ing his aid and blessing for the illumination of our | which I have made. I give thee leave to publish labours; and the turning of them into good and it for the good of other nations; for we here are holy uses.

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Lastly, we have circuits or visits of divers principal cities of the kingdom; where as it cometh to pass, we do publish new profitable inventions as we think good. And we do also declare natural divinations of diseases, plagues, swarms of hurtful creatures, scarcity, tempests, earthquakes, great inundations, comets, temperature of the year, and divers other things; and we give counsel thereupon what the people shall do for the prevention and remedy of them."

And when he had said this he stood up; and I, as I had been taught, kneeled down; and he laid his right hand upon my head, and said; “God bless thee, my son, and God bless this relation

in God's bosom a land unknown." And so he left me; having assigned a value of about two thousand ducats, for a bounty to me and my fellows. For they give great largesses where they come upon all occasions.

(THE REST WAS NOT PERFECTED.]

NOTE.

Referring to page 255

There have been various editions of the New Atlantis. In 1631, it was translated into French, of which there is a

copy in the British Museum; where there is also the New Atlantis continued A. D. 1660, by R. H. Esq. wherein is set forth a platform of monarchical government: and also in occupations des academies, &c. par M. R.

French, A. D. 1702, avec des reflexions sur l'institution et les

The first edition of this work was published in Latin in the year 1609. It is entitled

FRANCISCI
BACONI

EQVITIS AVRATI,

PROCVRATORIS SE

CVNDI, JACOBI REGIS
MAGNA BRITANNIE
DE SAPIENTIA

VETERVM LIBER,

AD INCLYTAM ACADEMIAM

CANTABRIGIENSEM.

LONDINI

EXCUDEBAT ROBERTUS BAR

KERUS SERENISSIMÆ REGIE

MAIESTATIS TYPOGRAPHUS

ANNO 1609.

In February 27, 1610, Lord Bacon wrote "To MR. MATTHEW, upon sending his book⚫ De Sapientia Veterum.'

"Mr. Matthew,

"I do very heartily thank you for your etter of the 24th of August from Salamanca; and in recompence thereof I send you a little work of mine that hath begun to pass the world. They tell me my Latin is turned into silver, and become current: had you been here, you should have been my inquisitor before it came forth: but, I think, the greatest inquisitor in Spain will allow it. But one thing you must pardon me, if I make no haste to believe, that the world should be grown to such an ecstasy as to reject truth in philosophy, because the author dissenteth in religion; no more than they do by Aristotle or Averroes. My great work goeth forward; and after my manner, I alter ever when I add. So that nothing is finished till all be finished. This I have written in the midst of a term and parliament; thinking no time so possessed, but that I should talk of these matters with so good and dear a friend. And so with my wonted wishes I leave you to God's goodness."

"From Gray's Inn, Feb. 27, 1610."

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And in his letter to Father Fulgentio, giving some account of his writings, he says, " My Essays will not only be enlarged in number, but still more in substance. Along with them goes the little piece De Sapientia Veterum.'

Bacon's sentiments with respect to these fables may be found in the "Advancement of Learning," and in the "De Augmentis," under the head of Poetry.

In the "Advancement of Learning," he says, "There remaineth yet another use of poesy parabolical, opposite to that which we last mentioned: for that tendeth to demonstrate and illustrate that which is taught or delivered, and this other to retire and obscure it: that is, when the secrets and mysteries of religion, policy, or philosophy, are involved in fables or parables. Of this in divine

poesy we see the use is authorized. In heathen poesy we see the exposition of fables doth fall out sometimes with great felicity; as in the fable that the giants being overthrown in their war against the gods, the Earth their mother in revenge thereof brought forth Fame:

