NOTES E E F F. 



must consist more in the love of the people than in their wealth, and therefore 

 not to give them discontentment in paying these subsidies : thus we run into a 

 double peril. In putting- two payments into one, we make a double subsidy ; 

 for it maketh four shillings in the pound a double payment. The second is this, 

 that this being granted to this sort, other princes hereafter will look for the like ; 

 so we shall put an evil precedent upon ourselves and our posterity. And in 

 histories it is to be observed, of all nations the English are not to be subject, 

 base, or taxable. 1 he manner of supply may be by levy or imposition when 

 need shall most require, so when her majesty s coffers are empty they may be 

 filled by this means. 



E E. Life, p. xxviii. 



Sir Francis Bacon to the Lord Treasurer, touching his Speech in Parliament. 



It may please your good Lordship, I was sorry to find by your lordship s 

 speech yesterday, that my last speech in parliament, delivered in discharge of 

 my conscience, my duty to God, her majesty, and my country, was offensive : 

 if it were misreported, I would be glad to attend your lordship, to disavow any 

 thing 1 said not ; if it were misconstrued, I would be glad to expound my 

 words, to exclude any sense I meant not ; if my heart be misjudged by imputa 

 tion of popularity, or opposition, I have great wrong, and the greater, because 

 the manner of my speech did most evidently shew that I spake most simply, and 

 only to satisfy my conscience, and not with any advantage or policy to sway 

 the case, and my terms carried all signification of duty and zeal towards her 

 majesty and her service. It is very true, that from the beginning, whatsoever 

 was a double subsidy I did wish might for precedent s sake appear to be extra 

 ordinary, and for discontent s sake might not have been levied upon the poorer 

 sort, though otherwise 1 wished it as rising as I think this will prove, or more. 

 This was my mind, I confess it ; and therefore I most humbly pray your lord 

 ship, first, to continue me in your own good opinion, and then, to perform the 

 part of an honourable good friend towards your poor servant and ally, in drawing 

 her majesty to accept of the sincerity and simplicity of my zeal, and to hold me 

 in her majesty s favour, which is to me dearer than my life, and so, etc. Your 

 Lordship s most humble in all duty, FR. BACON. 



Mr. Francis Bacon to Sir John Puckering, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. 



My Lord, It is a great grief unto me, joined with marvel, that her majesty 

 should retain an hard conceit of my speeches in parliament. It might please 

 her sacred majesty to think what my end should be in those speeches, if it were 

 not duty, and duty alone. I am not so simple, but I know the common beaten 

 way to please. And whereas popularity hath been objected, I muse what care 

 I should take to please many, that take a course of life to deal with few. On 

 the other side, her majesty s grace and particular favour towards me hath been 

 such, as I esteem no worldly thing above the comfort to enjoy it, except it be 

 the conscience to deserve it. But if the not seconding of some particular per 

 son s opinion shall be presumption, and to differ upon the manner shall be to 

 impeach the end ; it shall teach my devotion not to exceed wishes, and those in 

 silence. Yet notwithstanding (to speak vainly as in grief) it may be her majesty 

 hath discouraged as good a heart as ever looked toward her service, and as void 

 of self-love. And so in more grief than I can well express, and much more 

 than 1 can well dissemble, I leave your lordship, being as ever, vour Lordship s 

 entirely devoted, &c. 



F F. Life, p. xxviii. 



No man better understood the doctrine both of concealment and of revelation 

 of opinion than Lord Bacon, lie well knew that nakedness is unseemly as 

 well in mind as in body, but the nature of his, and perhaps of every mind which 

 beholds things as from a cliff, is to view extensively and to speak freely. It is, 



