I pray the rather spare not your travail, because I think the Queen is already party to the advertisement of his coming over, and in some suspect which you may not disclose to him. So I you as myself, this 15th of September, 1592. wish : Yours ever assured, FR. BACON. By what accident these letters were preserved and found their way into the place where they now are, I cannot positively say. But I find that in the beginning of the next reign Thomas Phillips was examined before the Council concerning certain secret correspondence which had been held by him with some one abroad: with which correspondence "there were acquainted the Queen's Majesty, the Earl of Essex, Mr. Francis Bacon, Sir William Waad, and Mr. Phillips the three last being acquainted with it, every man in his turn, as the Queen and the Earl would employ them." On such an occasion all Phillips's papers of this kind would naturally come into the hands of the government, and so finally into the State Paper Office. These letters of Bacon's therefore, and others of the same sort which we shall meet with as we proceed, are to be regarded merely as specimens and fragments accidentally cast up of the kind of services in which Essex employed him; not by any means as affording a complete account of his labours, even in this one kind. 6. But as Essex aspired to distinction in many other ways, so Bacon studied in many other ways to help him: among the rest by contributing to those fanciful pageants or "devices," as they were called, with which it was the fashion of the time to entertain the Queen on festive occasions. On the anniversary of her coronation in 1595, we happen to know positively (though only by the concurrence of two accidents) that certain speeches unquestionably written by Bacon were delivered in a device presented by Essex: aud I strongly suspect that two of the most interesting among his smaller pieces were drawn up for some similar performance in the year 1592. I mean those which are entitled "Mr. Bacon in Praise of Knowledge" and "Mr. Bacon's Discourse in Praise of his Sovereign." They were found among the papers submitted to Stephens by Lord Oxford, and printed by Locker in the supplement to his second collection in 1734. The MSS. are still to be seen in the British Museum; fair copies in 1 MSS. S. P. O.: Domestic, Jan. 1604. 2 Concerning which, see p. 16. an old hand, with the titles given above; but no further explanation. My reason for suspecting that they were composed for some masque, or show, or other fictitious occasion, is partly that the speech in praise of knowledge professes to have been spoken in "a conference of pleasure," and the speech in praise of Elizabeth appears by the opening sentence to have been preceded by three others, one of which was in praise of knowledge;2-partly that, earnest and full of matter as they both are (the one containing the germ of the first book of the Novum Organum, the other of the "Observations on a Libel," which are nothing less than a substantial historical defence of the Queen's government), there is nevertheless in the style of both a certain affectation and rhetorical cadence, traceable in Bacon's other compositions of this kind, and agreeable to the taste of the time, but so alien to his own individual taste and natural manner, that there is no single feature by which his style is more specially distinguished, wherever he speaks in his own person, whether formally or familiarly, whether in the way of narrative, argument, or oration, than the total absence of it. That these pieces were both composed for some occasion of compliment, more or less fanciful, I feel very confident; and if it should ever appear that about the autumn of 1592 (the date to which the historical allusions in the discourse in praise of Elizabeth point most nearly), a "device" was exhibited at Court in which three speakers came forward in turn, each extolling his own favourite virtue (a form which Bacon affected on these occasions, as will appear hereafter in two notable examples), the first delivering an oration in praise of magnanimity, the second of love, the third of knowledge, and then a fourth came in with an oration in praise of the Queen, as combining in herself the perfection of all three; I should feel little doubt that the pieces before us were composed by Bacon for that exhibition. Unfortunately we have no detailed account of the celebration of the Queen's day in 1592; we only know that it was 66 more solemnized than ever, and that through my Lord of Essex his device: who, contrary to all the Lords' expectation, came in the morning to the presence, and so to her Majesty's presence, in his collar of Esses, a thing unwonted and unlooked for, and yet hereupon suddenly taken up and used with great liking and contentment of her Highness." The reporter (being a strict Puritan and having no taste for "devices") adds no particulars; and etc. 1 "But why do I, in a conference of pleasure, enter upon these great matters," "No praise of magnanimity, nor of love, nor of knowledge, can intercept her praise that planteth and nourisheth magnanimity by her example, love by her person, and knowledge by the peace and serenity of her times." 3 N. Fant to A. Bacon, 20 Nov. 1592. Lambeth MSS. 648, 176. I have not met with any further information bearing upon my conjecture, except an incidental expression in another letter, which only implies that Bacon had about this time been attending the Court. Henry Gosnold, a young lawyer of Gray's Inn, writes on the 28th of November to Anthony Bacon, whom he had just left at Gorhambury : "Mr. F. Bacon is, maulgre the Court, your kind brother and mine especial friend. The joy he conceived at the report of my Lady's welfare, and the sorrow of mine undersong concerning your weak estate, called the welcomeness of my news in dispute. He offers to accommodate you at Gray's Inn, the rather because you love low and warm,” etc.1 What little we do know of the facts therefore is compatible with my conjecture. Essex adorned the triumphs of the 17th of November, 1592, with some distinguished "device," and Bacon was about the Court. If any news-letter giving an account of the solemnities should turn up, it will probably settle the question one way or other. In the meantime, this is the proper place for the Discourse in praise of the Queen, being the date which the several allusions in it best fit; and in the absence of all other grounds of conjecture as to the time when the "Praise of Knowledge" was composed, the allusion in the opening sentence of the other is ground enough for placing it here. They are both contained in a fragment of a paper book, into which some of Bacon's early writings have been copied ;-among others, the Colours of Good and Evil, with the dedicatory letter to Lord Montjoy, of which one