ments, and additions to their number. Only ten appeared in the first edition, and the way in which the golden sentences were printed, might still be continued with advantage. The beginning, for instance, of the first Essay, of Studie, is thus divided into sections or verses, and the rest are similarly segregated.

"¶Read not to contradict nor to believe, but to weigh and consider.

"Some books are to be tasted, others swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read but cursorily, and some few to be read wholly and with diligence and attention.

Ҧ Histories make men wise, poets witty, the mathematics subtle, natural philosophy deep, moral grave, logic and rhetoric able to contend."

Each sentence is an aphorism-every paragraph maximized—and the thirty new Essays, which, notwithstanding his "continual service," are found in the fourth edition published in 1612, under the title of The Essaies of Sir Francis Bacon, Knight, the King's SolicitorGeneral, are each so compactly elaborated of axiomatic members, as to bear this test of separation.

Sir Francis intended to have dedicated this edition to Henry Prince of Wales, but the untimely death of that noble youth in the November of that year, and his "deare brother Master Antony Bacon being also dead," he selects his brother-in-law, Sir John Constable, Knight, for this honour. The letter to the prince is worthy of both parties. The style of access which our author invariably adopts, "It may please your Highness," (itself an innovation on the classical style of the 15th century, "Please it your Highness,") was soon afterwards altered to its present form of, " May it please your Highness.'

"It may please your Highness,-having divided my life into the contemplative and active part, I am desirous to give his Majesty and your Highness of the fruits of both, simple though they be. To write just treatises requireth leisure in the writer, and leisure in the reader, and therefore are not so fit, neither in regard of your Highness's princely affairs, nor in regard of my continual service; which is the cause that hath made me choose to write certain brief notes, set down rather significantly than curiously, which I have called Essays. The word is late, but the thing is ancient; for Seneca's epistles to Lucilius, if you mark them well, are but essays, that is, dispersed meditations, though conveyed in the form of epistles. These labours of mine I know cannot be worthy of your Highness; for what can be worthy of you? But my hope is, they may be as grains of salt, that will rather give you an appetite than offend you with satiety; and although they handle those things wherein both men's lives and their persons are most conversant, yet what I have attained I know not, but I have endeavoured to make them not vulgar, but of a nature whereof a man shall find much in experience, and little in books; so as they are neither repetitions nor fancies. But, however, I shall most humbly desire your Highness to accept them in gracious part, and to conceive that if I cannot rest, but must show my dutiful and devoted affection to your Highness, in these things which proceed from myself, I shall be much more ready to do it in performance of any of your princely commandments."

This is an essay of itself-one of the "certain brief notes, though conveyed in the form of epistles," while it professes to be an account of the work presented. It is an account such as none but himself could have given, nor has it been equalled since. The truest and finest characters of these productions are to be found in the dedicatory letters.

The short letter to his "worthy brother-in-law" is an effusion of perfect kindliness. "My last Essays I dedicated to my dear brother Mr. Antony Bacon, who is with God. Looking amongst my papers this vacation, I found others of the same nature, which if I myself 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 both of near alliance and of strait friendship and society, and particularly of communication in studies, wherein I

must acknowledge myself beholden to you. For as my business found rest in my contemplations, so my contemplations will find rest in your loving conference and judgment.”

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The Essay of Friendship appeared for the first time in this edition, and it was probably written at the request of his most faithful friend Matthew, whose name is so frequently and honourably mentioned in the letters. Who were Bacon's friends? There were high companions for him; and he was a member of a club with Raleigh, Ben Jonson, and Shakspeare. The successive editions of the Essays were by no means mere reprints; for instance, the Essay of Study has been adduced in illustration of what he says in reference to his " great work," that "after my manner I always alter where I add; so that nothing is finished till all is finished.” This Essay in the first edition ends with the words " able to contend ;” it is admirably continued in the fourth, the previous portions of it also receiving some exquisite touches. There is not, however, any omission of previous matter, and therefore it is incorrectly asserted by an able writer in the Edinburgh Review, (No. 126,) on the Study of Mathematics, that "in the first edition of his Essays Bacon says, mathematics make men subtile;" but having learned better in the interval, in the second, (meaning the fourth,) which appeared fifteen years thereafter, he withdrew this commendation, and substituted the following, which stands unaltered in all the after-editions; "If a man's wit be wandering let him study the mathematics, &c." The fact is, the passage "rashly admitted" is, whether rashly or not, retained, and it stands in all the after-editions exactly as we have quoted it from the first. The reviewer's point, however, that Bacon commends a study of the schoolmen as the discipline of subtilty and discrimination, cannot be disputed.

