vi BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 



fewness than any distrust of their quality that Bacon had 

 in his mind. There were, in fact, only ten of them, treat- 

 ing severally of Study, Discourse, Ceremonies and Respects, 

 Followers and Friends, Suitors, Expense, Regiment of 

 Health, Honour and Reputation, Faction, and Negociating. 

 These occupy but twenty-five small octavo pages, and the 

 rest of the little book, which contains in all only six-and- 

 thirty leaves, is made up with the Latin Meditationes Sacrae 

 and the c Places of Persuasion and Dissuasion/ or as they 

 are called on their half-title, ' The Colours of Good and 

 Evil/ The dates connected with the book's appearance 

 lend some probability to the fear of piracy which Bacon 

 expressed in his preface. Although this is dated ' From 

 my Chamber at Graie's Inne this 30 of Januarie, 1597 ' 

 (Bacon, as we should expect, reckoning his year from 

 January), the copy now in the British Museum was bought 

 on the seventh of the following month, as attested by the 

 inscription on the title-page, Septimo die Februarii^ 39 

 E\_lizabethae] R[eginae\^ pretium xxd. The high price paid 

 shows, moreover, that the dainty vellum jacket, encircled 

 with a gold fillet and with a flower in the centre, was 

 already on the book, so that the printing off of the preli- 

 minary sheet and the casing of the book in its * trade 

 binding ' must have been accomplished within a week, 

 quick work, which suggests a fear of anticipation. 



A second edition of the Essays was issued by the same 

 publisher, Humphrey Hooper, in 1598, and in 1606 Isaac 

 Jaggard pirated them. He did more, for when six years 

 later Bacon entrusted John Beale with copy for an enlarged 

 edition, Jaggard, who was then bringing out a re-issue on 

 his own behalf, impudently added the new matter to it as 

 4 the second part.' Beale's new edition contains thirty-eight 

 essays, i.e. nine of the original ten (the exception is that of 



