COMMENCEMENT OF PARLIAMENT. CV 



old times as a scandal to the new, he says, &quot; It is good not 

 to try experiments in states, except the necessity be urgent, 

 or the utility evident : and well to beware that it be the 

 reformation that draweth on the change, and not desire 

 of change that pretendeth the reformation: that novelty, 

 though it be not rejected, yet be always suspected; and, 

 as the scripture saith, that we make a stand upon the 

 ancient way, and then look about us, and discover what is 

 the straight and right way, and so to walk in it; (?) always 

 remembering that there is a difference in innovations, 

 between arts and civil affairs. In civil affairs, a change, 

 even for the better, is to be suspected, through fear of dis 

 turbance: because they depend upon authority, consent, 

 reputation, and opinion, and not upon demonstration ; but 

 arts and sciences should be like mines, resounding on all 

 sides with new works and further progress.&quot; (r) 



Such was the state of his mind upon entering into 

 public life at the commencement of the parliament, which 

 assembled on the 19th of March, 1604, when having already 

 made some progress in the King s affections, (s) he was 



(&amp;lt;?) Essay on Innovations, vol. i. p. 82. 



(r) Nov. Organum, Aph. 90. vol. ix. 



(s) Mr. Constable was Bacon s brother-in-law; and was, as it seems 

 knighted on March 14 (James s Progresses, 322), and knighted upon the 

 interposition of Bacon, as appears by the following letter : 



A Letter to Mr. Murray, of the King s bedchamber. 

 Mr. Murray, It is very true, that his majesty, most graciously at my 

 humble request, knighted the last Sunday my brother-in-law, a towardly 

 young gentleman; for which favour I think myself more bound to his 

 majesty than for the benefit of ten knights; and to tell you truly, my 

 meaning was not, that the suit of this other gentleman, Mr. Temple, should 

 have been moved in my name. For I should have been unwilling to have 

 moved his majesty for more than one at once, though many times in his 

 majesty s courts of justice, if we move once for our friends, we are allowed 

 to move again for our fee. But indeed my purpose was, that you might 

 have been pleased to have moved it as for myself. Nevertheless, since it 



