LIFE OF BACCLY. 



King, on the 3rd of June, gave him the option either to be 

 made privy councillor, or the assurance of succeeding the 

 Chancellor. Bacon, for reasons which he has thus ex 

 pressed in a letter to Villiers, preferred being sworn privy 

 councillor : 



&quot; Sir, the King giveth me a noble choice, and you are 

 the man my heart ever told me you were. Ambition would 

 draw me to the latter part of the choice ; but in respect of 

 my hearty wishes that my Lord Chancellor may live long, 

 and the small hopes I have that I shall live long myself, 

 and above all, because I see his majesty s service daily 

 and instantly bleedeth ; towards which I persuade myself 

 (vainly perhaps, but yet in mine own thoughts firmly and 

 constantly) that I shall give, when I am of the table, some 

 effectual furtherance (as a poor thread of the labyrinth, 

 which hath no other virtue but an united continuance with 

 out interruption or distraction), I do accept of the former 

 to be councillor for the present, and to give over pleading 

 at the bar; let the other matter rest upon my proof and 

 his majesty s pleasure, and the accidents of time. For to 

 speak plainly I would be loath that my Lord Chancellor, 

 to whom I owe most after the King and yourself, should 

 be locked to his successor for any advancement or gracing 

 of me. So I ever remain your true and most devoted and 

 obliged servant. 3rd June, 1616.&quot; 



He was accordingly sworn of the privy council, and took 

 his seat at the board on the 9th of June ; it having been 



kind of interloping (as the merchants call it) for one that is no councillor. 

 But I leave all unto you, thinking myself infinitely bounden unto you for 

 your great favours ; the beams whereof I see plainly reflect upon me even 

 from others : so that now I have no greater ambition than this ; that as the 

 King sheweth himself to you the best master, so 1 might be found your 

 best servant. In which wish and vow I shall ever rest, most devoted and 

 affectionate to obey your commands. 



