of saying things The Vnderstanding f Nov. Organ l. 1. Aph. 49. p. 44 45. is not only made up of dry Light but it receives an infusion from the Will and Affections And that begets such Sciences as the Heart desireth For a Man soonest believes that which he would have to be true Wherefore he rejects difficult Truths through impatience in inquiring and sober Truths because they restrain his hope or desire and the deeper Natural Truths by reason of Superstition and the Light of Experiments by reason of Arrogance and Pride lest the Mind should seem to be conversant in mean and transitory Things and Paradoxes out of respect to the opinion of the Vulgar In sum the Will seasons and infects the Mind by innumerable Ways and by such as are sometimes not at all perceived Now how think you doth Spinoza shew this opinion to be a gross and fundamental Mistake Why by denying that there is any such thing in Man as a Will as if that general name was ever used to signifie a particular Act and not rather to express the general notion of that Power By telling us that all Volitions are particular Acts and as fatally determin'd by a Chain of Physical Causes as any effects whatsoever of Natural Bodies So that we are like to learn well from his Philosophy how to amend our Erroneous Assent whilst it teacheth us that it is necessary and not to be mended unless Men could have other Bodies and there were another Scheme of Nature It must be confess'd that the Lord I write of was not without Infirmities Intellectual or Moral And the latter of these have made the greater Noise from the greatness of his Fall I do not here pretend to speak of an Angel but of a Man And no Man great in Wit and high in Office can live free from suspicion of both kinds of Errors For that Heat which is instrumental in making a great Wit is apt to disorder the attention of the Mind and the stability of the Temper And High Place because it giveth power to Opportunity though no Athority to offend is ever look'd on with a jealous Eye And corrupt Men who mete by their own Measures think no Man can be Great and Innocent too His Lordship own'd it under his Hand g In his Letter to King James March 25. 1620. In the Cab. that He was frail and did partake of the Abuses of the Times And surely he was a partaker of their Severities also though they proved by accident happy Crosses and Misfortunes Methinks they are resembled by those of Sir George Sommers who being bound by his Employment to another Coast was by Tempest cast upon the Barmudas And there a Shipwrack'd Man made full discovery of a new temperate fruitful Region which none had before inhabited and which Mariners who had only seen its Rocks had esteemed an inaccessible and enchanted Place The great cause of his Suffering is to some a secret I leave them to find it out by his words to King Iames h See Mr. Bushels Extract p. 19. I wish said he that as I am the first so I may be the last of Sacrifices in your Times And when from private Appetite it is resolv'd that a Creature shall be sacrific'd it is easie to pick up sticks enough from any Thicket whither it hath straid to make a Fire to offer it with But whatsoever his Errors were or the causes of his Misfortunes they are over-ballanc'd by his Vertues and will die with Time His Errors were but as some Excrescencies which grow on those Trees that are fit to build the Palaces of Kings For though they are not proper and natural Parts yet they do not very much deprive the Body of its use and value And further to express my self by a more decent Image a Comparison of his own His Fall will be to Posterity but as a little Picture of Night-work remaining amongst the Fair and Excellent Tables of his Acts and Works i Epist to Bishop Andrew◠These I distinguish into two kinds His Mechanical Inventions and his Writings I doubt not but his Mechanical Inventions were many But I can call to mind but Three at this time and of them I can give but a very broken Account And for his Instruments and Ways in recovering deserted Mines I can give no account at all though certainly without new Tools and peculiar Inventions he would never have undertaken that new and hazardous Work Of the three Inventions which come now to my Memory the First was an Engine representing the motion of the Planets Of this I can say no more than what I find in his own words in one of his Miscellany Papers in Manuscript The words are these I did once cause to be represented to me by Wires the motion of some Planets in fact as it is without Theories of Orbs c. And it seemed a strange and extravagant Motion One while they moved in Spires forwards another while they did unwind themselves in Spires backwards One while they made larger Circles and higher another while smaller Circles and lower One while they mov'd to the North in their Spires another while to the South c. His Second Invention was a secret Curiosity of Nature whereby to know the Season