HIS IMPRUDENCE. 



ccclxxxix 



Thinking that money was only the baggage of virtue, (a} 

 that this interposition of earth eclipsed the clear sight of 



&quot; It is to be feared that our nation has been, and still is as guilty of this sin 

 of bribery, even in the reigns of the best of our kings, as ever the house of 

 Israel was. In the days of that good prince Edward the Sixth, bribery was 

 a reigning vice even at the court itself, witness that famous court preacher 

 and afterwards martyr, Father Latimer, in his sermons before that young 

 prince and his nobles. This sin of bribery doth not only reign in King s 

 palaces, but like the leprosy, spreads itself in all the courts of equity and 

 justice, even to the meanest in office. When I was a boy I heard this 

 following story .of that great and learned man, the Lord Bacon, who was 

 Lord Chancellor in King James the First s reign. I would speak tenderly 

 of him, because he was one of the learnedest men of his age; I will tell the 

 natural story, and leave the reader to his own thoughts. Much at the time 

 he was put out of the chancellorship, he happened to come into his hall 

 where his gentlemen were at dinner. As soon as they see my lord, they all 

 rose up, but his lordship calls to them to sit still. For, saith he, your rise 

 has been my fall. But the story I am at is this : about the year 1655 some 

 gentlemen meeting in my master s shop (a bookseller), and talking of 

 learning and learned men, they mentioned my Lord Bacon to be one of the 

 learnedest men of the world in the age he lived in ; but one of the gentle 

 men, who by his gray head could not be less than seventy years of age, 

 replied, he did agree with them in their opinion of my Lord Bacon, but 

 my lord had a fault, whatever it was he could not tell ; but, saith he, I 

 myself have some business with his lordship : I went to him to his country 

 house, which was near St. Albans, twenty miles from London, where I was 

 admitted into his study, where was no person but his lordship and myself; 

 and whilst I was talking with him about my business, his lordship had 

 occasion to withdraw out of his study, and left me there alone. Whilst 

 his lordship was gone there came into the study one of his lordship s 

 gentlemen, and opens my lord s chest of drawers, wherein his money was, 

 and takes it out in handfuls and fills both his pockets, and goes away 

 without saying one word to me ; he was no sooner gone, but comes a second 

 gentleman, opens the same drawers, fills both his pockets with money, and 

 goes away as the former did, without speaking one word to me; at which 

 I was surprised, and much concerned, and was resolved to acquaint my 

 lord with it. As soon as my lord returned into his study, I told him, my 

 lord, here was a very odd passage happened, since your lordship went. 

 Upon which he asked me what it was : I told the passage as here related . 

 He shook his head, and all that he said was, Sir, I cannot help myself.&quot; 



(a) In his Essay on Riches, vol. i. 119, he says, &quot; I cannot call riches 

 better than the baggage of virtue ; the Roman word is better, impedimenta ; 



