PREFACE. 



mixed, otherwise than with some little aspersion of the old 

 for taste s sake ; I have thought good to procure a translation 

 of that book into the general language, not without great and 

 ample additions and enrichment thereof, especially in the 

 second book, which handleth the Partition of Sciences; in 

 such sort, as I hold it may serve in lieu of the first part of the 

 Instauration, and acquit my promise in that part. 



The provostship of Eton fell vacant in April 1623, and 

 Bacon sought the appointment as a. retreat to a place of 

 study so near London, but without success. The Advance 

 ment of Learning in its Latin form was issued this year under 

 the title of De Augmetftu Scientiarum, in nine books, the first 

 closely corresponding with the English. The last two or 

 three years of his life were occupied with dictating his Sylva 

 Sylvarum, putting the last touches to his Essays, which were 

 published in their final form in March 1625, and superintend 

 ing their translation into Latin with other works to be entitled 

 Opera Moralia. The Apophthegms were the occupation of a 

 morning. It does not appear that the sentence of Parliament 

 was ever entirely revoked. The name of Lord St. Alban s, it 

 is true, is among those of the Peers summoned to the first 

 Parliament of Charles, but for some reason he did not take 

 his seat in the House. On New Year s Day, 1625-6, he 

 wrote to Sir Humphry May : * The present occasion doth 

 invite me to desire that his grace (i. e. Buckingham) would 

 procure me a pardon of the King of the whole sentence. My 

 writ for Parliament I have now had twice before the time, 

 and that without any express restraint not to use it. His 

 health, long feeble, would not have allowed him to attend, but 

 he could have appointed a proxy. At length came death, the 

 friend, whom for five years he had looked steadily in the face, 

 and released him from all his troubles. A cold, caught in the 

 process of an experiment to test the preserving qualities of 

 snow, terminated in a gentle fever, and after lingering a week 

 he passed quietly away in the early morning of Easter-day, 

 April 9, 1626. He died at the Earl of Arundel s house a.t 

 Highgate, and was buried in the church of St. Michael, at 



