Page:Essays of Francis Bacon 1908 Scott.djvu/61

Rh whether he himself was the translator of the whole or of any particular part of the work. Mr. Spedding thinks that Bacon was concerned in the revision of the essay, Of Plantations, if not in its careful translation. Two essays, Of Prophecies and Of Masques and Triumphs, have no Latin translation. The absence of translations of these two essays may mean, either that Bacon was his own translator and had not time to complete the whole series before his death, or that the work of supervising translations by other persons ceased with the death of the author.

The story of the death of Francis Bacon is familiar. It was the direct result of an experiment like those he describes in his Natural History. On a cold, raw day in early spring, April 2, 1626, as he was driving out of London, it occurred to him to find out whether a fowl stuffed with snow could be kept. He stopped and bought a hen from a woman by the roadside and stuffed it with snow himself. He was taken with a chill, and, unable to go home, he sought refuge in the house of the Earl of Arundel, at Highgate. His last letter, one of apology to Lord Arundel for his involuntary intrusion, shows that he knew his condition was serious, but that he did not expect the end. He says,—"I was like to have had the fortune of Caius Plinius the elder, who lost his life by trying an experiment about the burning of the mountain Vesuvius," and adds, characteristically, "as for the experiment itself, it succeeded excellently well." After an illness of a week only, Francis Rh