92 LETTERS FROM THE CABALA. 



tale, or else I would add a cogitation against libraries, and 

 be revenged on you that way: I pray you send me some 

 good news of Sir Thomas Smith, and commend me very 

 kindly to him. So I rest, 



Sir Francis Bacon to Mr. Matthew, upon sending 

 him part of Instauratio Magna. 



Mr. Matthew, 



I plainly perceive by your affectionate writing touching 

 my work, that one and the same thing affecteth us both, 

 which is the good end to which it is dedicated : for as to 

 any ability of mine, it cannot merit that degree of approba 

 tion : For your caution for church-men, and church-matters ; 

 (as for any impediment it might be to the applause and 

 celebrity of my work, it moveth me not) but as it may 

 hinder the fruit and good which may come of a quiet and 

 calm passage to the good port to which it is bound, I hold 

 it a just respect, so as to fetch a fair wind I go not too far 

 about : But troth is, I shall have no occasion to meet them 

 in my way, except it be, as they will needs confederate 

 themselves with Aristotle, who, you know is intemperately 

 magnified with the school-men, and is also allied (as I take 

 it) to the Jesuits by Faber, who was a companion of Loyola, 

 and a great Aristotelian. I send you at this time, the only 

 part which hath any harshness, and yet I framed to myself an 

 opinion, that whosoever allowed well of that preface, which 

 you so much commend, will not dislike, or at least ought not 

 dislike this other speech of&quot; preparation ; for it is written 

 out of the same spirit, and out of the same necessity. Nay, 

 it doth more fully lay open, that the question between me 

 and the ancients is not of the virtue of the race, but of the 

 lightness of the way. And to speak truth, it is to the other 

 but as Palma to Puguus, part of the same thing, more 

 large. You conceive aright, that in this, and the other, 

 you have commission to impart and communicate them to 



