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THE TWO BOOKS OF FRANCIS BACON.

Of the Proficience and

Advancement of Learning, Divine and Human.

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Of the Proficience and

Advancement of Learning,
Divine and Human.

To the King.

HERE were, under the Law, excellent King, both daily Sacrifices, and freewill Offerings; the one proceeding

upon ordinary obfervance, the other upon a devout cheerfulness: in like manner there belongeth to Kings from their Servants both Tribute of duty and Presents of affection. In the former of these I hope I fhall not live to be wanting, according to my moft humble duty, and the good pleasure of your Majefty's employments: for the latter, I thought it more refpective to make choice of fome oblation, which might rather refer to the propriety and excellency of your individual person, than to the business of your Crown and State.

Wherefore, reprefenting your Majesty many times unto my mind, and beholding you not with.

the inquifitive eye of prefumption, to discover that which the Scripture telleth me is infcrutable, but with the observant eye of duty and admiration; leaving afide the other parts of your virtue and fortune, I have been touched, yea, and poffeffed with an extreme wonder at those your virtues and faculties, which the Philofophers call intellectual; the largeness of your Capacity, the faithfulness of your memory, the swiftness of your apprehenfion, the penetration of your Judgment, and the facility and order of your elocution: and I have often thought, that of all the persons living that I have known, your Majefty were the best instance to make a man of Plato's opinion, that all knowledge is but remembrance, and that the mind of man by nature knoweth all things, and hath but her own native and original motions (which by the strangeness and darkness of this Tabernacle of the body are fequeftered) again revived and reftored: fuch a light of Nature I have observed in your Majesty, and fuch a readiness to take flame and blaze from the leaft occafion presented, or the least spark of another's knowledge delivered. And as the Scripture faith of the wifeft king, That his heart was as the fands of the Sea; which though it be one of the largest bodies, yet it confifteth of the smallest and finest portions; fo hath God given your Majesty a compofition of understanding admirable, being able to compass and comprehend the greatest matters, and nevertheless to touch and apprehend the leaft; whereas it should seem an impoffibility

in Nature, for the fame Inftrument to make itself fit for great and small Works. And for your gift of speech, I call to mind what Cornelius Tacitus faith of Auguftus Cæfar: Augufto profluens, et qua principem deceret, eloquentia fuit. For, if we note it well, speech that is uttered with labour and difficulty, or fpeech that favoureth of the affection of art and precepts, or speech that is framed after the imitation of some pattern of eloquence, though never fo excellent; all this has fomewhat fervile, and holding of the subject. But your Majesty's manner of speech is indeed prince-like, flowing as from a fountain, and yet streaming and branching itself into Nature's order, full of facility and felicity, imitating none, and inimitable by any. And as in your civil Estate there appeareth to be an emulation and contention of your Majesty's virtue with your fortune; a virtuous disposition with a fortunate regiment; a virtuous expectation, when time was, of your greater fortune, with a profperous poffeffion thereof in the due time; a virtuous obfervation of the Laws of marriage, with most bleffed and happy fruit of marriage; a virtuous and most Christian defire of peace, with a fortunate inclination in your neighbour Princes thereunto : fo likewife, in thefe intellectual matters, there feemeth to be no less contention between the excellency of your Majesty's gifts of Nature, and the universality and perfection of your Learning. For I am well affured that this which I fhall fay is no amplification at all, but a positive and mea

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