xix CHAPTER II. FROM THE DEATH OF HIS FATHER TILL HE ENGAGED 1580. DISCOVERING, upon his arrival in England, that, by the sudden death of his father, he was left without a sufficient Et. 20. provision to justify him in devoting his life to contemplation, (a) it became necessary for him to select some pursuit for his support, "to think how to live, instead of living only to think." (c) Law and Politics were the two roads open before him; in both his family had attained opulence and honor. Law, the dry and thorny study of law, had but little attraction for his discursive and imaginative mind. With the hope, therefore, that, under the protection of his political friends, and the Queen's remembrance of his father, and notice of him when a child, he might escape from the mental slavery of delving in this laborious profession, he made a great effort to secure some small competence, by applying to Lord Burleigh to recommend him to the queen, and interceding with Lady Burleigh to urge his suit with his uncle. (d) (a) Rawley Biog. Brit. (c) This is an expression of his own, I forget where. (d) My singular good Lord, My humble duty remembered, and my humble thanks presented for your lordship's favour and countenance, which it pleased your lordship, at my being with you, to vouchsafe me, above my degree and desert: My, But his application was unsuccessful; the queen and the lord treasurer, distinguished as they were for penetration into character, being little disposed to encourage him to I letter hath no further errand but to commend unto your lordship the remembrance of my suit, which then I moved unto you; whereof it also pleased your lordship to give me good hearing, so far forth as to promise to tender it unto her majesty, and withal to add, in the behalf of it, that which may better deliver by letter than by speech; which is, that although it must be confessed that the request is rare and unaccustomed, yet if it be observed how few there be which fall in with the study of the common laws, either being well left or friended, or at their own free election, or forsaking likely success in other studies of more delight, and no less preferment, or setting hand thereunto early, without waste of years; upon such survey made, it may be my case may not seem ordinary, no more than my suit, and so more beseeming unto it. As I forced myself to say this in excuse of my motion, lest it should appear unto your lordship altogether indiscreet and unadvised, so my hope to obtain it resteth only upon your lordship's good affection toward me, and grace with her majesty, who, methinks, needeth never to call for the experience of the thing, where she hath so great and so good of the person which recommendeth it. According to which trust of mine, if it may please your lordship both herein and else where to be my patron, and to make account of me, as one in whose welldoing your lordship hath interest, albeit, indeed, your lordship hath had place to benefit many, and wisdom to make due choice of lighting places for your goodness, yet do I not fear any of your lordship's former experiences for staying my thankfulness borne in art, howsoever God's good pleasure shall enable me or disable me, outwardly, to make proof thereof; for I cannot account your lordship's service distinct from that which I to God and my prince; the performance whereof to best proof and purpose is the meeting point and rendezvous of all my thoughts. Thus I take my leave of your lordship, in humble manner, committing you, as daily in my prayers, so, likewise, at this present, to the merciful protection of the Almighty. Your most dutiful and bounden Nephew, From Grey's Inn, this 16th of September, 1580. To Lady Burghley, to speak for him to her Lord. My singular good Lady, B. FRA. I was as ready to shew myself mindful of my duty, by waiting on your ladyship, at your being in town, as now by writing, had I not feared lest rely upon others rather than upon himself, and to venture on the quicksands of politics, instead of the certain profession of the law, in which the queen had, when he was a child, predicted that he would one day be "her Lord Keeper." (d) To law, therefore, he was reluctantly obliged to devote himself, and, as it seems, in the year 1580, he was admitted a student of Gray's Inn, of which society his father had for many years been an illustrious member. (e) Having engaged in this profession, he, as was to be expected, encountered and subdued the difficulties and obscurities of the science in which he was doomed to labour, and in which, he, afterwards, was so eminently distinguished, not only by his professional exertions and honours, but by his various valuable works upon different practical parts of your ladyship's short stay, and quick return might well spare me, that came of no earnest errand. I am not yet greatly perfect in ceremonies of court, whereof, I know, your ladyship knoweth both the right use, and true value. My thankful and serviceable mind shall be always like itself, howsoever it vary from the common disguising. Your ladyship is wise, and of good nature to discern from what mind every action proceedeth, and to esteem of it accordingly. This is all the message which my letter hath at this time to deliver, unless it please your ladyship further to give me