Bacon

PREFACE. IN preparing this sketch it is needless to say how deeply I am indebted to Mr. Spedding and Mr. Ellis, the last editors of Bacons writings, the very able and painstaking commentators, the one on Bacons life, the other on his philosophy. It is impossible to overstate the affectionate care and high intelligence and honesty with which Mr. Spedding has brought together and arranged the materials for an estimate of Bacons character. In the result, in spite of the force and ingenuity of much of his pleading, I find myself most reluctantly obliged to differ from him it seems to me to be a case where the French saying, cited by Bacon in one of his commonplace books, holds good Par trop se debattre, la verite se perd. But this does not diminish the debt of gratitude which all who are interested about Bacon must owe to Mr. Spedding. I wish also to acknowledge the assistance which I have received from Mr. Gardiners History ofEngland and Mr. Fowlers edition of theNovum Organum and not least from M. de Remusats work on Bacon, which seems to me the most complete and the most just estimate both of Bacons char- 1 Promus edited by Mrs. H. Pott, p. 475. vi PREFACE. actcr and work which has yet appeared though even in this clear and dispassionate survey we are reminded by some misconceptions, strange in M. de Remusat, how what one nation takes for granted is incomprehensible to its neighbour and what a gap there is still, even in matters of philosophy and literature, between the whole Continent and ourselves Penitns toto divisos orbe Britannos. EARLY Lire BACON AND ELIZABETH CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. CHAPTER H. CHAPTER IE. BACON AND JAMES 1 56 CHAPTER IV. BACON SOLICITOR-GENERAL 77 CHALTER V. BACONATTORNEY-GENERAL AND CHANCELLOR BACONS FALL . CHAPTER VL 1 26 95 118 Tiii CONTENTS. CHAPTER VH BACONS LAST YIAKS 1621-1626 149 CHAPTER vrn. BACONS PHILOSOPHY . 168 CHAPTER IX. BACON AS A WRITER 198 BACON. CHAPTER I. EARLY LIFE. THE life of Francis Bacon is one which it is a pain Yo write or to read. It is the life of a man endowed with as rare a combination of noble gifts as ever was bestowed on a human intellect the life of one with whom the whole purpose of living and of every days work was to do great things to enlighten and elevate his race, to enrich it with new powers, to lay up in store for all ages to come a source of blessings which should never fail or dry up it was the life of a man who had high thoughts of the ends and methods of law and government, and with whom the gen- eral and public good was regarded as the standard by which the use of public power was to be measured the life of a man who had struggled hard and successfully for the material prosperity and opulence which makes work easy and gives a man room and force for carrying out his purposes. All his life long his first and never-sleeping passion was the romantic and splendid ambition after knowledge, for the conquest of nature and for the service of man gathering up in himself the spirit and longings and efforts of all discoverers and inventors of the arts, as they are symbolised in the mythical Prometheus. He rose to the highest place and honour and yet that place and honour were but the fringe and adornment of all that made him great. It is difficult to imagine a grander and more magnificent career and his name ranks among the few chosen examples of human achievement. And yet it was not only an unhappy life itwas a poor life. We expect that such an overwhelming weight of glory should be borne up by a character corresponding to it in strength and nobleness. But that is not what we find...