Remains The Lord Bacon's Questions about the Lawfulness of a War for the Propagating of Religion Questions wherein I desire Opinion joyned with Arguments and Authorities WHether a War be lawful against Infidels only for the Propagation of the Christian Faith without other cause of Hostility Whether a War be lawful to recover to the Church Countries which formerly have been Christian though now Alienate and Christians utterly extirped Whether a War be lawful to free and deliver Christians that yet remain in Servitude and subjection to Infidels Whether a War be lawful in Revenge or Vindication of Blasphemy and Reproaches against the Deity and our Saviour or for the ancient effusion of Christian Blood and Cruelties upon Christians Whether a War be lawful for the Restoring and purging of the Holy Land the Sepulchre and other principal places of Adoration and Devotion Whether in the Cases aforesaid it be not Obligatory to Christian Princes to make such a War and not permissive only Whether the making of a War against the Infidels be not first in order of Dignity and to be preferr'd before extirpations of Heresies reconcilements of Schisms reformation of Manners pursuits of just Temporal Quarrels and the like Actions for the Publick Good except there be either a more urgent Necessity or a more evident Facility in those Inferior Actions or except they may both go on together in some Degree Two Prayers compos'd by Sir Francis Bacon Baron of Verulam and Viscount of St. Albans The First Prayer called by his Lordship The Student's Prayer TO God the Father God the Word God the Spirit we pour forth most humble and hearty Supplications that He remembring the Calamities of Mankind and the Pilgrimage of this our Life in which we wear out Days few and evil would please to open to us new Refreshments out of the Fountains of his Goodness for the alleviating of our Miseries This also we humbly and earnestly beg that Humane things may not prejudice such as are Divine neither that from the unlocking of the Gates of Sense and the kindling of a greater Natural Light any thing of Incredulity or Intellectual Night may arise in our Minds towards Divine Mysteries But rather that by our Mind throughly cleansed and purged from Phancy and Vanities and yet subject and perfectly given up to the Divine Oracles there may be given unto Faith the things that are Faith's Amen The Second Prayer called by his Lordship The Writer's Prayer THou O Father who gavest the Visible Light as the First-born of thy Creatures and didst pour into Man the Intellectual Light as the top and consummation of thy Workmanship be pleased to protect and govern this Work which coming from thy Goodness returneth to thy Glory Thou after Thou hadst review'd the Works which thy Hands had made beheldest that every Thing was very Good and Thou didst rest with Complacencie in them But Man reflecting on the Works which he had made saw that all was Vanity and vexation of Spirit and could by no means acquiesee in them Wherefore if we labour in thy Works with the sweat of our Brows Thou wilt make us partakers of thy Vision and thy Sabbath We humbly beg that this Mind may be stedfastly in us and that Thou by our Hands and also by the Hands of others on whom Thou shalt bestow the same Spirit wilt please to conveigh a largeness of new Alms to thy Family of Mankind These things we commend to Thy everlasting Love by our Iesus thy Christ God with us Amen Baconiana Bibliographica OR CERTAIN REMAINS OF THE LORD BACON Concerning His Writings To these are added Letters and Discourses by others upon the same Argument In which also are contained some Remarks concerning his Life LONDON Printed for R. C. at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard 1679. Remains Bibliographical Written by the Lord Bacon HIMSELF The Lord Chancellor Bacon's Letter to the Queen of Bohemia * Inâ—he year 1625. in Answer to one from her Majesty and upon sending to her his Book about a War with Spain It may please your Majesty IHave received your Majesties Gracious Letter from Mr. Secretary Morton who is now a Saint in Heaven It was at a time when the great Desolation of the Plague was in the City and when my self was ill of a dangerous and tedious Sickness The first time that I found any degree of Health nothing came sooner to my Mind than to acknowledg your Majesties great Favour by my most humble Thanks And because I see your Majesty taketh delight in my Writings and to say truth they are the best Fruits I now yield I presume to send your Majesty a little Discourse of mine touching a War with Spain which I writ about two Years since which the King your Brother liked well It is written without Bitterness or Invective as Kings Affairs ought to be carried But if I be not deceived it hath Edge enough I have yet some Spirits left and remnant of Experience which I consecrate to the King's Service and your Majestie 's for whom I pour out my daily Prayers to God that he would give your Majesty a Fortune