of every Hour of the Year by a Philosophical Glass placed with a small proportion of Water in a Chamber This Invention I describe in the words of him from whom I had the notice of it Mr. Thomas Bushel k See his Extract p. 17. one of his Lordships Menial Servants a Man skilful in discovering and opening of Mines and famous for his curious Water-Works in Oxfordshire by which he imitated Rain Hail the Rain-bow Thunder and Lightning This secret cannot be that Instrument which we call Vitrum Calendare or the Weather-Glass the Lord Bacon in his Writings l Hist. of life and death p. 22. speaking of that as a thing in ordinary use and commending not Water ‖ In Form◠Calid◠◠24. p. 176. Org. but rectifi'd Spirit of Wine in the use of it Nor being an Instrument made with Water is it likely to have shewed changes of the Air with so much exactness as the later Baroscope made with Mercury And yet it should seem to be a secret of high value by the Reward it is said to have procured For the Earl of Essex as he in his Extract pag. 17. reporteth when Mr. Bacon had made a Present of it to him was pleas'd to be very bountiful in his Thanks and bestow upon his Twicknam-Park and its Garden of Paradise as a place for his Studies I confess I have not Faith enough to believe the whole of this Relation And yet I believe the Earl of Essex was extremely Liberal and free even to Profuseness that he was a great lover of Learned Men being in some sort one of them himself m MS. Hist. of Q. Eli◠p. 39. and that with singular Patronage he
the means of some discreet Divines and the potent Charm of Justice together was cast out neither did this poisonous Adder stop his Ear to these Charms but relented and yeilded to his Trial. Then followed the other Proceedings of Justice against the other Offenders Turnor Helwisse Franklin But all these being but the Organs and Instruments of this Fact the Actors and not the Authors Justice could not have been crowned without this last Act against these great Persons else Weston's Censure or Prediction might have been verified when he said He hoped the small Flies should not be caught and the greater escape Wherein the King being in great straits between the defacing of his Houour and of his Creature hath according as he useth to do chosen the better part reserving always Mercy to himself The time also of Justice hath had its true Motions The time until this Ladies deliverance was due unto Honour Christianity and Humanity in respect of her great Belly The time since was due to another kind of Deliverance too which was that some Causes of Estate which were in the Womb might likewise be brought forth not for matter of Justice but for Reason of State Likewise this last Procrastination of Days had the like weighty Grounds and Causes But my Lords where I speak of a Stage I doubt I hold you upon the Stage too long But before I pray Judgment I pray your Lordships to hear the Kings Papers read that you may see how well the King was inspired and how nobly he carried it that Innocency might not have so much as Aspersion Frances Countess of Somerset hath been indicted and arraigned as accessary before the Fact for the Murder and Impoisonment of Sir Tho. Overbury and hath pleaded guilty and confesseth the Indictment I pray Judgment against the Prisoner The Charge of Sir Francis Bacon his Majesties Attourney General by way of Evidence before the Lord High Steward and the Peers against Robert Earle of Somerset concerning the poisoning of Overbury IT may please your Grace my Lord High Steward of England and you my Lords the Peers You have here before you Robert Earl of Somerset to be tried for his Life concerning the procuring and consenting to the Impoisonment of Sir Thomas Overbury then the King's Prisoner in the Tower of London as an Accessary before the Fact I know your Lordships cannot behold this Nobleman but you must remember his great favour with the King and the great Place that he hath had and born and must be sensible that he is yet of your Number and Body a Peer as you are so as you cannot cut him off from your Body but with grief and therefore that you will expect from us that give in the King's Evidence sound and sufficient matter of Proof to satisfy your Honours and Consciences And for the manner of the Evidence also the King our Master who among his other Vertues excelleth in that Vertue of the Imperial Throne which is Justice hath given us Commandment that we should not expatiate nor make Invectives but materially pursue the Evidence as it conduceth to the Point in question a matter that tho we are glad of so good a Warrant yet we should have done of our selves for far be it from us by any strains of Wit or Art to seek to play Prizes or to blazoâ— our Names in Blood or to carry the Day otherwise than upon just Grounds We shall carry the Lanthorn of Justice which is the Evidence before your Eyes upright and be able to save it from being