every palate. Rapin says, there is more wit in his ethics, than in any of his writings; for which Dr. Knox thinks this reason may be assigned, "that observations on men and manners admit a playful ingenuity of thought; but the features of severe science are not often to be relaxed by the sallies of a sportive fancy." The same ingenious writer adds: "I have often regretted that so sagacious an understanding as lord Bacon's was not more frequently employed in speculations more generally useful, than those sublime subjects of science which are unconnected with practice. Had he employed that subtilty of observation in remarking and describing manners, which is conspicuous in some useless conjectures in natural philosophy, there is little doubt but the world would have received great light, where light is most wanted, in the art of regulating our passions, and the conduct of life. The little he has left us is an invaluable treasure, and the works I should most wish to recover if all his productions were lost, is the Moral Essays.' thoughts of Bacon have this peculiar excellence, that they not only please and convince by their justness, but lead the mind to think still farther on the subject, and assist it in its efforts. Not like the trifling writer, who is forced to make the most advantage of a good idea by dilating it, as the gold-beater extends a little gold; Bacon leaves the reader to comment on a solid reflection, when he has once given it utterance in a clear and concise expression. When we compare this great man's writings with some of the weaknesses of his life, we are tempted to exclaim with a modern The delineator of characters, Alas, poor human nature!" The works of Bacon, as was observed by M. d'Alembert, though justly valued, are perhaps more valued than known, and therefore more deserving of study than eulogium. That his lordship had ever deviated from the thorny tracks of science, philosophy, and jurisprudence, into the primrose path of poesy, very generally known 3, for it does not seem to be noticed by any of his biographers except Aubrey. By the kindness of Mr. Douce 4, however, I am able to state, that in 1625 was published is not "A Translation of certaine Psalmes into English Verse; by the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount St. Alban." 4to. It includes a version of the 1st, 12th, 90th, 104th, 126th, 137th, and 149th Psalms, in various measures, with a dedication to the translator's " very good frend, Mr. George Herbert 5," whence it appears to have • Essays Moral and Literary, No. lii. When the French ambassador, marquis d'Effiat, upon his first visit, compared lord Bacon to the angels of whom he had heard and read much, but had never seen them: his lordship wisely replied, "that if the charity of others compared him to an angel, his own infirmities told him he was a man." Biog. Brit. vol. i. p. 489. 3 In Reliquiæ Wottonianæ, edit. 1685, a short ode entitled "The World" is ascribed to Francis lord Bacon. 4 My friend, Mr. Todd, has since developed a copy in the Bridgewater library. ♪ A poetical testimony to lord Bacon's merits may be seen in "Herbert's Remains." been an "exercise of sicknesse," probably in the year preceding his death. A single extract from this rare publication, cannot be otherwise than interesting; it is taken from Psalm xc. and adheres pretty closely to the text. "O Lord! thou art our home to whom we fly, And so hast alwaies beene from age to age; Before the hills did intercept the eye, Or that the frame was up of earthly stage, One GoD thou wert, and art, and still shalt bee;— Both death and life obey thy holy lore, And visit in their turnes, as they are sent: Thou carriest man away as with a tide, Then down swim all his thoughts, that mounted high, Much like a mocking dreame, that will not bide, But flies before the sight of waking eye; Or as the grasse, that cannot terme obtaine At morning faire it musters on the ground, The wether would performe the mowers wrong: Thus hast thou hang'd our life on brittle pins, Thou buriest not within oblivious tombe Teach us, O Lord, to number well our daies, This bubble light, this vapour of our breath, But a still greater curiosity in metrical composition occurs among the royal manuscripts in the Museum; an original poem 7 thus entitled : "VERSES MADE BY MR. FRA. EACON. "The man of life upright, whose giltles heart is free The horrors of the deepe and terrors of the skies. Thus, scorning all the care that fate or fortune brings, Hee makes the heaven his booke, his wisdome heavenlie things: Good thoughts his onelie freinds, his life a well-spent age, The earth his sober inne, a quiet pilgramage. 6 17 B. L. "By FRA. BACON." 'Though pronounced original, much of the sentiment bears a close resemblance to Horace, lib. 1. Carm. xxii. Aubrey, whose biographical anecdotes deserve to be published entire, observes, "that lord Bacon was a good poet, but conceal'd, as appears by his letters ;" and points out excellent verses of his lordship's which Mr. Farnaby translated into Greek, and printed both in his Ανθολογία. Sc. The world's a bubble, and the life of man Less than a span, &c. Bolton quaintly says, that his writings have the freshest and most savoury form, and aptest utterances that our tongue can bear 7. The following high character of his lordship's rhetorical powers is cited by Aubrey: "There happened in my time one noble speaker, Dominus Verulamus, who was full of gravity in his speaking. His language (where he could spare or passe by a jest) was nobly censorious; no man ever spake more neatly, more pressly, more weightily, or suffered less emptinesse, lesse idleness in what he utter'd. His hearers could not cough, or looke aside from him, without losse. He commanded where he spoke, and had his judges angry and pleased at his devotion: no man had their affections more in his power. The feare of every man that heard him was, lest he should make an end." This character is from Ben Jonson's Disco veries. Lord Bacon's domestic habits and method of study are thus described by his chaplain, Dr. Rawley: "He was no plodder upon works; for though he read much, Hypercritica, sect. iii. Oxford Cabinet, p. 20. |