The author's last and perfect edition appeared in 1625, under the new title of the Essays, or Counsels civil and moral, of Francis Verulam Viscount St. Alban's, newly enlarged. There are eighteen new Essays in this edition, making fifty-eight in all; and of the two which the reader will find added to the list, that of a king is counterfeit; it does not bear the royal mark: the Fragment on Fame is unquestionably genuine; and as that on Death is more than doubtful, it is not incorporated with the others, but inserted further forward in this edition. His Religious Meditations, and Places of Persuasion and Dissuasion, were not reprinted in this edition. The title of the former was dropped, but the matter of the respective reflections has been preserved, either in the Essays, or in the Latin translation. The latter, as will be seen, reappears in the De Augmentis. The Meditations were twelve in number, and all, except the first, are headed with appropriate texts of Scripture. The second is quite a gem, and does not seem to have been transferred to the Essays.

OF THE MIRACLES OF OUR SAVIOUR.

"He hath done all things well."

"A true confession and applause.—God, when hee created all things, saw that every thing in particular, and all thinges in generall, were exceeding good. God the Word, in the miracles which he wrought, (now every miracle is a new creation, and not according to the first creation,) would doe nothing which breathed not towards men favour and bounty. Moses wrought miracles, and scourged the Egyptians with many plagues. Elias wrought miracles, and shut up heaven, that no raine should fall upon the earth; and againe, brought down from heaven the fire of God upon the captains and their bands. Elizeas wrought also, and called beares out of the desert to devoure young children. Peter struck Ananias the sacrilegious hypocrite with present death; and Paul, Elimas the sorcerer with blindness: but no such thing did Jesus; the Spirit of God descended down upon him in the form of a dove, of whom he said. You knowe of what spirit you are. The Spirit of Jesus is the spirit of a dove. Those servants of God were as the oxen of God treading out the corne, and trampling the straw

down under their feete; but Jesus is the Lamb of God, without wrath or judgments. All his miracles were consummate about man's body, as his doctrine respected the soule of man. The body of man needeth these things, sustenance, defence from outward wrongs, and medicine: it was Hee that drew a multitude of fishes into the netts that he might give unto men more liberall provission. Hee turned water, a lesse worthy nourishment of man's body, into wine, a more worthy, that glads the heart of man. Hee sentenced the fig-tree to wither for not doing that duty whereunto it was ordained, which is to beare fruit for men's food. Hee multiplied the scarcity of a few loaves and fishes to a sufficiency to victuall an hoast of people Hee rebuked the winds that threatened destruction to the seafaring men: hee restored motion to the lame, light to the blind, speech to the dumbe, health to the sicke, cleannesse to the leprous, a right mind to those that are possessed, and life to the dead. No miracle of His is to be found to have beene of judgment or revenge, but all of goodness and mercy, and respecting man's body; for as touching riches he did not vouchsafe to doe any miracles, save one only that tribute might be given to Cæsar."

The comment on the three verses with which he mottoes the 9th Meditation is very and happy.

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OF THE SEVERAL KINDS OF IMPOSTURE.

Avoiding prophane strangenesse of words, and oppositions of knowledge, falsely so called.

Avoid fond and idle fables.

Let no man deceive you by high speech."

"There are three formes of speaking, which are as it were the stile and phrase of imposture. The first kinde is of them, who as soon as they have gotten any subject or matter do straight cast it into an art, inventing new termes of art, reducing all into divisions and distinctions, thence draweth assertions or oppositions, and so framing oppositions by questions and answers. Hence issueth the cobwebbes and clatterings of the schoole-men.