put out with any Winds of Evasions or vain Defences that is our part not doubting at all but that this Evidence in it self will carry that force as it shall little need Vantages or Aggravations My Lords The Course which I shall hold in delivering that which I shall say for I love Order is this First I will speak somewhat of the nature and greatness of the Offence which is now to be tried and that the King however he might use this Gentleman heretofore as the Signet upon his Finger to use the Scripture Phrase yet in this Case could not but put him off and deliver him into the hands of Justice Secondly I will use some few words touching the Nature of the Proofs which in such a Case are competent Thirdly I will state the Proofs And lastly I will produce the Proofs either out of the Examinations and Matters in Writing or Witnesses viva voce For the Offence it self it is of Crimes next unto High-Treason the greatest it is the foulest of Fellonies And take this Offence with the Circumstances it hath three Degrees or Stages that it is Murder that it is Murder by Impoisonment that it is Murder committed upon the Kings Prisoner in the Tower I might say that it is Murder under the Colour of Friendship but that is a Circumstance moral I leave that to the Evidence it self For Murder my Lords the first Record of Justice which was in the World was a Judgment upon Murder in the person of Adam's first born Cain And though it were not punished by Death but with Banishment and mark of Ignominy in respect of the primogeniture or of the population of the World or other points of God's secret Will yet it was adjudged and was as I said the first Record of Justice So it appeareth likewise in Scripture that the murder of Abner by Ioab though it were by David respited in respect of great Services past or Reason of State yet it was not forgotten But of this I will say no more It was ever admitted and so ranked in God's own Tables that Murder is of offences between Man and Man next to Treason and Disobedience of Authority which some Divines have referred to the First Table because of the Lieutenancy of God in Princes and Fathers the greatest For Impoisonment I am sorry it should be heard of in this Kingdom It is not nostri generis nec sanguinis It is an Italian Crime fit for the Court of Rome where that Person that intoxicateth the Kings of the Earth with his Cup of Poison in Heretical Doctrine is many times really and materially intoxicated and impoisoned himself But it hath three Circumstances which make it grievous beyond other Murders Whereof the first is That it takes a Man in full Peace in God's and the King's Peace He thinks no harm but is comforting Nature with Refection and Food So that as the Scripture saith His Table is made a Snare The second is That it is easily committed and easily concealed and on the other side hardly prevented and hardly discovered For Murder by violence Princes have Guards and private Men have Houses Attendants and Arms Neither can such Murders be committed but cum sonitu and with some overt and apparent Act that may discover and trace the Offender But for Poison the said Cup it self of Princes will scarce serve in regard of many Poisons that neither discolour nor distast and so passeth
f In the Miscelan Works p. 137. 2d part of Resusc. The Fourteenth is The Elements of the Common Laws of England in a double Tract The one of the Rules and Maxims of the Common Law with their Latitude and Extent The other of the Vse of the Common Law for the preservation of our Persons Goods and good Names g In 4 â— Anno 1639. These he Dedicated to her Majesty whose the Laws were whilst the Collection was his The Fifteenth is a Draught of an Act against an usurious shift of Gain h See Resusc. part 2. p. 62. in delivering Commodities in stead of Money Touching these latter Pieces which may be termed Writings in Iuridical Polity and which he wrote as a debtor to his Profession it is beyond my Skill as well as out of the way of my Studies to pass a special Judgment on them Onely I may note it in the general that if he reached not so far in the Common Law as Sir Edward Cook and some other Ornaments of the long Robe the prepossession of his Mind by Philosophical Notions and his regard to Matters of Estate rather than to those of Law may be assigned as the true Causes of it For doubtless Parts were not wanting On this Subject it is that he thus writeth to Sir Thomas Bodley i Coll. of Letters in Resusc. p. 34. I think no Man may more truly say with the Psalm multùm incola fuit Anima mea than my self For I do confess since I was of any Understanding my Mind hath in effect been absent from that I have done And in absence are many Errors which I do willingly acknowledg and amongst the rest this great one that led the rest That knowing my self by inward Calling to be fitter to hold a Book than to play a Part I have led my Life in civil Causes for which I was