worthy your rare Vertues Which some good Spirit tells me will be in the end I do in all reverence kiss your Majestie 's Hands ever resting Your Majestie 's most humble and devoted Servant Francis St. Alban A Letter of the Lord Bacon's to the University of Cambridg upon his sending to their Public Library his Book of the Advancement of Learning Franciscus Baro de Verulamio Vicecomes Sancti Albani Almae Matri inclytae Academiae Cantabrigiensi Salutem DEbita Filii qualia possum persolvo Quod verò facio idem â—vos hortor ut Augmentis Scientiarum strenuè incumbatis in Animi modestiâ— libertatem ingenii retineatis neque Talentum à veteribus concreditum in sudario reponatis Affuerit proculdubiò Affulserit divini Luminis Gratia si humiliatâ submissâ Religioni Philosophiâ Clavibus sensûs ligitimè dextrè utamini amoto omni contradictionis studio quisque cum Alio ac si ipse secum disputet Valete The same in English by the Publisher Francis Baron of Verulam and Viscount of St. Albans to the Indulgent Mother the famous University of Cambridg Health I Here repay you according to my Ability the Debts of a Son I exhort you also to do the same thing with my self That is to bend your whole might towards the Advancement of the Sciences and to retain freedom of Thought together with humility of Mind and not to suffer the Talent which the Ancients have deposited with you to lie dead in a Napkin Doubtless the favour of the Divine Light will be present and shine amongst you if Philosophy being submitted to Religion you lawfully and dextrously use the Keys of Sense and if all study of Opposition being laid aside every one of you so dispute with another as if he were arguing with himself Fare ye well A Letter of the
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
the Laws of England But other Studies together with want of Time and Assistance prevented the ripening of these Thoughts Now his Lordship's Writings in this Argument of Civil Polity are either more General or such as have more Especial respect to the several Dominions of the King of England His Political Writings of a more general Nature are his Apothegms and Essays besides the Excerpta out of the Advancement above remembred Both these contain much of that Matter which we usually call Moral distinguishing it from that which is Civil In the handling of which sort of Argument his Lordship has been esteemed so far to excel that he hath had a Comment written on him as on an Author in Ethics f See V. Placcii Comment in l. 7. Aug. Scient de Philosophiâ Morali augendâ in Octavo Franc. an 1677. and an Advancer of that most useful part of Learning Notwithstanding which I am bold to put these Books under this Head of Matter Political Both because they contain a greater portion of that Matter and because in true Philosophy the Doctrine of Politics and Ethics maketh up but one Body and springeth from one Root the End of God Almighty in the Government of the World The Apothegms of which the first g Apoth printed in Oct. Lon. 1625. is the best Edition were what he saith also h See his Epistle to Bishop Andrews of his Essays but as the Recreations of his other Studies They were dictated one Morning out of his Memory and if they seem to any a Birth too inconsiderable for the Brain of so great a Man they may think with themselves how little a time he went with it and from thence make some allowance Besides his Lordship hath receiv'd much Injury by late Editions i Even by that added but not by Dr. Rawley to the Resuscitatio 〈◊〉 3d. of which some have much enlarged but not at all enriched the Collection stuffing it with Tales and Sayings too infacetiou◠for a Ploughman's Chimney-Corner And particularly in the Collection not long since publish'd k In Octavo Lon. 1669. and call'd The Apothegms of King James King Charles the Marquess of Worcester the Lord Bacon and Sir Thomas Moor his Lordship is dealt with very rudely For besides the addition of Insipid Tales there are some put in which are Beastly and Immoral l Ex. gr Apotheg 183 184. Such as were fitter to have been joyned to Aretine or Aloysia than to have polluted the chaste Labours of the Baron of Verulam To those Apothegms may be referred these now publish'd The Essays or Counsels Civil and Moral though a By-work also do yet make up a Book of greater weight by far than the Apothegms And coming home to Men's Business and Bosomes his Lordship entertain'd this persuasion concerning them m See Epist. Ded. to the D. of Bucks that the Latine Volume might last as long as Books should last His Lordship wrote them in the English Tongue and enlarged them as Occasion serv'd and at last added to them the Colours of Good and Evil which are likewise found in his Book De Augmentis n Lib. 6. c. 3. p. 453. The Latine Translation of them was a Work performed by divers Hands by those of Doctor Hacket late Bishop of Lichfield Mr. Benjamin Iohnson the learned and judicious Poet and some others whose Names I once heard from Dr. Rawley but I cannot now recal them To this Latine Edition he gave the Title of Sermones Fideles after the manner of the Iews who call'd the words Adagies or Observations of the Wise Faithful Sayings that is credible Propositious worthy of firm Assent and ready Acceptance And as I think he alluded more particularly in this Title to a passage in Ecclesiastes * Eccles. 