bee like the late new halfe-pence1, which though the Siluer were good, yet the peeces were small.

But since

they would not stay with their Master, but would needes trauaile abroade, I haue preferred them to you that are next my selfe, Dedicating them, such as they are, to our loue, in the depth whereof (I assure you) I sometimes wish your infirmities translated vppon my selfe, that her Maiestie mought haue the seruice of so actiue and able a mind, & I mought be with excuse confined to these contemplations & Studies for which I am fittest, so commend I you to the preseruation of the diuine Maiestie. From my Chamber at Graies Inne this 30. of Ianuarie. 1597.

Your entire Louing brother.

FRAN. BACON.

The date of this letter, if not a printer's error, is evidently intended to be 1596-7, according to the then reckoning of the civil year, which began on the 25th of March. We have the entry at Stationers' Hall on Feb. 5; a memorandum on the title page of the copy in the British Museum that it was sold on the 7th of Feb., 39 Eliz. (i.e. 1596-7); and a letter of Anthony Bacon's to the Earl of Essex, written on the 8th of Feb. 1596, which appears to have accompanied a presentation copy of the Essays. There are MSS. of this edition in the British Museum (Lansd. MSS. 775), and the Cambridge Univ. Lib. (Nn. 4. 5). The latter I have

1 Coined for the first time in 1582-3, and used without interruption till 1601. See Folkes, Table of English Silver Coins, p. 57, ed. 1745.

1

printed in the Appendix. A fragment containing the essays' Of Faction' and 'Of Negotiatinge' is in the Harleian collection (no. 6797). In 1598 a second edition was published by Humfrey Hooper, also in small 8vo, differing from the first in having the Meditations in English, and the table of Contents of the Essays al the back of the title page. A pirated edition was printed for John Jaggard in 1606, and in 1612 he was preparing another reprint, when the second author's edition appeared. In consequence of this, Jaggard cancelled the last two leaves of quire G, and in their place substituted "the second part of Essaies," which contains all the additional Essays not printed in the edition of 1597. On the authority of a MS. list by Malone Mr Singer mentions an edition in 1604, but I have found no other trace of it.

During the summer of the year 1612 Bacon himself had prepared and printed, in a small 8vo. volume of 241 pages, a second edition of the Essays by themselves, in which the original ten, with the exception of that

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Of Honour and reputation," were altered and enlarged, and twenty-nine new Essays added. The title of this second edition is; "The Essaies of S Francis Bacon Knight, the Kings Solliciter Generall. Imprinted at London by Iohn Beale, 1612." It was entered at Stationers' Hall on the 12th of October, as follows. "W Hall, John Beale. Entred for their copy under the handes of my Lo: Bysshopp of London & the Wardens A booke called The Essayes of S Fr Bacon knight the Ks Sollicitor gen'all." It was Bacon's intention to have dedicated it to Prince Henry, and the dedication was actually written, but in consequence of

the Prince's death on the 6th of November, it was addressed instead to his brother in law Sir John Constable2. A copy of the dedication to Prince Henry exists in the British Museum (Birch MSS. 4259, fol, 155), and is written on a single leaf which appears on examination to have belonged to an imperfect MS. of the Essays, preserved among the Harleian MSS. (no. 5106), which Mr Spedding describes as "a volume undoubtedly authentic; for it contains interlineations in Bacon's own hand; and transcribed some time between 1607, when Bacon became Solicitor-general, and 1612, when he brought out a new edition of the Essays with further additions and alterations. It is unluckily not quite perfect; one leaf at least, if not more, having been lost at the beginning; though otherwise in excellent preservation.

"The title page, which remains, bears the following inscription, very handsomely written in the old English character, with flourished capitals: The writings of Sr Francis Bacon Knt. the Kinge's Sollicitor Generall in Moralitie, Policie, and Historie." (Bacon's Works, VI. p. 535).

The Essays in this MS. are thirty-four in number, and include two, "Of Honour and Reputation" and "Of Seditions and Troubles," which are not contained in the edition of 1612, while in the printed edition six new Essays were added, "Of Religion,' 'Of Cunning," Of Loue," Of Iudicature," "Of vaine glory," and " Of greatnes of Kingdomes." It is to this MS. I have referred in the notes, when quoting the

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2 Sir John Constable married Dorothy Barnham the sister of Lady Bacon.

MS. of the edition of 1612. The dedication to Prince Henry was as follows:

"To the most high and excellent Prince Henry, Prince of Wales, D: of Cornwall and Earle of Chester

Yt may please your H.

Having devided my life into the contemplative and active parte, I am desirous to giue his M, and yo H. of the fruite of both, simple though they be. To write iust Treatises requireth leasure in the Writer, and leasure in the Reader, and therefore are not so fitt, neither in regard of yo" H: princely affaires, nor in regard of my continuall service, wth is the cause, that hath made me choose to write certaine breif notes, sett downe rather significantlye, then curiously, wch I have called ESSAIES. The word is late, but the thing is auncient. For Senacaes Epistles to Lucilius, yf one marke them well, are but Essaies,―That is dispersed Meditacons, thoughe conveyed in the forme of Epistles. Theis labors of myne I know cannot be worthie of yo H: for what can be worthie of you. But my hope is, they may be as graynes of salte, that will rather give you an appetite, then offend you with satiety. And although they handle those things wherein both mens Lives and theire pens are most conversant yet (What I have attained, I knowe not) but I have endeavoured to make them not vulgar; but of a nature, whereof a man shall find much in experience, litle in bookes; so as they are neither repeticons nor fansies. But howsoever, I shall most humbly desier yo" H: to accept them in gratious part, and so contrive that if I cannot rest,

but must shewe my dutifull, and devoted affection to yo H: in theis things w proceed from my self, I shalbe much more ready to doe it, in performance of yo" princely commaundmente; And so wishing yo H: all princely felicitye I rest.

Yo H: most humble

Servant."

The dedication to Sir John Constable is more simple and natural.

"To my loving brother, Sr Iohn Constable Knight.

My last Essaies I dedicated to my deare brother Master Anthony Bacon, who is with God. Looking amongst my papers this vacation, I found others of the same Nature: which if I my selfe shall not suffer to be lost, it seemeth the World will not; by the often printing of the former. Missing my Brother, I found you next; in respect of bond of neare alliance, and of straight friendship and societie, and particularly of communication in studies. Wherein I must acknowledge my selfe beholding to you. For as my businesse found rest in my contemplations; so my contemplations euer found rest in your louing conference and iudgement. So wishing you all good, I remaine

Your louing brother and friend,

FRA. BACON."

The Table of Contents gives a list of forty Essays but the last two were not printed. 1. Of Religion. 2. Of Death. 3. Of Goodnes and goodnes of nature. 4. Of