310 TRACTS RELATING TO 



in knowing himself and his duty. God ever preserve 

 your majesty. 



A MEMORIAL FOR HIS MAJESTY, CORRECTED WITH 

 SIR FR. BACON S OWN HAND, 1616. 



IT seemeth this year of the fourteenth of his ma 

 jesty s reign, being a year of a kind of majority in his 

 government, is consecrated to justice :* which as his 

 majesty hath performed to his subjects in this late 

 memorable occasion, so he is now to render and per 

 form to himself, his crown and posterity. 



That his council shall perceive by that which his 

 majesty shall now communicate with them, that the 

 mass of his business is continually prepared in his own 

 royal care and cogitations, howsoever he produceth 

 the same to light, and to act &quot; per opera dierum.&quot;f 



That his majesty shall make unto them now a 

 declarative of two great causes, whereof he doubteth 

 not they have heard by glimpses ; the one concerning 

 his high court of chancery, the other concerning the 



* By the laws, several ages are assigned to persons for several 

 purposes : and by the common law the fourteenth year is a kind of 

 majority, and accounted an age of discretion. At. that, time a man 

 may agree or disagree to a precedent marriage : the heir in socage, 

 may reject the guardian appointed by law, and choose a new one : 

 and the woman at that age shall be out of ward, etc. Stephens. 



f &quot; Per opera dierum,&quot; alluding to the gradations Almighty 

 God was pleased to observe in the creating of the world. In this 

 paragraph Sir Francis Bacon insinuates, what he expressly de 

 clares, Vol.1. Essay XLVIT. p. 162, that in all negotiations of 

 difficulty a man must first prepare business, and so ripen it by 

 degrees. Stephens. 



