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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28024	Baconiana, or, Certain genuine remains of Sr. Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, and Viscount of St. Albans in arguments civil and moral, natural, medical, theological, and bibliographical now for the first time faithfully published ...	Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626.; Tenison, Thomas, 1636-1715.	1679 (1679)	Wing B269; ESTC R9006	137,175	384

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 consecrari● tui memoriam in cujus veneratione nunquam defatigabitur segnesce●● 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 ● 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 ●n 1564. that being no friend to the Queen of Scots then Prisoner in England he was l Annal. Eliz. ut supra in ●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

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 blazo● 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

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 ●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

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