"The second kinde is of them who out of the vanity of their witte, (as church-poets,) doe make and devise all variety of tales, stories, and examples, whereby they may leade men's mindes to a beliefe: from whence did grow the legendes and infinite fabulous inventions and dreames of the auncient hereticks.

"The third kinde is of them who fill men's ears with mysteries, high parables, allegories, and illusions; with mystical and profounde forme many of the hereticks also made choise of. By the first kinde of these the capacity and wit of man is fettered and entangled; by the second, it is trained on, and inveigled; by the third it is astonished and enchanted; but by every of them the while it is seduced and abused."

The "third kinde" is an exact description of the transcendental philosophy.

But to return to the Essays themselves. The last and proudest of the dedicatory letters is devoted to the Duke of Buckingham. "I do now publish (says the ex-chancellor) my Essays, which of all my works have been most current: for that, as it seems, they come home to men's business and bosoms. I have enlarged them both in number and weight, so that they are indeed a new work. I thought it therefore agreeable to my affection and obligation to your Grace, to prefix your name before them, both in English and in Latin: for I do conceive that the Latin volume of them being in the universal language may last as long as books last. My Instauration I dedicated to the king: my History of Henry the Seventh, which I have now also translated into Latin, and my portions of Natural History, to the prince : and these I dedicate to your Grace; being of the best fruits that, by the good increase which God gives to my pen and labours, I could yield. God lead your Grace by the hand."

The noble author had no faith in the permanence of modern languages. He predicts, with assurance absolute, that "they will at one time or other play the bankrupt with books." But why? Perhaps the fate of Chaucer haunted him; and it was certainly his policy in regard to his foreign as well as home readers, to conform in his scientific traductions to the pedantry of his time. His native tongue is now more richly endowed than that of his choice, and both hemispheres have guaranteed its integrity. "Since I have lost much time with this age, I would be glad, as God shall give me leave, to recover it with posterity." It is fortunate that he did not always appeal to " Prince Posterity" in a dead language; and the renown of the "great worke" would have been more commensurate with its utility, had he employed his own beautiful English, instead of the scholastic vehicle, to express the systematic grandeur and depth of his thoughts. What, for instance, to say nothing of Greek and Roman precedent, would have been the popularity of Locke's Essay, if he had wrapped it up in modern Latin, and left his countrymen to the tardy alms of the translator?

His final opinion of these productions, and his intention to add to their number, must not be passed over. "As for my Essays, I count them but as the recreations of my other studies, and in that sort purpose to continue them; though I am not ignorant that those kind of writings would, with less pains and embracement, perhaps, yield more lustre and reputation to my name than those other which I have in hand."

The Essays were published in French and Italian during the author's life, and it is rather surprising that Bayle does not notice them specifically in his Dictionary. Mr. Montagu informs us that the first book published in Philadelphia consisted partly of the Essays. Would any modern colony bear such a first book? The Latin translation was a work performed by divers hands, to which he gave, says Tennyson, the title of Sermones Fideles, after the manner of the Jews, who called the word Adagies, or observations of the wise, faithful sayings, that is, credible propositions, worthy of firm assent and ready acceptance. Succeeding essayists must be content to occupy a lower place than the author of this celebrated volume, and therefore we never find it printed with the British Essayists. There is nothing ephemeral about it. Critics of books and manners are not entitled to rank with the critic of nature and life. Written by a scholar, courtier, and wit, without pedantry, modishness, or flippancy, the utmost reach of practical insight is blended with the views of the sage; the freshness of first thoughts is not lost in the finish of reflection. They were begun in the midst of hope, amplified in the midst of ambition, and concluded in the throng of bitter memories, rendered keener by the loftiest presages. Any particular examination of the style or principles of these dissertations would be superfluous. Their general tendency is as useful as their workmanship is beautiful. The late Dugald Stewart classes them "under the head of Ethics," and gives an excellent account of " the small volume, the best known and most popular of his works. It is also one of those where the superiority of his genius appears to the best advantage, the novelty and depth of his reflections often receiving a strong relief from the triteness of the subject. It may be read from beginning to end in a few hours; and yet after the twentieth perusal, one seldom fails to remark in it something overlooked before. This is indeed a characteristic of all Bacon's writings; and is only to be accounted for by the inexhaustible aliment they furnish our own thoughts, and the sympathetic activity they impart to our torpid faculties." Sir James Mackintosh considers, that though the book has been praised with equal fervour by Voltaire, Johnson, and Burke, it has never been characterized with such exact justice as in this extract. We prefer Dr. Johnson's dictum (if his it can be called, after the quoted letter to Prince Henry): "Their excellence and their value consist in their being observations of a strong mind operating upon life, and consequently you find there what you seldom find in any other works." They operate upon life,”—upon moral, physical, and spiritual subjects. They might be called the common sense of a great man collated with human affairs; but it is the common

