xvi PREFACE. 



Lordship shall be sure to have. Five years later he reiterated 

 in the same tone, &amp;lt; I humbly pray you to believe that I aspire 

 to the conscience and commendation first of bonus civis, which 

 with us is a good and true servant to the Queen, and next of 

 bonus vir, that is, an honest man. But of this anon. The 

 result of the present negotiation was that Essex presented 

 Bacon with a piece of land, which he afterwards sold to Rey 

 nold Nicholas for i8oo/. 



At what precise time Bacon was appointed by the Queen 

 one of her counsel learned in the law, is not quite certain. It 

 has been supposed that the appointment was made as early as 

 the beginning of 1592, and he is certainly described by this 

 title in a lease of sixty acres of land in Zelwood Forest, Somer 

 setshire, which was granted him by the Crown, July 14, i59 6 - 

 From the fact that he is not so described in the grant of the 

 reversion of the lease of Twickenham Park, dated Nov. 17, 

 1595, it would seem that he had been made Queen s counsel 

 in the interval. Meanwhile he consoled himself for his pro 

 fessional disappointments by increased devotion to his favourite 

 studies, and early in 1597 published, in a small volume, the first 

 instalment of his Essays, which had been written some time 

 before, and were already circulated in manuscript. From an 

 expression in the dedication to his brother Anthony, he evid 

 ently regarded the publication as premature. I doe nowe, 

 he says, Mike some that have an orcharde ill neighbored, 

 that gather their fruit before it is ripe, to prevent stealing. 

 The same volume contained the Colours of Good and Evil, and 

 the Meditationes Sacra. Traces of his hand are also to be 

 found in the * Advice to the Earl of Rutland on his Travels, 

 and to * Sir Fulke Greville on his Studies, which appear in the 

 name of Essex, and belong to the beginning of 1596. 



On the soth of April, 1596, the Mastership of the Rolls 

 became vacant by the death of Lord Keeper Puckering, and 

 the promotion of Egerton to his place. For this post Bacon 

 was again a candidate, Essex as before supported his claim, and 

 with the same result, suspense and ultimate disappointment. 

 Burghley s influence was exerted with no better success. He 