"Illam Terra parens, irâ irritata deorum,

Extremam, ut perhibent, Cao Enceladoque sororem
Progenuit:"

expounded, that when princes and monarchs have suppressed actual and open rebels, then the malignity of the people, which is the mother of rebellion, doth bring forth libels and slanders, and taxations of the state, which is of the same kind with rebellion, but more feminine. So in the fable, that the rest of the gods having conspired to bind Jupiter, Pallas called Briareus with his hundred hands to his aid: expounded, that monarchies need not fear any curbing of their absoluteness by mighty subjects, as long as by wisdom they keep the hearts of the people, who will be sure to come in on their side. So in the fable, that Achilles was brought up under Chiron the Centaur, who was part a man and part a beast: expounded ingeniously, but corruptly by Machiavel, that it belongeth to the education and discipline of princes to know as well how to play the part of the lion in violence, and the fox in guile, as of the man in virtue and justice. Nevertheless, in many the like encounters, I do rather think that the fable was first and the exposition then devised, than that the moral was first, and thereupon the fable framed. For I find it was an ancient vanity in Chrysippus, that troubled himself with great contention to fasten the assertions of the Stoics upon the fictions of the ancient poets; but vet that all the fables and fictions of the poets were but pleasure and not figure, I interpose no opinion. Surely of those poets which are now extant, even Homer himself, (notwithstanding he was made a kind of Scripture by the latter schools of the Grecians,) yet I should without any difficulty pronounce that his fables had no such inwardness in his own meaning; but what they might have upon a more original tradition, is not easy to affirm; for he was not the inventor of many of them."

In the treatise "De Augmentis," the same sentiments will be found with a slight alteration in the expressions. He says, "There is another use of parabolical poesy, opposite to the former, which tendeth to the folding up of those things, the dignity whereof deserves to be retired and distinguished, as with a drawn curtain: that is, when the secrets and mysteries of religion, policy, and philosophy are veiled and invested with fables, and parables. But whether there be any mystical sense couched under the ancient fables of the poets, may admit some doubt: and indeed for our part we incline to this opinion, as to think, that there was an infused mystery in many of the ancient fables of the poets. Neither doth it move us that these matters are left commonly to school-boys, and grammarians, and are so embased, that we should therefore make a slight judgment upon them; but contrariwise because it is clear, that the writings which recite those fables, of all the writings of men, next to sacred writ, are the most ancient; and that the fables themselves are far more ancient than they (being they are alleged by those writers, not as excogitated by them, but as credited and recepted before) seem to be, like a thin rarified air, which from the traditions of more ancient nations, fell into the flutes of the Grecians."

This tract seems in former times, to have been much valued, for the same reason, perhaps, which Bacon assigns for the currency of the Essays; "because they are like the late new halfpence, which, though the silver is good, yet the pieces are small." Of this tract, Archbishop Tenison, in his Baconiana, says, "In the seventh place, I may reckon his book De Sapientia Veterum, written by him in Latin, and set forth a second time, with enlargement;1 and translated into English by Sir Arthur Georges: a book in which the sages of former times are rendered more wise than it may be they were, by so dexterous an interpreter of their fables. It is this book which Mr. Sandys means, in those words which he hath put before his notes, on the Metamorphosis of Ovid. Of modern writers, I have received the greatest light from Geraldus, Pontanus, Ficinus, Vives, Comes, Scaliger, Sabinus, Pierius, and the crown of the latter, the Viscount of St. Albans.'

It is true, the design of this book was instruction in natural and civil matters, either couched by the ancients under those fictions, or rather made to seem to be so by his lordship's wit, in the opening and applying of them. But because the first ground of it is poetical story, therefore let it have this place, till a fitter be found for it."

The author of Bacon's Life, in the Biographia Britannica, says, "that he might relieve himself a little from the severity of these studies, and as it were amuse himself with erecting a magnificent pavilion, while his great palace of philosophy was building, he composed and sent abroad in 1610, his celebrated treatise Of the Wisdom of the Ancients, in which he showed that none had studied them more closely, was better acquainted with their beauties, or had pierced deeper into their meaning. There have been very few books published, either in this or in any other nation, which either deserved or met with more general applause than this, and scarce any that are like to retain it longer, for in this In the year 1617, in Latin. It was published in Italian in 1618-in French in 1619.

