N OTF, 15 li T.. 



Lord Bacon to Sir Henry Wotton. 



My very good Cousin, Your letter which I received from your lordship 

 i your going to sea was more than a compensation for any former omission ; 

 J shall be very glad to entertain a correspondence with you in both kinds, 

 which you writ of; for the latter whereof I am now ready for you, having sent 

 you some ore of that mine. I thank you for your favours to Mr. Mewtus, and 

 I pniy continue the same. So wishing you out of that honourable exile, and 

 placed in a better orb, I ever rest your Lordship s affectionate kinsman, and 

 assured friend, J- u. YiiRULAM, Cane. () 



York House, Oct. 20, 1620. 



Sir Henry Wotton to Lord Bacon. 



&quot;Right honourable, and my very good Lord, I have your lordship s letters, 

 dated the 20th of October, and 1 have withal, by the care of my cousin, Mr. 

 Thomas Meawtis, and by your own special favour, three copies of that work, 

 wherewith your lordship hath done a great and ever-living benefit to all the 

 children of nature, and to nature herself in her uttermost extent and latitude : 

 who never before had so noble nor so true an interpreter, or (as I am readier to 

 style your lordship) never so inward a secretary of her cabinet. But of your 

 said work, which came but this week to my hands, I shall find occasion to 

 speak more hereafter ; having yet read only the first book thereof, and a few 

 aphorisms of the second. For it is not a banquet that men may superficially 

 taste, and put up the rest in their pockets ; but in truth a solid feast, which 

 requireth due mastication. Therefore when I have once myself perused the 

 whole, I determine to have it read piece by piece at certain hours in my 

 domestic college as an ancient author; for I have learned thus much by it 

 already, that we are extremely mistaken in the computation of antiquity, (6) by 



the issue which I have lately brought forth into the world ; for otherwise I 

 should look upon it as an exposed child. Let it not trouble you, that the way 

 in which I go is new ; such things will of necessity happen in the revolutions 

 of several ages. However, the honour of the ancients is secured : that, I mean, 

 which is due to their wit. For faith is only due to the word of God, and to ex 

 perience. Now, for bringing back the sciences to experience, is not a thing to 

 be done ; but to raise them anew from experience is indeed a very difficult and 

 laborious, but not a hopeless undertaking. God prosper you and your studies. 

 &quot; Your most loving son, FRANCIS YERULAM, Chancel.&quot; 



(a) When this letter, together with the other two next before and after it, 

 were written, upon the occasion of my Lord Chancellor s publishing his Novum 

 Organum, Sir Henry Wotton, so eminent for his many embassies, great learn 

 ing, candour, and other accomplishments, was resident at Vienna, endeavouring 

 to quench that fire which began to blaze in Germany, upon the proclaiming the 

 Elector Palatine King of Bohemia. How grateful a present this book was to 

 Sir Henry, cannot better be expressed than by his answer to this letter ; which 

 though it may be found in his Remains, I hope the reader will not be displeased 

 to see part of it transcribed in this place. Bacon s Letters. 



(/;) Bentham, in his Book of Fallacies says : &quot; What in common language 

 is called old time, ought (with reference to any period at which the fallacy in 

 question is employed) to be called young or early time. As between individual 

 and individual living at the same time and in the same situation, he who is old 

 possesses, as such, more experience than he who is young ; as between genera 

 tion and generation, the reverse of this is true, if, as in ordinary language, a 

 preceding generation be, with reference to a succeeding generation, called old ; 

 the old or preceding generation could not have had so much experience as the 

 succeeding. With respect to such of the materials or sources of wisdom which 

 have come under the cognizance of their own senses, the two are on a par: 

 with respect to such of those materials and sources of wisdom as are derived 

 from the reports of others, the later of the two possesses an indisputable advan- 