leave to make this request unto you, that it would please your good ladyship, in your letters, wherewith you visit my good lord, to vouchsafe the mention and recommendation of my suit; wherein your ladyship shall bind me more unto you than I can look ever to be able sufficiently to acknowledge. Thus in humble manner, I take my leave of your ladyship, committing you, as daily in my prayers, so, likewise, at this present, to the merciful providence of the Almighty. Your Ladyship's most dutiful and bounden nephew, this 16th of September, 1580. (d) See ante page 111. B. FRA. (e) The admission book at Gray's Inn begins in the year 1580; but the first four pages have been torn out. Bacon's name, however, appears in the list of members of the society, in the year 1581: the book abounds with Lord Bacon's Autographs. the law, (a) and upon the improvement of the science by exploring the principles of universal justice, the laws of law. (b) Extensive as were his legal researches, and great as was his legal knowledge, law was, however, but an accessory, not a principal study. (c) It was not to be expected that his mind should confine its researches within the narrow and perplexed study of precedents and authorities. He contracted his sight, when necessary, to the study of the law, but he dilated it to the whole circle of science, and continued his meditations upon his immortal work, which he had projected when in the university. (d) This course of legal and philosophical research was accompanied with such sweetness and affability of deportment, that he gained the affections of the whole society, (a) See note R at the end, and note C C. (b) See note S at the end. (c) Contemplation feels no hunger, nor is sensible of any thirst, but of that after knowledge. How frequent and exalted a pleasure did David find from his meditation in the divine law? all the day long it was the theme of his thoughts: The affairs of state, the government of his kingdom, might indeed employ, but it was this only that refreshed his mind. How short of this are the delights of the epicure? how vastly disproportionate are the pleasures of the eating and of the thinking man? indeed as different as the silence of an Archimedes in the study of a problem, and the stillness of a sow at her wash.-South. Being returned from travel, he applied himself to the study of the common-law, which he took upon him to be his profession. Notwithstanding that he professed the law for his livelihood and subsistence, yet his heart and affection was more carried after the affairs and places of state; for which, if the majesty royal then had been pleased, he was most fit. The narrowness of his circumstances obliged him to think of some profession for a subsistence; and he applied himself, more through necessity than choice, to the study of the common law, in which he obtained to great excellence, though he made that (as himself said) but as an accessory, and not his principal study.-Rawley. See note S at the end. (d) See note I at the end. and the kindness he experienced was not lost upon him. He assisted in their festivities; he beautified their spacious garden, and raised an elegant structure, known for many years after his death, as "The Lord Bacon's Lodgings," in which at intervals he resided till his death. (b) When he was only twenty-six years of age, he was promoted to the bench; (c) in his twenty-eighth year he was elected lent reader; (d) and the 42nd of Elizabeth he was appointed double reader. His agreeable occupations, and extensive views of science, during his residence in Gray's Inn, did not check his professional exertions. In the year 1586, he applied to the lord treasurer to be called within the bar; (a) and in (b) See note T at the end. (c) See note V at the end. (d) Dugdale, in his account of Bacon, says, in 30th Elizabeth, (being then but twenty-eight years of age) the honorable society of Gray's Inn chose him for their lent reader. Orig. p. 295. (a) In the time of Lord Bacon there was a distinction between outer and inner barristers. By the following letter in 1586, it will appear that he applied to the lord treasurer that he might be called within bars. To the Right Honorable the Lord Treasurer.* My very good Lord, I take it as an undoubted sign of your lordship's favour unto me that, being hardly informed of me, you took occasion rather of good advice than of evil opinion thereby. And if your lordship had grounded only upon the said information of theirs, I might and would truly have upholden that few of the matters were justly objected; as the very circumstances do induce, in that they were delivered by men that did misaffect me, and, besides, were to give colour to their own doings. But because your lordship did mingle therewith both a late motion of mine own, and somewhat which you had otherwise heard, I know it to be my duty (and so do I stand affected,) rather to prove your lordship's admonition effectual in my doings hereafter, than causeless by excusing what is past. And yet (with your lordship's pardon humbly asked) it may please you to remember, that I did endeavour to set forth that said motion in such sort as it might breed no harder effect than a denial. And I protest simply before God, that I sought therein an *Lands. MS. li. art. 5. Orig. 1586. Æt. 26. |