Iames. And King Charles had sate some Years on his Throne er'e he publish'd his Dialogue of the System of the World Whereas Mr. Bacon had not only publish'd two Books of his Advancement in the beginning of K. Iames's Reign but early in the Queen's time as from his Letter to Fulgentio plainly appeareth he had written his Temporis Partus Maximus That Book pompous in its Title but solid in its Matter like a great Feather put sometimes on a good Head piece contained in it though in imperfect manner and so far as the greenness of his Years permitted the principal Rudiments of his Instauration The work therefore of the Instauration was an Original and a Work so vast and comprehensive in its design that though others in that Age might hew out this or the other Pillar yet of him alone it seemeth true that he fram'd the whole Model of the House of Wisdom In those days in which he began his Studies Aristotle was in effect the Pope in Philosophy The Lectures both in his private College and in the publick Schools were generally Expositions upon Aristotle's Text. And every Opinion wrote by him as his own was esteem'd as Authentick as if it had been given under the Seal of the Fisher. It was therefore a very singular Felicity in a young Gentleman to see further into Nature than that celebrated Philosopher at whose feet he was plac'd And it was as happy as it was extraordinary that he took distaste betimes at the Vulgar Physicks Use and Custome in that way might have reconciled it to him as it had done to others of great Learning For a Philosopher is like a Vine of which they say It must be set of a Plant and not of a Tree But though there was bred in Mr. Bacon so early a dislike of the Physiologie of Aristotle yet he did not despise him with that Pride and Haughtiness with which Youth is wont to be puffed up He had a just esteem of that great Master in Learning c De Augm. Scient l. 3. c. 4. Caeterum de viro tam Eximio certè ob acumen Ingenii mirabili Aristotele c and greater than that which Aristotle himself expressed towards the Philosophers that went before him For he endeavour'd some say to stifle all their Labours designing to himself an universal Monarchy over Opinions as his Patron Alexander did over Men. Our Heröe owned what was excellent in him but in his Inquiries into Nature he proceeded not upon his Principles He began the Work a-new and laid the foundation of Philosophick Theory in numerous Experiments By this Theory is not as I conceive so much to be understood that most abstracted and more narrow one of the meer nature and definition of Matter Motion Place Figure Sight Quantity and the like which a Man's Reason may find out by a few common and daily Appearances in Nature or Operations of Art But we are to understand by it a truer and fuller Knowledg of the Systeme of the World of the several Actions and Passions of Bodies in it and of the divers Ways whereby in themselves or by the application of Art to them they may be made serviceable to Humane Life Now this was a Work for a Man of a thousand Hands and as many Eyes and depended upon a distinct and comprehensive History of Nature It was a way laborious and tedious yet useful and honourable and in this like that way of the Snail which shineth though it is slow Such an useful and noble Philosophy did our Author design instead of the Art of Disputation which then generally prevail'd and which he compar'd to the condition of Children who are apt for Talk but not for Generation And certainly that Character was most due unto himself which he gave to Xenophanes of whom he said that he was a Man of a vast Conceit and that minded nothing but Infinitum d Hist. of Life Death p. 15. Easie it is to add to things already invented but to Invent and to do it under Discouragement when the World is prejudiced against the Invention and with loud Clamour hooteth at the Projector this is not an Undertaking for Dulness or Cowardize To do this argues an Inquisitive and Sagacious Wit A mind free from slavish prepossession a piercing Iudgment able to see through the mists of Authority a great Power in the Understanding giving to a Man sufficient Courage to bear up the Head against the common Current of Philosophical Doctrines and Force to beat out its own way in untravelled Places With such Intellectual Ability was the Lord Verulam endow'd And he stood on the old Paths and perceiv'd the unsoundness of their Bottom their intricate Windings their tendency to an useless End or rather to endless Disputation and the daily Justlings and Rencounters of those who travail'd in them And he looked attentively round about him and he espied a new and better and larger and safer way and he journey'd far