not very fit by Nature and more unfit by the preoccupation of my Mind To a like purpose is this in a Manuscript Letter to the Lord Chancellor Egerton which I have sometimes perus'd I am not k M S. Letter of L. Bacons so deceived in my self but that I know very well and I think your Lordship is major Corde and in your Wisdom you note it more deeply than I can in my self that in Practising the Law I play not my best Game which maketh me accept it with a nisi quid potius as the best of my Fortune and a thing better agreeable to better Gifts than mine but not to mine And it appeareth by what he hath said in a Letter to the Earl of Essex l Coll. in Resusc. p. III. that he once thought not to practise in his Profession I am purposed said he not to follow the practice of the Law And my Reason is only because it drinketh too much Time which I have dedicated to better purposes To this Head of Polity relating to the Affairs of these Kingdoms we may reduce most of his Lordship's Letters published correctly in the Resuscitatio and in these Remains and from uncorrect Copies in the Cabala These they though often contain private Matters yet commonly they have Matters of Estate intermingled with them Thus his Letter to the Lord-Treasurer Burghley m P. 1. was writ in Excuse of his Speech in Parliament against the Triple Subsidy So many of the Letters to the Earl of Essex n Pag. â— 5 7. and Sir George Villiers o P. 76. relate plainly to the Irish Affairs So some Letters to King Iames relate to the Cases of Peacham p P. 48 51. Owen q P. 55. and others r P. 58. I S. to the Matter of his Revenue s 〈◊〉 57. to the New Company t P. 59 61 70. who undertook to Dye and Dress all the Cloaths of the Realm to the Praemunire in the Kings-Bench against the Chancery u P. 66. Most of the rest are a Miscellany and not reducible to one certain Head Last of all For his Lordship's Writings upon Pious Subjects though for the Nature of the Argument they deserve the first place yet they being but few and there appearing nothing so extraordinary in the composure of them as is found in his Lordships other Labours they have not obtain'd an earlier mention They are only these His Confession of Faith written by himself in English and turn'd into Latine by Dr. Rawley w Publ. in Engl. at the end of the Resus and in â—aâ—ine in the Oâ—â—scula p. 207. The Questions about an Holy War and the Prayers in these Remains And a Translation of certain of David's Psalms into English Verse With this last Pious Exercise he diverted himself in the time of his Sickness in the Year Twenty Five When he sent it abroad into the World x 'T was publ in Lond. An. 1625. in 4 â— and has lately been put into the 2d part of Resusc. he made a Dedication of it to his good Friend Mr. George Herbert For he judged the Argument to be sutable to him in his double Quality of a Divine and a Poet. His Lordship had very great judgment in Poetry as appeareth by his Discourse y In l. 2. de Augm. Scient c. 13. about it and he had some sort of Talent that way also Hence when the Queen had a purpose to Dine at his Lodging at Twicknam Park he prepared a Sonnet z See Apol. for the Earl of Essex p. 73. tending to the Reconcilement of her Majesty to the Earl of Essex then in Disfavour But it was very seldom that he courted these Muses and therefore his Vein does not appear so Elegant and Happy as Exercise might have made it The truth is 't is one of the hardest things in the World to excel in Poetry and to Attempt and not to Excel is to lose both Time and Reputation For in this Art Mediocrity will not pass for Vertue In this squeamish Age as Mounsieur Rapine saith in his Iudicious Reflections Verses are Ridiculous if they be not Admirable They are it seems like some Modern Dishes which if they have not an high taste occasion Disgust Now of these several Works of his Lordship 's already Publish'd of which a great part a See them in S. W. Dugdale at the â—nd of these Remains was written in that non ignobile Quinquennium of his recess from Business there is not yet made any exact Collection either in Latine or English though some attempts have been made in both those Languages The first Latine Collection was set forth accurately for so much of it by Dr. Rawley under the Title of Opera Moralia Civilia b Londini 1638. in Fol. see Dr. Rawley's Letter to M. Deodate and his Answer But it contained only the History of Henry the Seventhâ— the Essaies the Book of the Wisdom of the Ancients the Dialogue of an Holy War the New Atlantis the Book de Augmentis the History of Winds the
