Nisi forte speciatim tuo nomine suggerere libet, isti loco inserenda in cautelam, et ne quid gloriæ celeberrimi viri detrahat vel malignitas, vel inconsideratum studium. Si me fata meis paterentur ducere vitam auspiciis, in Angliam evolarem, ut quicquid Verulamianæ officinæ servas in scriniis tuis ineditum, coram inspicerem, et oculos saltem haberem arbitros, si possessio negetur mercis nondum publicæ. Nunc vota impatientis desiderii sustentabo spe aliquando videndi, quæ fidiis mandata latebris occasionem exspectant ut tutò in lucem educantur, non enecentur suffocato partu. Utinam interim videre liceat apographum epistolæ ad Henricum Savilium circa adjumenta facultatum intellectualium; cætera enim Latinæ monetæ persuadeor statione sua moveri non posse in temporarium usum. Vale. Trajecti ad Mosam, Martii 20, S. N. CIO IOC LV. The same in English, by the Publisher. To the Reverend William Rawley, D. D. Isaac Gruter wisheth much health. Reverend Sir, It is not just to complain of the slowness of your answer, seeing that the difficulty of the passage, in the season in which you wrote, which was towards winter, might easily cause it to come no faster; seeing likewise there is so much to be found in it which may gratify desire, and perhaps so much the more the longer it was ere it came to my hands. And although I had little to send back, besides my thanks for the little index, yet that seemed to me of such moment that I would no longer suppress them: especially because I acounted it a crime to have suffered Mr. Smith to have A note of some papers of the Lord Bacon's in D. R.'s hands. + Of Christ's College, in Cambridge, and keeper of the public library there. been without an answer: Mr. Smith, my most kind friend, and to whose care, in my matters, I owe all regard and affection, yet without diminution of that part (and that no small one neither) in which Dr. Rawley hath place: so that the souls of us three so throughly agreeing, may be aptly said to have united in a triga. Though I thought that I had already sufficiently shewed what veneration I had for the illustrious Lord Verulam, yet I shall take such care for the future, that it may not possibly be denied, that I endeavoured most zealously to make this thing known to the learned world. But neither shall this design, of setting forth in one volume all the Lord Bacon's works, proceed without consulting you, and without inviting you to cast in your symbol, worthy such an excellent edition: that so the appetite of the reader, provoked already by his published works, may be further gratified by the pure novelty of so considerable an appendage. For the French interpreter, who patched together his things I know not whence*, and tacked that motley piece to him; they shall not have place in this great collection. But yet I hope to obtain your leave to publish apart, as an appendix to the Natural History, that exotic work, gathered together from this and the other place [of his lordship's writings] and by me translated into Latin. For seeing the genuine pieces of the Lord Bacon are already extant, and in many hands, it is necessary that the foreign reader be given to understand of what threads the texture of that book consists, and how much of truth there is in that which that shameless person does, in his preface to the reader, so stupidly write of you. My brother, of blessed memory, turned his words into *Certain spurious papers added to his translation of the Advancement of Learning. VOL. XII. Latin, in the first edition of the Natural History, having some suspicion of the fidelity of an unknown author. I will, in the second edition, repeat them, and with just severity animadvert upon them: that they, into whose hands that work comes, may know it to be supposititious, or rather patched up of many distinct pieces; how much soever the author bears himself upon the specious title of Verulam. Unless, perhaps, I should particularly suggest in your name, that these words were there inserted, by way of caution; and lest malignity and rashness should any way blemish the fame of so eminent a person. Si me, fata, meis, paterentur ducere vitam auspiciis— (to use the words of Virgil). If my fate would permit me to live according to my wishes, I would fly over into England, that I might behold whatsoever remaineth in your cabinet of the Verulamian workmanship, and at least make my eyes witnesses of it, if the possession of the merchandise be yet denied to the public. At present I will support the wishes of my impatient desire, with hope of seeing, one day, those [issues] which being committed to faithful privacy, wait the time till they may safely see the light, and not be stifled in their birth. I wish, in the mean time, I could have a sight of the copy of the Epistle to Sir Henry Savil, concerning the Helps of the Intellectual Powers: for I am persuaded, as to the other Latin remains, that I shall not obtain, for present use, the removal of them from the place in which they now are. Farewell. Maestricht, March 20, The third Letter written by Mr. Isaac Gruter, to Dr. Rawley, concerning the writings of the Lord Bacon. Reverendo, doctissimoq; viro Gulielmo Rawleio, S. Theologiæ Doctori S. P. D. Isaacus Gruterus. Vir Reverende et amicissime, Quanta in parte honoris deputarem missa Verulamii Posthuma, quæ è tuo non ita pridem Museo Latina prodiere, actæ protinus gratiæ significarunt, si curam amici, qui hìc operam suam non frustra requiri passus est, haud luserit fortuna trajectus, varia è causa sæpe dubii. Nunc tantò majus mihi istud beneficium est, quantò insigniorem frugem præstitit lectio non ignava, et par cum quibusdam ex officina Baconiana à me editis collatio; auctiorem enim tibi debemus Historiam Densi et Rari, sed et alia isto contenta volumine priusquam non conspecta. Unum mirabar, non exstare ibi cæteris aggregatam Verulamii Epistolam ad Henricum Savilium, de adjumentis facultatum intellectualium, si ex literis olim tuis non vanè mihi recordanti subjicit titulum appellata memoria, saltem inscriptione non longè dissimili. Si per oblivionem ibi forte non comparet, scriniis tamen vestris inerrat, optem videre apographum, in cujus usu bonam fidem non desiderabis; nisi Anglicano Sermone scripta locum invenerit in majori opere, quod vernacula duntaxat complectitur. Id si nos scire patiaris, et an obtinendi libri, in quo et Oratoria, fors et epistolica, digeruntur, maternæ linguæ partus, spes ex promisso fuerit non immodesta, animo meo consecraris tui memoriam, in cujus veneratione nunquam defatigabitur segnescere alacritas obstrictissimi affectus. Vale. Trajecti ad Mosam, unde post duos trésve menses Novomagum migro, Batavis futurus propior. Per Smithæum tamen transmittere ad me perges, si quid volueris. Kal. Julii, St. N. CIO IOC LIX. The same in English, by the Publisher. To the Reverend and most Learned William Rawley, D. D. Isaac Gruter wisheth much health. Reverend Sir, and my most dear Friend, How much I hold myself honoured by your present of the Lord Bacon's Posthumous Works, published lately by you in Latin, my thanks immediately returned had let you understand, if ill fortune in the passage (which is, for divers causes uncertain) had not deluded the care of a friend, who did here with much readiness undertake the conveyance of them. Now the gift is by so much the greater, by how much the more benefit I reaped by diligent reading of those papers, and by comparing them with some of the Lord Bacon's works, which I myself had formerly published. For to you we owe the more enlarged History de denso et raro, as also many other things contained in that volume, which saw not the light before. One paper I wonder I saw not amongst them, the Epistle of the Lord Bacon to Sir Henry Savil, about the helps of the intellectual powers, spoken of long ago in your letters, under that or some such title, if my memory does not deceive me. If it was not forgotten, and remains among your private papers, I should be glad to see a copy of it, in the use of which my faithfulness shall not be wanting. But perhaps it is written in the English tongue, and is a part of that greater volume, |