CONTENTS I. FRANCIS BACON CONFESSES, IN THE PRESENCE OF Death, TO HAVING WRITTEN RHYMED BOOKS UNIV. OF FRANCIS BACON CONFESSES, IN THE PRESENCE OF DEATH, TO HAVING WRITTEN RHYMED BOOKS For my name and memory, I leave it to men's charitable FRANCIS BACON lived from 1561 to 1626. Not even his opponents can dispute the fact that he was one of the most brilliant literary phenomena the world has ever seen. Yet, notwithstanding his marvellous giftedness for science and literature, not once during all the years of his youth did he betray the least ambition to see his name in print on any book. Not until he had attained the age of thirty-six did he allow his name to appear in connection with a book; and, even then, not on the title-page, but merely in conjunction with the dedicatory epistle. The book in question was a small, thin volume, containing "Essayes. Religious Meditations. Of the Coulers of good and euill a fragment." It appeared in the year 1597 and was the only printed work which Francis Bacon published, bearing his name, during the long reign of Queen Elizabeth, whose unpaid "Literary Counsellor" he was. Not until James I. (1603-1625) had ascended the A throne, did that imposing set of works appear on all manner of subjects, which became the wonder of the age, and which to this day touch, and fill with admiration, the heart and mind of all (their number is but small) who dive into their depths. The titles of the chief works are: "The Advancement of Learning" (1605), " De Sapientia Veterum (1609), "Novum Organum " (1620), “The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh" (1622), "Historia Ventorum" (1622), "Historia Vitæ et Mortis" (1623), "De Augmentis Scientiarum" (1623). Then, in 1625, i.e., in the last year of James I.'s reign, something most startling occurred. Francis Bacon, whom the world had hitherto known only as a statesman and the author of Latin and English works on profound subjects, revealed himself as a humorist, by publishing a collection of two hundred and eighty finely pointed sayings, and anecdotes sparkling with wit and humour, entitled, "Apophthegmes New and Old." And in the same year something still more startling happened. Francis Bacon, whom the world had hitherto known only as a prose writer, now came forward as a poet, and published a small collection of rhymed poems, entitled, "The Translation of Certain Psalms, into English Verse." The time in which those merry and poetical surprises and revelations eventuated, affords us, however, ample matter for thought; for on December 19, 1625, .e., just as that same year was drawing to an end, the author, a man of sixty-four years of age, who had long been ailing, signed his Last Will, and on April 9, 1626, i.e., a quarter of a year later, he closed his eyes for ever. Thus, the anecdotes and the verses |