TRIAL OF PEACH AM. clxXV 



nor will the judges of England hereafter be considered 

 culpable for having at one session condemned and left for 

 execution six young men and women under the age of 

 twenty, for uttering forged one-pound notes; (a) or for 

 having, so late as the year 1820, publicly sold for large 

 sums the places of the officers of their courts. 



To persecute the lover of truth for -opposing established 

 customs, and to censure him in after ages for not having 

 been more strenuous in opposition, are errors which will 

 never cease until the pleasure of self-elevation from the 

 depression of superiority is no more. &quot; These things must 

 continue as they have been : so too will that also continue, 

 whereupon learning hath ever relied, and which faileth 

 not: justificata est sapientia a filiis suis/ (^) 



Bacon, unmoved by the prejudice, by which during his 

 life he was resisted, or the scurrilous libels by which he 

 was assailed, went right onward in the advancement of 

 knowledge, the only effectual mode of decomposing error 

 Where he saw that truth was likely to be received, he 

 presented her in all her divine loveliness. When he could 

 not directly attack error, when the light was too strong for 

 weak eyes, he never omitted an opportunity to expose it. 

 Truth is often silent as fearing her j udge, never as suspecting 

 her cause. 



In his letter to the King, stating that Peacham had 

 been put to the torture, he says, &quot; though we are driven to 

 make our way through questions, which I wish were other 

 wise, (c-) yet I hope the end will be good :&quot; and, unable at 



(a) See the public newspaper of December 4, 1820. 



(6) See Advancement of Learning, vol. ii. p. 88. 



(c) See note (&), ante, p. 169. In his apology respecting Essex, he 

 says, &quot; For her majesty being mightily incensed with that book, which 

 was dedicated to my Lord of Essex, being a story of the first year of 

 King Henry IV. thinking it a seditious prelude to put into the people s 