1

performance, Sir Francis Bacon gave a singular proof of his capacity to please all parties in literature, as in his political conduct he stood fair with all the parties in the nation. The admirers of antiquity were charmed with this discourse, which seems expressly calculated to justify their admiration; and, on the other hand, their opposites were no less pleased with a piece, from which they thought they could demonstrate, that the sagacity of a modern genius, had found out much better meanings for the ancients than ever were meant by them."

And Mallet, in his Life of Bacon, says, "In 1610 he published another treatise entitled Of the Wisdom of the Ancients. This work bears the same stamp of an original and inventive genius with his other performances. Resolving not to tread in the steps of those who had gone before him, men, according to his own expression, not learned beyond certain commonplaces, he strikes out a new tract for himself, and enters into the most secret recesses of this wild and shadowy region, so as to appear new on a known and beaten subject. Upon the whole, if we cannot bring ourselves readily to believe that there is all the physical, moral, and political meaning veiled under those fables of antiquity, which he has discovered in them, we must own that it required no common penetration to be mistaken with so great an appearance of probability on his side. Though it still remains doubtful whether the ancients were so knowing as he attempts to show they were, the variety and depth of his own knowledge are, in that very attempt unquestionable."

In the year 1619, this tract was translated by Sir Arthur Georges. Prefixed to the work are two letters; the one to the Earl of Salisbury, the other to the University of Cambridge, which Georges omits, and dedicates his translation to the High and Illustrious Princess the Lady Elizabeth of Great Britain, Duchess of Baviare, Countess Palatine of Rheine, and Chief Electress of the Empire. As this translation was published during the life of Lord Bacon, by a great admirer of his works, and as it is noticed by Archbishop Tenison, I have inserted it in this volume. I am not certain that I have done right, as it is my intention, with the translation of all the works, to publish a new translation of these fables; for which I am indebted to a member of the University of Oxford, who has lately so eminently distinguished himself for his classical attainments, and who will I trust forgive this expression of my affectionate respect for his virtuous exertions. It would be grateful to me to say more.

$ 2.
CIVIL HISTORY.

At an early period of his life, Bacon was impressed with the importance of a History of England from the union of the Roses to the union of the Kingdoms. In the Advancement of Learning, published in 1605, he says, " But for modern histories, whereof there are some few very worthy, but the greatest part beneath mediocrity, leaving the care of foreign stories to foreign states, because I will not be curiosus in aliena republica,' I cannot fail to represent to your majesty, the unworthiness of the history of England in the main continuance thereof, and the partiality and obliquity of that of Scotland, in the latest and largest author that I have seen; supposing that it would be honour for your majesty, and a work very memorable, if this island of Great Brittany, as it is now joined in monarchy for the ages to come: so were joined in one history for the times passed, after the manner of the sacred history, which draweth down the story of the ten tribes, and of the two tribes, as twins together. And if it shall seem that the greatness of this work may make it less exactly performed, there is an excellent period of much smaller compass of time, as to the story of England, that is to say, from the uniting of the roses, to the uniting of the kingdoms; a portion of time wherein, to my understanding, there hath been the rarest varieties that in like number of successions of any hereditary monarchy hath been known: for it beginneth with the mixed adoption of a crown by arms and title; an entry by battle, an establishment by marriage: and therefore times answerable, like waters after a tempest, full of working and swelling, though without extremity of storm: but well passed through by the wisdom of the pilot, being one of the most sufficient kings of all the number. Then followeth the reign of a king, whose actions, howsoever conducted, had much intermixture with the affairs of Europe, balancing and inclining them variably; in whose time also began that great alteration in the state ecclesiastical, an action which seldom cometh upon the stage. Then the reign of a minor: then an offer of an usurpation, though it was but as febris ephemera:' then the reign of a queen matched with a foreigner: then of a queen that lived solitary and unmarried, and yet her government so masculine that it had greater impression and operation upon the states abroad than it any ways received from thence. And now last, this most happy and glorious event that this island of Britain, divided from all the world, should be thus united in itself: and that oracle of rest, given to Æneas. Antiquam exquirite matrem,' should now be performed and fulfilled upon the nations of England and Scotland, being now reunited in the ancient mother name of Britain, as a full period VOL. I.--35

of all instability and peregrinations; so that as it cometh to pass in massive bodies, that they have certain trepidations and waverings before they fix and settle; so it seemeth that by the providence of God, this monarchy, before it was to settle in your majesty and your generations, (in which, I hope, it is now established forever,) had these prelusive changes and varieties."

