xl 



LIFE OF BACON. 



when applauded, turned to one of his friends, and asked, 

 &quot;what have I said amiss?&quot; although popular judgment 

 was not likely to mislead him who concludes his observa 

 tions upon the objections to learning and the advantages 

 of knowledge, by saying, &quot; Nevertheless I do not pretend, 

 and I know it will be impossible for me, by any pleading 

 of mine, to reverse the judgment either of ^sop s cock, 

 that preferred the barleycorn before the gem ; or of Midas, 

 that being chosen judge between Apollo, president of the 

 muses, and Pan, god of the flocks, judged for plenty; or 

 of Paris, that judged for beauty and love against wisdom 

 and power. For these things continue as they have been ; 

 but so will that also continue whereupon learning hath ever 

 relied, and which faileth not. Justificata est sapientia a 

 filiis suis : &quot;(#) yet he seems to have undervalued this little 

 work, which, for two centuries, has been favourably re 

 ceived by every lover of knowledge and of beauty, and is 

 now so well appreciated, that a celebrated professor of our 

 own times truly says : &quot; The small volume to which he has 

 given the title of &quot; Essays/ the best known and the most 

 popular of all his works, is one of those where the supe 

 riority of his genius appears to the greatest advantage ; 

 the novelty and depth of his reflections often receiving a 

 strong relief from the triteness of the subject. It may be 

 read from beginning to end in a few hours, and yet after 

 the twentieth perusal one seldom fails to remark in it some 

 thing overlooked before. This, indeed, is a characteristic 

 of all Bacon s writings, and is only to be accounted for by 

 the inexhaustible aliment they furnish to our own thoughts, 

 and the sympathetic activity they impart to our torpid 

 faculties.&quot; () 



During his life six or more editions, which seem to have 



(a) See vol. ii. p. 88. (6) Dugald Stewart. 