leaf remains, and the Essays, as printed in 1597; the two last of which (Of Faction, and Of Negotiating) are copied on the other side of the leaf on which the Discourse in praise of the Queen begins. What else the book originally contained one cannot guess, this portion having evidently been preserved only for the sake of these two pieces. They are written in a fair close Saxon hand; probably contemporary, though there is nothing to fix the date; and I think the hand of a mere transcriber, who wrote straight on without thinking of the meaning. The divisions of the sentences he has for the most part not marked at all, and sometimes marked wrong. Many words, especially in the second piece, are obviously miscopied, and here and there a whole clause has apparently been left out. The marks of parenthesis are sometimes inserted in the wrong place; and the paragraphs are not divided. The copy does not appear to have been revised by anybody, and has certainly not been corrected by Bacon. In editing these pieces, I have arranged the punctuation according to 1 Lambeth MSS., 653, 155. my own judgment, without noticing the variations from the MS., which are innumerable; for the MS. can hardly be said to be punctuated at all. I have also thought it better to divide them into paragraphs, of which there are no traces in the MS. For the text, which is in many places evidently corrupt, I have introduced into it several conjectural emendations; but in no case without giving the original reading in a footnote; so that the reader may in all cases accept, improve, or reject my conjectures for himself.1 With regard to the matter of these pieces, I have not thought it desirable to enter into any discussions of the philosophical speculations in the first, or the historical questions in the last. The theory of the universe which is here indicated is the same I think, in substance, which Bacon held in his maturer years, and belongs to the general consideration of his philosophy. And though certain modern historians, deriving their information from the dispatches of ambassadors which were inaccessible to him, put a very different interpretation upon some of Elizabeth's proceedings, especially with regard to Scotland, I have no doubt that the light in which they are presented here was that in which he then really viewed them, and in which probably they would most naturally be viewed by all persons who were not behind the scenes. I have added a few notes however 1 That he may the better judge how much correction it probably required, I will add here a sentence or two from other parts of the same volume, in which we are fortunately able to recover the true reading from the printed copy. In the Essay on Faction the following sentence occurs:-" But I say not that the consideration of Factions is to be neglected: meane men must adhere so moderately. But greate men that have strength in themselves must maintain themselves indifferent and newtralls, yet ever in beginning to adhere so moderately as he be a man of one faction which is passablest with the other commonly gently is the best way." Here it is evident that there is something wrong. But how to divine the true reading? The printed copy (1597) shows how the error arose. "Mean men must adhere, but great men that have strength in themselves were better to maintain themselves indifferent and neutral, yet even in beginners to adhere so moderately as he be a man of the one faction which is passablest with the other, commonly giveth the best way." Again, in the same Essay, we find "when one of the factions is extinguished the remayning subdeweth which is good for a second." Read subdivideth. The first sentence of the Essay Of Negotiating' stands thus in the MS. "It is better to deal by speech then by letter and my medytation of a third then by a man's owne self." Read "by mediation of a third." Again," All practyse ys eyther to dyscover or to worke men to dyscover them. selves in trust in passion at unawares or upon necessitie when a man would have somewhat done and cannot finde an apt pretext. If you will work anie thing, yow must eyther knowe his nature," etc. Here the actual error is very small; but being combined with a total omission of stops, it is so misleading, that most men in attempting to recover the sense would be more likely to get further off than nearer. Read "All practice is either to discover or to work. Men discover themselves in trust, in passion, etc. etc. If you would work any man, you must know either his nature," etc. All these errors, and a few more, occur in a single page of the same transcriber's handiwork. Therefore whenever a sentence seems to run ill, or the meaning not to be clear, we need not fear to suspect a blunder. in explanation of the obscurer allusions, and marked some of the principal dates. 7. Mr. BACON IN PRAISE OF KNOWLEDGE.1 Silence were the best celebration of that which I mean to commend; for who would not use silence, where silence is not made, and what crier can make silence in such a noise and tumult of vain and popular opinions? My praise shall be dedicated to the mind itself. The mind is the man and the knowledge of the mind. A man is but what he knoweth. The mind itself is but an accident to knowledge; for knowledge is a double of that which is; the truth of being and the truth of knowing is all one. Are not the pleasures of the affections greater than the pleasures of the senses? And are not the pleasures of the intellect greater than the pleasures of the affections? Is not knowledge3 a true and only natural pleasure, whereof there is no satiety? Is it not knowledge that doth alone clear the mind of all perturbation? How many things are there which we imagine not! How many things do we esteem and value otherwise than they are! This ill proportioned estimation, these vain imaginations, these be the clouds of error that turn into the storms of perturbation. Is there any such happiness as for a man's mind to be raised above the confusion of things, where he may have the prospect of the order of nature and the error of men? But is this a vein only of delight, and not of discovery? of contentment, and not of benefit? Shall he not as well discern the riches of nature's warehouse, as the benefit of her shop? Is truth ever barren? Shall he not be able thereby to produce worthy effects, and to endow the life of man with infinite commodities? But shall I make this garland to be put upon a wrong head? Would anybody believe me, if I should verify this upon the knowledge that is now in use? Are we the richer by one poor invention, by reason of all the learning that hath been these many hundred years? The industry of artificers maketh some small improvement of things invented; and chance sometimes in ex 1 Harl. MSS. 6797, fo. 47. 2 and the pleasures, etc.: MS. |