THE 



FIRST BOOK OF FRANCIS BACON; 



OF THE PKOFICIENCE AND 



ADVANCEMENT OF LEABNING, 



DIVINE AND HUMAN. 



To the King. 



THERE were under the law, excelleat King, both daily 

 sacrifices and freewill offerings; the one proceeding upon 

 ordinary observance, the other upon a devout cheerfulness : in 

 like manner there belongeth to kings from their servants both 

 tribute of duty and presents of affection. In the former of 

 these I hope I shall not live to be wanting, according to my 

 most humble duty and the good pleasure of your Majesty s 

 employments : for the latter, I thought it more respective to 

 make choice of some oblation which might rather refer to the 

 propriety and excellency of your individual person, than to 

 the business of your crown and state. 



Wherefore, representing your Majesty many times unto 

 my mind, and beholding you not with the inquisitive eye of 

 presumption, to discover that which the Scripture telleth rne 

 is inscrutable, but with the observant eye of duty and admira 

 tion, leaving aside the other parts of your virtue and fortune, 

 I have been touched yea, and possessed with an extreme 

 wonder at those your virtues and faculties, which the philo 

 sophers call intellectual ; the. largeness of your capacity, the 

 faithfulness of your memory, the swiftness of your apprehen 

 sion, the penetration of your judgment, and tho facility and 

 order of your elocution : and I have often thought that of all 

 the persons living that I have known, your Majesty were the 

 best instance to make a man of Plato s opinion, that all know 

 ledge is but remembrance, and that the mind of man by 

 Nature knowe-th all things, and hath but her own native and 



