THE LETTERS AND THE LIFE OF FRANCIS BACON INCLUDING ALL HIS OCCASIONAL WORKS NAMELY LETTERS SPEECHES TRACTS STATE PAPERS MEMORIALS DEVICES AND ALL AUTHENTIC WRITINGS NOT ALREADY PRINTED AMONG HIS NEWLY COLLECTED AND SET FORTH IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER WITH A COMMENTARY BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL BY JAMES SPEDDING VOL. I. LONDON LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS 1861 PREFACE. 1841 BACON'S Philosophical Works having been disposed of in the five volumes first issued, and his Literary and Professional Works in the two which followed, I come now to what I have called his Occasional Works; which include all the rest, and will when finished make the Edition complete according to the plan originally proposed. In editing these, I have made it my first object to give as complete a collection and as correct a text as I could of all his Letters, Speeches, Tracts, Memorials, and whatever else of his composition was addressed to the immediate business of his time, and meant to produce its effect then and there. But since writings of this kind cannot be properly understood except with reference to the circumstances in which they were written, which are for the most part worn out of memory and not to be recovered without much pains and patience, I have made it my second object to inquire into those circumstances, and to accompany the original papers with so much explanatory matter of my own as may enable any man who cares for the subject to read the work continuously and understand it all as he goes on; at least so much of it as I understand myself. I make no apology to the reader for the length to which this part of my task has carried me; for in determining what to say and what to leave unsaid I have especially studied his convenience; and if he have patience to accompany me, I hope he will find that neither his labour nor my own has been thrown away. A collection of letters and writings of business, if it be large enough and the subjects various enough and the selection made neither by friend nor enemy but by impartial chance, will always M773468 |