PREFACE. XXIX 



Tract is not recognised by Dr. Rawley, who in his 

 address to the Reader in his Resuscitatio, does 

 not mention it amongst the theological works which 

 he enumerates, although he says, &quot; I have compiled 

 in one whatsoever bears the true stamp of his Lord 

 ship s excellent genius, and hath hitherto slept, and 

 been suppressed, in this present volume, not leaving 

 any thing to a future hand, which I found to be of 



by them unprosecuted and uncorrected; and sometimes the 

 very toys of their youth, written by them in trivial or loose ar 

 guments, before they had arrived either at ripeness of judgment, 

 or sobriety of temper. The veriest straws (like that of Father 

 Garnet) are shewn to the world as admirable reliques, if the 

 least strokes of the image of a celebrated author, does but seem 

 to be upon them. The press hath been injurious in this kind 

 to the memory of Bishop Andrews, to whom it owed a deep and 

 solemn reverence. In such an unbecoming manner it hath 

 dealt, long ago, with the very learned and ingenious author of 

 the Vulgar Errors. Neither hath the Lord Bacon gone without 

 his share in this injustice from the press. He hath been ill 

 dealt with in the letters printed in the Cabala, and Scrinia, under 

 his name : for Dr. Rawley professed, that though they were not 

 wholly false, yet they were very corrupt and embased copies. 

 This I believe the rather, having lately compared some original 

 letters with the copies in that collection, and found them imper 

 fect. And to make a particular instance ; in comparing the 

 letter of Sir WaUer Raleigh to Sir Robert Car, of whom a fame 

 had gone that he had begged his estate; I found no fewer than 

 forty different, of which some were of moment. Our author hath 

 been still worse dealt with, in a pamphlet in octavo, concerning 

 the trial of the Earl and Countess of Somerset: and likewise in 

 one in quarto, which beareth the title of Bacon s Remains, 

 though there cannot be spied in it, so much as the ruins of his 

 beautiful genius.&quot; 



