the Water and see whether it will gather a Crust about it After the Questions of his Lordship about Minerals and the Answers of Dr. Meverel there follows in the Fourth Place an Inquisition concerning the Versions Transmutations Multiplications and Effections of Bodies not hitherto publish'd in the English Tongue in which his Lordship wrote it x See D. R's Translation among the Opuscula Fifthly There is annexed a certain Speech touching the recovery of Drowned Mineral Works prepared as Mr. Bushel saith for that Parliament under which he fell His Lordship no doubt had such a Project and he might prepare a Speech also for the Facilitating of it But that this is a true Copy of that Speech I dare not avouch His Lordship's Speeches were wont to be digested into more Method his Periods were more round his Words more choice his Allusions more frequent and manag'd with more decorum And as no Man had greater command of Words for the illustration of Matter than his Lordship so here he had Matter which refus'd not to be cloth'd in the best Words The Sixth Paper about Natural Things containeth certain Experiments about weight in Air and Water The Seventh containeth a few Proposals to the Country-Man called Experiments for Profit The Eighth Experiments about the Commixture of Liquors The Ninth a Catalogue of Bodies Attractive and not Attractive with Experimental Observations about them Under the Third Head of Medical Remains is contain'd in the First place a Paper which he called Grains of Youth In it he prescribeth divers things as means to keep up the Body in its Vigour Amongst these is the Receipt of the Methusalem Water against the Driness of Age which his Lordship valued and used Next follows a Catalogue of Astringents Openers and Cordials Instrumental to Health Then comes in the Third place an Extract by his Lordship for his own use out of the History of Life and Death together with some new Advices in order to Health Last of all there are added Four Medical Receipts The First is his Lordship's Broth and Fomentation against the Stone which I judg'd acceptable to the Public seeing his Receipt against the Gout had been so though it worketh not an Infallible Cure And here it may seem strange that his Lordship does not mention Spirit of Nitre which he so often used and which a very ingenious Experimenter y Dr. Grew in his Exper. of the Luâ—â—â—tion arising from Affus of Menstruums upon all sorts of Bodies p. 10â— hath noted to be the best of Acids against the Stone The Second is the Receipt of an Oyntment called by his Lordship Vnguentum Fragrans sive Romanum By this he meaneth an Unguent which consisteth of Astringents preventing excess of Transpiration and Cordials comforting the Parts And he called it I suppose the Roman Vnguent because that People did eminently make use of Baths and Anointings He himself held that the anointing with Oyl was one of the most potent Operations to long Life z Hist. of Life Death of the Oper. upon Exclusion of Air. â— 21. P. 37. and that it conduced to Health both in Winter by the exclusion of the cold Air and in Summer by detaining the Spirits within and prohibiting the resolution of them and keeping of the force of the Air which is then most predatory Yet it was his Lordship's opinon that it was best to anoint without Bathing though he thought Bathing without Anointing bad The Third and Fourth are Receipts to comfort the Stomach One of them he calleth a Secret and I suppose it might be communicated to him by Sir Henry Wotton For Sir Henry speaks of his preparation of a certain Wood a In Reliqu Wotton P. 473. as of a rare Receipt to Coroborate the Viscera and to keep the Stomack in Tono Under the Fourth Head of Theological Remains are contain'd only a few Questions about the lawfulness of a Holy War and two Prayers one for a Philosophical Student the other for a Writer The substance of these two Prayers is extant in Latine in the Organon b Nov. Organum p. 19. ad Calc partis primae and Scripta c Scripta Philos. P. 451. and after the Title-Page Under the Fifth Head of Bibliographical Remains are contained some of his Lordship 's own Papers concerning his Works and likewise some Letters and Discourses of others upon the same Subject together with a few interspersed Remarks concerning his Life His Lordship's Papers are these Six The First is a Letter to Elizabeth the Sister of King Charles the Martyr and Wife