Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/410

 282 EDITOR S PREFACE. STATE OF EUROPE. This tract is supposed by Mallet to have been the first work written by Lord Bacon, and to have t&amp;gt;een written about the year 1580, when he was between 19 and 20 years of age: because it states, &quot;that Henry III. of France was then 30 years old: now that king began his reign in 1576, at the age of 24 years, so that Bacon was then 19.&quot; How far this evidence is satisfactory, may be col lected from other parts of the same tract. It says, &quot; Gregory XIII. of the age of 70 years :&quot; but Gregory XIII. was 70 years old in the year 1572, when he was elected pope, so that according to this reasoning, it might be inferred that it was written when Bacon was 12 years of age. In another part of the tract it states, &quot;The King of Spain, Philip, son to Charles the Fifth, about 60 years of age:&quot; but he was born on the 21st of May, 1527, so that he was 60 years old in 1587, when Bacon was between 16 and 17 years old. The author of Bacon s Life in the Biographia Britannica, from these different dates, concludes that the tract was written at different periods of time, beginning, as he must suppose, when Bacon was quite a boy : but, as it was not necessary for the purposes of this tract that the ages of the different monarchs should be ascertained with great precision, it is, perhaps, not probable that they were accurately examined, and the only fair inference is, that it was written at a very early period of his life. 1 The same author says, &quot; But what is extremely remarkable in this small treatise, is the care and accuracy with which he has set down most of the little princes in Germany, with the state of their dominions.&quot; This minute observation, however, extends to all his works : and of all the extraordi nary properties of Bacon s wonderful mind, his constant observation of what we, in common par lance, call trifles, appears to be one of the most extraordinary. &quot;See,&quot; he says, &quot;the little cloud upon glass or gems or blades of swords, and mark well the discharge of that cloud, and you shall perceive that it ever breaks up first in the skirts, and last in the midst. May we not learn from this the force of union even in the least quantities and weakest bodies, how much it conduceth to pre servation of the present form and the resisting of a new. In like manner, icicles, if there be water to follow them, lengthen themselves out in a very slender thread, to prevent a discontinuity of the water ; but if there be not a sufficient quantity to follow, the water then falls in round drops, which is the figure that best supports it against discontinuation; and at the very instant when the thread of water ends, and the falling in drops begins, the water recoils upwards to avoid being discontinued. So in metals, which are fluid upon fusion, though a little tenacious, some of the mettled mass fre quently springs up in drops, and sticks in that form to the sides of the crucible. There is a like instance in the looking-glasses, commonly made of spittle by children, in a loop of rush or whale bone, where we find a consistent pellicle of water.&quot; Possessing this peculiar property himself, Bacon constantly admonishes his readers of its importance. &quot;The eye of the understanding, (he says,) is like the eye of the sense : for as you may see great objects through small crannies or levels, so you may see axioms of great nature through small and contemptible instances.&quot; And again, &quot;it should be considered as an oracle, the saying of the poor woman to the haughty prince, who rejected her petition as a thing below his dignity to notice then cease to reign ; for it is certain, that who ever will not attend to matters because they are too minute or trifling, shall never obtain command or rule over nature.&quot; And again, &quot;he who cannot contract the sight of his mind as well as dis perse and dilate it, wanteth a great faculty : for certainly this may be averred for truth, that they be not the highest instances that give the best and surest information. This is not unaptly expressed in the tale, so common, of the philosopher, who while he gazed upward to the stars fell into the water; for if he had looked down, he might have seen the stars in the water, but looking up to heaven he could not see the water in the stars. In like manner it often comes to pass that small and mean things conduce more to the discovery of great matters, than great things to the dis covery of small matters ; and therefore Aristotle notes well, that the nature of every thing is best seen in its smallest portions. For that cause he inquires the nature of a commonwealth, first in a family and the simple conjugations of society, man and wife ; parents and children ; master and servant, which are in every cottage. So likewise the nature of this great city of the world, and the policy thereof, must be sought in every first concordances and least portions of things. So we see that secret of nature, (esteemed one of the great mysteries,) of the turning of iron touched with a loadstone towards the poles, was found out in needles of iron, not in bars of iron.&quot; BIOGRAPHY. OF the importance of biography, Bacon speaks in his Advancement of Learning; concluding his remarks by saying, &quot; Bona fama propria possessio defunctorum,&quot; which possession I cannot but &quot;The tract says, D. Antonio, elect King of Portugal, is now in France, where he hath levied soldiers, whereof part are embarKed, hoping to be restored again.&quot;