PREFACE. i“ vii 
but a boy, “That he was two years younger than Her Ma- 
jesty’s happy reign ;” with which answer the Queen was much 
taken.’ Another anecdote from the same source, of which 
more than enough has been made, belongs to this period. 
‘Whilst he was commorant in the University, about ‘sixteen 
years of age (as his lordship hath been pleased to impart unto 
myself), he first fell into the dislike of the philosophy of 
Aristotle; not for the worthlessness of the author, to whom 
he would ever ascribe all high attributes, but for the unfruit- 
fulness of the way; being a philosophy (as his lordship used to 
say) only strong for disputations and contentions, but barren 
of the production of works for the benefit of the life of man; 
in which mind he continued to his dying day.’ 
The story which has been told above of the iron pillar in 
the chamber at Trinity shows that Bacon’s attention had 
been very early directed to the observation of sounds, and 
lends a probability to the supposition that it may have been 
at this time that he tried the experiment recorded in the 
Sylva Sylvarum (cent. ii. 140). ‘There is in St. James’s Fields 
a conduit of brick, unto which joineth a low vault; and at the 
end of that a round house of stone; and in the brick conduit 
there is a window; and in the round-house a slit or rift of 
some little breadth; if you cry out in the rift, it will make a 
fearful roaring at the window.’ In all this there is a certain 
ring of boyishness. To this time also belongs the story of the 
conjuror (Sylva, cent. x. 946), who must have exhibited his 
tricks at Sir Nicholas Bacon’s house before Francis left 
England. 
But his father had in view for him a public career as states- 
man or diplomatist, and after he had spent nearly three years 
over his books at Cambridge, sent him to France to read men. 
On the 25th of September, 1576, we learn from Burghley’s 
diary, ‘Sir Amyas Paulet landed at Calliss going to be Amb. 
at France in Place of Dr. Dale.’ It was not till the February 
following that he succeeded to the post. Bacon apparently 
joined him after his arrival in Paris, for on Nov. 21, 1576, he 
was admitted of the grand company at Gray’s Inn, having 
