8 J. HOPKINSON ANNIVEESAEY ADDEESS : 



the heavens themselves had then declared against Aristotle, a new 

 star as bright as the planet Jupiter having appeared and disappeared 

 in his region of the Unchangeable and Incorruptible, in the con- 

 stellation of Cassiopeia. 



In another six months (27th June, 1576) the two brothers 

 are admitted into Gray's Inn as "Ancients," a privilege to which 

 they were entitled as the sons of a judge, and three months later 

 Prancis accompanies Sir Amias Paulet to the Court of Henri Trois. 

 "Whilst in France, in 1578, when in his eighteenth year, Hilliard 

 paints his portrait and encircles it with a Latin inscription signify- 

 ing "Oh that I could but paint his mind !" Early in the following 

 year he hears of his father's death, and leaves Paris bearing a 

 despatch from Sir Amias to the Queen in which he is mentioned as 

 " of great hope, endued with many good and singular parts." He 

 now finds it necessary " to study how to live instead of living only 

 to study," for his father had not made the provision for him which 

 he had intended to do. Anthony has property in Redbourn, and 

 Lady Ann has a life-interest in Gorhambury, where she lives, 

 looking after his (Anthony's) house at Redbourn, advising him as 

 to the letting of his farms, and sometimes interceding with him on 

 behalf of his tenants. She evidently interested herself in the 

 welfare of all around her, being always ready to give a word in 

 season whether of kindly sympathy or of righteous rebiike. 



Francis Bacon, having now to earn his living, decides upon the 

 Bar, entering Gray's Inn later in this year. Here he diligently 

 studies the law, occasionally visiting his mother at Gorhambury. 

 In 1582, soon after attaining his majority, he is admitted an Utter 

 Barrister at Gray's Inn ; and in the following year he writes his first 

 philosophical essay, which he entitles ' Temporis Partus Maximus ' 

 (The Greatest Birth of Time). A year later he drafts a deed for 

 his brother, ' ' Anth. Bakon, of Gorhambury, in the county of 

 Hartford, Esq.," the purport of which was to appoint attorneys 

 and give them power to raise £3000 on the security of Gorham- 

 bury for debts he (Anthony) was incurring during his residence 

 and travelling on the Continent. 



Later in this year, or at the beginning of the next, when just 

 twenty-four, Francis Bacon writes a ' Letter of Advice to Queen 

 Elizabeth,' in which we see the first spark of that wealth of illus- 

 tration which pervades all his future writings and speeches. He 

 does not see how the Papists can be made absolutely content 

 without discontenting her Majesty's faithful subjects, and, he says, 

 "to fasten a reconciled love with the loosing of a certain, is to 

 build houses with the sale of lauds." He advises the compulsory 



