SOLICITORSHI1 . XXIX 



pleased at his devotion. No man had their affections more 

 in his power : the fear of every man that heard him was 

 lest he should make an end.&quot; 



It would have been fortunate for society if this check 

 had impressed upon his mind the vanity of attempting to 

 unite the scarcely reconcileable characters of the philoso 

 pher and the courtier. His high birth and elegant taste 

 unfitted Bacon for the common walks of life, and by sur 

 rounding him with artificial wants, compelled him to exer 

 tions uncongenial to his nature : but the love of truth, of 

 his country, and an undying spirit of improvement, ever 

 in the train of knowledge, ill suited him for the tram 

 mels in which he was expected to move. Through the 

 whole of his life he endeavoured to burst his bonds, and 

 escape from law and politics, from mental slavery to intel 

 lectual liberty. Perhaps the charge of inconsistency, so 

 often preferred against him, may be attributed to the vary 

 ing impulse of such opposite motives.* 



In the spring of 1594, (a) by the promotion of Sir Edward 

 Coke to the office of Attorney General, the Solicitorship 1594 

 became vacant. This had been foreseen by Bacon, and, -JEt. 34 

 from his near alliance to the Lord Treasurer; from the 

 friendship of Lord Essex ; from the honourable testimony 

 of the bar and of the bench ; from the protection he had a 

 right to hope for from the Queen, for his father s sake; 

 from the consciousness of his own merits and of the weak 

 ness of his competitors, Bacon could scarcely doubt of his 

 success. He did not, however, rest in an idle security; 

 for though, to use his own expression, he was &quot; voiced 

 with great expectation, and the wishes of all men,&quot; yet he 

 strenuously applied to the Lord Keeper, to Lord Burleigh, 



* During this year he published a tract, containing observations upon a 

 libel. See vol. v. of this edition, p. 384. 



(a) 10 April, Dug. Orig. 