12. 10 11. where the Preacher saith that he sought to find out Verba Delectabilia as Tremellius rendreth the Hebrew pleasant Words that is perhaps his Book of Canticles and Verba Fidelia as the same Tremellius Faithful Sayings meaning it may be his Collection of Proverbs In the next Verse he calls them Words of the Wise and so many Goads and Nails given Ab eodem Pastore from the same Shepherd of the Flock of Israel In a late Latine Edition of these Essays there are subjoyned two Discourses the one call'd De Negotiis the other Faber Fortunae But neither of these are Works newly publish'd but Treatises taken out of the Book De Augmentis o Lib. 8. c. 2. p. 585 c. To this Book of Essays may be annexed that Fragment of an Essay of Fame which is extant already in the Resuscitatio p Resusc p. 281. His Lordship 's Political Writings of a more special Nature as relating to the Polity and various Affairs of the several Dominions of the King of England are very many though most of them short As First a Discourse of the Union of England and Scotland q In Resusc. p. 197. Secondly Articles and Considerations touching the Union aforesaid r Page 206. Thirdly Considerations touching the Plantation in Ireland s Pag. 255. Fourthly Considerations touching the Queen's Service in Ireland t P. 16. Of Coll. of Letters Fifthly Considerations touching a War with Spain u Pub. in the Mis. works in Quarto An. 1629. reprinted in 2d part of Resusc. then the Over-match in this part of the World though now in meaner Condition Sixthly His several Speeches by which I mean not only those which go under that Name but likewise his several Charges they being much of the same Nature though deliver'd ex Officio which the other were not always These Speeches and Charges are generally Methodically Manly Elegant Pertinent and full of Wise Observations as those are wont to be which are made by Men of Parts and Business And I shall not pass too great a Complement upon his Lordship if I shall say That 't was well for Cicero and the honour of his Orations that the Lord Bacon compos'd his in another Language Now his Speeches and Charges are very many and I set them down in the following Catalogue His Speeches in Parliament to the Lower House are Eight The First 39 Elizabeth upon the Motion of Subsidy w Resusc p. 1. of D. R's Edition The Second 5 Iacobi concerning the Article of General Naturalization of the Scotish Nation x P. 10. The Third concerning the Union of Laws y P. 24. The Fourth 5 Iacobi being a Report in the House of Commons of the Earls of Salisbury and Northampton concerning the Grievances of the Merchants occasioned by the Practice of Spain z P. 29. The Fifth 7 Iacobi persuading the House of Commons to desist from further Question of receiving the King's Messages by their Speaker and from the Body of the Council as well as from the King's Person a P. 45. The Sixth 7 Iacobi in the end of the Session of Parliament persuading some Supply to be
For the former of these I will not lead your Lordships into it because I will engrieve nothing against a Penitent neither will I open any thing against him that is absent The one I will give to the Laws of Humanity and the other to the Laws of Justice for I shall always serve my Master with a good and sincere Conscience and I know that he accepteth best Therefore I will reserve that till to morrow and hold my self to that which I called the Stage or Theater whereunto indeed it may be fitly compared for that things were first contained within the Invisible Judgments of God as within a Curtain and after came forth and were acted most worthily by the King and right well by his Ministers Sir Thomas Overbury was murthered by Poison Septemb. 15. 1613. This foul and cruel Murder did for a time cry secretly in the Ears of God but God gave no answer to it otherwise than by that Voice which sometime he useth which is Vox Populi the Speech of the People For there went then a Murmur that Overbury was poisoned and yet the same submiss and low Voice of God the Speech of the Vulgar People was not without a Counter-tenor or Counter-blast of the Devil who is the common Author both of Murder and Slander for it was given out that Overbury was dead of a foul Disease and his Body which they had made Corpus Iudaicum with their Poisons so as it had no whole part must be said to be leprosed with Vice and so his Name poisoned as well as his Body For as to Dissoluteness I have not heard the Gentleman noted with it his Faults were of Insolency Turbulency and the like of that kind Mean time there was some Industry used of which I will not now speak to lull asleep those that were the