Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/118

 amongst his legacies to his friends, he says, "I give unto the right honourable my worthy friend, the Marquis Fiatt, late lord ambassador of France, my books of orisons or psalms curiously rhymed." As a parent he wrote to the marquis, who esteemed it to be the greatest honour conferred upon him to be called his son. He caused his Essays and treatise De Augmentis to be translated into French; and, with the affectionate enthusiasm of youth, upon his return to France, requested and obtained his portrait.

His friendship with Sir Julius Cæsar, Master of the Rolls, continued to his death.

Selden, the chief of learned men reputed in this land, expressed his respect, with the assurance that "never was any man more willing or ready to do your lordship's service than myself." Ben Jonson, not in general too profuse of praise, says, "My conceit of his person was never increased toward him by his place or honours; but I have and do reverence him for the greatness that was only proper to himself, in that he seemed to me ever by his works one of the greatest men, and most worthy of admiration that had been in many ages: in his adversity, I ever prayed that God would give him strength, for greatness he could not want; neither could I condole in a word or syllable for him, as knowing no accident could do harm to virtue, but rather help to make it manifest." Sir Thomas Meautys stood by him to his death with a firmness and love which does honour to him and to human nature.

His exclusion from the verge of the court had long been remitted; and, in the beginning of the year 1624, the whole of the parliamentary sentence was pardoned, by a warrant which stated that, "calling to mind the former good services of the Lord St. Albans, and how well and profitably he hath spent his time since his trouble, we are pleased to remove from him that blot of ignominy which yet remaineth upon him, of incapacity and disablement; and to remit to him all penalties whatsoever inflicted by that sentence. Having therefore formerly pardoned his fine, and released his confinement, these are to will and require you to prepare, for our signature, a bill containing a pardon of the whole sentence."

This was one of the last of the king's acts, who thus faithfully performed, to the extent of his ability, all his promises. He died at Theobalds, on the 27th of March, 1625.

His lordship was summoned to parliament in the succeeding reign, but was prevented, by his infirmities, from again taking his seat as a peer.

Though Lord Bacon's constitution had never been strong, his temperance and management of his health seemed to promise old age, which his unbounded knowledge and leisure for speculation could not fail to render useful to the world and glorious to himself. The retirement, which in all the distractions of politics refreshed and consoled him, was once more his own, and nature, whom he worshipped, spread her vast untrodden fields before him, where, with science as his hand maid, he might wander at his will; but the expectations of the learned world and the hopes of his devoted friends were all blighted by a perceptible decay of his health and strength in the beginning of the sickly year of 1625.

During this year his publications were limited to a new edition of his Essays, a small volume of Apophthegms, the production, as a recreation in sickness, of a morning's dictation, and a translation of a few of the Psalms of David into English verse, which he dedicated to a divine and poet, his friend, the learned and religious George Herbert. This was the last exercise, in the time of his illness, of his pious mind; and a more pious mind never existed.

There is scarcely a line of his works in which a deep, awful, religious feeling is not manifested. It is perhaps, most conspicuous in his Confession of Faith, of which Dr. Rawley says, "For that treatise of his lordship's, inscribed, A Confession of the Faith, I have ranked that in the close of this whole volume; thereby to demonstrate to the world that he was a master in divinity, as well as in philosophy or politics, and that he was versed no less in the saving knowledge than in the universal and adorning knowledges; for though he composed the same many years before his death, yet I thought that to be the fittest place, as the most acceptable incense unto God of the faith wherein he resigned his breath; the crowning of all his other perfections and abilities; and the best perfume of his name to the world after his death. This confession of his faith doth abundantly testify that he was able to render a reason of the hope which was in him." It might be said of him, as one of the most deep thinking of men said of himself, "For my religion, though there be several circumstances that might persuade the world I have none at all, yet, in despite thereof, I dare, without usurpation, assume the honourable style of a Christian; not that I merely owe this title to the font, my education, or clime wherein I was born, but having, in my riper years and confirmed judgment, seen and examined all, I find myself bound by the principles of grace and the law of mine own reason to embrace no other religion than this." From his Prayers, found after his death, his piety cannot be mistaken. They have the same glory around them, whether they are his supplications as a student, as an author, or as a preserver, when chancellor, of the religious sentiments of the country.

As a student, he prays, that he may not be inflated or misled by the vanity which makes man wise in his own conceit: "To God the Father. God the Word, God the Spirit, we put forth