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impression which his narrative certainly produces. "If Henry the Seventh were alive again, he could not be so angry with me for not flattering him, as well pleased in seeing himself so truly described in colours that will last and be believed." Harrington, in the three last Aphorisms of his System of Politics, may assist in the formation of a more correct opinion of Bacon's object in this profound exposition of English policy in the sixteenth century. Take," says he, "a juggler, and commend his tricks never so much, yet if in so doing you show his tricks, you spoil him: which has been and is confessed of Machiavel.

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Corruption and government is to be read and considered in Machiavel, as diseases in a man's body are to be read and considered in Hippocrates.

"Neither Hippocrates nor Machiavel introduced diseases into man's body, nor corruption into government, which were before their times; and seeing they do but discover them, it must be confessed, that so much as they have done, tends not to the increase, but the cure of them; which is the truth of both these authors."

Is this illustration taken from the pregnant hint in the device exhibited by the earl of Essex before queen Elizabeth, on the anniversary of her accession to the throne, November 17th, 1595, for which one " Mr. Francis Bacon" drew up the speeches. "Corrupt statesman," says the worthy squire, addressing the politician, "you that think by your engines and motions to govern the wheel of fortune, do you not mark that jugglers are no longer in request, when their tricks and slights are once perceived?" But be this as it may, the writings of every truly great man, who has been led into practical or theoretical error, afford the antidote as well as the bane; and if these appear to favour any mischievous doctrine, the refutation is always supplied by the author.

The work before us should be considered as a history of the king-craft of the period; and as there was hardly any thing else to record, the constitutional student will only resort to this masterpiece of compressed relation, for an account of a reign, written by a courtier for the court. The noble writer narrowed his vision of the reign to the reign itself, but every subsequent historian, wherever he may get his facts, makes excellent use of our author's "better travels," hints, and reflections. Hume's admirable character of the monarch himself, is almost entirely wrought out of the still more striking summary or recapitulation furnished by Bacon; and in an elaborate note on Perkin Warbeck, he refers to our author with more cordiality than at the conclusion of his history,-speaking of him as a "great genius; so great a genius as to be esteemed with justice one of the chief ornaments of the nation, and indeed one of the most sublime writers that any age or nation has produced. The political economist will not derive from it more than the negative assistance of erroneous views, admirably set forth. It should be recollected that Bacon "took him to life as well he could, sitting so far off, and having no better light," and it is but fair to judge of the work by the amount of light enjoyed. Dr. Johnson, according to Boswell, says, "It was but of late that historians bestowed pains and attention in consulting records to attain to accuracy. Bacon, in writing his History of Henry the Seventh, does not seem to have consulted any, but to have just taken what he found in other histories, and blended it to what he learned by tradition." It is well known he was assisted to authorities by Sir Robert Cotton. We are not aware, however, than any of his facts have been disputed. Hume has dissipated some of his conceits on the statutes of tillage and population, but the legal antagonists of the text have not been so fortunate. He was very careful in insisting on "the laws passed in this king's reign;" and he considered that the best writers of history did not " often enough summarily deliver and set down the most memorable laws that passed in the times whereof they writ, being indeed the principal acts of peace." The laws for populations, those against retainers, and that for alienations, are all correctly stated by the ex-chancellor; and succeeding authors have found out, what could never have been predicted, that these three statutes had paved the way for the downfall of the church of Rome, the feudal nobility, and the Stuarts.

The frequent reference throughout the history to a special Providence, gives great consistency to the whole piece, and is a point which the ancients never overlooked. Bacon knew the course of civil changes as well as any man, but the visible hand of Heaven is always recognised. For instance, the marriage of Henry with Catherine is thus spoken of: " In this 14th year, by God's wonderful providence, that boweth things unto his will, and hangeth great weights upon small wires, there fell out a trifling, untoward accident, that drew great and happy effects-the secret providence of God ordaining that marriage to be the occasion of great events and changes."

We have often admired the concluding paragraph of the History.

