PHILOSOPIIICAL WRITINGS OF LORD BACON. 411 
con himself thought his writings had not met with due atten- 
tion from the learned world. We have, indeed, his own evi- 
dence to the contrary, in regard to the most important, and, as 
he himself says, the most “ abstruse” of them,—the Novum Or- 
ganum. “ I have received,” says he, “ from many parts be- 
“ yond the seas, testimonies touching that work, much beyond 
“ what I could have expected at the first in-so abstruse an 
“ argument *.” It is probable, therefore, that the bequest 
of his Name to future generations, referred rather to his 
public than to his philosophical character. In his act of submis- 
sion presented to the House of Peers after his disgrace, he im- 
plored them to recollect, that there are “ vitia temporis as well as 
“ vitia hominis ;” and he perhaps soothed his wounded spirit 
with the hope, that posterity would find an excuse for his frail- 
ties, in the lax notions and practices of the age; and would 
look upon his fall, to use a comparison of his own, “ but as a 
“ little picture of night-work, among the fair and excellent 
“ tables of his acts and works +.” The exact terms of the 
clause, besides, seem to countenance the interpretation, that 
his hopes pointed to the greater candour, rather than to the 
greater intelligence of after times. “ My name and memory,” 
says he, “ I leave to men’s charitable speeches, and to foreign 
“ nations, and the next ages {.” But whatever opinion may 
be entertained upon this point, it will, I hope, appear eviden 
. 3F 2 in 
* Epistle to Bishop Anprews, prefixed to An Advertisement touching an Holy 
War, written in 1622, and published by Dr Rawxey in 1629, in a collection 
entitled, Certain Miscellany Works of Lord Bacon, Ato. 
+ Epistle to Bishop Anvrews, prefixed to his Holy War. 
¢ Bacon’s Works, vol, iii. p. 677. 
