Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/65

Rh pray think of me; I am one that knows both mine own wants and other men's: and it may be, perchance, that mine mend, others stand at a stay. And surely, I may not endure in public place to be wronged, without repelling the same to my best advantage to right myself. You are great, and therefore have the more enviers, which would be glad to have you paid at another's cost. Since the time I missed the solicitor's place, the rather, I think, by your means, I cannot expect that you and I shall ever serve as attorney and solicitor together, but either to serve with another, upon your remove, or to step into some other course; so as I am more free than ever I was from any occasion of unworthy conforming myself to you more than general good manners, or your particular good usage shall provoke: and, if you had not been short-sighted in your own fortune, as I think, you might have had more use of me; but that tide is passed. I write not this, to show my friends what a brave letter I have written to Mr. Attorney; I have none of those humours, but that I have written is to a good end: that is, to the more decent carriage of my master's service, and to our particular better understanding one of another. This letter, if it shall be answered by you in deed and not in word, I suppose it will not be worse for us both; else it is but a few lines lost, which for a much smaller matter I would have adventured. So this being to yourself, I for my part rest, &c.

Of Coke's bitter spirit there are so many painful instances, that unless Bacon had to complain of unfairness in other matters, the acrimony which overflowed upbn all, could not be considered altogether the effect of personal rivalry. It would have been well had his morbid feelings been confined to his professional opponents; but, unmindful of the old maxim, "Let him take heed how he strikes, who strikes with a dead hand," his rancorous abuse extended to prisoners on trials for their lives, for which he was severely censured by Bacon, who told him that in his pleadings he was ever wont to insult over misery.

Who can forget Coke's treatment of Raleigh, entitled as he was by station and attainments to the civil observances of a gentleman, and, by long imprisonment and subsequent misfortunes, to the commiseration of all men. It is true that there were some persons present at this trial, who remembered that Raleigh and Cobham had stood only a few years before, with an open satisfaction, to witness the death of Essex, against whom they had secretly conspired; but even the sense of retributive justice, though it might deaden their pity, could not lessen their disgust at the cruel and vulgar invectives of Coke, whose knowledge neither expanded his intellect, nor civilized his manners. Fierce with dark keeping, his mind resembled some of those gloomy structures where records and muniments are piled to the exclusion of all higher or nobler matters. For genius he had no love: with philosophy he had no sympathy.

Upon the trial of Raleigh, Coke, after denouncing him as an atheist and a traitor, reproached him, with the usual antipathy of a contracted mind to superior intellect, for being a genius and man of wit.

When Bacon presented him with a copy of his Novum Organum, he wrote with his own hand, at the top of the title-page, ''Edw. C. ex dono auctoris.''

And over the device of the ship passing between Hercules's pillars, he wrote the two following verses:

From professional altercations with this contracted mind, Bacon was rescued by his promotion.

Another and more important advantage attendant upon his appointment was the opportunity which it afforded him to assist in the encouragement of merit and in legal reform. Detur digniori was his constant maxim and constant practice. He knew and taught that power to do good is the true and lawful end of aspiring; and when appointed solicitor, he acted in obedience to his doctrines, encouraging merit, and endeavouring to discharge the duty which he owed to his profession by exertions and works for the improvement of the law.

In the midst of arduous affairs of state and professional duties, he went right onward with his great work, conferring with various scholars and philosophers, from whose communications there was any probability of his deriving advantage.

In the progress of the Novum Organum he had, at different periods, even from his youth, arranged his thoughts upon detached parts of the work, and collected them under different titles: "Temporis partus maximus," "Filum Labyrinthi," "Cogitata et Visa, &c.

He now sent to the Bishop of Ely the "Cogitata et Visa." He communicated also on the subject with his friend, Mr. Mathew, who, having cautioned him that he might excite the prejudices of the churchmen, spoke freely, yet with approbation of the work. He also sent the tract to Sir Thomas Bodley, who received it with all the attachment of a collegian to Aristotle, and the schoolmen and university studies, and, with the freedom of a friend, respectfully imparted to Bacon that his plan was visionary.

In the year 1609, as a relaxation from abstruse speculations, he published in Latin his interesting little work, "De Sapientia Veterum," of which he sent a copy to his friend, Mr. Mathew, saying