“He was born at Pembroke castle, and lieth buried at Westminster, in one of the stateliest and daintiest monuments of Europe, both for the chapel and for the sepulchre. So that he dwelleth more richly dead, in the monument of his tomb, than he did alive in Richmond or any of his palaces. I could wish he did the like in this monument of his fame." Harrington and Selden have done justice to this last aspiration. The latter evidently alludes to him in the 26th discourse of the 2nd part of his chapter on Government, where the king and the author are thus disposed of:

"And so he went down to his grave with but a dry funeral, leaving no better testimony behind than that he was a cunning man, rather than a wise English king; and though he died rich, yet he hath since grown into debt by the penmen of his story, that by their own excellency have rendered him a better king than he was.”

Selden's is throughout a noble performance, and we would strongly urge our young readers to compare Bacon's history with the remarks on the same reign, which will be found in that invaluable treatise. The political veil was hardly shaken, much less rent, when our author solaced himself by the composition of this work; and abiding by his own view of his own objects, he does not assume the prophetic mantle, but writes as if the consequences of the reformation had been evolved. But we have already spoken on this topic. It was enough for Bacon to foresee the more important changes which he was destined to effect-a reformation which required as much energy and virtue to undertake as the political or religious; and without which they could not be permanent. Bacon perhaps saw the storm; but he was himself a wreck, and had been dismissed from all care of pilotage.

We had prepared a few selections from this work, but all extracts from this most logical writer, how great soever their intrinsic excellency, are a species of violence. Our readers, however, will like to see the "Note," already referred to, of the "Unworthiness of the History of England" in the Advancement of Learning, where he recommends the commencement of its history with the reign of Henry the Seventh; but there is no attempt, like Hume's, to prove that we had no constitution before that period. Little did he imagine. the circumstances in which he should be called upon to fill up his own vigorous outline, drawn in happier days, of the successive reigns. It will be seen that something more than the germ of the beautiful fragments of Henry the Eighth, queen Elizabeth, and the beginning of a history of England, is contained in this passage, which brings the history down to the reigning monarch.

"I cannot fail to represent to your Majesty the unworthiness of the history of England in the main continuance thereof, and the partiality and obliquity of that of Scotland, in the latest and largest author that I have seen; supposing that it would be honour for your Majesty, and a work very memorable, if this island of Great Britain, as it is now joined in monarchy for ages to come, so were joined in one history for the times passed, after the manner of the sacred history, which draweth down the story of the ten tribes, and of the two tribes, as twins, together. And if it shall seem that the greatness of this work may make it less exactly performed, there is an excellent period of a smaller compass of time, as to the history of England; that is to say, from the uniting of the roses to the uniting of the kingd

doms; a portion of time, wherein to my understanding there hath been the most varieties, that in like number of successions, of any hereditary monarchy, hath been known for it beginneth with the mixed adoption of a crown by arms and title; an entry by battle, an establishment by marriage; and therefore times answerable, like waters after a tempest, full of working and swelling, though without extremity of storm; but well passed through the wisdom of the pilot, being one of the most sufficient kings of all the number. Then followeth the reign of a king whose actions, howsoever conducted, had much intermixture with the affairs of Europe, balancing and inclining them variably; in whose time also began that great alteration in the state ecclesiastical, an action which seldom cometh upon the stage. Then the reign of a minor; then an offer of an usurpation; then the reign of a queen matched with a foreigner; then of a queen that lived solitary and unmarried, and yet her government so masculine, as it had greater impression and operation upon the states abroad than it any ways received from thence. And now last this most happy and glorious event, that this island of Britain, divided from all the world, should be united in itself, and that oracle of rest given to Æneas, antiquam exquirite matrem, should now be performed and fulfilled upon the nations of England and Scotland, being now reunited in the ancient mother name of Britain, as a full period of all instability and preregrination: so that as it cometh to pass in a mass of bodies, that they have certain trepidations and waverings before they fix and settle; so it seemeth that by the providence of God this monarchy, before it was to settle in your Majesty and your generations, in which I hope it is now established for ever, it had these prelusive changes and varieties." The exquisite letter to the lord chancellor touching the history of Great Britain, is eked out, with some improvement, in the main, from the above passage.

