PREFACE. Vli 



but a boy, &quot;That he was two years younger than Her Ma 

 jesty s happy reign ;&quot; with which answer the Queen was much 

 taken. Another anecdote from the same source, of which 

 more than enough has been made, belongs to this period. 

 * Whilst he was commorant in the University, about sixteen 

 years of age (as his lordship hath been pleased to impart unto 

 myself), he first fell into the dislike of the philosophy of 

 Aristotle ; not for the worthlessncss of the author, to whom 

 he would ever ascribe all high attributes, but for the unfruit- 

 f illness of the way; being a philosophy (as his lordship used to 

 say) only strong for disputations and contentions, but barren 

 of the production of works for the benefit of the life of man ;1 

 in which mind he continued to his dying day. 



The story which has been told above of the iron pillar in 

 the chamber at Trinity shows that Bacon s attention had 

 been very early directed to the observation of sounds, and 

 lends a probability to the supposition that it may have been 

 at this time that he tried the experiment recorded in the 

 Sylva Sylvarum (cent. ii. 140). There is in St. James s Fields 

 a conduit of brick, unto which joineth a low vault ; and at the 

 end of that a round house of stone ; and in the brick conduit 

 there is a window; and in the round-house a slit or rift of 

 some little breadth ; if you cry out in the rift, it will make a 

 fearful roaring at the window. In all this there is a certain 

 ring of boyishness. To this time also belongs the story of the 

 conjuror (Sylva, cent. x. 946), who must have exhibited his 

 tricks at Sir Nicholas Bacon s house before Francis left 

 England. 



But his father had in view for him a public career as states 

 man or diplomatist, and after he had spent nearly three years 

 over his books at Cambridge, sent him to France to read men. 

 On the 25th of September, 1576, we learn from Burghley s 

 diary, Sir Amyas Paulet landed at Calliss going to be Amb. 

 at France in Place of Dr. Dale. It was not till the February 

 following that he succeeded to the post. Bacon apparently 

 joined him after his arrival in Paris, for on Nov. 21, 1576, he 

 was admitted of the grand company at Gray s Inn, having 