in it himself and he left a Map of it for Posterity who might further pursue it and he has been happy in being follow'd by Men of the ablest Understandings with singular success and the Societies for improving of Natural Knowledg do not at this day depart from his Directions though they travel further than Death would suffer him to adventure I can at present call to remembrance but one Man who hath undervalued his Lordship's Method and it is the same Man who hath libell'd the Holy Scriptures themselves the Infidel Spinoza e B. D. Spinoza in Ep. 2. ad H. Oldenburg with op Posth p. 398 399. This Man objecteth against his Way that it faileth in the very entrance of it through a mistake about the Original of Error His Lordship's Opinion is the same with that which de Chart insisteth on in his latter Philosophy Both shew that therefore Man deceives himself because his Will being larger in its desires than the Vnderstanding is in its Comprehensions and hastning its opinion of such Objects as it covets to know before it hath sufficiently attended to them and obtain'd a clear and distinct perception of them does cause it to yield a blind and rash and therefore groundless Assent to insufficient Evidence His Lordship hath expressed it thus after his better way
Lord Bacon's to the University of Cambridg upon his sending to their public Library his Novum Organum Almae Matri Academiae Cantabrigiensi CVm vester filius sim Alumnus voluptati mihi erit Partum meum nuper editum vobis in gremium dare Aliter enim velut pro exposito eum haberem Nec vos moveat quòd via nova sit Necesse est enim talia per Aetatum seculorum circuitus evenire Antiquis tamen suus constat honos ingenij scilicet Nam Fides verbo Dei experientiae tantùm debetur Scientias autem ad Experientiam retrahere non conceditur At easdem ab Experientiâ de integro excitare operosum certè sed pervium Deus vobis studiis vestris faveat Filius vester Amantissimus Franc. Verulam Cancel The same in English by the Publisher SEeing I am your Son and your Disciple it will much please me to repose in your Bosom the Issue which I have lately brought forth into the World for otherwise I should look upon it as an exposed Child Let it not trouble you that the Way in which I go is new Such things will of necessity happen in the Revolutions of several Ages However the Honour of the Ancients is secured That I mean which is due to their Wit For Faith is only due to the Word of God and to Experience Now for bringing back the Sciences to Experience is not a thing to be done But to raise them a-new from Experience is indeed a very difficult and laborious but not a hopeless Undertaking God prosper you and your Studies Your most loving Son Francis Verulam Chancel A Letter of the Lord Bacon's written to Trinity College in Cambridg upon his sending to them his Book of the Advancement of Learning Franc. Baro de Verulamio Vice-comes Sancti Albani percelebri Collegio Sanctae Individuae Trinitatis in Cantabrigia Salutem REs omnes earúmque progressus initiis suis debentur Itaque cùm initia Scientiarum è fontibus vestris hauserim incrementa ipsarum vobis rependenda existimavi Spero itidem fore ut haec nostra apud vos tanquani in solio nativo felicius succrescant Quamobrem vos hortor ut salvâ animi modestiâ ergà Veteres reverent◠ipsi quoque scientiarum augmentis non desitis Verùm ut post volumina sacra verbi Dei Scripturarum secundo loco volumen illud magnu◠Operum Dei Creaturarum strenuè prae omnibus Libris qui pro Commentariis tantùm haberi debent evolvatis Valete The same in English by the Publisher Francis Baron of Verulam Viscount of St. Albans to the most Famous College of the holy and undivided Trinity in Cambridg Health THe progresses of Things together with themselves are to be ascribed to their Originals Wherefore seeing I have derived from your Fountains my first beginnings in the Sciences I thought it fit to repay to you the Increases of them I hope also it may so happen that these Things of ours may the more prosperously thrive among you being replanted in their native Soil Therefore I likewise exhort you that ye your selves so far as is consistent with all due Modesty and Reverence to the Ancients be not wanting to the Advancement of the Sciences But that next to the study of those sacred Volumns of God the holy Scriptures ye turn over that great Volume of the Works of God his Creatures with the utmost diligence and before all other Books which ought to be looked on only as Commentaries on those Texts Farewel The Lord Chancellour Bacon's Letter to Dr. Williams then Lord Bishop of Lincoln concerning his Speeches c. MY very good Lord I am much bound to your Lordship for your Honourable Promise