BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 



FRANCIS BACON, statesman, lawyer, philosopher, and essayist, 

 was the second son by his second wife of the Lord Keeper Sir 

 Nicholas Bacon, and was born at York House, close to Charing 

 Cross, on January 22, 1561. At the age of twelve years and three 

 months he entered at Trinity College, Cambridge, but remained 

 there less than two years. His father died in 1579, leaving him 

 but a Mnall fortune. He set to work at law, having already entered 

 at Gray s Inn, and was admitted to the bar in 1582. In 1584 he 

 became M.P. for Mclcombc Regis, and he immediately took 

 advantage of the ferment of public opinion about Mary Queen of 

 Scots, to address a &quot; Letter of Advice to Queen Elizabeth,&quot; 

 which at once showed that he possessed a political genius far in 

 advance of his time. He strongly advised toleration of the 

 Catholics, whom he would only require to swear that they would 

 bear arms against any foreign prince, or the pope, who should 

 invade England. His next important step (in 1591) was to make 

 the acquaintance of the Earl of Essex, who became warmly 

 attached to him, while Bacon s friendship was scarcely disinterested, 

 one of his objects being thus expressed by himself fourteen years 

 later : &quot; I held at that time my lord to be the fittest instrument 

 to do good to the State ; and therefore I applied myself to him 

 in a manner which I think rarely happeneth among men.&quot; lie 

 gave him on all public matters the benefit of his statesmanlike 

 advice, hoping that Essex would succeed in carrying it into effect 

 He himself took important action in the Parliament of 1593, in 

 which he sat for the county of Middlesex, being successful in bis 



