CCXXX11 LIFE OF BACON. 



any business in which it is interested : (a) how ardent and 

 strenuous it is in encountering and subduing all difficulties 

 to which it is opposed. (a) 



In a letter to Buckingham of the 8th of June, 1617, he 

 says, () &quot; This day I have made even with the business of 

 the kingdom for common justice; not one cause unheard; 

 the lawyers drawn dry of all the motions they were to 

 make; not one petition unanswered. And this, I think, 

 could not be said in our age before. This I speak, not out 

 of ostentation, but out of gladness, when I have done my 

 duty. I know men think I cannot continue if I should 

 thus oppress myself with business: but that account is 

 made. The duties of life are more than life ; and if I die 

 now, I shall die before the world be weary of me, which in 

 our times is somewhat rare.&quot; And in two other letters he, 

 from the same cause, expresses the same joy. (c) 



These exertions did not secure him from the interference 

 of Buckingham, or protect him, as they have never pro 

 tected any judge, from misrepresentation and calumny; 

 but, unmoved by friendship or by slander, he went right 

 onward in his course. He acted as he taught, from the 



(o) See vol. ii. p. 21, Advancement of Learning. 



(ft) See vol. xii. p. 348. 



(c) In a letter of Dec. 6, 1617, vol. xii. p. 339, he says, &quot; Your lordship 

 may marvel, that together with the letter from the board, which you see 

 passed so well, there came no particular letter from myself; wherein, 

 though it be true, that now this very evening I have made even with the 

 causes of Chancery, and comparing with the causes heard by my lord, that 

 dead is, of Michaelmas term was twelvemonth, I find them to be double so 

 many and one more; besides that the causes that I dispatch do seldom 

 turn upon me again, as his many times did.&quot; And in a letter of May 17, 

 1619, vol. xiii. p. 17, he says, &quot; I send now to know how his majesty doth 

 after his remove, and to give you account that yesterday was a day of 

 motions in the Chancery. This day was a day of motions in the Star 

 Chamber, and it was my hap to clear the bar, that no man was left to 

 move any thing, which my lord? were pleased to note they never saw 

 before.&quot; 



