469 



BACON, SIR NICHOLAS. 



BACON, FRANCIS. 



47 J 



wrote. He certainly describes them, and explains why a plane convex 

 glass magnifies. But he seems to us to speak of them as already in 

 use. " Hence this instrument is useful to old persons and those who 

 have weak eyes." 



The ' Opus Majus,' as published by Dr. Jebb, consists of six books 

 or parts. It begins with a book on the necessity of advancing know- 

 ledge, and a dissertation on the use of philosophy in theology. It is 

 followed by books on the utility of grammar and mathematics ; in the 

 latter of which he runs through the various sciences of astronomy, 

 chronology, geography, and music. The account of the inhabited 

 world is long and curious, and though frequently based on that of 

 Ptolemaeus or the writings of Pliny, contains many new facts from travel- 

 lers of his own and preceding time*. His account of the defects in 

 the calendar was variously cited iu the discussions which took place 

 on the subject two centuries after. The remainder of the work con- 

 sists of a treatise on optics and on experimental philosophy, insisting 

 on the peculiar advantages of the latter. The explanation of the 

 phenomena of the raiubow, though very imperfect, was an original 

 effort of a character altogether foreign to the philosophy of his day. 

 He attributes it to the reflection of the sun's rays from the cloud ; 

 and the chief merit of his theory is in the clear and philosophical 

 manner iu which he proves that the phenomenon is an appearance, 

 aud not a reality. Between the two last-mentioned books is a treatise, 

 iltiplicatione Specierum,' entirely filled with discussions some- 

 what Euetaphysical upon the connection and causes of phenomena. A 

 seventh book on moral philosophy completed the work in its original 

 state; in:t this book has been lost or overlooked. M. Cousin says 

 that the Douay manuscript of the ' Opus Tertium,' noticed above, 

 makes express aud precise reference to the treatiso on moral philo- 

 sophy, of which the ' Opus Tertium ' professes to be an abridgment, 

 with certain emendations. 



BACON, SIR NICHOLAS, father of Sir Francis Bacon, and Lord 

 Keeper of the Great Seal of England during the first twenty years 

 of the reign of Elizabeth, was descended from an ancient and wealthy 

 family in Suffolk, and was born in the year 1510 at Chiselhurst in 

 Kent, lie received his scholastic education at Bi?ue't (Corpus Christi) 

 College, Cambridge, and having finished hU course of study there, 

 spent a considerable time abroad, and particularly at Paris, for the 

 purpose of completing his education. On his return to England he 

 kept his terms at Cray's Inn, and was called to the bar in that society. 

 In 1537, when he was only twenty-seven years of age, he was appointed 

 solicitor to thj Court of Augmentations, and in 1546 he was promoted 

 by Henry VIII. to the office of attorney of the Court of Wards, a 

 place of considerable emolument and responsibility, which he con- 

 tinued to hold during the reign of Edward VI. Upon the dissolution 

 of the monasteries in 153U, Sir Nicholas Bacon prepared and presented 

 to Henry VIII. a written project for the formation of a college for the 

 study of politics and diplomacy, to be endowed with part of the pro- 

 perty of the dissolved religious houses. This design miscarried, pro- 

 bably, as Burnet suggests, because the kins;, " before he was aware of 

 it, had so outrun his bounty, that it was not possible for him to bring 

 any such projects to effect." Having adopted the Protestant faith, 

 Sir Nicholas Bacon was excluded from all favour or public employ- 

 ment during the reign of Mary ; but upon the accession of Elizabeth 

 he was selected, with Sir William Cecil, Sir Francis Knollis, and several 

 others of the Protestant party, to be of her privy council, and to qualify 

 the influence of those of the Catholic party whom she thought it 

 prudent to retain as her advisers. With Cecil he was connected not 

 only by opinion aud politics, but by relationship, as they both married 

 daughters of Sir Anthony Cooke, of Giddy Hall, iu Essex. In 

 December 155S the queen gave the Great Seal to Sir Nicholas Bacon, 

 making th- appointment by letters-patent, which rendered the office 

 l> i maueiit, and expressly gave him all the rank aud authority of a 

 Lord Chancellor. 



On the 25th of January 1559 Sir Nicholas Bacon opened the first 

 parliament of Elizabeth with a temperate speech, recommending in 

 particular to the Lords aud Commons a candid consideration of the 

 religious differences which then agit: ted the nation, with a view to 

 their satisfactory arrangement. This speech is a judicious perform- 

 ance, well calculated to conciliate contending factious and to remove 

 the difficulties by which Elizabeth's government was beset at the com- 

 mencement of her reign. One of the most serious of these difficulties 

 was the settlement of religion, and in this work Sir Nicholas Bacon 

 was an important instrument both in council and in action. In March 

 1659 the queen appoiuted a public conference to be held in West- 

 minster Abbey, for the purpose of discussing several controverted 

 points in the doctrines and ceremonies of the Church of Rome. It 

 was agreed that nine divines should argue on each side, aud Sir 

 Nicholas Bacon, as Lord Keeper, was nominated president, or mode- 

 rator. The conference, as is well known, ended abruptly, and without 

 any approach towards an agreement. 