Revengers of the Blood the Father and the Brother of the Murdered And in these terms things stood by the space of two years during which time God did so blind the two great Procurers and dazle them with their Greatness and blind and nail fast the Actors and Instruments with security upon their Protection as neither the one looked about them nor the other stirred or fled or were conveyed away but remained here still as under a privy Arrest of God's Judgments insomuch as Franklin that should have been sent over to the Palsgrave with good store of Money was by God's Providence and the Accident of a Marriage of his diverted and stayed But about the beginning of the Progress the last Summer God's Judgments began to come out of their depths And as the revealing of Murder is commonly such as a Man said à Domino hoc factum est it is God's work and it is marvellous in our eyes so in this particular it was most admirable for it came forth first by a Complement a matter of Courtesy My Lord of Shrewsbury that is now with God recommended to a Councellor of State of special Trust by his place the late Lieutenant * Called in Sir H. Wotton 's Reliq p. 413. Elvis In Sir A. Welden 's Court of K. Iames p. 107. Elwaies In Aulic Coquin p. 141. Ellowaies In Sir W. Dugdales Baron of Eng. Tom 2. p. 425. Elways In Baker Yelvis p. 434. Helwisse only for Acquaintance as an honest and worthy Gentleman and desired him to know him and to be acquainted with him That Councellor answered him civilly That my Lord did him a favour and that he should embrace it willingly but he must let his Lordship know that there did lie a heavy imputation upon the Gentleman Helwisse for that Sir Tho. Overbury his Prisoner was thought to have come to a violent and an untimely Death When this Speech was reported back by my Lord of Shrewsbury to Helwisse percussit iliâ—ò animum he was strucken with it and being a politick Man and of likelihood doubting that the matter would break forth at one time or other and that others might have the start of him and thinking to make his own Case by his own Tale resolved with himself upon this occasion to discover unto my Lord of Shrewsbury and that Councellor that there was an Attempt whereunto he was privy to have poisoned Overbury by the hands of his Underkeeper Weston but that he checked it and put it by and disswaded it But then he left it thus that it was but as an Attempt or an untimely Birth never executed and as if his own Fault had been no more but that he was honest in forbidding but fearful of revealing and impeaching or accusing great Persons And so with this fine point thought to save himself But that Councellor of Estate wisely considering that by the Lieutenant's own Tale it could not be simply a Permission or Weakness for that Weston was never displaced by the Lieutenant notwithstanding that Attempt and coupling the Sequel by the beginning thought it matter fit to be brought before his Majesty by whose appointment Helwisse set down the like Declaration in writing Upon this Ground the King playeth Salomon's part gloria Dei celare rem gloria Regis investigare rem and sets down certain Papers of his own hand which I might term to be Claves Iustitiae Keys of Justice and may serve both for a Precedent for Princes to imitate and for a Direction for Iudges to follow And his Majesty carried the Ballance with a constant and steady hand evenly and without prejudice whether it were a true Accusation of the one part or a Practice and factious Scandal of the other Which Writing because I am not able to express according to the worth thereof I will desire your Lordships anon to hear read This excellent Foundation of Justice being laid by his Majesties own hand it was referred unto some Councellors to examine further who gained some Degrees of Light from Weston but yet left it imperfect After it was referred to Sir Ed. Cook Chief Justice of the Kings Bench as a Person best practised in Legal Examinations who took a great deal of indefatigable pains in it without intermission having as I have heard him say taken at least three hundred Examinations in this Business But these things were not done in a Corner I need not speak of them It is true that my Lord Chief Justice in the dawning and opening of the Light finding the matter touched upon these great Persons very discreetly became Suitor to the King to have greater Persons than his own Rank joined with him whereupon your Lordships my Lord High Steward of England my Lord Steward of the King's House and my Lord Zouch were joined with him Neither wanted there this while Practice to suppress Testimony to deface Writings to weaken the Kings Resolution to slander the Justice and the like Nay when it came to the first solemn Act of Justice which was the Arraignment of Weston he had his lesson to stand mute which had arrested the whole Wheel of Justice but this dumb Devil by
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
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