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Introductory Note
Introductory Note
Francis Bacon, son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal
to Queen Elizabeth, was born in London on January 22, 1561. He entered Trinity
College, Cambridge, at the age of twelve, and in 1576 he interrupted the law
studies he had begun in that year, to go to France in the train of the English
Ambassador, Sir Amyas Paulet. He was called home in 1579 by the death of his
father; and, having been left with but a small income, he resumed the study of
law, and became a barrister in 1582. Two years later he entered the House of
Commons, and began to take an active part in politics.
From an early age Bacon had been interested in science, and it was in the
pursuit of scientific truth that his heart lay. He conceived, however, that
for the achievement of the great results at which he aimed, money and prestige
were necessary; and he worked hard for both. He was a candidate for several
offices of state during Elizabeth`s reign, but gained no substantial
promotion, and was often in hard straits for money. He received aid from
influential patrons, notably the Earl of Essex; and his desertion of this
nobleman, with the part he took in his prosecution for treason, is regarded as
one of the chief blots on his personal record.
Shortly after the accession of James I, Bacon was knighted; in 1606 he
married the daughter of an alderman; and in the following year he received the
appointment of Solicitor-General, the first important step in the career which
culminated in the Lord Chancellorship in 1618. In the latter year he was
raised to the peerage as Baron Verulam, and in 1621 he became Viscount St.
Albans. He was now at the summit of his public career; but within four months
the crash came, and he was convicted of bribery, and sentenced by the House of
Lords to the loss of all his offices, to imprisonment, and to the payment of a
large fine. He died in retirement on April 9, 1626, leaving no children.
Bacon`s most important writings in science and philosophy are parts of a
vast work which he left unfinished, his "Magna Instauratio." The first part of
this, the "De Augmentis," is an enlargement in Latin of his book on "The
Advancement of Learning," in which he takes account of the progress in human
knowledge to his own day. The second part is the famous "Novum Organum," or
"New Instrument"; a description of the method of induction based on
observation and experiment, by which he believed future progress was to be
made. The later parts consist chiefly of fragmentary collections of natural
phenomena, and tentative suggestions of the philosophy which was to result
from the application of his method to the facts of the physical world.
Bacon`s own experiments are of slight scientific value, nor was he very
familiar with some of the most important discoveries of his own day; but the
fundamental principles laid down by him form the foundation of modern
scientific method.
Bacon`s writings are by no means confined to the field of natural
philosophy. He wrote a notable "History of Henry VII"; many pamphlets on
current political topics; "The New Atlantis," an unfinished account of an
ideal state; "The Wisdom of the Ancients," a series of interpretations of
classical myths in an allegorical sense; legal "Maxims"; and much else.
But by far his most popular work is his "Essays," published in three
editions in his lifetime, the first containing ten essays, in 1597; the
second, with thirty-eight, in 1612; and the third, as here printed, in 1625.
These richly condensed utterances on men and affairs show in the field of
conduct something of the same stress on the useful and the expedient as
appears in his scientific work. But it is unjust to regard the "Essays" as
representing Bacon`s ideal of conduct. They are rather a collection of shrewd
observations as to how, in fact, men do get on in life; human nature, not as
it ought to be, but as it is. Sometimes, but by no means always, they consider
certain kinds of behavior from a moral standpoint; oftener they are frankly
pieces of worldly wisdom; again, they show Bacon`s ideas of state policy;
still again, as in the essay "Of Gardens," they show us his private
enthusiasms. They cover an immense variety of topics; they are written in a
clear, concise, at times almost epigrammatic, style; they are packed with
matter; and now, as when he wrote them, they, to use his own words of them,
"come home to men`s business and bosoms."
The Epistle Dedicatory
To the Right Honorable my very good Lo. the Duke of Buckingham his Grace, Lo.
High Admiral of England.
Excellent Lo.
Solomon says, A good name is as a precious ointment; and I assure myself,
such will your Grace`s name be with posterity. For your fortune and merit both
have been eminent. And you have planted things that are like to last. I do now
publish my Essays; which, of all my other works, have been most current; for
that, as it seems, they come home to men`s business and bosoms. I have
enlarged them both in number and weight; so that they are indeed a new work. I
thought it therefore agreeable to my affection and obligation to your Grace,
to prefix your name before them, both in English and in Latin. For I do
conceive that the Latin volume of them (being in the universal language) may
last as long as books last. My Instauration I dedicated to the King; my
History of Henry the Seventh (which I have now also translated into Latin),
and my portions of Natural History, to the Prince; and these I dedicate to
your Grace; being of the best fruits that by the good increase which God gives
to my pen and labors I could yield. God lead your Grace by the hand.
Your Grace`s most obliged and faithful servant,
Fr. St. Alban.
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