ee re er reg eee ae ee ag ge ee Se 
xliv PREFACE, 
mixed, otherwise than with some little aspersion of the old 
‘for taste’s sake; I have thought good to procure a translation 
of that book into the general language, not without great and 
ample additions and enrichment thereof, especially in the 
second book, which handleth the Partition of Sciences; in 
such sort, as I hold it may serve in lieu of the first part of the 
Instauration, and acquit my promise in that part.’ 
The provostship of Eton fell vacant in April 1623, and 
Bacon sought the appointment as ‘a retreat to a place of 
study so near London,’ but without success. The Advance- 
ment of Learning in its Latin form was issued this year under 
the title of De Augmentis Scientiarum, in nine books, the first 
closely corresponding with the English. The last two or 
three years of his life were occupied with dictating his Sylva 
Sylvarum, putting the last touches to his Essays, which were 
published in their final form in March 1625, and superintend- 
ing their translation into Latin with other works to be entitled 
Opera Moralia. The Apophthegms were the occupation of a 
morning. It does not appear that the sentence of Parliament 
was ever entirely revoked. The name of Lord St. Alban’s, it 
is true, is among those of the Peers summoned to the first 
Parliament of Charles, but for some reason he did not take 
his seat in the House. On New Year’s Day, 1625-6, he 
wrote to Sir Humphry May: ‘The present occasion doth 
invite me to desire that his grace (i. e. Buckingham) would 
procure me a pardon of the King of the whole sentence. My 
writ for Parliament I have now had twice before the-time,; 
and that without any express restraint not to use it.’ His 
health, long feeble, wouid not have allowed him to attend, but 
he could have appointed a proxy. At length came death, the 
friend, whom for five years he had looked steadily in the face, 
and released him from all his troubles. A cold, caught in the 
process of an experiment to test the preserving qualities_of 
snow, terminated in a gentle fever, and after lingering a week 
he passed quietly away in the early morning of Easter-day, 
April 9, 1626. He died at the Earl of Arundel’s house at 
Highgate, and was buried in the church of St. Michael, at 
