MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS. 95 



And so that hoping that this may be an occasion of some 

 farther serenity from her majesty towards you, you refer 

 the rest to your actions, which may verify what you have 

 written ; as that you have written may interpret your 

 actions, and the course you shall hereafter take. 



Indorsed by Mr. Francis Bacon A Letter framed for my 

 Lord of Essex to the Queen. 



To Sir John Davis, his Majesty s Attorney General 



in Ireland.* 

 Mr. Attorney, 



I thank you for your letter, and the discourse you sent 

 of this new accident, as things then appeared. I see mani 

 festly the beginning of better or worse : but me thinketh it 

 is first a tender o the better, and worse followeth but upon 

 refusal or default. I would have been glad to see you here j 

 but I hope occasion reserveth our meeting for a vacation, 

 when we may have more fruit of conference. To requite 

 your proclamation, which, in my judgment, is wisely and 

 seriously penned, I send you another with us,, which hap 

 pened to be in my hands when yours came. I would be 

 glad to hear often from you, and to be advertised how 

 things pass, whereby to have some occasion to think some 

 good thoughts; though I can do little. At the least it 

 will be a continuance in exercise of our friendship, which 

 on my part remaineth increased by that I hear of your ser 

 vice, and the good respects I find towards myself. And so 

 in Tormour s haste, I continue 



Your very loving Friend, 



From Gray s Inn, FR. BACON. 



this 23d of October, 1607. 



To the Reverend University of Oxford.f 

 Amongst the gratulations I have received, none are more 

 welcome and agreeable to me than your letters, wherein 

 the less I acknowledge of those attributes you give me, the 

 more I must acknowledge of your affection, which bindeth 

 me no less to you, that are professors of learning, than my 

 own dedication doth to learning itself. And therefore you 

 have no need to doubt, but I will emulate, as much as in 

 me is, towards you the merits of him that is gone,, by how 



* From the MS. collections of Robert Stephens, Esq. deceased, 

 t From the collections of the late Robert Stephens, Esq. Historiographer 

 Royal, and John Locker, Esq. now in possession of the Editor. 