without noise or observation And the last is Because it containeth not only the destruction of the maliced Man but of any other Quis modo tutus erit For many times the Poison is prepared for one and is taken by another So that Men die other Mens Deaths Concidit infelix alieno vulnere and it is as the Psalm calleth it Sagitta nocte volans The Arrow that flies by night it hath no aim or certainty Now for the third Degree of this particular Offence which is that it was committed upon the King's Prisoner who was out of his own Defence and meerly in the King's protection and for whom the King and State was a kind of Respondent it is a thing that aggravates the Fault much For certainly my Lord of Somerset let me tell you this That Sir Tho. Overbury is the first Man that was murdered in the Tower of London since the murder of the two young Princes For the Nature of the Proofs your Lordships must consider that Impoisonment of Offences is the most secret So secret as if in all Cases of Impoisonment you should require Testimony you were as good proclaim Impunity I will put Book-Examples Who could have impeached Livia by Testimony of the impoisoning of the Figs upon the Tree which her Husband was wont for his pleasure to gather with his own hands Who could have impeached Parisatis for the poisoning of one side of the Knife that she carved with and keeping the other side clean so that her self did eat of the same piece of Meat that the Lady did that she did impoison The Cases are infinite and indeed not fit to be spoken of of the secrecy of Impoisonments But wise Triers must take upon them in these secret Cases Solomon's Spirit that where there could be no Witnesses collected the Act by the Affection But yet we are not to come to one Case For that which your Lordships are to try is not the Act of Impoisonment for that is done to your hand all the World by Law is concluded â—â—t to say that Overbury was impoisoned by Weston But the Question before you is of the procurement only and of the abetting as the Law termeth it as accessary before the Fact Which abetting is no more but to do or use any Act or Means which may aid or conduce unto the Impoisonment So that it is not the buying or making of the Poison or the preparing or confecting or commixing of it or the giving or sending or laying the Poison that are the only Acts that do amount unto Abetment But if there be any other Act or Means done or used to give the opportunity of Impoisonment or to facilitate the execution of it or to stop or divert any impediments that might hinder it and this be with an intention to accomplish and atchieve the Impoisonment all these are Abetments and Accessaries before the Fact I will put you a familiar Example Allow there be a Conspiracy to murder a Man as he journies by the ways and it be one Man's part to draw him forth to that Journey by invitation or by colour of some business and another takes upon him to disswade some Friend of his whom he had a purpose to take in his Company that he be not too strong to make his defence And another hath the part to go along with him and to hold him in talk till the first blow be given All these my Lords without scruple are Abetters to this Murder though none of them give the Blow nor assist to give the Blow My Lords he is not the Hunter alone that lets slip the Dog upon the Deer but he that lodges the Deer or raises him or puts him out or he that sets a Toyle that he cannot escape or the like But this my Lords little needeth in this present Case where there is such a Chain of Acts of Impoisonment as hath been seldom seen and could hardly have been expected but that Greatness of Fortune maketh commonly Grossness in offending To descend to the Proofs themselves I shall keep this course First I will make a Narrative or Declaration of the Fact it self Secondly I will break and distribute the Proofs as they concern the Prisoner And thirdly according to that distribution I will produce them and read them or use them So that there is nothing that I shall say but your Lordship my Lord of Somerset shall have three thoughts or cogitations to answer it First when I open it you may take your aim Secondly when I distribute it you may prepare your Answers without confusion And lastly when I produce the Witnesses or Examinations themselves you may again ruminate and readvise how to make your defence And this I do the rather because your Memory or Understanding may not be oppressed or overladen with length of Evidence or with confusion of order Nay more when your Lordship shall make your Answers in your time I will put you in mind when cause shall be of your omissions First therefore for the simple Narrative of the Fact Sir Tho. Overbury for a time was known to have had great Interest and great Friendship with my Lord of Somerset both in his meaner Fortunes and after Insomuch as he was a kind of Oracle of Direction unto him and if you will believe his own vaunts being of an insolent Thrasonical disposition he took upon him that the Fortune Reputation and Understanding of this Gentleman who is well known to have had a better Teacher proceeded from his Company and Counsel And this Friendship rested not only in Conversation and Business of Court but likewise in Communication of Secrets of Estate For my