The History of Henry the Eighth, one of his many noble designs, was undertaken, says Tennison upon the notion of king Charles the First, (when prince of Wales,) " but a greater King not lending him time, he only began it; for that which we have of it, was it seems but one morning's work." It would appear from that extraordinary document, entitled Memorial of Access, written in Greek characters and deciphered by Dr. Birch, that he had then, in November 1622, made some progress with this intended continuation. A few quotations from this genuine document may be allowed. It makes one's heart ache to contemplate such a man in the attitude of fruitless prostration.

After asking some task or literary province, that he may serve calamo if not consilio, he thus proceeds:

"I know that I am censured of some conceit of mine ability or worth: but I pray your Majesty, impute it to desire, possunt quia posse videntur. And again, I should do some wrong to your Majesty's school, if, in sixteen years' access and near service, I should think I had learned or laid in nothing."

"Of my offences far be it from me to say, dat veniam corvis, vexat censura columbus, but I will say that I have good warrant for; they were not the greatest offenders in Israel upon whom the wall of Shilo fell."

"My story is proud, and I may thank your Majesty; for I heard him note of Tasso, that he could know which poem he made when he was in good condition, and when he was a beggar. I doubt he could make no such observation of me."

"Kings do raise and pull down with reason; but the greatest work is reasoning.' "Your Majesty hath power: I have faith: therefore a miracle may be wrought."

"I would live to study, and not study to live; yet I am prepared for date obolum Belisario; and I that have borne a bag can bear a wallet."

"For my pen, if contemplative, going on with The History of Henry the Eighth."

Writing to Buckingham in Spain, he evidently alludes to this imposed labour, under the similitude of a compliment.

"I beseech your lordship, of your nobleness, to vouchsafe to present my most humble duty to his Highness, who, I hope, ere long will make me leave king Henry the Eighth, and set me on work in relation of his Highness's adventures."

There is a curious hint in a letter to Mr. Matthew as to the materials of the "other work," Henry the Seventh, in connexion with this of princely imposition; which may justify a suspicion that Bacon stopped short because he missed his antiquarian crutch. Robert withheld his materials to some purpose.

Sir "Since you say that the prince hath not forgot his commandment touching the history of Henry the Eighth, I may not forget my duty; but I find Sir Robert Cotton, who poured forth what he had in my other work, somewhat dainty of his materials in this."

Here is the "one morning's work," a fragment, but it may safely challenge comparison with any thing on the same reign; his first biographer calls it an "ex ungue leonem." "After the decease of that wise and fortunate king, Henry the Seventh, who died in the height of his prosperity, there followed, as useth to do when the sun setteth so exceeding clear, one of the fairest mornings of a kingdom that hath been known in this land or any where else. A young king, about eighteen years of age, for stature, strength, making, and beauty, one of the goodliest persons of his time. And though he were given to pleasure, yet he was likewise desirous of glory; so that there was a passage open in his mind, by glory, for virtue. Neither was he unadorned with learning, though therein he came short of his brother Arthur. He had never any the least pique, difference, or jealousy with the king his father, which might give any occasion of altering court or council upon the change; but all things passed in a still. He was the first heir of the white and red rose; and so that there was now no discontented party left in the kingdom, but all men's hearts turned toward him; and not only their hearts, but their eyes also; for he was the only son of the kingdom. He had no brother; which though it be a comfortable thing for kings to have, yet it draweth the subjects' eyes a little aside. And yet being a married man in those young years, it promised hope of speedy issue to succeed to the crown. Neither was there any queen mother, who might share any way in the government, or clash with his counsellors for authority, while the king intended his pleasure. No such thing as any great and mighty subject, who might any way eclipse or overshade the imperial power. And for the people and state in general, they were in such lowness of obedience as subjects were like to yield, who had lived almost four and twenty years under so politic a king as his father; being also one who came partly in by the sword, and had so high a courage in all points of regality, and was ever victorious in rebellions and seditions of the people. The crown extremely rich and full of treasure, and the kingdom like to be so in a short time. For there was no war, no dearth, no stop of trade or commerce; it was only the crown which had sucked too hard, and now being full, and upon the head of a young king, was like to draw less. Lastly, he was inheritor of his father's reputation, which was great throughout the world. He had strait alliance with the two neighbour states, an ancient enemy in former times, and an ancient friend, Scotland and Burgundy. He had peace and amity with France, under the assurance not only of treaty and league, but of necessity and inability in the French to do him hurt, in respect that the French king's designs were wholly bent upon Italy: so that it may be truly said, there had scarcely been seen or known, in many ages, such a rare concurrence of signs and promises, and of a happy and flourishing reign to ensue, as were now met in this young king, called after his father's name, Henry the Eighth."

