5.

About a quarter of a century ago, when all England was frightened from her propriety by the announcement that the Pope was going to "parcel out" the country into Roman Catholic dioceses-that is, to confer on certain persons the title of Bishop and assign to each a district within which he should have a Bishop's authority over the members of his own communion-I do not know whether it was remembered that such a measure had been under consideration as long ago as the summer of 1622; when the Roman Catholics in England were a much more formidable body, and the nearest approach to toleration of a heretical religion which anybody thought justifiable was connivance at the secret practice of it. Bacon heard of it from Toby Matthew on the 4th of August, and immediately forwarded the intelligence to Buckingham in the following letter.

I give the date on the authority of Stephens's catalogue; for in this manuscript no date is now visible. But it seems that it was visible once, or else that there was another copy; for the following description of a letter addressed to Buckingham can hardly have referred to any other. (Date), 4 August 1622. (Beginning), "I thought it appertained." (Subject), An account of a design for sending Popish Bishops for England.

TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.1

My very good Lord,

I thought it appertained to my duty both as a subject and as he that took once the oath of a counsellor, to make known to your Lordship an advertisement which came to me this morning. A gentleman, a dear friend of mine whom your Lordship cannot but imagine though I name him not, told me thus much, That some English priests, that negotiated at Rome to facilitate the subtlety and diligence in your way. The novellists whom you name, Patricius, Telesius, besides others whom you do not mention, I have read. There may be any number of the kind,-as were also in ancient times Anaximenes, Anaxagoras, Democritus, Parmenides, and others (for I omit Pythagoras, as superstitious). Between these, as well ancient as modern, I observe great difference in point of faculty; in point of truth, very little. The sum of the matter is this-if men will submit themselves to things, something will be done; if not, those wits will come round again in the circle.

"Let our acquaintance be now established. Love me as you have begun, but love Truth most. Farewell.

"Your most loving,

"S. ALBAN."

1 Gibson Papers, vol. viii. f. 256. Draught in Bacon's hand. Docketed, "My letter to my Lord Marquis touching the business of estate advertised by Mr Matthew." And at the bottom, also in Bacon's hand, "Præs. use."

1622.] PROJECT FOR POPISH BISHOPRICKS IN ENGLAND. 379

dispensation, did their own business (that was his phrase), for they negotiated with the Pope to erect some titulary Bishops for England, that mought ordain and have other spiritual faculties; saying withal most honestly that he thought himself bound to impart this to some counsellor, both as a loyal subject, and as a Catholic; for that he doubted it mought be a cause to cross the graces and mercies which the Catholics now enjoy, if it be not prevented; and he asked my advice whether he should make it known to your Lordship or to my Lord Keeper when he came back to London. I commended his loyalty and discretion and wished him to address himself to your Lordship, who mought communicate it with my Lord Keeper if you saw cause, and that he repaired to your Lordship presently, which he resolved to do. Nevertheless, I did not think mine own particular duty acquitted except I certified it also myself, borrowing so much of private friendship in a case of state, as not to tell him I would do so much.

It appears that Buckingham did communicate the intelligence to the Lord Keeper, who had a conference with Gondomar about it: the result of which he reports in the postscript to a letter dated August 23, 1622, in these words:

"The Spanish Ambassador took the alarum very speedily of the titulary Roman Bishop; and before my departure from his house at Islington, whither I went privately to him, did write both to Rome and Spain to prevent it. But I am afraid that Toby will prove but an apocryphal and no canonical intelligencer, acquainting the state with this project for the Jesuits rather than for Jesus's sake."1

6.

The De Augmentis Scientiarum being now in the hands of the translators or the printers, Bacon had to consider to what part of the Instauratio he should next apply himself. He had a wide field for choice. The Instauratio was designed in six parts. The first, which was to exhibit the partitiones scientiarum, he had already determined to leave to be represented by the enlarged edition of the second book of the Advancement of Learning'-now expanded into the eight last books of the De Augmentis. Of the second part, which was to exhibit the art itself of interpretation-the Novum Organum, sive indicia vera de interpretatione nature-but a small 1 'Cabala,' p. 291.

part was completed. He had left off at the end of the second book, with an announcement that he had yet to treat of the "supports and rectifications of Induction," and then of "Concretes," and "Latent Processes," and "Latent Configurations," and the rest, "as set forth in order in the twenty-first aphorism." These were all necessary to complete the description of the new logical machinery by which the meaning of nature was to be deciphered-to shew how defects were to be supplied, and errors rectified; how the mode of enquiry was to be adapted to the nature of the subject; what "natures were to have precedence in the order of enquiry, and how it was to be ascertained when the enquiry might safely terminate, as having left no "nature" in the universe unchallenged. After which were to come the "application to practice;" the "preparations for investigation;" and the "ascending and descending scale of axioms." All these were still to be supplied. But though he seems to have been satisfied that he himself saw the way through it all,1 and it was very unlikely that anybody else would ever do it, this was not the task which he undertook next. Important as he conceived the completion of the logical machinery to be, it seemed still more important to set measures on foot for providing the materials upon which it was to work. Without the natural and experimental history the most perfect method of reasoning would be of no use. His avowed motive for publishing the Novum Organum in an imperfect shape was to obtain help for this part of the work, and he probably expected that the publication would draw many fellow-labourers to his aid, and leave him comparatively free to pursue that part which was more peculiarly his own. But when none appeared, he thought the best thing he could do was to set the example himself. "I have heard his Lordship speak complainingly," says Rawley, "that his Lordship (who thinketh he deserveth to be an architect in this building) should be forced to be a workman and a labourer, and to dig the clay and burn the brick; and more than that (according to the hard condition of the Israelities at the latter end) to gather the straw and stubble over all the fields to burn the bricks withal." But he knew that except he did it nothing would be done, and he now made a kind of vow that no month should pass without showing one or more portions of this Natural History completed and published.

