1623.] RETURN OF THE PRÍNCE AND BUCKINGHAM. 433 you put me in some way to do your noble self service; for I must ever rest Your Grace's most obliged and faithful servant, FR. ST. ALBAN. I have written to his Highness, and had presented my duty to his Highness, to kiss his hands at York-house, but that my health is yet scarce confirmed. The assurance of your love makes me easily believe your joy at my return; and if I may be so happy, as by the credit of my place to supply the decay of your cables, I shall account it one of the special fruits thereof. What Sir Toby Matthew hath delivered on my behalf, I will be ready to make good, and omit no opportunity that may serve for the endeavours of Your Lordship's faithful friend and servant, Royston, 14 October, 1623. TO SIR EDWARD CONWAY.2 Good Mr. Secretary, G. BUCKINGHAM. This gentleman was my late servant, a very honest and sufficient man. He thinks of a place more answerable to the stature of his body than the abilities of his mind,3 which are I assure you far beyond it. I pray furder his suit for my sake, which I shall esteem as a favour done to myself who rest, Your affectionate friend, FR. St. ALBAN. Gray's Inn, this 18 of 8bre 1623. 1 Harl. MSS. 7004, f. 118. Original: own hand. Docketed by Bacon, “D. Buc. 12 Oct. 1623." 2 From the original in Bacon's own hand; belonging to the late Sir William Tite. Addressed "to the R. Hon. his very good friend Sir Ed. Conway, principal Secretary to his Majesty." 3 His suit was for the reversion of the place of sword-bearer of London. See Calendar of S. P. 1623-1625, p. 104. VOL. VII. 2 F BACON's bad health during the spring and summer of the year interrupted his work, and though it appeared after his death that he had not altogether forsaken the natural histories which were to have followed the history of 'Life and Death,' but had spent a good deal of labour upon several of them, and especially upon the history of 'Density and Rarity' which was to have come next, he was obliged to give up the attempt to complete and publish them at intervals as he had intended. In the autumn of 1620 the reason he gave for publishing the Novum Organum incomplete was that "he numbered his days and would have it saved." What he had gone through since must have brought the end of his days a good deal nearer; and the repeated "sicknesses" of this year warned him to select such business as he might hope to finish. Now it was his opinion that a modern language could not be trusted to carry a book down to future ages; that to give it a chance of "lasting as long as books last" it must be in "the general language." He thought it expedient therefore to make safe the books which he had published in English by having them translated into Latin; and this appears to have been his principal occupation during this summer. It was a work for which he could obtain sufficient assistance to relieve him from the main labour, and which it was nevertheless necessary that he should watch and superintend: suitable therefore for a season when his health would not allow of continuous work, and it seemed probable that his working days would soon be at an end altogether. As far as the future ages were concerned, time does not seem to approve his opinion. To judge by present appearances, Latin is not the language in which a book may be expected to last longest and command either the largest audience or the fittest. As long as 1623.] PUBLICATION OF DE AUGMENTIS SCIENTIARUM. 435 scholars conversed with each other in Latin, it was for them a living language and could express new ideas; but when they ceased to use it for that purpose, it ceased to be a common language except for the past; and men found that they could exchange new ideas better by learning their neighbours' tongues and writing in their own: whence it has come to pass that a book will now find its way to those whom it addresses more easily, more certainly, and more extensively, if written in any living language which has a literature, than it would if written in Latin. But in Bacon's time this was not so: and though his apprehension that the English of his own day might become unintelligible to the intelligent of future generations was apparently groundless, it was quite true that it was intelligible only to a small fraction of his own. For the preservation of his writings to posterity, English was probably the safer vehicle: but for the diffusion of them among his contemporaries on the continent of Europe, Latin was indispensable. I have elsewhere given my reasons for thinking that he brought out the 'Advancement of Learning' somewhat in a hurry to meet a special occasion,-the rare accident of the accession to the crown of a really learned man in the prime of life, who might possibly take an interest in the great project for the regeneration of philosophy which he had already conceived. He wrote it in English (probably because it was important to lose no time) but he always meant to have it translated into Latin, because "the privateness of the language wherein it was