And the same passage is repeated in the treatise "De Augmentis," which was published in the year 1623, with the omission of the praise of the reign of Elizabeth.

HISTORY OF HENRY VII.

The history of Henry VII. was written in English, and was the first book which he composed after his retirement from active life.1 In a letter to the king, dated 20th of March, 1621, he says,

"To the King's most excellent majesty.

"May it please your majesty,

"I acknowledge myself in all humbleness infinitely bounden to your majesty's grace and goodness, for that, at the intercession of my noble and constant friend, my lord marquis, your majesty hath been pleased to grant me that which the civilians say is 'res inæstimabilis,' my liberty. So that now, whenever God calleth me, I shall not die a prisoner. Nay, farther, your majesty hath vouchsafed to cast a second and iterate aspect of your eye of compassion upon me, in referring the consideration of my broken estate to my good lord the treasurer; which as it is a singular bounty in your majesty, so I have yet so much left of a late commissioner of your treasure, as I would be sorry to sue for any thing that might seem immodest. These your majesty's great benefits, in casting your bread upon the waters, as the Scripture saith, because my thanks cannot any ways be sufficient to attain, I have raised your progenitor of famous memory, (and now, I hope, of more famous memory than before,) King Henry VII., to give your majesty thanks for me; which work, most humbly kissing your majesty's hands, I do present. And because, in the beginning of my trouble, when in the midst of the tempest I had a kenning of the harbour, which I hope now by your majesty's favour I am entering into, I made a tender to your majesty of two works, A History of England,' and A digest of your laws;' as I have, by a figure of pars pro toto, performed the one, so I have herewith sent your majesty, by way of an epistle, a new offer of the other. But my desire is farther, if it stand with your majesty's good pleasure, since now my study is my exchange, and my pen my factor, for the use of my talent; that your majesty, who is a great master in these things, would be pleased to appoint me some task to write, and that I shall take for an oracle. And because my Instauration,' which I esteem my great work, and do still go on with silence, was dedicated to your majesty; and this History of King Henry VII.' to your lively and excellent image the prince; if now your majesty will be pleased to give me a theme to dedicate to my Lord of Buckingham, whom I have so much reason to honour, I should with more alacrity embrace your majesty's direction than my own choice. Your majesty will pardon me for troubling you thus long. God evermore preserve and prosper you. Your majesty's poor beadsman most devoted,

"Gorhambury, 20 Mar. 1621."

"FR. ST. ALBAN.

"To the Right Honourable his very good lord, the Lord Marquis of Buckingham, High-Admiral of England.

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My very good lord,

"These main and real favours which I have lately received from your good lordship, in procuring my liberty, and a reference of the consideration of my release, are such, as I now find that in building upon your lordship's noble nature and friendship, I have built upon the rock, where neither winds nor waves can cause overthrow. I humbly pray your lordship to accept from me such thanks as ought to come from him whom you have so much comforted in fortune, and much more comforted in showing your love and affection to him; of which also I have heard by my Lord Falkland, Sir Edward Sackville, Mr. Mathews, and otherways.

"I have written, as my duty was, to his majesty, thanks touching the same, by the letter here put into your noble hands.

“I have made also, in that letter, an offer to his majesty, of my service, for bringing into better

"His historical works are these :-the first is the history of Henry the Seventh, written elegantly, by his lordship in the English tongue, and addressed to his Highness the Prince of Wales: and turned afterwards into Latin. A history which required such a reporter: those times being times both of great revolution, and settlement, through the division and union of the roses.

"This was the first book which he composed after his retirement from an active life. Upon which occasion he wrote thus the Bishop of Winchester. Being (as I am) no more able to do my country service, it remaineth unto me, to do it honour; which I have endeavoured to do in my work of the reign of King Henry the Seventh."-Baconiana,