to Frederic Prince Palatine of the Rhine a Princess who found so many Thorns in the Crown of Bohemia She pleased to write to his Lordship and he return'd Answer and sent along with it as a Present his Discourse of a War with Spain though neither came to her Hands till after his Lordship's Death The Second is a Letter to the Vniversity of Cambridg when he sent them his Book of the Advancement of Learning The Third is a Letter to the same University upon his sending to them his Novum Organum This he wrote in a loose sheet of paper the former in one of the spare leaves at the beginning of the Book The Fourth is a Letter to Trinity College in Cambridg of which Society he had been a Member upon his sending thither the aforesaid Book De Augmentis Scientiarum The Fifth is a Letter to the Bishop of Lincoln in which I note the goodness of his Lordship's Nature whilst he still maintaineth his Friendship with him though he had succeeded him in his place of Lord-Keeper For Envy hates every one that sits in that Chair from whence it self is fallen The Sixth is a Letter to Father Fulgentio a Divine if I mistake not of the Republic of Venice and the same who wrote the Life of his Colleague the excellent Father Paul The Seventh is a Letter to the Marquess Fiat then Embassadour from France soon after the Marriage betwixt his late Majesty and Henrietta Maria in the knitting of which he had been employ'd This Marquess was the Person who impatient of seeing so Learned a Man was admitted to his Lordship when he was very ill and confin'd to his Bed and who saluted him with this high Compliment Your Lordship hath been to me hitherto like the Angels of which I have often heard and read but never saw them before To which piece of Courtship he return'd such answer as became a Man in those Circumstances Sir the Charity of others does liken me to an Angel but my own Infirmities tell me I am a Man The Eighth is a Transcript out of his Lordship's Will concerning his Writings There in particular manner he commendeth to the Press the Felicities of Queen Elizabeth This I noted before and observe it here again as an Argument of the Impartiality of his Lordship's Judgment and Affection He was zealous in bearing testimony to the wise Administration of the Public Affairs
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
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
a large and Elegant Description of Our way of Brewing His Lordship also knew well that an Experiment manifest to the Vulgar was a good ground for the Wise to build further upon And himself rendred Common ones extraordinary by Admonitions for further Trials and Improvements Hence his Lordship took occasion to say w Nat. Hist. Cent. 1. p. 25. Exper. 93. that his writing of Sylva Sylvarum was to speak properly not a Natural History but a high kind of Natural Magic Because it was not only a description of Nature but a breaking of Nature into great and strange Works This Book was written by his Lordship in the English Tongue and translated by an obscure Interpreter into French and out of that Translation into Latine by Iames Gruter in such ill manner that they darkned his Lordship's Sence and debased his Expression Iames Gruter was sensible of his Miscarriage being kindly advertised of it by Dr. Rawley And he left behind him divers amendments published by his Brother Isaac Gruter in a second Edition x Amstel 1661. in 16 ◠Yet still so many Errors have escaped that the Work requireth a Third Hand Mounsieur Aelius Deodatus had once engaged an able Person in the translation of this Book one who could have done his Lordship right and oblig'd such Readers as understood not the English Original He began and went through the Three first Centuries and then desisted being desired by him who set him on work to take his hand quite off from that Pen with which he moved so slowly His Translation of the Third Century is now in my Hands but that of the two first I believe is lost His Lordship thus began that Third Century in English All Sounds whatsoever move round that is to say on all sides upwards downwards forwards and backwards This appeareth in all Instances Sounds do not require to be conveyed to the sense in a right Line as Visibles do but may be arched Though it be true they move strongest in a right Line which nevertheless is not caused by the rightness of the Line but by the shortness of the Distance