6

Bacon's miscellaneous literary productions would of themselves place him high as an author. Many of the observations on life and manners in his Essays' have passed into maxims or proverbs, and are familiar to us from infancy. Of all the compositions in any language I am acquainted with, these will bear to be the oftenest perused and re-perused, and after every perusal they still present some new meaning and some new beauty. He was himself conscious of his power in this department of literature, and of the "lustre and reputation these recreations of his other studies would yield to his name." i

His New Atlantis' he seems to have intended as a rival to the Utopia' of Sir Thomas More, although his object was less to satirise existing institutions and manners than to point out the unbounded progress that might be made in discovery and improvement. Some of his suggestions which must have appeared the most extravagant to his contemporaries have been realised in the present age.

k

His tract On Church Controversies' is admirably written, -to inculcate the salutary precept that Christians should contend "not as the brier with the thistle, which can wound deepest; but as the vine with the olive, which bears best fruit."

His derivation of all physical and moral truth from mythological fables in his Wisdom of the Ancients,' is often forced and far-fetched; but nowhere do we trace more striking proofs of his imagination, and his power of discovering resemblances and differences,-in which consist wit and wisdom.

His Latin style, though pointed and forcible, is not sweet nor pure; but he has left us some of the best specimens of genuine Anglicism, and the few antiquated words and turns of expression which we find in his writings, as in the contemporary translation of the Bible, only give additional weight and solemnity to the sentiments which he expresses. Addison, who knew what good composition was, talks with rapture of his "beautiful lights, graces, and embellishments."

In considering his private character, we must begin with the formidable admission that he was without steady attach

i Letter to Bishop of Winchester. Again, he resembles his short Essays to the reformed coin, "where the pieces are small, but the silver is good."

k This work seems to have been deeply studied by Swift, who has happily ridiculed some parts of it in Gulliver's Travels, par

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ticularly in the voyage to Laputa. Another Lord Chancellor has attempted a philosophical romance, but Lord Erskine's Armata' does not encourage his successors to venture again upon this mode of addressing the public.

CHAP. LVI.

HIS PRIVATE CHARACTER.

141

ments as well as aversions, and that, regardless of friendship or gratitude, he was governed by a selfish view of his own interest. But he was perfectly free from malignity; he was good-natured and obliging; when friends stood between him and his object,-sacrificing them to the necessary extent,-he did them as little further damage as possible,-and instead of hating those whom he had injured, he was rather disposed to be reconciled to them, and to make them amends by courtesy, if he could not render them real service.

I find no impeachment of his morals deserving of attention, -and he certainly must have been a man of very great temperance, for the business and studies through which he went would be enough to fill up the lives of ten men who spend their evenings over their wine, and awake crapulous in the morning. Nullum momentum aut temporis segmentum perire et intercidere passus est,' '-knowing that if he took good care of sections of an hour, entire days would take care of themselves.

All accounts represent him as a most delightful companion, adapting himself to company of every degree, calling, and humour, not engrossing the conversation,-but trying to get all to talk in turn on the subject they best understood,--and not disdaining to light his own candle at the lamp of any other." He was generally merry and playful, bringing out with great effect his unexhausted store of jests, new and old, and remembering that "to be free-minded and cheerfully disposed at hours of meat, and of sleep, and of exercise, is one of the best precepts of long lasting.'

If he was not very steady in his friendships, where disturbed by ambition or rivalry, it should be recollected that he was ever kind to his servants and dependants; and the attachment of Meautys, who remained devotedly true to him in all his fortunes, is equally honourable to both parties.

He was rather fanciful about his health, preferring meats

m Rawley.

"Convivantium neminem aut alias colloquentium pudore suffundere gloriæ sibi duxit, sicut nonnulli gestiunt; sed facultates eorum qualescunque fovere et provehere paratus erat. Quin et sermonis licentiam sibi soli arripere in more non erat; sed et aliis simul considentibus libertatem et vicissitudinem loquendi permittere: hoc etiam addendo, quod in arte unumquemque propria lubentissime audiret, et ad ejusmodi dissertationem

pellicere et provocare consueverit. Ipse autem nullius observationes contempsit; sed ad candelam cujuslibet lampada suam accendere non erubuit."-Rawley. This passage seems to have escaped the attention of two illustrious writers who have drawn his character, Hallam and Macaulay.

Rawley. Oh for a Boswell to have recorded the conversation, when he had Raleigh, Ben Jonson, Selden, and Gondomar for guests!

which bred "juices substantial and less dissipable,"--taking three grains of nitre daily in warm broth, and an infusion of rhubarb into white wine and beer once in six or seven days, immediately before his meal, "that it might dry the body less."

To show something supernatural about such a man, for the purpose of raising our wonder and admiration,-Rawley, his chaplain and secretary, asserts,—and his subsequent biographers have repeated, that at every change or any eclipse of the moon he invariably fainted, although he was not aware that such an event was to take place; but that he recovered as soon as the sun's rays again illumined her disc. As no instance is recorded of his ever having fainted in public, or put off the hearing of a cause on account of the change of the moon, or of any approaching eclipse, visible or invisible,and neither himself nor any of his other contemporaries refer to any such infirmity, and such a "delicacy of temperament" is somewhat incredible,—we must set down the story to the invention or easy credulity of the man who thought that it might be explained by his hero's "lunar horoscope at the moment of his birth."

