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elude, that the ignorance of thofe who dif- 
grace the Univerfities, cannot with juftice 
be afcribed to the want of opportunity. 
To corroborate what I have faid in favour 
of our Engiifh Univerfities, and at the fame 
time to relieve you, in fome degree, from the 
didactic dulnefs of thefe parental epiftles, I 
will endeavour to give you a Iketch of the 
portraits of fome of thofe men whom I have 
mentioned as ornaments to the feminaries 
in which they were educated. 
FRANCIS BACON, the fon of Sir Nicholas 
Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, in 
the reign of Elizabeth, was born in 1561. 
In the twelfth year of his age, he was en- 
tered a Student of Trinity College, Cam- 
bridge. By this early admiflion, you per- 
ceive, that Students in the Univerfities, 
during the firft three or four years, were 
fchool boys; and hence, we may probably 
account for the prevalent continuance of 
grammatical and claflical learning, at one 
Univerfity, and for the cuftom of fcholaftic 
impofitions in both. 
Such however was the genius and appli- 
cation of this boy, that, by the time he was 
fixteen, he is faid to have completed the 
circle of the fciences then taught, and to 
c 3 have 