Lord of Somerset at that time exercising by his Majesties special favour and trust the Office of the Secretary provisionally did not forbear to acquaint Overbury with the King's Packets of Dispatches from all parts Spain France the Low Countries c. And this not by glimpses or now and then rounding in the Ear for a favour but in a setled manner Packets were sent sometimes opened by my Lord sometimes unbroken unto Overbury who perused them copied registred them made Tables of them as he thought good So that I will undertake the time was when Overbury knew more of the Secrets of State than the Council Table did Nay they were grown to such an inwardness as they made a Play of all the World besides themselves So as they had Ciphers and Iargons for the King the Queen and all the great Men things seldom used but either by Princes and their Embassadours and Ministers or by such as work and practise against or at least upon Princes But understand me my Lord I shall not charge you this day with any Disloyalty only I say this for a foundation That there was a great communication of Secrets between you and Overbury and that it had relation to Matters of Estate and the greatest Causes of this Kingdom But my Lords as it is a principle in Nature that
the best things are in their corruption the worst And the sweetest Wine makes the sharpest Vinegar So fell it out with them that this excess as I may term it of Friendship ended in mortal Hatred on my Lord of Somerset's part For it fell out some twelve months before Overbury's imprisonment in the Tower that my Lord of Somerset was entred into an unlawful love towards his unfortunate Lady then Countess of Essex which went so far as it was then secretly projected chiefly between my Lord Privy Seal and my Lord of Somerset to effect a Nullity in the Marriage with my Lord of Essex and so to proceed to a Marriage with Somerset This Marriage and Purpose did Overbury mainly oppugn under pretence to do the true part of a Friend for that he counted her an unworthy Woman but the truth was that Overbury who to speak plainly had little that was solid for Religion or Moral Vertue but was a Man possessed with Ambition and vain Glory was loth to have any Partners in the favour of my Lord of Somerset and specially not the House of the Howards against whom he had always professed hatred and opposition So all was but miserable Bargains of Ambition And my Lords that this is no sinister construction will well appear unto you when you shall hear that Overbury makes his brags to my Lord of Somerset that he had won him the love of the Lady by his Letters and Industry So far was he from Cases of Conscience in this Matter And certainly my Lords howsoever the tragical misery of that poor Gentleman Overbury ought somewhat to obliterate his Faults yet because we are not now upon point of Civility but to discover the Face of Truth to the Face of Justice And that it is material to the true understanding of the state of this Cause Overbury was nought and corrupt the Ballades must be amended for that point But to proceed When Overbury saw that he was like to be dispossessed of my Lord here whom he had possessed so long and by whose Greatness he had promised himself to do wonders and being a Man of an unbounded and impetuous spirit he began not only to disswade but to deter him from that Love and Marriage and finding him fixed thought to try stronger Remedies supposing that he had my Lord's Head under his Girdle in respect of communication of Secrets of Estate or as he calls them himself in his Letters Secrets of all Natures and therefore dealt violently with him to make him desist with menaces of Discovery of Secrets and the like Hereupon grew two streams of hatred upon Overbury The one from the Lady in respect that he crossed her Love and abused her Name which are Furies to Women The other of a deeper and more Mineral Nature from my Lord of Somerset himself who was afraid of Overbury's Nature and that if he did break from him and fly out he would mine into him and trouble his whole Fortunes I might add a third stream from the Earl of Northampton's Ambition who desires to be first in favour with my Lord of Somerset and knowing Overbury's malice to himself and his House thought that Man must be removed and cut off So it was amongst them resolved and decreed that Overbury must die Hereupon they had variety of Devices To send him beyond Sea upon occasion of Employment that was too weak and they were so far from giving way to it as they crost it There rested but two ways Quarrel or Assault and Poison For that of Assault after some proposition and attempt they passed from it It was a thing too open and subject to more variety of chances That of Poison likewise was a hazardous thing and subject to many preventions and cautions especially to such a jealous and working Brain as Overbury had except he were first fast in their hands Therefore the way