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joining the paiiy that was advtrfe to the title of the qveen of 

 Scots; but from *' A Difcouvfe upon certain points touch- 

 ing the; inheritance of the crown, conc^jived by lir Anthony 

 Brown, and anfwcrcd by fir Nii.liolas Bacon," pubhrtud in 

 1723, by Nathaniel Boothe, of Gray's inn, Efq., from the 

 original MS., it has been inferred, that fir Nicholas Bacon 

 was 3 tnoll 'ilrenuous aflerttr of the title of the queen of 

 Sects, in oppofition to fir Anthony Brown, who had con- 

 tended for the right of the houfe of Suffolk. However 

 this be, he was plnced by Elizabeth, in 1568, at the head 

 of the con'.niiiruin for hearing the difputes between that un- 

 fortunate prinecfs and her rebellious fubjedls; and in 157 i, 

 he agani acted in the fame capacity. From this time he was 

 aprincipal agent in thecounfels of Elizabeth, andby hisinflex- 

 ible adherence to the Protellantcaufe, lliared the odium of the 

 Popifh tail ion in common witii her other principal miiiillers. 

 As a ftatelman, he manifelled great fliill in proptrly balarc- 

 ing t'le ditferent parties, and it is tin ught tliat he inlliuitcd 

 the queen in thie art, which Ihe found fo neceflary and ufciul. 

 In the chanctry he diilinguiflied himlelf by a vi.ry moderate 

 life of power, and by (liewing great refpcft 10 the common 

 law. His private as well as his public condutl was regulated 

 with great difcrction, and a moderate ufe of the tortune 

 which he had acquired. His motto was " Mcdiocria fnnia," 

 and he was accordingly content to be fafe, but did not widi 

 to be great. In his let fpeeciies he attained rhe reputation 

 of uniting two oppofite cliaradlers, viz. tliofe of a witty and 

 a weighty fpeaker. That he was not unduly exalted in his 

 own opinion, notwithftanding his eminent talents and pre- 

 ferment, appears from his modeft anfwer to queen Eliza- 

 beth, when on a vifit to him at Redgrave, fl'.e told him tiiat 

 his houfe was too little for him: " Not fo, madam," re- 

 plied fir Nicholas, " but your niajtfty has made me too 

 great tor my houfe." In deference to her majefty's opi- 

 nion, he added two wings to it; and he alfo indulged his 

 ta'.le for building and gardening, at Gorhambury, near St. 

 Albans, v\hich was a manor taken from the ancient abbey of 

 this place. Having retained his office of lord keeper for 

 moij than twenty yeai-s, with the reputation of a wife 

 ftatcfman and faitlifulconnfellor, he died, after an illnefs of a 

 few days, on the twentieth of February 1 579, in the fixty- 

 ninth )car of his age. Of his writings there are extant in 

 MS. fevcral difcourfes on topics of law and politics, and 

 alfo a commentary on the twelve minor proplicts. Biog. 

 Brit. 



Bacon, Francis, baron of Verulam, vifcount of St. Al- 

 bans, and high chancellor of England in the reign of James I. 

 the glory and ornament of his age and nation, was t!ie fon 

 of fir Nicholas Bacon, mentioned in the lall article, bv his 

 fecond wife Anne, the daughter of lir Anthony Cook, tutor 

 to king Edward ^-'I.; and born in London on the twentv- 

 fecond of January 1561. In his childhood he manifelUd 

 indications of fingular genius, from which thoic who 

 converfcd with him might have deduced prcfages of his 

 future attainments. In reply to queen Elizabeth, who 

 aflccd him how old he was, he inftantly replied, " Juft two 

 years younger than your majefty's happy reign;" and her 

 majefty, condefcending frequently to converfe with him, and 

 forming a high opinion of the folidity of his fenfe, and the 

 gravity of his behaviour, nfed pleafantly to call him " her 

 young lord keeper." At the age of thirteen, in the vear 

 1573, he was entered a lludent in Trinity college, in the 

 vmiverfily of Cambric'ge, where his progrefs under the tuition 

 of Dr. John Whitgift, afterwards archbilhop of Canterbury, 

 was rapid and furprifing. Before he had completed his fix- 

 tetnth year, he began to perceive the imperfeftions of the 

 Ariitotelian philofophy, which was then the reigning fjftem. 



