NOTE F F F. 



person of your lordship s quality almost singular, is to me a great and chief 

 motive to draw my affection and admiration towards you : and therefore, good 

 my lord, if I may be of any use to your lordship by my head, tongue, pen, 

 means, or friends, I humbly pray you to hold me your own : and herewithal, 

 not to do so much disadvantage to my good mind, nor partly to your own worth, 

 as to conceive, that this commendation of my humble service produceth out of 

 any straits of my occasions, but merely out of an election, and indeed the 

 fulness of my heart. And so wishing your lordship all prosperity, I continue.&quot; 



In a letter to the Lord Treasurer (1594) he says, &quot; 1 am to give you humble 

 thanks for your favourable opinion, which by Mr. Secretary s report I find you 

 conceive of me for the obtaining of a good place, which some of my honourable 

 friends have wished unto me nee opinanti. I will use no reason to persuade 

 your lordship s mediation but this, that your lordship and my other friends shall 

 in this beg my life of the Queen ; for I see well the bar will be my bier, as I 

 must and will use it rather than my poor estate or reputation shall decay : but 

 I stand indifferent whether God call me or her majesty.&quot; 



The following is from the dedication to the first edition of his Essays to his 

 brother, who was lame : &quot; Dedicating them, such as they are, to our love, in 

 the depth whereof (I assure you) I sometimes wish your infirmities translated 

 upon myself, that her majesty might have the service of so active and able a 

 mind, and I might be with excuse confined to these contemplations and studies 

 for which I am fittest ; so commend I you to the preservation of the Divine 

 Majesty. From my chamber at Gray s Inn, this 30th of January, 1597.&quot; 



In a letter to Essex, 1594, he says : 



To my Lord of Essex. 



It may please your good Lordship, I pray God her majesty s weighing be 

 not like the weight of a balance ; gravia deorsum, levin sursum. But 1 am as 

 far from being altered in devotion towards her, as I am from distrust that she 

 will be altered in opinion towards me, when she knoweth me better. For my 

 self, I have lost some opinion, some time, and some means ; this is my account : 

 but then for opinion, it is a blast that goeth and cometh ; for time, it is true, 

 goeth and cometh not, but yet I have learned that it may be redeemed. 



For means, I value that most f and the rather, because I am purposed not to 

 follow the practice of the law, if her majesty command me in any particular, 1 

 shall be ready to do her willing service ; and my reason is only because it 

 drinketh too much time, which I have dedicated to better purposes. But even 

 for that point of estate and means, I partly lean to Thales s opinion, That a 

 philosopher may be rich if he will. Thus your lordship seeth how I comfort 

 myself ; to the increase whereof I would fain please myself to believe that to be 

 true which my Lord Treasurer writeth ; which is, that it is more than a philoso 

 pher can morally digest. But without any such high conceit, I esteem it like 

 the pulling out of an aching tooth, which, I remember, when I was a child, 

 and had little philosophy, I was glad of when it was done. For your lordship, 

 I do think myself more beholden to you than to any man : and 1 say, I reckon 

 myself as a common, not popular, but common ; and as much as is lawful to be 

 inclosed of a common, so much your lordship shall be sure to have. Your 

 Lordship s, to obey your honourable commands, more settled than ever. 



In a letter to the King, dated April 1, 1616, he says, &quot; Were your majesty 

 mounted, and seated without difficulties and distaste in your business, as I 

 desire and hope to see you, I should ex animo desire to spend the decline of 

 my years in my studies.&quot; 



In a letter to the Earl of Salisbury respecting the solicitor s place, written 

 about the year 1607, he says, &quot; It is thought Mr. Attorney shall be chief jus 

 tice of the Common-place ; in case Mr. Solicitor rise, I would be glad now 

 at last to be solicitor : chiefly because I think it will increase my practice, 

 wherein God blessing me a few years, I may mend my state, and so after fall 

 to my studies and ease ; whereof one is requisite for my body, and the other 

 serveth for my mind.&quot; 



