X HISTORY AND PLAN 



Bacon is not known, but it must have begun early, It, 

 was in special compliment to Bacon that he was presented 

 on the 18th of January, 1616-17) (being then 28 years 

 old,) to the rectory of Landbeach ; a living in the gift of 

 Benet's College, Cambridge. 1 Shortly after, Bacon becom- 

 ing Lord- Keeper selected him for his chaplain ; and during 

 the last five years of his life, which were entirely occupied 

 with literary business, employed him constantly as a kind of 

 literary secretary. Nor did the connexion cease with life ; 

 for after Bacon's death Rawley was intrusted by the ex- 

 ecutors with the care and publication of his papers. Raw- 

 ley's testimony must therefore be regarded as that of a 

 witness who, however favourable and affectionate, has the 

 best right to be heard, as speaking not from hearsay but 

 from intimate and familiar knowledge during many years 

 and many changes of fortune ; and as being moreover the 

 only man among Bacon's personal acquaintances by whom 

 any of the particulars of his life have been recorded. This 

 memoir, which was printed by Blackbourne, with inter- 

 polations from Dugdale and Tenison, and placed in front 

 of his edition of 1730, but is not to be found I think 

 in any more modern edition, I have printed entire in its 

 original shape ; adding some notes of my own, by help of 

 which it may serve a modern reader for a sufficient biogra- 

 phical introduction. 



The Latin translation of it, published by Rawley in 1658 

 as an introduction to a little volume entitled Opuscula Phi- 

 losophica, and now commonly prefixed to the De Augmentis 

 Scientiarum, I have thought it superfluous to reproduce 

 here ; this edition being of little use to those who cannot read 

 English, and the translation being of no use to those who 

 can. And this brings me to the second innovation which 

 I have ventured to introduce. 



1 " Ad quam praesentatus fuit per honorand. virum Frunciscum Bacon mil. Regiae 

 maj. advocatum generalem, ejusdem vicariae [rectoriae] pro hac unica vice, ratione 

 concessions magistri et sociorum Coll. C. C. (uti asserebatur) patronua." Collections 

 prefixed to Blackbourne's edition 1730, i. 218. Bacon's father was a member and 

 benefactor of Beliefs; which accounts tor this compliment 



