PREFACE. Xlll 



&quot; your bread upon the waters, as the Scripture 

 &quot; saith, because my thanks cannot any ways be suf- 

 (e ficient to attain, I have raised your progenitor, of 

 &quot; famous memory (and now, I hope, of more famous 

 &quot; memory than before) King Henry VII. to give 

 &amp;lt;f your majesty thanks for me ; which work, most 

 &quot; humbly kissing your majesty s hands, I do present. 

 &quot; And because in the beginning of my trouble, 

 &quot; when in the midst of the tempest I had a kenning 

 &quot; of the harbour, which I hope now by your 

 &quot; majesty s favour I am entering into, I made a 

 &quot; tender to your majesty of two works, An History 

 &quot; of England/ and A digest of your laws; as I 

 &quot; have, by a figure of pars pro toto, performed the 

 &quot; one, so I have herewith sent your majesty, by way 

 &quot; of an epistle, a new offer of the other. But my 

 &quot; desire is farther, if it stand with your majesty s 

 &quot; good pleasure, since now my study is my exchange, 

 &quot; and my pen my factor, for the use of my talent ; 

 &quot; that your majesty, who is a great master in these 

 &quot; things, would be pleased to appoint me some task 

 &quot; to write, and that I shall take for an oracle. And 

 &quot; because my &quot; Instauration,&quot; which I esteem my 

 &quot; great work, and do still go on with silence, was 

 &quot; dedicated to your majesty ; and this History of 

 &quot; King Henry VII. to your lively and excellent 

 &quot; image the prince ; if now your majesty will be 

 &quot; pleased to give me a theme to dedicate to my Lord 

 &quot; of Buckingham, whom I have so much reason to 

 &quot; honour, I should with more alacrity embrace your 

 &quot; majesty s direction than my own choice. Your 

 &quot; majesty will pardon me for troubling you thus 



