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
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
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
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
been the depths of his Mercy as even those Noble-mens Bloods against whom the proceeding was at Winchester Cobham and Grey were attainted and corrupted but not spilt or taken away but that they remained rather Spectacles of Justice in their continual Imprisonment than Monuments of Justice in the memory of their Suffering It is true that the Objects of his Justice then and now were very differing For then it was the Revenge of an Offence against his own Person and Crown and upon Persons that were Male-contents and Contraries to the State and Government But now it is the the Revenge of the Blood and Death of a particular Subject and the Cry of a Prisoner It is upon Persons that were highly in his Favour whereby his Majesty to his great Honour hath shewed to the World as if it were written with a Sun-beam that he is truly the Lieutenant of him with whom there is no respect of Persons That his Affections Royal are above his Affections Private That his Favours and Nearness about him are not like Popish Sanctuaries to privilege Malefactours and that his being the best Master in the World doth not let him from being the best King in the World His People on the other side may say to themselves I will lie down in peace for God and the King and the Law protect me against the great and small It may be a Discipline also to great Men specially such as are swollen in their Fortunes from small beginnings that The King is as well able to level Mountains as to fill Valleys if such be their desert In another place l Page 119. Of the Arraignment of the L. of Somerset he thrusteth into the Speech of Sir Edward Cook a part of Sir Francis Bacon's and like the worser sort of Thieves he does not only rob but mangle him Sir Francis Bacon spake on this manner My Lords He is not the Hunter alone that lets slip the Dog upon the Deer but he that lodges the Deer or rouses him or puts him out or he that sets a Toyl that he cannot escape Instead of which the Relator hath substituted this absurd Sentence It is not he only that slips the Dog but he that loves the Toyl that kills the Deer This I thought was not unnecessary to be said in Vindication of Mr. Attorney's Honour which is vilely traduc'd in this Pamphlet where the Daw would personate the Orator The Second Paper is his Letter to the University of Cambridg to whom he was of Counsel upon occasion of his being Sworn of the Privy-Council to the King This I judged fit to bear that other company which is already printed m Resusc Letters p. 82 83. and answereth to their Congratulation at his first coming to the Place of Lord-Keeper The Third is his Letter to King Iames touching the Place of Lord High Chancellour of England upon the approaching death of the Chancellour Egerton The Fourth is a Letter to the same Prince for the relief of his Estate This with that other of Submission in the Cabala seem to some to blemish his Lordship's Honour to others to clear it For in this he appealeth to the King himself whether he had not ever found him direct and honest in his Service so as not once to be rebuked by him during Nineteen Years Employment He sheweth that his Fall was not the King's Act and that the Prince was ready to reach out his Hand to stay him from falling In the other he maketh this profession of his being free from malicious Injustice For the Bribery and Gifts wherewith I am charged when the Books of Hearts shall be opened I hope I shall not be found to have the troubled Fountain of a corrupt Heart in a depraved habit of taking Rewards to pervert Justice howsoever I may be frail and partake of the abuses of the Times The Fifth Paper is a Collection of his remaining Apothegms inferiour in number to those already published but not in weight Some of these he took from Eminent Persons and some from meaner ones having set it down from his Observation n In Impet. Philosoph p. 476. Rusticorum Proverbia nonnulla apposite ad veritatatem dicuntur Sus rostro c. that The Bolt of the Rustic often hits the Mark and that the Sow in rooting may describe the letter A though she cannot write an entire Tragedy The Sixth is a Supply of his Collection of Judicious and Elegant Sentences called by him Ornamenta Rationalia He also gave to those Wise and Polite Sayings the Title of Sententiae Stellares either because they were Sentences which deserved to be pointed to by an Asterisc in the Margent or because they much illustrated and beautify'd a Discourse in which they were disposed in due place and order as the Stars in the Firmament are so many glorious Ornaments of it and set off with their Lustre the wider and less adorned Spaces This Collection is either wholly lost or thrown into some obscure Corner but I fear the first I have now three Catalogues in my Hands of the unpublish'd Papers of Sir Francis Bacon all written by Dr. Rawley himself In every one of these appears the Title of Ornamenta Rationalia but in the Bundles which came with those Catalogues there 's not one of those Sentences to be found I held my self oblig'd in some sort and as I was able to supply this defect it being once in my power to have preserved this Paper For a Copy of it was long since offer'd me by that Doctor 's only Son and my dear Friend now with God Mr. William Rawley of whom if I say no more it is the greatness of my Grief for that irreparable loss which causeth my Silence I was the more negligent in taking a Copy presuming I might upon any occasion command the Original and because that was then in such good Hands Now there remains nothing with me but a general Remembrance of the quality of that Collection It consisted of divers short Sayings aptly and smartly expressed and containing in them much of good Sense in a little room These he either made or took from others being moved so to do by the same Reason which caus'd him to gather together his Apothegms which he saith he collected for his Recreation his Lordship's Diversions being of more value than some Men's Labours Nor do such Sentences and Apothegms differ much in their Nature For Apothegms are only somewhat longer and fuller of Allusion and tell the Author and the occasion of the Wise Saying and are but the same Kernel with the Shell and Leaf about it That which he faith of the one is true of the other They are both Mucrones Verborum o In Preface to his Apothegms pointed Speeches or Goads Cicero saith he calleth them Salinas Salt-pits that you may extract Salt out of and sprinkle it where you will They serve to be interlaced in continued Speech They serve to be recited upon occasion in
