BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 



though it was then customary for judges to take presents from 

 suitors, they should never be accepted while the cause was 

 pending. The charges against him were sent to the House of 

 Lords for investigation, but Bacon s health broke down, and he 

 was not able to defend himself. When he saw the charges in 

 detail, he acknowledged that he had come under condemnation 

 by taking money while cases were pending, though he had never 

 taken a bribe from corrupt motives. He made a confession and 

 submission to the Lords, hoping for lenient treatment. But he 

 was dismissed from the Chancellorship, fined ^&quot;40,000, ordered 

 to be imprisoned during the king s pleasure, and excluded from 

 Parliament and the Court. The king released him after a few 

 days, assigned his fine to trustees for his use, and gave him a 

 qualified pardon. 



Bacon, conscious of having judged impartially and indepen 

 dently of suitors presents, was not so cast down but that he was 

 able to turn immediately to his literary and scientific pursuits. 

 By October in the year of his fall he had finished his &quot; History of 

 Henry VII. &quot;; next he translated into Latin his &quot;Advancement 

 of Learning.&quot; He offered to draw up a digest of English law, 

 and still sought for public employment. In 1625 he in vain 

 applied for a full pardon, so that he could once more sit in 

 parliament. lie continued to work at his &quot; Instauratio Magna,&quot; 

 but ill-health now made his work difficult. He took a chill in 

 getting some snow to insert in a fowl in order to observe its effect 

 in preserving the flesh, and died at Lord Arundel s on April 9, 

 1626, of bronchitis. He was buried at St. Michael s Church, St. 

 Albans. 



Bacon s Essays, whatever we may think of the opinions they 

 express, are certainly models of condensed expressive style. One 

 may say, as a general rule, that everything is said well, so as to 

 convey the author s meaning, in the fewest and most appropriate 

 words. Even Shakespeare does not afford a larger proportion of 

 generally known quotations than these Essays. 



As to the matter of many of the Essays opinion differs widely. 

 For instance, in saying that &quot; the stage is more beholding to love 

 than the life of man,&quot; the author contradicts human experience* 