Linea rect a brevissima And therefore we see if a Wall be between and you speak on the one side you hear it on the other which is not because the Sound passeth through the Wall but archeth over the Wall These words are thus turned by Iames Gruter in his last Edition and tollerably well Especially if we compare with some other places in his Translation Omnes soni qualescunque sint in circulum moventur hoc est in omnes partes sursum deorsum antrorsum retrorsum quod omnes docent instantiae Soni non requirunt ut rectâ lineâ ad sensum devehantur quemadmodum visibilia sed potest esse arcuata quamvis verum sit quòd fortissimè per rectam lineam moveant Neque tamen id lineae debetur rectitudini sed minori intervallo Linea enim recta est brevissima Hinc si quis ab alterâ interjecti Parietis parte vocem proferat ab alterâ queat exaudiri non quòd vox Parietem transeundo penetret sed quòd arcuata ultra parietem ascendat But the Translator employed by Mounsieur Deodate turned them after this better manner Omnes in universum Soni in Orbem feruntur In omnem videlicet partem sursum deorsum antrorsum retrorsum Hoc in omnibus exemplis cernitur Soni non in rectâ tantùm lineâ ad sensum deferri necesse habent quemadmodum visilia sed inflexa arcuata devehi possunt Quanquam in rectâ lineâ fortissimè moveantur Vbi tamen non hoc imputandum Rectitudini Linae sed brevitati Intervalli Recta enim linea eadem brevissima est Itaque experimur muro interjecto vocem ex adversâ parte muri exaudiri quae ex alterâ ejus parte prolata fuerit Auditur autem non quòd per murum penetret sed quòd eum transcendat motu flexuoso The Judicious Reader may discern by this little how much this latter Translator excell'd the former in comprehending and expressing his Lordship's Sence And yet I cannot say that throughout those Three Centuries in which he hath labour'd he hath every where truly hit his Conceit His Lordship had a very peculiar Vein with him and I may resemble it to the singurity in the Face of Cardan who tells us in his own Life that he set to Painters of divers Countries yet could never have the Air of it taken by them Whilst I am speaking of this Work of his Lordship's of Natural History there comes to my mind a very Memorable Relation reported by him who bare a part in it the Reverend Dr. Rawley One day his Lordship was dictating to that Doctor some of the Experiments in his Sylva The same day he had sent a Friend to Court to receive for him a final Answer touching the effect of a Grant which had been made him by King Iames. He had hitherto only hope of it and hope deferr'd and he was desirous to know the event of the Matter and to be free'd one way or other from the suspence of his thoughts His Friend returning told him plainly that he must thenceforth despair of that Grant how much soever his Fortunes needed it Be it so said his Lordship and then he dismissed his Friend very chearfully with thankful acknowledgments of his Service His Friend being gone he came straightway to Dr. Rawley and said thus to him Well Sir Yon Business won't go on let us go on with this for this is in our Power And then he dictated to him afresh for some Hours without the least hesitancie of Speech or discernible interruption of Thought To this Work of Natural History may be reduc'd his Lordship's Treatises De Sono Auditu De Metallis Mineralibus De Magnete De Versionibus Transmutationibus Multiplicationibus Effectionibus Corporum De Luce Lumine y The Paper De Luce Lumine is also extant among the Scripta Philosophica p. 485. All publish'd by Dr. Rawley in the Collection call'd Opuscula Varia Posthuma Francisci Bacom We may likewise reduce to the same place the Paper De Fluxu Refluxu Maris published by Isaac Gruter amongst the Scripta z Scripta Philosophica p. 178. c. and that other De Ratione Inveniendi causas Fluxus Refluxus Maris a See this turn'd into English by R. G. in Resusc Part 2. p. 90. See it in Latine at the end of the Tract De Motu annexed to the Histor. Ventor p. 91. as also the Baconiana Physiologica and Medica in these Remains There may be further added his Cogitationes De Naturâ Rerum De Sectione Corporum Continuo Vacuo and the Fragment called Filum Labyrinthi sive Legitima Inquisitio de Motu All publish'd by the same Mr. Gruter in the same Book Likewise the Treatises De Motûs sive Virtutis activae variis Speciebus
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