feeling of Bacon towards the high powers which had made him "tolerate the yoke in his youth." In comparison with so present and real a power what were the dreams of science? How if the realm of philosophy, which he had mapped out for himself in habitable and culturable provinces, turned out, as the Squire had predicted, nothing but "a wilderness of shadows?"

The conflict in Bacon's mind during this period is curiously illustrated by a little collection-treatise it cannot be calledof extracts, proverbs, and thoughts jotted down by him in the Christmas vacation of 1594.1 Many of the extracts bear witness to his aversion to the practice of the law and to his love of philosophy, such as:

(1.) Væ vobis, juris periti!

(2.) Nec me verbosas leges ediscere, nec me

Ingrato voces prostituisse fero.

Others express his desire to return to his old philosophic life :

(1.) Vitæ me redde priori.

(2.) I had rather know than be known.

Others express his contempt for the existing standard of knowledge:

:

(1.) In academiis discunt credere.

(2.) Vos adoratis quod nescitis.

(3.) Vos, Græci, semper pueri.

(4.) Scientiam canimus inter perfectos.

Others express his sense of the grandeur of his philosophic plans, and, at one time, the possibility of failure, at another time, the glorious completeness of the ultimate fulfilment :

(1.) Quem si non tenuit, magnis tamen excidit ausis.

(2.) Conamur tenues grandia.

(3.) Aspice venturo lætentur ut omnia sæclo.

But others lastly-and these form a very large class-are simply forms and turns of words, smart repartees and retorts occasionally of a complimentary, but more often of an uncomplimentary nature-such as in his note-book of 1608 he systematically entitled "Disparagement." In some of these Bacon

1 Works, vii, 189.

deliberately writes down some good quality, such as, for example, the power of giving vividness to a discourse by the use of question and answer, and opposite each good quality he often jots down some disparaging description of it:—

(1.) No wise speech, though easy and voluble.

(2.) Notwithstanding his dialogues (of one that giveth life to his speech by way of question).

(3.) He can tell a tale well (of those courtly gifts of speech which are better in describing than in considering).

(4.) A good comediante (of one that hath good grace in his speech).

It is impossible to read these forms of "disparagement," without being reminded that Francis Bacon had probably found recent occasion to use them. More than once we have found him urging his intimate friend Essex to remember the "exceptions' against his competitors, as when he begs him above to "drive in the nail for the Huddler."1 But it is a terrible falling off that the man who wrote the Greatest Birth of Time in 1585 should think it right or seemly in 1594, not only to suffer his mind to rest on such petty tricks of the Art of the Architecture of Fortune (as he afterwards called it), but even to commit them to paper.

"How can a man comprehend great matters," asks Bacon in the Essays, "that breaketh his mind to small observations!" It is characteristic of Bacon that he apprehended most, not the moral, but the intellectual dangers, attendant on petty pursuits. But in reality the moral danger was the more imminent of the two. It was scarcely possible for Bacon to pursue the petty arts of Court-advancement without becoming morally callous. He has already lost the youthful indifference to wealth and power with which he had entered on Court-life when he was determined to be "like himself;" he has now begun to "frame." But will the "framing" be favourable to the moral development of the philosopher who is "born for the utility of mankind?" Is it possible to pursue office and power with so much passion, and to cultivate the arts of pushing and disparaging so assiduously, without ultimately forgetting that fortune is only worthy of consideration when it is "the organ of merit and virtue?" That is a question which the further life of Bacon may perhaps help us to answer.

1 i.e. Bacon's rival, Coke. See p. 41 above.

CHAPTER VI.

BACON HOLDS ALOOF FROM FACTION.

In the spring of 1596 an offensive movement against Spain was decided on, and Essex was entrusted with the command of the land forces. Burghley, who was supposed to be against the expedition, was ill and out of favour with the Queen. "The old man," writes Standen to Anthony Bacon on the 13th March, "upon some fit would needs away against her will on Thursday last, saying her business was ended, and that he would for ten days go take physic. When she saw it booted not to stay him, she said he was a froward old fool." The expedition was successful, Cadiz was captured on the 21st June, and soon afterwards, rejecting the advice of Essex to wait for and intercept a homeward-bound Spanish fleet, the English force returned laden with spoils.

