CCCclxvi LIFE OF BACOX. 



Edward Coke, in saying, &quot; Si quid moves a principio 

 moveas. Errores ad principia referre est refellere.&quot; His 

 opinion was that he, &quot; who in the cure of politic or of 

 natural disorders, shall rest himself contented with second 

 causes, without setting forth in diligent travel to search 

 for the original source of evil, doth resemble the slothful 

 husbandman, who moweth down the heads of noisome 

 weeds, when he should carefully pull up the roots; and 

 the work shall ever be to do again.&quot; 



Cautious, gradual, permanent reform, from the love of 

 excellence, is ever in the train of knowledge. They are 

 the tests of a true reformer. 



Such were the principles which he carried into law and 

 into politics. 



Lawyer. As a lawyer he looked with microscopic eye into its 

 subtleties, and soon made great proficience in the science, (a) 

 He was active in the discharge of his professional duties : 

 and published various works upon different parts of the 

 law. In his offices of Solicitor and Attorney General, 

 &quot; when he was called, as he was of the King s council 

 learned, to charge any offenders, either in criminals or 

 capitals, he was never of an insulting and domineering 

 nature over them, but always tender-hearted, and carrying 

 himself decently towards the parties, though it was his 

 duty to charge them home, but yet as one that looked 



(a) When the celebrated lawyer, Mr. Hargrave, is speaking of the powers 

 displayed by Lord Bacon, in his reading on the statute of Uses, he says, 

 &quot; It is a very profound treatise on the subject, as far as it goes, and shows 

 that he had the clearest conception of one of the most abstruse parts of 

 our law. What might we not have expected/ he adds, &quot; from the hands 

 of such a master, if his vast mind had not so embraced within its compass 

 the whole field of science, as very much to detach him from professional 

 studies.&quot; Such are the observations of Mr. Hargrave, an eminent lawyer, 

 upon Lord Bacon s legal attainments. 