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and probably to form Jti'igns of intrcducing a more rational 

 and profitable nittliod of purfuing philofophical refcarches. 

 To this ])uipofe, we are aifured by Dr. Rav\ley, who wai 

 his chaplain and bio;.':rapher, and to whom he communicated 

 feveral particulars lelatxug to the earlier peri> d of his life, 

 that his objections againll the prevalent philofophy were not 

 owing to any dilrcfpcft of Arillotle hinifilf, of whom he 

 entertaiiKd a very h'gli opinion, but to the inutility of his 

 pliilofophy, wh.cli rtas calculated to produce and perpetuate 

 difputes, ratlur tlian to atloid any fubttantial bentfit to man- 

 kind; and thefe fentimcnts of it he retained through hfe. 

 In order to perfect his education, ai d to extend liis know- 

 ledge ^)f the woilJ, his father fent him to France, and placed 

 him under the patriinage of fir Amias Pavvlct, who was then 

 the queen's anibadador at Paris. In this fituatioii he gained 

 the efttem ai;d conlidence of fir Amias to fuch a degree, 

 that he was intrulltdby him with a commitTiun to the queen, 

 which required both fecrecy and difpatch; and having exe- 

 cuted this commiirion in a manner highly lionoinable to liim- 

 felf, and equally fatisfaclory to the queen and ancbadador, 

 he returned to Paris, and from thence travelled through 

 feveral of the provinces, for the purpofe of gaining a more 

 accurate and cxtenfive acquainlaiiCe with the manners and 

 culloins of the country. The refult of his inquiries 

 appears in a treatife, intitled " Of the Hale of Europe," 

 and written when he was no more than nineteen years 

 of ace. The uncxpeflcd death of his father obliged him 

 to return fuddenly from France, and to engage in fome 

 lucrative profclhon. Accordingly he determined upon the 

 profcffion of the law, and entered himfelf in the Society of 

 Gray's Inn, where by afiiduous application he obtained fuch 

 a degree of reputation, that at the age of twenty-eight years 

 he was appointed by the queen to the honourable office of 

 her learned counfcl extraordinary in the law. Whilll he 

 was lludying at Gray's Inn, and in the twtnty-fixth year of 

 his age, he formed the plan of that great philofophical work, 

 afterwards completed, and intitled, the " Inftanration of the 

 Sciences," which will not only render his name immortal, 

 but do honour to his age and country, as long as learning 

 (hall flouiidi. The title of tiie work uhich our author com- 

 poftd at this time, was " Temporis partum maximum," or 

 the " Greateft birth of time;" with rcfpe'^l to which it ap- 

 pears, from a letter written towards the clofe of his life to 

 father Fulgentio, a learned Italian, that he lived to regret 

 the juvenile folly and vain confidence which led him to pre- 

 fix to it tliis pompous title. Thefe rudiments of Bacon's 

 philofophy have been fuppofed to be hill ; but it has been 

 fuggcfted (fee Mallet's edition of Bacon's works. Append, 

 to vol. i. p. 17.) tliat they probably remain under the more 

 modeil title " Of the Interpretation of Natuie," and that 

 philofophers may ftill have the pleafure of tracing the 

 iteps by which this great genius advanced from one dif- 

 covery in fcience to another in forming and eilablilhing his 

 {) ftem. 



From the high rank of a philofopher, in which Bacon ap- 

 pears with acknowledged pre-eminence, we are obliged to 

 defccnd, in tracing the outlines of his hiftoiy, to the level 

 of ordinary men, and to contemplate him as an humiliating 

 example of human frailty. Reduced by his father's death to 

 circumltances which rendered it necefiary for him either to 

 purfue his philofophical fpeculations in obfcure retirement, 

 or to become an obfequious dependant on the court; he un- 

 fortunately chofe the latter alternative. Allied by marriage 

 to the lord treafurer Burleigh, and to his fon Robert Cecil, 

 principal fecretary of Hate, he indulged reafonable expefta- 

 tions of advancement; but his frieiidiliip for the earl ofEflfex, 

 Cecil's avowed enemy, interpofed an obllacle in the way of 



his 



