

PRIVATE LIFE. CCCclxXV 



and with others, who, powerful when he was nothing, 

 might have blighted his opening fortunes for ever, for 

 getting his advocacy of the rights of the people in the face 

 of the court, and the true and honest counsels, always 

 given by him, in times of great difficulty, both to Elizabeth 

 and her successor. When was a &quot; base sycophant&quot; loved 

 and honoured by piety such as that of Herbert, Tennison, 

 and Rawley, by noble spirits like Hobbes, Ben Jonson, 

 and Selden, or followed to the grave, and beyond it, with 

 devoted affection such as that of Sir Thomas Meautys. 



Forced by the narrowness of his fortune into business, 

 conscious of his own powers, aware of the peculiar quality 

 of his mind, and disliking his pursuits, his heart was 

 often in his study, while he lent his person to the robes of 

 office, (a) and he was culpably unmindful of the conduct of 

 his servants, who amassed wealth meanly and rapaciously, 

 while their careless master, himself always poor, with his 

 thoughts on higher ventures, never stopped to inquire by 

 what methods they grew rich. No man can act thus with 

 impunity ; he has sullied the brightness of a name which 

 ought never to have been heard without reverence, injured 

 his own fame, and has been himself the victim upon the 

 altar which he raised to true science; becoming a theme 

 to &quot; point a moral or adorn a tale,&quot; in an attempt to unite 

 philosophy and politics, an idol, whose golden head and 

 hands of base metal form a monster more hideous than the 

 Dagon of the Philistines. 



(a) He says to Sir Thomas Bodley, &quot; I do confess, since I was of any 

 understanding rny mind hath in effect been absent from that I have done, 

 and in absence are many errors which I willingly acknowledge, and 

 amongst the rest, this great one, which led the rest, that knowing myself by 

 inward calling to be fitter to hold a book than to play a part, I have led 

 my life in civil causes, for which I was not very fit by nature, and more 

 unfit by pre-occupation of mind.&quot; 



