XXV111 LIFE OF BACON. 



the distresses of the people, the danger of raising public 

 discontent, and the evil of making so bad a precedent 

 against themselves and posterity, (a) With this speech the 

 queen was much displeased, and caused her displeasure 

 to be communicated to Bacon both by the Lord Treasurer 

 and by the Lord Keeper. He heard them with the calmness 

 of a philosopher, saying, that &quot; he spoke in discharge of 

 his conscience and duty to God, to the queen, and to his 

 country; that he well knew the common beaten road to 

 favour, and the impossibility that he who had selected a 

 course of life estimate only by the few/ should be approved 

 by the many.&quot;(^) He said this, not in anger, but in the 

 consciousness of the dignity of his pursuits, and with the 

 full knowledge of the doctrine and consequences both of 

 concealment and revelation of opinion : of the time to speak 

 and the time to be silent, (c) 



If, after this admonition, he was more cautious in the 

 expression of his sentiments, he did not relax in his parlia 

 mentary exertions, or sacrifice the interests of the public 

 at the foot of the throne. He spoke often, and always with 

 such force and eloquence as to insure the attention of the 

 house ; and, though he spoke generally on the side of the 

 court, he was regarded as the advocate of the people : a 

 powerful advocate, according to his friend, Ben Jonson, 

 who thus speaks of his parliamentary eloquence : &quot; There 

 happened in my time one noble speaker who was full of 

 gravity in his speaking : his language, where he could spare 

 or pass by a jest was nobly censorious. No man ever spake 

 more neatly, more pressly, more weightily, or suffered less 

 emptiness, less idleness in what he uttered: no member 

 of his speech but consisted of its own graces. His hearers 

 could not cough or look aside from him without loss : he 

 commanded when he spoke, and had his judges angry and 



(a) See note D D at the end. (ft) See note E E at the end. 



(c) See note F F at the end. 