Shortly before the Earl's return, Sir Robert Cecil (5th July) was sworn Secretary. Lady Anne Bacon expresses her dread of her nephew in his new position, and in a letter (July 10) ending with a postscript, "burn, burn in anywise," she warns her son to be more cautious, “now that Sir Robert is fully stalled in his long longed-for Secretary's place." The jealousy between the Essexian and the Cecilian faction seems to have run high at this time. Anthony, even in his correspondence with Lady Anne, calls Burghley "the old man;" Perez calls Cecil "Roberto il Diavolo." In a curious letter, couched in language intended to be unintelligible except to Essex, Lord Henry Howard exults that "the dromedary that would have won the favour of the Queen of Sabez is almost enraged," and with a pretty clear

1 Add. MS. 4128] 66.

F

reference to the Cecils, asks the Earl whether he cannot "drag out the old leviathan and his cub."

On the 10th of August Essex, safe from perils of war and sea, lands at Plymouth, but not to enjoy the unmixed pleasures of a triumph. Not only is Cecil Secretary, but the Queen is dissatisfied that the royal share of the booty is not greater. On August 18 he and the Lord Admiral have to attend the "gaoldelivery," as Essex calls it, that is, to give account of the prisoners and plunder. What with the dissatisfaction of the Queen, the discontent of his greedy followers, envious of each other's spoils, the curtailment of the campaign by the council of war, and his sense of general misappreciation, Essex is ready to cry "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!" So he writes to his friend Anthony, adding however that against that quotation he opposes another, "That when God looked upon all His works, He saw that they were good. To this work therefore if I can but carry one brick or one trowel-full of mortar, I shall live happily and die contented."

But about this time came news which changed the aspect of affairs at Court. The homeward-bound fleet from the Indies, which Essex had wished to intercept, sailed into the Tagus, it seems, within a day or two after the Earl's proposition had been overruled. This intelligence at once shifted the balance at Court in favour of Essex. The Earl's uncle, Sir William Knollys, is immediately appointed a member of the Privy Council, and also Comptroller. The Cecils at first appear to have attempted to resist the changing tide. On the 8th September Essex wrote to Anthony Bacon that the Lord Treasurer and Sir Robert Cecil had been contesting with him before the Queen that he (Essex) is not to be excused for bringing no booty home. "This day," he says to Anthony, "I was more braved by your little cousin, than ever I was by any man in my life."

At the same time, according to Anthony Bacon's account, an attempt was made by the Cecils to detach him from the side of Essex. Lady Russell, Anthony's aunt, and sister to the Lord Treasurer's wife, calls on Anthony and informs him that the Lord Treasurer has conceived a just displeasure at Anthony's

1 Add. MS. 4121] 155. Dated 17th November, 1596.

estrangement from him.1 "I find my Lord Treasurer," she says, "unfeignedly very honourably and friendly disposed towards yourself, pitying himself of your estate and sickness, and sorrowing to hear that you have diminished what your father left you."

But the aunt's charges resolve themselves to little more than this, that Anthony is carrying on a suspicious correspondence with Scotland, and that he is over meddlesome with foreign politics: "You are too well known and beloved in Scotland to be a true Englishman, and busy yourself with matters above your reach, as, foreign intelligences and entertainment of spies." Anthony answers that his foreign information has been welcomed by the principal men of the state, and that his conduct has been approved by the Queen. As to Sir Robert Cecil, he accepts his cousin's enmity, declaring that Cecil, in Lady Anne's presence, had vowed that he held Anthony Bacon for his mortal enemy, and that he would make him (Anthony) feel it, when he could. In conclusion, Anthony expresses his hope that the Lord Treasurer will neither find it strange nor amiss in him, if he (Anthony) continues his former honest course in giving no just cause to his Lordship's displeasure."

Finding the Earl too strong for them, the Cecils, if we may believe Anthony Bacon and Essex himself, set to work to devise some scheme for removing him from Court under pretext of foreign employment. As early as the beginning of August, Anthony writes to Essex that there is a plot laid to recoil his Lordship, and to keep him aloof by some new employment which, it was presumed, would be pleasing to him: "I most humbly beseech your Lordship to balance thoroughly in the depth of your wisdom the plausible offers which may be made. unto you to prolong your absence." To the same effect Essex himself, on the 14th September, writes about himself, in the third person, to Antonio Perez.

666 'He has returned.' say they, 'sunburnt, bearded, and devoted to business of state. He has made his friend and uncle Comptroller and Privy Councillor. Then let him be banished under the appearance of giving him military command. Let Ireland be entrusted to him, an army assigned

1 Add. MS. 4,121, Lambeth, 659] 21.

2 Birch.