CCCCXXvili LIFE OF BACON. 



the production, as a recreation in sickness, of a morning s 

 dictation, and a translation of a few of the Psalms of 



judgment and choice, whereas that of Plutarch and Stoboeus, and much 

 more the modern ones, draw much of the dregs. Certainly they are of 

 excellent use : they are Mucrones Verborum, pointed speeches. Cicero 

 prettily calls them salinas, salt pits, that you may extract salt out of, and 

 sprinkle it where you will. They serve to be interlaced in continued 

 speech : they serve to be recited upon occasion of themselves : they serve, 

 if you take out the kernel of them, and make them your own. I have for 

 my recreation in my sickness fanned the old ; not omitting any because 

 they are vulgar (for many vulgar ones are excellent good), nor for the mean 

 ness of the person, but because they are dull and flat, and added many 

 new that otherwise would have died.&quot; 



In his tract on history in the Advancement of Learning, Bacon says, 

 &quot; There are appendices of history conversant about the words of men, as 

 history itself about the deeds : the partitions thereof into Orations, Letters, 

 and Apophthegms.&quot; 



Archbishop Tennison, in his Baconiana, page 47, says, &quot; The Apoph 

 thegms (of which the first is the best edition) were (what he saith also 

 of his Essays) but as the recreations of his other studies. They were dic 

 tated one morning out of his memory ; and if they seem to any a birth too 

 inconsiderable for the brain of so great a man, they may think with them 

 selves how little a time he went with it, and from thence make some 

 allowance.&quot; He occasionally made great use of these Apothegms, as may 

 be seen by 1 comparing Apophthegms 251, page 403, with the same anec 

 dote as incorporated in the Advancement of Learning, vol. ii. page 224. 



The different editions are : 1st edition. The title page &quot; Apophthegmes, 

 New and Old, collated by the Right Honorable Francis Lo. Verulam, 

 Viscount St. Alban. London, printed for Hanna Barret and Richard 

 Whittaker, and are&quot; to be sold at the King s Head in Paul s Church, 

 1625.&quot; 12mo. 307 pages, and 280 Apothegms. This Tennison, in the 

 Baconiana, p. 47, says is the best edition. 



2nd. In 1658 an edition was published. Here are 184 Apothegms of 

 Bacon: it is a 12mo. This seems to have been reprinted in 1669. 

 I have never seen a copy; but the following is from the Baconiana, 

 where Tennison says, &quot; His lordship hath received much injury by late 

 editions, of which some have much enlarged, but not at all enriched 

 the collection ; stuffing it with tales and sayings, too infacetious for a 

 ploughman s chimney corner. And particularly, in the collection not long 

 since published, and called the Apothegms of King James, King Charles, 

 the Marquess of Worcester, the Lord Bacon, and Sir Thomas Moor; his 

 lordship is dealt with very rudely. For besides the addition of insipid 