written" excluded so many readers: and this before he had any thoughts of making it a part of the Instauratio. Having now determined to make it serve for that general survey of the intellectual globe,-that summary account of the existing condition of human knowledge,-with which the Instauratio was to begin, it was necessary not only to have it translated but to have large additions made to it. We have seen that this work was so far advanced in the preceding summer that he expected to have it finished before the autumn.2 Many causes may have contributed to delay its progress; among others, the quantity of entirely new. matter to be inserted, which would naturally increase upon him as he went on with the revision of the work of his translators-and which was enough in fact to fill more than 150 folio pages of the printed volume. By the time however that the Prince and Buckingham returned safe and sound, to the great joy of England, from a position which had latterly been rather perilous, the whole work was complete and ready for delivery: as we see by the next letters. 1 Letter to Dr. Playfair, Vol. III. p. 301. * Letter to Baranzano. Above, p. 375. TO THE KING.1 It may please your most excellent Majesty, I send in all humbleness to your Majesty the poor fruits of my leisure. This book was the first thing that ever I presented to your Majesty; and it may be will be the last. For I had thought it should have been posthuma proles. But God hath otherwise disposed for a while. It is a translation, but enlarged almost to a new work. I had good helps for the language. I have been also mine own Index Expurgatorius, that it may be read in all places. For since my end of putting it into Latin was to have it read everywhere, it had been an absurd contradiction to free it in the language and to pen it up in the matter.2 Your Majesty will vouchsafe graciously to receive these poor sacrifices of him that shall ever desire to do you honour while he breatheth, and fulfilleth the rest in prayers. Your Majesty's true beadsman, and most humble servant. Todos duelos con pan son buenos: itaque det vestra Majestas obolum Belisario. TO THE PRINCE.3 It may please your excellent Highness, I send your Highness in all humbleness my book of 'Advancement of Learning' translated into Latin, but so enlarged as it may go for a new work. It is a book I think will live, and be a citizen of the world, as English books are not. For Henry the Eighth, to deal truly with your Highness, I did so despair of my health this summer as I was glad to choose some such work as I might compass within days; so far was I from entering into a work of length. Your Highness's return hath been my chief restorative. When I shall wait upon your 1 Gibson Papers, vol. viii. f. 271. Verso. Copy in Bacon's hand. 2 This is the true and sufficient explanation of the omission of some passages which occurred in the Advancement of Learning'-an omission for which other explanations have been suggested. He struck out or altered such passages as might have caused the book to be forbidden in Italy. See 'Advancement of Learning' (works, vol. iii.) pp. 277, 282, 287, 288, 300, 307, 321, 323, 337, 414, 477, 483, 488. 3 Gibson Papers, vol. viii. f. 271. Verso. Copy in Bacon's hand. 1623.] COPIES FOR THE KING, PRINCE, AND BUCKINGHAM. 437 Highness I shall give you a further account. So I most humbly kiss your Highness's hands, resting Your Highness's most devoted servant. I would (as I wrate to the Duke in Spain) I could do your Highness's journey any honour with my pen. It began like a fable of the poets; but it deserveth all in a piece a worthy narration. TO THE R. HONBLE. HIS VERY GOOD L. THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM, HIS GR. L. HIGH ADMIRAL OF ENGLAND.1 Excellent Lord, I send your Grace for a Parabien a book of mine, written first and dedicated to his Majesty in English, and now translated into Latin and enriched. After his Majesty and his Highness, your Grace is ever to have the third turn with me. Vouchsafe of your wonted favour to present also the King's book to his Majesty. The Prince's I have sent to Mr. Endimion Porter. I hope your Grace (because you are wont to disable your Latin) will not send your book to the Conde d'Olivares, because he was a deacon; for I understand by one (that your Grace may guess whom I mean) that the Conde is not rational, and I hold this book to be very rational. Your Grace will pardon me to be merry, however the world goeth with me. I ever rest Your Grace's most faithful and obliged servant, FR. ST. ALBAN. I have added a begging postscript in the King's letter; for, as I writ before, my cables are worn out, my hope of tackling is by your Lordship's means. For me and mine I pray command. Gray's-Inn, this 22d I give your Lordship many thanks for the Parabien you have sent me; which is so welcome unto me both for the author's sake and for the worth of itself, that I cannot spare a work of so much pains to your Lord 1 Fortescue Papers. Original: own hand. 2 Harl. MSS. 7000, f. 120. Original: own hand. |