was first to get him into a Trap and lay him up and then they could not miss the Mark. Therefore in execution of this Plot it was devised that Overbury should be designed to some honourable Employment in Foreign Parts and should under-hand by the Lord of Somerset be encouraged to refuse it and so upon that contempt he should be laid Prisoner in the Tower and then they would look he should be close enough and Death should be his Bail Yet were they not at their end For they considered that if there was not a fit Lieutenant of the Tower for their purpose and likewise a fit under-keeper of Overbury First They should meet with many Impediments in the giving and exhibiting the Poison Secondly They should be exposed to note and observation that might discover them And thirdly Overbury in the mean time might write clamorous and furious Letters to other his Friends and so all might be disappointed And therefore the next Link of the Chain was to displace the then Lieutenant Waade and to place Helwisse a principal Abetter in the Impoisonment Again to displace Cary that was the under-Keeper in Waade's time and to place Weston who was the principal Actor in the Impoisonment And this was done in such a while that it may appear to be done as it were with one breath as there were but fifteen days between the commitment of Overbury the displacing of Waade the placing of Helwisse the displacing of â—ary the under-Keeper the placing of Weston and the first Poison given two days after Then when they had this poor Gentleman in the Tower close Prisoner where he could not escape nor stir where he could not feed but by their Hands where he could not speak nor write but through their Trunks then was the time to execute the last Act of this Tragedy Then must Franklin be purveyour of the Poisons and procure five six seven several Potions to be sure to hit his Complexion Then must Mris Turner be the Say-Mistris of the Poisons to try upon poor Beasts what 's present and what works at distance of time Then must Weston be the Tormenter and chase him with Poison after Poison Poison in Salts Poison in Meats Poison in Sweetmeats Poison in Medicines and Vomits until at last his Body was almost come by use of Poisons to the state that Mithridate's Body was by the use of Treacle and Preservatives that the force of the Poisons were blunted upon him Weston confessing when he was chid for not dispatching him that he had given him enough to poison twenty Men. Lastly Because all this asked time courses were taken by Somerset both to divert all means of Overbury's Delivery and to entertain Overbury by continual Letters partly of Hopes and Projects for his Delivery and partly of other Fables and Negotiations somewhat like some kind of Persons which I will not name which keep Men in talk of Fortune-telling when they have a fellonious meaning And this is the true Narrative of this Act of Impoisonment which I have summarily recited Now for the Distribution of the Proofs there
the Fire which is but by congregation of Homogenial parts The second is by drawing them down by some Body that hath consent with them As Iron draweth down Copper in Water Gold draweth Quick-Silver in vapour whatsoever is of this kind is very diligently to be inquired Also it is to be inquired what time or age will reduce without help of fire or body Also it is to be inquired what gives impediment to Union or Restitution which is sometimes called Mortification as when Quick-Silver is mortified with Turpentine Spittle or Butter Lastly It is to be inquired how the Metal restored differeth in any thing from the Metal rare as whether it become not more churlish altered in colour or the like Doctor Meverel's Answers touching the Restitutions of Metals and Minerals REduction is chiefly effected by Fire wherein if they stand and nele the imperfect Metals vapour away and so do all manner of Salts which separated them in minimas partes before Reduction is singularly holpen by joyning store of Metal of the same nature with it in the melting Metals reduced are somewhat churlish but not altered in colour The Lord Verulam's Inquisition concerning the Versions Transmutations Multiplications and Effections of Bodies written by him originally in English but not hitherto published in that Language EArth by Fire is turned into Brick which is of the nature of a Stone Quere the Manner and serveth for Building as Stone doth And the like of Tile Naphtha which was the Bituminous Mortar used in the Walls of Babylon grows to an entire and very hard Matter like a Stone In Clay Countries where there is Pebble and Gravel you shall find great Stones where you may see the Pebbles or Gravel and between them a Substance of Stone as hard or harder than the Pebble it self There are some Springs of Water wherein if you put Wood it will turn into the nature of Stone So as that within the Water shall be Stone and that above the Water continue Wood. The