LETTERS FROM MATHEWS. 43 



thus much I will say in verse, that your lordship may re 

 member it the better, 



Sola ruinosis stat Cantabrigia pannis 

 Atque inopi lingua disertas invocat Artes. 



I will conclude with this vow: Deus y qui animum istum 

 tibij animoisti tempus quam longissimum tribuat. It is the 

 most affectionate prayer of 



Your Lordship s most humble Servant, 



Buckden, Jo. LINCOLN. 



the last of December, 1625. 



LETTERS FROM MATHEWS, 



NOT BEFORE PUBLISHED. 



Sir Francis Bacon, desiring a Friend to do him 



a Service. 

 Sir, 



The report of this act, which I hope will prove the last 

 of this business, will probably, by the weight it carries, 

 fall, and seize on me. And therefore, not now at will, but 

 upon necessity, it will become me to call to mind what 

 passed ; and (my head being then wholly employed about 

 invention) I may the worse put things upon the account of 

 mine own memory. I shall take physic to-day, upon this 

 change of weather, and vantage of leisure ; and I pray you 

 not to allow yourself so much business, but that you may 

 have time to bring me your friendly aid before night, &c. 



Sir Francis Bacon to a Friend, about Reading and 



giving Judgment upon his Writings. 

 Sir, 



Because you shall not lose your labour this afternoon, 

 which now I must needs spend with my Lord Chancellor, 

 I send my desire to you in this letter, that you will take 

 care not to leave the writing which I left with you last 

 with any man so long as that he may be able to take a 

 copy of it ; because, first, it must be censured by you, and 

 then considered again by me. The thing which I expect 

 most from you is, that you would read it carefully over by 