A more virtuous resolution was probably never registered, nor with a sincerer desire, followed by a more vigorous effort, to fulfil it.

1 "Tum demum sequetur Novum Organum, cui secunda pars adhuc adjicienda est; quam tamen animo jam complexus et metitus sum." Epist. ad Fulgentium. Rawley's 'Address to the Reader' prefixed to the Sylva Sylvarum.

1622.]

COLLECTION OF NATURAL HISTORY.

381

Nor perhaps was so virtuous a resolution ever so much to be regretted. For the labour which he bestowed upon these histories, while it absorbed month after month of a literary power and activity which was never in finer order,-appears to have had no effect whatever in advancing the work. It was not possible that any such collections could be made by his own labour complete enough to serve the purpose for which he designed them. They did not even serve the purpose of inciting anybody else to take up the task in the same spirit with the same intention. They retain a high literary value (for the workmanship is excellent throughout and the general reflexions and addresses to the reader are full of weighty thought and passionate eloquence); a considerable historical value, as a record of the condition in which the knowledge of nature then was; and a very great biographical value, as proving that his faith in the principles of his philosophy remained unshaken and his ardour unabated, and that he was pursuing it to the end in the spirit of a man to whose care the secret of the fortunes of humanity had been entrusted: Res enim humani generis agitur: non nostra. But I suppose that if they had all perished together and never been heard of, the progress of mankind in the interpretation of nature would have been unaffected by the accident. And when I consider what might have been the fruits of the same time and industry spent on subjects of history, morals, politics, and law, I cannot but feel that the res humani generis did in fact lose by his devotion a good deal more than it gained.

7.

His ways

Meantime res nostra was in worse plight than ever. and means for the prosecution of these studies (which could not repay their own cost) were growing scantier every day. Nothing had come of the reference to Cranfield. He had not been admitted to an interview with the King. His pension was 8007. in arrear. And his farm of Petty Writs was sequestered. Not finding any opportunity for saying to the King what he wanted to say, he now thought of turning it into a letter. But he had not spoken with him for a year and a half; and he knew by experience that letters on tender subjects during long absences were dangerous, even when relations were not otherwise changed. The letter which he wrote on this occasion is well known. It was printed in the 'Cabala,' in the Baconiana,' and in Sir Toby Matthew's collection: it is to be seen in all editions of the collected works: and it is natural to suppose that it was delivered according to the address. This however is not the fact. We have good evidence, though it has been hitherto overlooked, that though written it was never sent. Among the papers at Lambeth there are two manuscripts of it; the rough

draft, and the fair copy: both in Bacon's own hand: and the fair copy has the following indorsement, "A coppy of yor Lopp Ire. to ye K. unsent." Though this is written in a hand comparatively modern, the words "your Lordship" shew that it was copied from a docket by one of Bacon's own men: and the fact is confirmed by an entry in Robert Stephens's catalogue, of a letter addressed to the King-without date-beginning with the same words, and described as 66 complaining of his wants-unsent." If Stephens's catalogue be, as I have always supposed, a copy of one made by Tenison in the winter of 1682, when he first received the papers, we may conclude from this that the letter in question bore this indorsement when it came to his hands.

That Bacon, when he read over what he had written, determined not to send it, is a fact which does not make it the less interesting, but the more. There are no words which express a man's thoughts more truly than those which he suppresses when on the point of

utterance.

It is here taken from the fair copy; and if it be compared with the "memorial of access" in the beginning of this chapter, it will be seen that it is substantially the same thing.

TO THE KING.1

May it please your most excellent Majesty,

In the midst of my misery, which is rather assuaged by remembrance than by hope, my chiefest worldly comfort is to think, That since the time I had the first vote of the Lower House of Parliament for commissioner of the Union until the time that I was this last Parliament chosen by both Houses for their messenger to your Majesty in the petition of religion (which two were my first and last services), I was evermore so happy as to have my poor services graciously accepted by your Majesty, and likewise not to have had any of them miscarry in my hands. Neither of which points I can any ways take to myself; but ascribe the former to your Majesty's goodness, and the latter to your prudent directions; which I was ever careful to have and keep. For as I have often said to your Majesty, I was towards you but as a bucket, and a cistern; to draw forth and conserve; whereas yourself was the fountain. Unto this com

1 Tenison Papers, 941, 58; and Gibson Papers, vol. viii. f. 143. Fair copy in Bacon's hand. There is also a rough draught, and the sheets have got mixed; the last sheet of the fair copy being joined to the first sheets of the draught. The fair copy has an indorsement in a comparatively modern hand-the hand of the methodiser-" A coppy of yo2 LOPP ire. to ye K. unsent."