to Dr. Rawley He chuseth rather to depend upon the same in general than to pitch upon any particular which modesty of Choice I commend I find that the Ancients as Cicero Domesthenes Plinius Secundus and others have preserved both their Orations and their Epistles In imatation of whom I have done the like to my own Which nevertheless I will not publish while I live But I have been bold to bequeath them to your Lordship and Mr. Chancellor of the Dutchy My Speeches perhaps you will think fit to publish The Letters many of them touch too much upon late Matters of State to be published yet I was willing they should not be lost I have also by my Will erected two Lectures in Perpetuity in either University one with an Endowment of 200 l per Annum apiece They to be for Natural Phylosophie and the Sciences thereupon depending which Foundations I have required my Executors to order by the advice and direction of your Lordship and my Lord Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield These be my thoughts now I rest Your Lordships most Affectionate to do you Service A Letter written in Latine by the Lord Verulam to Father Fulgentio the Venetian concerning his Writings and now Translated into English by by the Publisher Most Reverend Father I Must confess my self to be a Letter in your Debt but the Excuse which I have is too too just For I was kept from doing you right by a very sore Disease from which I am not yet perfectly delivered I am now desirous to communicate to your Fatherhood the Designs I have touching those Writings which I form in my Head and begin not with hope of bringing them to Perfection but out of desire to make Experiment and because I am a Servant to Posterity For these things require some Ages for the ripening of them I judg'd it most convenient to have them Translated in the Latine Tongue and to divide them into certain Tomes The first Tome consisteth of the Books of the Advancement of Learning which as you understand are already finish'd and publish'd and contain the Partition of Sciences which is the First part of my Instauration The Novum Organum should have immediately follow'd But I interpos'd my Moral and Political Writings because they were more in Readiness And for them they are these following The first is The History of Henry the 7th King of England Then follows that Book which you have call'd in your Tongue Saggi Morali But I give a graver name to that Book and it is to go under the Title of Sermones Fideles Faithful Sayings or Interiora Rerum The Inside of Things Those Essayes will be increased in their number and enlarged in the handling of them Also that Tome will contain the Book of the Wisdom of the Ancients And this Tome as I said doth as it were interlope and doth not stand in the Order of the Instauration After these shall follow the Organum Novum to which a second part is yet to be added which I have already compriz'd and measur'd in the Idea of it And thus the Second Part of my Instauration will be finished As for the Third Part of the Instauration that is to say the Natural History it is
actae protinus Gratiae significarunt si curam amici qui hìc operam suam non frustra requiri passus est haud luserit fortuna trajectus varia è causa saepe dubij Nunc tantò majus mihi istud beneficium est quantò insigniorem frugem praestitit lectio non ignava par cum quibusdam ex officina Baconiana à me editis collatio aucticrem enim tibi debemus Historiam densi rari sed alia isto contenta Volumine priusquam non conspecta Vnum mirabar non exstare ibi caeteris aggregatam Verulamii Epistolam ad Henricum Savilium de adjumentis facultatum Intellectualium si ex literis olim tuis non vanè mihi recordanti subjicit Titulum appellata memoria saltem inscriptione non longè dissimili Si per oblivionem ibi forte non comparet scriniis tamen vestris inerrat optem videre Apographum in cujus usu bonam fidem non desiderabis nisi Anglicano Sermone scripta locum invenerit in majori opere quod vernacula duntaxat complectitur Id si nos scire patiaris an obtinendi Libri in quo Oratoria fo rs Epistolica digeruntur maternae Linguae partus spes ex promisso fuerit non immodesta animo meo consecrariâ— tui memoriam in cujus veneratione nunquam defatigabitur segnesceâ—â— alacritas obstrictissimi affectus Vale. Trajecti ad Mosam unde post duos trésve menses Novomagum migro Batavis futurus propior Per Smithaeum tamen transmittere ad me perges si quid volueris Kal. Julii St. N. CIO IOC LIX The same in English by the Publisher To the Reverend and most Learned William Rawley D. D. Isaac Gruter wisheth much Health Reverend Sir and my most dear Friend HOw much I hold my self honour'd by your Present of the Lord Bacon's Posthumous