Dedication to the Edition of 1625 



THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY 



To the Right Honourable my very good Lo. the DUKE of 

 BUCKINGHAM his Grace, Lo. High Admiral of England. 



EXCELLENT Lo. 



SOLOMON says, *A good name is as a precious ointment'; 

 and I assure myself, such will your Grace's name be with 

 posterity. For your fortune and merit both have been 

 eminent. And you have planted things that are like to 

 last. I do now publish my Essays ; which, of all my other 

 works, have been most current ; for that, as it seems, they 

 come home to men's business and bosoms. I have enlarged 

 them both in number and weight ; so that they are indeed 

 a new work. I thought it therefore agreeable to my affec- 

 tion and obligation to your Grace, to prefix your name 

 before them, both in English and in Latin. For I do 

 conceive that the Latin volume of them (being in the 

 universal language) may last as long as books last. My 

 Instauration I dedicated to the King ; my History of 

 Henry the Seventh (which I have now also translated 

 into Latin), and my portions of Natural History, to the 

 Prince ; and these I dedicate to your Grace ; being of 

 the best fruits that by the good increase which God gives 

 to my pen and labours I could yield. God lead your 

 Grace by the hand. 



Your Grace's most obliged and 

 faithful servant, 



FR. ST. ALBAN. 



