CCC1XXX LIFE OF BACOtf. 



Happy would it have been for himself and society, if 

 following his own nature, he had passed his life in the 

 calm but obscure regions of philosophy. 



He now, however, had escaped from worldly turmoils, 

 and was enabled, as he wrote to the King, to gratify his 

 desire &quot; to do, for the little time God shall send me life, like 

 the merchants of London, which, when they give over trade, 

 lay out their money upon land : so, being freed from civil 

 business, I lay forth my poor talent upon those things, 

 which may be perpetual, still having relation to do you 

 honour with those powers I have left.&quot; 



In a letter to Buckingham, on the 20th of March, 1621, 

 he says, &quot; 1 find that, building upon your lordship s noble 

 nature and friendship, I have built upon the rock, where 

 neither winds nor waves can cause overthrow :&quot; and, in 

 the conclusion of the same year,() &quot; I am much fallen in 

 love with a private life, but yet I shall so spend my time, 

 as shall not decay my abilities for use.&quot; 



And in a letter to the Bishop of Winchester, (b) in 

 which, after having considered the conduct in their banish 

 ments, of Demosthenes, Cicero, and Seneca, he proceeds 

 thus: &quot;These examples confirmed me much in a resolu 

 tion, whereunto I was otherwise inclined, to spend my time 

 wholly in writing, and to put forth that poor talent, or 

 half talent, or what it is that God hath given me, not 

 as heretofore to particular exchanges, but to banks or 

 mounts of perpetuity, which will not break. Therefore 

 having not long since set forth a part of my Instauration, 

 which is the work that in mine own judgment, si nunquam 

 fallit imago, I may most esteem, I think to proceed in 

 some new parts thereof; and although I have received 

 from many parts beyond the seas testimonies touching that 



0) Sept. 5, 1021. (b} See vol. vii. p. 113. 