Works published lately by you in Latine my thanks immediately return'd had let you understand if ill Fortune in the Passage which is for divers causes uncertain had not deluded the care of a Friend who did here with much readiness undertake the Conveyance of them Now the Gift is by so much the greater by how much the more benefit I reap'd by diligent reading of those Papers and by comparing them with some of the Lord Bacon's Works which I my self had formerly published For to you we owe the more enlarged History de Denso Raro as also many other things contain'd in that Volume which saw not the Light before One Paper I wonder I saw not amongst them the Epistle of the Lord Bacon to Sir Henry Savil about the Helps of the Intellectual Powers spoken of long ago in your Letters under that or some such Title if my Memory does not deceive me If it was not forgotten and remains among your private Papers I should be glad to see a Copy of it in the use of which my Faithfulness shall not be wanting But perhaps it is written in the English Tongue and is a part of that greater Volume which contains only his English Works If you will please to let me understand so much and likewise give me assurance of obtaining that Book in which the Speeches and it may be the Letters of the Lord Bacon written by him in English are digested you will render your Memory sacred in my Mind in the veneration of which the chearfulness of a most devoted affection shall never be weary Farewel From Maestricht from whence after two or three Months I remove to Nimmeghen nigher to Holland But you may convey to me any thing you desire by Mr. Smith Iuly 1st New Style 1659. A brief Account of the Life and particularly of the Writings of the Lord Bacon written by that learned Antiquarie Sir William Dugdale Norroy King of Arms in the second Tome of his Book entituled The Baronage of England * Pag. 437. 438 439. together with divers Insertions by the Publisher Francis Lord Verulam Vicount St. Alban 16 Iac. COnsidering that this Person was so Eminent for his Learning and other great Abilities as his Excellent Works will sufficiently manifest though a short Narrative a Impr. Lond. an 1670. of his Life is already set forth by Doctor William Rawley his domestique Chaplain I am not willing to omit the taking notice of such particulars as are most memorable of him and therefore shall briefly recount partly from that Narrative and partly from other Authorities what I have observed in order thereto As to his Parentage he was b Ibid. the youngest of those two Male Children which Sir Nicholas Bacon of Redgrave in Com. Suff. Knight had by Anne his Wife one of the six Daughters of Sir Anthony Cook of Giddy-Hall in Com. Essex Knight a person much honoured for his Learning and being Tutor to King Edward the Sixth all those Daughters being exquisitely skilled c Annal. Eliz. per Cambd. in an 1576. in the Greek and Latine Tongues Which Nicholas having been a diligent Student of the Laws in d Life of c. by Dr. Rawley Grays-Inn was made e Pat. 38 H. 8. p. 6. the King's Attorney in the Court of Wards in 38 H. 8. and upon the death of that King which soon after happened had his Patent for the same trust renewed f Pat. 1 E. p. 3. m. 36. by his Son and Successor King Edward the Sixth In the sixth year of whose Reign he was constituted g Orig. Iucrid p. 298. Treasurer for that Noble Society of Grays-Inn whereof he had been so long a Member And being grown famous for his Knowledg was shortly after viz. in 1 Eliz. made h Pat. 1 â— p. 3. Lord Keeper of the great Seal of England and Knighted i M. 6. in offic Arm. f. ib. 67. b. which Office in his time was by Act of Parliament made equal in Authority with the Chancellours What I have otherwise observed of this Sir Nicholas Bacon is k Annal. Eliz. ut supra in â—n 1564. that being no friend to the Queen of Scots then Prisoner in England he was l Annal. Eliz. ut supra in â—n 1564. privy and assenting to what Hales had publisht in derogation to her Title as next and lawful Successor to Queen Elizabeth asserting that of the House of Suffolk before it for which Hales suffered m Ibid. Imprisonment and had not Cecil stood his faithful friend n Ibid. so might he nothing being more distastful to Queen Elizabeth than a dispute upon that point Next that in 14 Eliz. upon those Proposals made by the Nobility of Scotland for her enlargement he opposed o Ibid. in an 1571. it alleadging p Ibid. in an 1571. that no security could ballance the danger thereof Lastly That upon his death which happened in April An. 1579. 21 Eliz. this Character q Ib. in an 1579. is given of him by the learned Cambden viz. that he was Vir praepinguis ingenio acerrimo singulari