NOTE 3 1. 



some other adjuncts of rare Devotion. London. Printed for Lawrence Chapman, 

 and are to be sold at his Shop next doore to the Fountain Taverne in the Strand, 

 1646. This is, I conceive, merely a new title page prefixed to the unsold 

 copies of the edition of 1648 : as the publisher is the same ; the contents are 

 the same ; every page is the same ; and the table of errata, at the conclusion of 

 the volume, is the same. 



8. In the year 1657, the first edition of the Resuscitatio was published by 

 Rawley ; and in 1679, the Baconiana, by Archbishop Tennison ; but the 

 Essay of a King is not noticed in either of these publications. 



9. For near a century, that is, from 1656 to 1740, this essay seems to have 

 been forgotten ; but in 1740 it was revived by Blackburn, in his edition of the 

 works of Lord Bacon, who, in that edition, not only published it as an essay of 

 Lord Bacon s, but incorporated it amongst the other essays ; why he so incor 

 porated it, instead of annexing it as a posthumous and uncertain publication, 

 he does not explain : although, as an admirer of Lord Bacon, he ought not to 

 have forgotten the admonition that doubtful things ought neither to be rejected 

 nor received as certainties, but to be entered in the calendar of doubts. &quot; The 

 registering of doubts hath,&quot; says Lord Bacon, &quot;two excellent uses: the one, 

 that it saveth philosophy from errors and falsehoods ; when that which is not 

 fully appearing is not collected into assertion, whereby error might draw error, 

 but is reserved in doubt.&quot; The reason which he assigns for having ascribed this 

 essay to Lord Bacon is as follows : &quot; I have inserted from the Remains an 

 Essay of a King ; and my reason is, it is so collated and corrected by Arch 

 bishop Sancroft s well known hand, that it appears to be a new work ; and 

 though it consists of short propositions mostly, yet I will be so presumptuous as 

 to say, that I think it now breathes the true spirit of our author : there seems to 

 be an obvious reason why it was omitted before.&quot; 



With respect to the opinion of Sancroft, there appears not to be any evidence 

 that he thought the essay authentic ; and, even if he had so thought, it cannot 

 be necessary to^add that it does not prove the fact. Why the examination of 

 this essay by Sancroft, without knowing the nature of his observations, by 

 which he was induced totally to alter the essay, should be evidence that the 

 Archbishop thought it authentic, it seems difficult to discover. Is the present 

 examination of the essay any evidence of my opinion of its authenticity 1 With 

 respect to the style of Lord Bacon being perceptible in this essay, Blackburn 

 has not explained in what the resemblance consists. I have not been able to 

 discover it : the only passage which may be supposed to have some resemblance, 

 some shade of a shadow of resemblance, is the following : &quot; A wise king must 

 do less in altering his laws than he may ; for new government is ever dan 

 gerous. It being true in the body politic, as in the corporal, that &quot; omnis 

 subita immutatio est periculosa ;&quot; and though it be for the better, yet it is not 

 without a fearful apprehension ; for he that changeth the fundamental laws of a 

 kingdom, thinketh there is no good title to a crown, but by conquest.&quot; Let 

 this be contrasted with his Essay on Innovation ; and, if any resemblance can 

 be discovered, does it mark the hand of the master or of an imitator : &quot;As the 

 births of living creatures at first are ill-shapen, so are all innovations, which are 

 the births of time ; yet notwithstanding, as those that first bring honour into 

 their family are commonly more worthy than most that succeed, so the first 

 precedent (if it be good) is seldom attained by imitation ; for ill to man s 

 nature, as it stands perverted, hath a natural motion strongest in continuance ; 

 but good, as a forced motion, strongest at first. Surely every medicine is an 

 innovation, and he that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils.&quot; 

 To me it seems that there is not any resemblance ; but, if 1 am in error, it is 

 not from a casual resemblance of an isolated passage, but from the whole spirit 

 and style of a work, that we can be warranted in ascribing it to an author. 



&quot; Nothing is more easy,&quot; said a friend, &quot;than occasionally to imitate the 

 style of any eminent author.&quot; &quot; Attempt then,&quot; said a great admirer of Bishop 

 Taylor, &quot; to imitate his style.&quot; At their next interview, the following imitation 

 was produced : &quot; I have sat upon the sea shore, and waited for its gradual 

 Approaches, and have seen its dancing waves and its white surf, and admired 