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sense of a superlative genius, generalizing upon multifarious observation, and so pervaded with the savour of high and various experience, as to come home to every bosom. Each Essay is composed of materials excursively gathered up, and well marshalled; every sentence might be called a self-contained one, and yet all combine to form or illustrate a perfect whole: the connexion and the condensation are equally remarkable. It was his art to keep out of sight the intermediate links by which one proposition is really, though not apparently, bound to another. The chasm seems cleared by a sort of imperial prerogative, but it was literally travelled through by logic. In short, each Essay is composed of fine and weighty thoughts, "natural but not obvious," heightened by being independently just, and promoting a common object without the ceremony of an introduction. Much is left out that must have been thought out, or the duodecimo would more than fill a folio.

One of the first men of his time, the late Sir James Mackintosh, whose admiration of Bacon was habitual and unbounded, thus concludes a letter to a young friend on a course of study; but lest the advice should be deemed a mere epistolary hyperbole, let the reader consult two grave notes in his Dissertation, wherein he styles our author the "master of wisdom," and says his writings are still as delightful and wonderful as they ever were, and his authority will have no end :-" and as the result of all study, and the consummation of all wisdom, Bacon's Essays, to be read and converted into part of the substance of your mind." The fragment of the Colours of Good and Evil, which has often been separately published, deserves an attentive study and perusal, not merely on account of its intrinsic merit and subsequent position in the De Augmentis Scientiarum, under the head of Rhetoric, but as having been one of the writings first printed with the Essays, which it resembles in the result, if not in the mode. The present title does not seem so appropriate as that of Places of Persuasion and Dissuasion, which was adopted in the first edition. Bacon says he was moved to dedicate this writing to Lord Mountjoye" after the ancient manner, choosing both a friend, and one to whom he conceived the argument was agreeable." The dedication, indeed, may be referred to as the best exposition of his design. The performance is original; there was nothing like it before; and the loss has not yet been supplied of his more extensive collection of these "colours, popularities and circumstances, which are of such force as they sway the ordinary judgment both of a weak man and of a wise man, not fully attending or pondering the matter." There can be no doubt either of the utility or difficulty of this undertaking. “Nothing can be of greater use and defence to the mind than the discovery and reprehension of these colours, (or, as he elsewhere calls them, 'popular marks, or colours, of apparent good and evil,') showing in what cases they hold, and in what they deceive; which as it cannot be done but out of a very universal knowledge of the nature of things, so being performed, it so cleareth a man's judgment and election, as it is the less apt to slide into any error." The task is required at the hands of those "who are patient to stay the digesting and soluting unto themselves of that which is sharp and subtle."

The Collection of Apophthegms is only remarkable as having been "made out of his memory, without turning to any book, in one morning." The admirers of Lord Chesterfield will not approve of his not omitting " any because they are vulgar, for many vulgar ones are excellent good;" still his censure of the collections of Stobæus and others, that they "draw much of the dregs," is by no means inapplicable to his own. In fact they are unworthy of Bacon. Lord Byron has a curious memorandum in his " Diary of 1821.” On the 5th January, among other things, we have the following vigil; "Mem.-Ordered Fletcher (at four o'clock this afternoon) to copy out seven or eight apophthegms of Bacon, in which I have detected such blunders as a school-boy might detect, rather than commit. Such are the sages! What must they be, when such as I can stumble on their mistakes or misstatements? I will go to bed, for I find that I grow cynical.”

Next morning we have this slap-dash continued "Mist-thaw-slop-rain. No stirring