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
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
secretly convinced But it appeared not by any thing during all the time of his Eclipse of Fortune that there was any abjectness of Spirit in him The many and great Works which he wrote shew a mind in him not distracted with Anxiety nor depressed with Shame nor slow for want of Encouragement nor broken with Discontent Such a Temper is inconsistent with such noble Thoughts and Designs such strict Attention such vigour of Conceit such a Masculine Style such quickness in Composition as appeared in his learned Labours When the Great Seal was taken from him it was committed to the Custody of Henry Vicount Mandevil at that time President of the Council and certain other Lords Commissioners And upon the tenth of Iuly after to o Ib. p. 104. Doctor Iohn Williams Dean of Westminster afterwards Bishop of Lincoln Towards his rising years he married p Life of c. by Dr. Rawley Alice one of the Daughters and Co-heirs to Benedict Barnham Alderman of London with whom he had an ample Portion but by her had no Children to perpetuate his Memory which his learned Works being for the most part composed in the five last years of his Life will amply supply being then totally retired from all Civil Affairs and applying himself daily to Contemplation and Study the particulars were these q Ibid. viz. ¶ The History of the Reign of King Henry the Seventh Abcedarium Naturae or a Metaphysical piece now lost * Part of it is here retriev'd by the Publisher Historia Ventorum Historia Vitae Mortis Historia Densi Rari not yet Printed ‖ 'T was Publisht at London An. 1658. Historia Gravis Levis which is also lost A Discourse of a War with Spain A Dialogue touching an Holy War The Fable of the New Atlantis A Preface to a Digest of the Laws of England The beginning of the History of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth ¶ De Augmentis Scientiarum or the Advancement of Learning put into Latine with several Enrichments and Enlargements ¶ Councils Civil and Moral Or his Book of Essays likewise enriched and enlarged ¶ The Conversion of certain Psalms into English Verse The Translation of the History of King Henry the Seventh into Latine as also of the Councils Civil and Moral and Dialogue of the Holy War ¶ His Book de Sapientiâ Veterum revised Not Printed * 'T was Printed with the Book de Denso Raro 1658. ¶ Inquisitio de Magnete ¶ Topica Inquisitionis de Luce Lumine ¶ Sylva Sylvarum or his Natural History He departed r Ibid. this Life upon the ninth day of April 1626 being Easter-Day in the sixty sixth year of his Age at the Earl of Arundel's House in High-Gate near London to which place he casually repaired about a Week before and was Buried s Ibid. in the North-side of the Chancel in St. Michael's Church at St. Albans according to the appointment by his last Will and Testament because t Ibid. the Body of his Mother lay there Interred it being the only Church remaining within the Precinct of Old Verulam where he hath a Monument of White Marble representing his full Body in a contemplative posture sitting in a Chair erected by Sir Thomas Meautys Knight formerly his Secretary but afterwards Clerk of the Council to King Iames and King Charles the First On which is this following Epitaph Composed by the Learned Sir Henry Wotton Knight Franciscus Bacon Baro de Verulam S. Albani Vicecomes Seu notioribus titulis Scientiarum Lumen facundiae Lex sic sedebat Qui postquam omnia Naturalis sapientiae Civilis Arcana evolvisset Naturae decretum explevit Composita solvantur Anno. Dom. MDCXXVI Aetatis Lxvi Tanti viri memoriae Thomas Meautus superstitis cultor defuncti Admirator H. P. That is Francis Bacon Baron of Verulam * This is a Translation of the Publishers Vicount of St. Albans Or in more conspicuous Titles The Light of the Sciences the Law of Eloquence sate on this manner Who after he had unfolded all the Mysteries of Natural and Civil Wisdom obeyed the Decree of Nature Let the Companions be parted ‖ i. e. Soul and Body in the Year of our Lord 1626 and the sixty sixth year of his Age. Thomas Meautys a Reverencer of him whilst Alive and an Admirer of him now Dead hath set up this to the Memory of so great a Man CHARACTERS OF THE Lord Bacon LONDON Printed for R. C. at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard 1679. A CHARACTER OF THE Lord Bacon Given by Dr. Peter Heylin in his Life of Arch-Bishop Laud Part 1. Pag. 64. Anno 1620. THe Lord Chancellor Bacon was a Man of a most strong Brain and a Chymical Head designing his Endeavours to the perfecting of the Works of Nature or rather improving Nature to the best Advantages of Life and the common Benefit of Mankind Pity it was he was not entertain'd with some liberal Salary abstracted from all Affairs both of Court and Judicature and furnished with Sufficiency both of Means and Helps for the going on in his Design Which had it been he might have given us such a body of Natural Philosophy and made it so subservient to the Publick Good that neither Aristotle nor Theophrastus amongst the Ancients nor Paracelsus or the rest of our latter Chymists would have been considerable A Character of the Lord Bacon given by Dr. Sprat in his History of the Royal Society Part 1. Sect. 16. Pag. 35 36. THe Third sort of New Philosophers have been those who have not only disagreed from the Ancients but have also propos'd to themselves the right Course of slow and sure Experimenting And have prosecuted it as far as the shortness of their own Lives or the multiplicity of their other Affairs or the narrowness of their Fortunes have given them leave Such as these we are to expect to be but few For they must devest themselves of many vain Conceptions and overcome a thousand false Images which lie like Monsters in their way before they can get as far this And of these I shall only mention one Great Man who had the true Imagination of the whole extent of this Enterprize as it is now set on foot and that is the Lord Bacon In whose Books there are every where scattered the best Arguments that can be produc'd for the defence of Experimental Philosophy and the best directions that are needful to promote it All which he has already adorn'd with so much Art that if my desires could have prevail'd with some excellent Friends of mine who engag'd me to this Work there should have been no other Preface to the History of the Royal Society but some of his Writings But methinks in this one Man I do at once find enough occasion to admire the strength of Humane Wit and to bewail the weakness of a Mortal Condition For is it not Wonderful that he who had run