Bacon's intimacy with Sir William Cecil, as well as his own upright 

 and manly conduct, enabled him generally to retain the favour of the 

 queen ; but in U>64 he was suspected of having approved, and even 

 Misted in writing, a book, published by one Hales, which questioned 

 the title of Mary, queen of Scotland, to succeed, after Elizabeth, to 

 the English throne. This was opposed to the sentiments at that time 

 held both by Elizabeth and the Earl of Leicester ; aud when the book 



was expressly complained of by Mary's ambassador, the disapprobation 

 of the court made itself decisively felt. Hales was committed to the 

 Tower, and the Lord Keeper, who is said not to have had more hand 

 in the book than Sir William Cecil, was dismissed from the privy 

 council and from court, aud discharged from all interference with 

 public affairs except in the Court of Chancery. At length however, 

 by the assistance of Cecil, who continued through life his firm friend, 

 Bacon succeeded in reinstating himself in the good opinion of the 

 queen ; and from that time until his death he appears to have enjoyed 

 her favour and full confidence without interruption. In 1577 the 

 queen visited him at the splendid mansion which he had lately built 

 at Gorhambury, in Hertfordshire ; and it was to that occasion that 

 the anecdote refers which is related by Lord Bacon in his 'Apoph- 

 thegms.' Upou the queen's telling him " that his house was too little 

 for him," he happily replied, " Not so, madam ; but your majesty has 

 made me too great for my house." 



Sir Nicholas Uacon died on the 20th of February 1579, in the 

 70th year of his age. The character of his mind, as given by his son, 

 Lord Bacon, appears to be just aud accurate, aud id consistent with 

 the facts which are recorded of his life and conduct. " He was," says 

 he, "a plain man, direct and' constant, without all finesse aud double- 

 ness, aud one that was of a mind that a man, in his private proceedings 

 and estate, and iu the proceedings of stite, should rest upon the 

 soundness aud strength of his own courses, and not upon practice to 

 circumvent others." 



Many speeches of Sir Nicholas Bacon as Lord Keeper upon formal 

 occasions will be found in the parliamentary history of the first twenty 

 years of Elizabeth's reign, and several addresses by him to judges on 

 being called to the bench are still extaut iu various depositories of 

 manuscripts. His addresses on these occasions are replete with good 

 sense. Of his decisions and judgments in the Court of Chancery few 

 records are preserved. Among the Harleiau Manuscripts iu the 

 British Museum there is one (No. 39) which contains a very sensible 

 judicial opinion pronounced by Sir Nicholas Bacon upon the question 

 whether a peer of the realm is privileged from an attachment from 

 the Court of Chancery for disobedience to a decree or order of that 

 court. This question he decided in the negative. 



BACON, FRANCIS, the youngest son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, was 

 born at York House in the Strand, on the 22nd of January, 1561. Iu 

 boyhood he was sprightly and intelligent beyond his years. Nothing 

 is known of his early education. Having however parents of a supe- 

 rior order a father distinguished as a lawyer aud a statesman, and a 

 mother gifted with uncommon abilities, and eminent for her learning 

 and piety Bacon was placed favourably, from the first, for the forma- 

 tion of a learned and a virtuous character. In his 13th year he was 

 sent to Trinity College, Cambridge, and was placed under the tuition 

 of Dr. Whitgift, at that time master of the college, and afterwards 

 Archbishop of Canterbury. Here Bacon studied with diligence aud 

 success. Dr. Rawley, his chaplain aud biographer, tells us, on the 

 authority of Bacon himself, that when at the university, about sixteen 

 years of age, he conceived a dislike to the philosophy of Aristotle, it 

 j>eing a philosophy (as he used to say) "only strong for disputations 

 and contentions, but barren of the production of works for the life of 

 man." This feeling he ever after retained, yet " ever ascribed all high 

 attributes to Aristotle himself." 



On leaving Cambridge, Bacon entered Gray's Inn as a student of 

 law, but his attendance in London not being required for some years, 

 by the regulations of his inn, he was sent, in compliance with a custom 

 at the time common among the nobility, to study the institutions and 

 manners of other countries. He went accordingly in the suite of 

 Sir Amias Paulet, the British ambassador to the court of France. His 

 superior sagacity and discretion soon induced the ambassador to 

 intrust him with a message of some delicacy and importance to the 

 queen ; a commission which Bacon executed BO as to obtain the royal 

 approbation. Oil his return to Paris he made frequeut excursions 

 into the country, spent some time in Poitiers, and busied himself iu 

 collecting information on the characters aud resources of the different 

 princes of Europe. His work ' Of the State of Europe,' in which he 

 arranged aud estimated the information thus collected, aud which was 

 written when he was nineteen years of age, displays conspicuously the 

 industry, guided by deep penetration, which characterised his youthful 

 mind. 



His studies abroad wer interrupted by the death of his father iu 

 1579. Returning to London on this occasion, he found himself tha 

 only one of his family left unprovided for; his father having been 

 prevented by the suddenness of his death from purchasing an estate 

 with the money set aside for his youngest sou. Instead of the whole, 

 Francis received only a fifth share of tha money. This caused him 

 ' straits and difficulties ' iu his youth. When a student in Gray's Inn, 

 he divided his time between iaw and philosophy, but law was his 



chiefly directed to legal subjects. 



On the 27th of June 1582, he was called to the bar. His practice 

 soon became considerable. In 1580, he was made a bencher. Iu hia 

 twenty-eighth year he became counsel extraordinary to the queen. 

 In 1588 he was appointed a reader to his lun; aud again, iu 1600, the. 