A more serious matter is the charge brought against him of infidelity. At one time in his youth, he seems not only to have been sceptical, but to have been disposed openly to insult the religion of others. Notwithstanding the stout denial that he was the author of the 'Paradoxes,' I cannot doubt that the publication is from his pen, and I cannot characterise it otherwise than as a profane attempt to ridicule the Christian faith. But I suspect that he is describing the history of his own mind when he says, "It is an assured truth, and a conclusion of experience, that a little or superficial knowledge of philosophy may incline the mind of man to atheism, but a further proceeding therein doth bring the mind back again to religion; for in the entrance of philosophy, when the second causes, which are next unto the senses, do offer themselves to the mind of man, if it dwell and stay there, it may induce some oblivion of the highest cause; but when a man passeth on further, and seeth the dependence of causes and the works

P "Verisimile est lunam in themate ejus natalitio præcipuum aliquem locum (veluti in horoscopo aut medio cœli) tenuisse. Quoties enim luna defecit aut eclipsim passa est, repentino animi deliquio correptus fuit: id

que etiam si nullam defectionis lunaris notitiam præviam habuisset. Quamprimum autem luna lumini priori restituta fuisset, confestim refocillatus est et convaluit." Rauley.

CHAP. LVI.

CHARGE OF INFIDELITY.

143

of Providence, then, according to the allegory of the poets, he will easily believe that the highest link of Nature's chain must needs be tied to the foot of Jupiter's chair." a

He certainly received a most pious education; and if his early religious impressions were for a time weakened or effaced by his intercourse with French philosophers, or his own first rash examination of the reasons of his belief, I am fully convinced that they were restored and deepened by subsequent study and reflection. I rely not merely on his Confession of Faith,' or the other direct declarations of his belief in the great truths of our religion (although I know not what right we have to question his sincerity), but I am swayed more by the devotional feelings which from time to time, without premeditation or design, break out in his writings, and the incidental indications he gives of his full conviction of the being and providence of God, and of the Divine mission of our blessed Saviour. His lapses from the path of honour afford no argument against the genuineness of his speculative belief. Upon the whole, we may be well assured that the difficulties which at one time perplexed him had been completely dissipated; his keen perception saw as clearly as it is ever given to man in this state to discover-the hand of the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of the universe; and his gigantic intellect must have been satisfied with the consideration, that assuming the truth of natural and of revealed religion, it is utterly inconsistent with the system of human affairs, and with the condition of man in this world, that they should have been more clearly disclosed to us.

Among his good qualities it ought to be mentioned, that he had no mean jealousy of others, and he was always disposed to patronise merit. Feeling how long he himself had been unjustly depressed from unworthy motives, he never would inflict similar injustice on others, and he repeatedly cautions statesmen to guard against this propensity. "He that plots to be a figure among ciphers is the decay of a whole age.

He retained through life his passion for planting and gardening, and when Chancellor, he ornamented Lincoln's Inn Fields with walks and groves, and gave the first example of an umbrageous square in a great metropolis.'

Little remains except to give some account of his person. He was of a middling stature,-his limbs well formed, though

q Adv. of Learning. See the Essay Of Atheism,' which was added in the later edi

tions.

Letter to Buckingham, Nov. 12, 1618.

not robust,—his forehead high, spacious, and open, his eye lively and penetrating;—there were deep lines of thinking in his face; his smile was both intellectual and benevolent ;the marks of age were prematurely impressed upon him;-in advanced life, his whole appearance was venerably pleasing, so that a stranger was insensibly drawn to love before knowing how much reason there was to admire him.

It is with great pain that I have found myself obliged to take an impartial view of his character and conduct :—

"A fairer person lost not heaven; he seem'd

For dignity composed and high exploits; "

but to suppress or pervert facts,-to confound, for the purpose of holding him up as a perfect being, moral distinctions which should be kept well defined and far apart,-would be a vain attempt to do honour to his genius,-would not be creditable to the biographer who perceives his faults,-and would tend to demoralise as far as it might be effectual. Others who really believe Bacon to be immaculate, are fully justified in proclaiming him to the world to be so. This was by no means the opinion he entertained of himself. He acknowledges to Sir Thomas Bodley his many errors, and among the rest, says he, "this great one which led the rest, that knowing myself by inward calling to be fitter to hold a book than play a part, I have led my life in civil causes, for which I was not very fit by nature, and more unfit by pre-occupation of mind."

When young, he had "vast contemplative ends and moderate civil ends." If he had inherited the patrimony intended for him by his father, if he had obtained the provision which he solicited from the minister on his father's death, it is possible that he might have sunk into indolence and obscurity; but from his native energy, and from the consciousness with which he seems to have been very early inspired of his high calling to be "the great reformer of philosophy," the probability is, that he would have left the Instauratio Magna complete,-preserving a spotless reputation. Then, indeed, we should have justly honoured him beyond any of his species, to whom miraculous gifts have not been directly imparted by Heaven. But without incurring any blame in the first instance, he was driven to betake himself to the profession of the law for a subsistence; hence, he was involved in the vortex of politics; intellectual glory became his secondary object;