Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/111

Rh sixty years of age, and if, after the vexations and labours of a professional and political life, the varieties and sprightliness of youthful imagination are not to be found, yet the peculiar properties of his mind may easily he traced, and the stateliness of the edifice be seen in the magnificence of the ruins.

His vigilance in recording every fact tending to alleviate misery, or to promote happiness, is noticed by Bishop Sprat, in his History of the Royal Society, where he says, "I shall instance in the sweating sickness. The medicine for it was almost infallible: but, before that could be generally published, it had almost dispeopled whole towns. If the same disease should have returned, it might have been again as destructive, had not the Lord Bacon taken care to set down the particular course of physic for it in his History of Henry the Seventh, and so put it heyond the possibility of any private man's invading it."

One of his maxims of government for the enlargement of the bounds of the empire is to be found in his comment upon the ordinance, stated in the treatise "De Augmentis." "Let states and kingdoms that aim at greatness by all means take heed how the nobility, and grandees, and those which we call gentlemen, multiply too fast; for that makes the common subject grow to be a peasant and base swain, driven out of heart, and in effect nothing else but the nobleman's bond slaves and labourers. Even as you may see in coppice-wood, if you leave your studdles too thick, you shall never have clean underwood, but shrubs and bushes: so in a country, if the nobility be too many, the commons will be base and heartless, and you will bring it to that, that not the hundredth poll will be fit for a helmet, especially as to the infantry, which is the nerve of an army; and so there will be great population, and little strength." His love of familiar illustration is to be found in various parts of the history: as when speaking of the commotion by the Cornish men, on behalf of the impostor Perkin Warbeck: "The king judged it his best and surest way to keep his strength together in the seat and centre of his kingdom; according to the ancient Indian emblem, in such a swelling season, to hold the hand upon the middle of the bladder, that no side might rise." And his kind nature and holy feeling appear in his account of the conquest of Granada. "Somewhat about this time came letters from Ferdinando and Isabella, king and queen of Spain, signifying the final conquest of Granada from the Moors; but the king would not by any means in person enter the city until he had first aloof seen the cross set up upon the great tower of Granada, whereby it became Christian ground; and, before he would enter, he did homage to God above, pronouncing by a herald from the height of that tower, that he did acknowledge to have recovered that kingdom by the help of the Almighty; nor would he stir from his camp till he had seen a little army of martyrs, to the number of seven hundred and more Christians, that had lived in bonds and servitude, as slaves to the Moors, pass before his eyes, singing a psalm for their redemption." The work was published in folio, in 1622: and is dedicated to Prince Charles. Copies were presented to the king, to Buckingham, to the Queen of Bohemia, and to the lord keeper. It had scarcely been published when he felt and expressed anxiety that it should be translated into Latin, "as these modern languages will, at onetime or other, play the bankrupts with books; and, since I have lost much time with this age, I would be glad, as God shall give me leave, to recover it with posterity:" a wish which was more than gratified, as it was published, not only in various editions, in England, but was soon translated into French and into Latin.

Such was the nature of his literary occupations in the first year after his retirement, during which he corresponded with different learned foreigners upon his works; and great zeal having been shown for his majesty's service, he composed a treatise entitled, "An Advertisement touching a Holy War," which he inscribed to the Bishop of Winchester.

In the beginning of this year, (1623,) a vacancy occurred in the Provostship of Eton college, where, in earlier years, he had passed some days with Sir Henry Savile, pleasant to himself and profitable to society. His love of knowledge again manifested itself.

Having, in the spirit of his father, unfortunately engaged, in his youth, in active life, he now, in the spirit of his grandfather, the learned and contemplative Sir Anthony Cooke, who took more pleasure to breed up statesmen than to be one, offered himself to succeed the provost: as a fit occupation for him in the spent hour-glass of his life, and a retreat near London to a place of study.

The objection which would, of course, be made from what we, in our importance, look down upon as beneath his dignity, he had many years before anticipated in the Advancement of Learning, when investigating the objections to learning from the errors of learned men, from their fortunes; their manners; and the meanness of their employments: upon which he says, "As for meanness of employment, that which is most traduced to contempt is, that the government of youth is commonly allotted to them; which age, because it is the age of least authority, it is transferred to the disesteeming of those employments wherein youth is conversant, and which are conversant about youth. But how unjust this traducement is, if you will reduce things from