LETTERS FROM THE CABALA. 23 



Therefore I will only add this wish, according to the English 

 phrase, which termeth a well-wishing advice a wish, that 

 your lordship in this whole action, looking forward, set 

 down this position ; that merit is worthier than fame ; and 

 looking back hither, would remember this text, that (t obedi 

 ence is better than sacrifice.&quot; For designing to fame and 

 glory may make your lordship, in the adventure of your 

 person, to be valiant as a private soldier, rather than as a 

 general ; it may make you in your commandments rather to 

 be gracious than disciplinary ; it may make you press action, 

 in the respect of the great expectation conceived, rather 

 hastily than seasonably and safely ; it may make you seek 

 rather to achieve the war by force, than by mixture of prac 

 tice ; it may make you (if God shall send you prosperous 

 beginnings) rather seek the fruition of the honour, than the 

 perfection of the work in hand. And for your proceeding 

 like a good protestant (upon warrant, and not upon good 

 intention) your lordship knoweth, in your wisdom, that as it 

 is most fit for you to desire convenient liberty of instruction, 

 so it is no less fit for you to observe the due limits of them, 

 remembering that the exceeding of them may not only pro 

 cure (in case of adverse accident) a dangerous disavow, but 

 also (in case of prosperous success) be subject to interpreta 

 tion, as if all was not referred to the right end. 



Thus I have presumed to write these few lines to your 

 lordship, &quot; in methodo ignorantiae,&quot; which is, when a man 

 speaketh of any subject not according to the parts of the 

 matter, but according to the model of his own knowledge : 

 and most humbly desire your lordship, that the weakness 

 thereof may be supplied in your lordship, by a benign accep 

 tation; as it is in me by my best wishing. 



FR. BACON. 