slime about the Reins and Bladder in Man's Body turns into Stone And Stone is likewise found often in the Gall and sometimes though rarely in Venâ Portâ Quere what time the substance of Earth in Quarries asketh to be turned into Stone Water as it seems turneth into Crystal as is seen in divers Caves where the Crystal hangs in Stillicidiis Try Wood or the Stalk of Herbs buried in Quicksilver whether it will not grow hard and stony They speak of a Stone engendred in a Toad's head There was a Gentleman digging in his Moat found an Egg turned into Stone the White and the Yolk keeping their Colour and the Shell glistring like a Stone cut with corners Try somethings put into the bottom of a Well As Wood or some soft Substance but let it not touch the Water because it may not putrify They speak that the White of an Egg with lying long in the Sun will turn Stone Mud in Water turns into shells of Fishes as in Horse-Muscles in fresh Ponds old and overgrown And the substance is a wondrous fine substance light and shining A Speech touching the recovering of Drowned Mineral Works prepared for the Parliament as Mr. Bushel affirmed by the Viscount of St. Albans then Lord High Chancellor of England a See Mr. Bee's Extract p. 18 19. My Lords and Gentlemen THe King my Royal Master was lately graciously pleased to move some Discourse to me concerning Mr. Sutton's Hospital and such like worthy Foundations of memorable Piety Which humbly seconded by my self drew his Majesty into a serious consideration of the Mineral Treasures of his own Territories and the practical discoveries of them by way of my Philosophical Theory Which he then so well resented that afterwards upon a mature digestion of my whole Design he commanded me to let your Lordships understand how great an inclination He â—ath to further so hopeful a Work for the Honour of his Dominions as the most probable means to relieve all the Poor thereof without any other Stock or Benevolence than that which Divine Bounty should confer on their own Industries and honest Labours in recovering all such Drowned Mineral Works as have been or shall be therefore deserted And my Lords All that is now desired of his Majesty and your Lordships is no more than a gracious Act of this present Parliament to authorize Them herein adding a Mercy to a Munificence which is the Persons of such strong and able Petty-Felons who in true penitence for their Crimes shall implore his Majesty's Mercy and Permission to expiate their Offences by their Assiduous Labours in so innocent and hopeful a Work For by this unchangeable way my Lords have I proposed to erect the Academical Fabric of this Island 's Salomon's House modelled in my New Atlantis And I can hope my Lords that my Midnight Studies to make our Countries flourish and outvy European Neighbours in mysterious and beneficent Arts have not so ingratefully affected 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Intellects that you will delay or resist his Majesty's desires and my humble Petition in this Benevolent yea Magnificent Affair Since your Honourable Posterities may be inriched thereby and my Ends are only to make the World my Heir and the learned Fathers of my Salomon's House the successive and sworn Trustees in the dispensation of this great Service for God's Glory my Prince's Magnificence this Parliaments Honour our Countries general Good and the propagation of my own Memory And I may assure your Lordships that all my Proposals in order to this great Architype seemed so rational and feasable to my Royal Soveraign our Christian Salomon that I thereby prevailed with his Majesty to call this Honourable Parliament to Confirm and Impower me in my own way of Mining by an Act of the same after his Majesty's more weighty Affairs were considered in your Wisdoms both which he desires your Lordships and you Gentlemen that are chosen as the Patriots of your respective Countries to take speedy care of Which done I shall not then doubt the happy Issue of my Vndertakings in this Design whereby concealed Treasures which now seem utterly lost to Mankind shall be confined to so universal a Piety and brought into use by the industry of Converted Penitents whose wretched Carcases the Impartial Laws have or shall dedicate as untimely Feasts to the Worms of the Earth in whose Womb those deserted mineral riches must ever lie buried as lost Abortments unless those be made the active Midwives to deliver them For my Lords I humbly conceive Them to be the fittest of all Men to effect this great Work for the Ends and Causes which I have before expressed All which my Lords I humbly refer to your Grave and Solid Iudgments to conclude of together with such other Aâ—sistances to this Frame as your own Oraculous Wisdom shall intimate for the Magnifying our Creator in his inscrutable Providence and admirable Works of Nature Certain Experiments made by the Lord Bacon about Weight in Air and