One of the "fairest mornings of a kingdom" is a favourite phrase, and it occurs in the next fragment, The Beginning of the History of Great Britain, which is generally printed as it stands in this volume, but was probably written shortly after king James's accession ; and forwarded to the king when he despatched the elaborate letter to the lord chancellor. The "Beginning" was sent to king James as a sample of a long-formed design;-the letter

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is curious,—but the king was indifferent, and soon afterwards Bacon had "greatness thrust upon him." He evidently intended to furnish a memoir of his own times. "The reason why I presumed to think of this oblation, was because, whatsoever my disability be, yet I have that advantage which almost no writer of history hath had; in that I shall write of times, not only since I could remember, but since I could observe." Perhaps the finest portion of the fragment, is that in which he enumerates the parties to whom "a new court and a new reign" would not be unwelcome; showing that "every condition of persons had some contemplation of benefit, which they promised themselves, over-reaching perhaps, according to the nature of hope, but yet not without some probable ground of conjecture." The courtier would have experienced some difficulty, after his Discourse in the praise of his Sovereign Queen Elizabeth, if that discourse had been published, in ushering in her successor; and the assertion in the fragment that queen Elizabeth imposed "a silence touching the succession," is hardly consistent with what he "notes," in his letter to the lord chancellor, "that her Majesty did always right to his Majesty's hopes."

The THEOLOGICAL tracts may be justly classed amongst the most delightful of Bacon's writings. He was a divine as well as a philosopher. He could have had no sympathy with that scholarship which is equally proud of its intimate acquaintance with heathenism, and its perfect indifference to the true religion. All other intellectual arts were subordinate, if not subservient to this; and solemn allusions and appeals are frequent throughout his greater works. But the few tracts which have been preserved under this title, present the most exquisite memorials of his piety. The Bible was just the book for such a mind. Its wondrous contents satisfied all the conditions of his nature, and met the necessities of his case. His intellect, with all its vast yearnings, received illumination and expansion; his heart, with all its unutterable anxieties, found purity and rest. Without for one moment exalting a professor of religion into its patron, we can conceive of nothing more truly beautiful or becoming, than the adhesion of such a spirit to such a revelation. No one since Solomon's time had such good reason to pronounce the "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity,”—and no one stood more in need of that refuge, which had been set up for a world. The renown which was to increase with ages, could not impart the peace which he needed with the meanest of his fellow-probationers. He knew full well that all that he had done, for good and evil, would undergo the most rigid scrutiny,—and perhaps that he should be singled out to be ennobled and branded as

"The greatest, brightest, meanest of mankind!"

What a withering wreath, then, the laurel that decked his anxious brow! what hollow sounds the many echoes of fame that fell on his prophetic ear! But if the effusions we are now to notice were the transcripts of his heart, (and who amongst his depreciators will refuse him this sanctuary?) the fact of his comfort is established, and a great mystery in life cleared up.

This fact has been strangely overlooked and forgotten, both by panegyrists and detractors and therefore these productions, so far as they are strictly devotional, have been utterly neglected. The former, not daring to probe the whole character, pass them by with an ignorant or false fastidiousness; and the latter, incapable of reconciling practical delinquency with repentant and exalted piety, only permit their baffled metaphysics to increase their virtuous animosity. It is upon christian grounds alone that we can form a true and fair estimate of Bacon's character. Take all that is said for and against him-let it be assumed that all the glory and the shame may be predicated of him—what can the mere worldling, mere politician, mere moralist, or mere philosopher make of him? They impute to him every thing harsh, ungenerous, and heartless, and resolve him into a mass of inconsistencies. A sceptic of ordinary ingenuity, who did not hold by the idola tribus of any of these respective

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