monopoly of sweet wines whence he derived most of his income. Already deeply in debt, Essex now saw himself on the brink of ruin; and having persuaded himself that England's safety and his own lay in ruining his rivals, the Queen's present advisers, he plotted to surprise the court and remove them by force. The revolt miscarried and Essex was tried for treason. As one of the Learned Counsel Bacon now occupied a subordinate, unsalaried place in the Government. He has been censured because, when called upon to participate in Essex tried the trial, he did not decline; but Essex was not for treason yet condemned, and Bacon doubtless thought he could help his friend. For ten days the trial went on without results; finally the confession of accomplices revealed deliberate treasonable action on the part of Essex and his confederates. It was then too late for Bacon to decline his task; and he now set the claims of loyal citizenship above those of friendship; the general good above Bacon's part in the condemnation of private good. He pressed the charge of treason for "this late and horrible rebellion," and rightly treated Essex's defence, that he was protecting Essex himself from his enemies, as a mere afterthought. The result was the conviction of Essex and four of his followers. Even then, Bacon declared in his Apology (1601), he besought mercy of the Queen and tried to extenuate the sentence. But his effort was in vain. On February 26, 1601, Essex was executed. It is idle to see in all this, as some do, a treacherous desertion of Essex. As Professor Gardiner suggests, doubtless Bacon had a poverty of moral feeling; certainly he nowhere records any pain at having to help prosecute his friend. But two things must be borne in mind: first, Bacon had himself rendered valuable services to Essex and was under no obligation to him; second, Essex's crime seems less heinous in these days of political security than it seemed in Elizabeth's day, when the welfare of the state so largely depended on the safety of the sovereign. Under Elizabeth, Bacon never obtained an office worthy of his abilities. For a time he was but little more success "The Advancement ing," 1605 He had ful with the new sovereign. True, James honored him with knighthood; but he was dubbed along with some three hundred others. For a time Bacon lived in retirement. He now wrote the first book of The Advancement of Learning as well as the brief of Learn"Proem" to The Interpretation of Nature, in which he sets forth his real mission and motives. set himself, he says, to consider how mankind might best be served and what he was naturally best fitted to do. Of all benefits he "found none so great as the discovery of new arts, endowments, and commodities for the bettering of man's life." But if one could kindle in Nature a light that should presently disclose her most hidden secrets, that man would indeed benefit the race. He found himself best fitted for the study of truth, "with desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to reconsider, carefulness to dispose and set in order." Yet his birth and education had seasoned him in business of state; his country had special claims upon him; and believing that if he rose in the state he should Bacon's decommand industry and ability to help him in his votion to philosophiwork, he had entered public life. In this he had, cal retoo, another motive, that he "might get something done for the good of men's souls." Finding, however, that his zeal was mistaken for ambition, that his life had already reached the turning-point, and that he was leaving undone the good he alone could do, he put aside all thoughts of statecraft and betook himself wholly to this work. search But Bacon was still destined for many years to live the life of a statesman rather than of a philosopher. When the first Parliament under King James met in March, 1604, he returned to public life. In the contest between the Commons and the King over some matters of Bacon made prerogative, he skilfully led both parties to a Learned compromise. In August the King granted to Counsel, him by patent the office of Learned Counsel, 1604 and at the same time conferred on him an annual lifepension of £60. The interval between December, 1604, and the next meet of Learn ing," Bks. ing of Parliament in November, 1605, enabled Bacon "The Ad- to complete his Two Books of the Proficience vancement and Advancement of Learning. He dedicated it to the King, hoping thereby to interest James I, II; 1605 (whom he avouches to be "the learnedst king that hath reigned") in his great intellectual enterprises; but James, unfortunately, was busy with other affairs. Probably the book would have made more of a stir in the London world had it not appeared at the time of the infamous Gunpowder Plot, which overshadowed everything else. That it was an important book will be evident from the following words of Dean Church: "The Advancement was the first of a long line of books which have attempted to teach English readers how to think of knowledge; to make it really and intelligently the interest, not of the school or the study or the laboratory only, but of society at large. It was a book with a purpose, new then, but of which we have seen the fulfilment. He wanted to impress on his generation, as a very practical matter, all that knowledge might do in wise hands, all that knowledge had lost by the faults and errors of men and the misfortunes of time, all that knowledge might be pushed to in all directions by faithful and patient industry and well-planned methods for the elevation and benefit of man in his highest capacities as well as in his humblest. And he further sought to teach them how to know; to make them understand that difficult achievement of self-knowledge, to know what it is to know; to give the first attempted chart to guide them among the shallows and rocks and whirlpools which beset the course and action of thought and inquiry." Bacon made On May 10, 1606, Sir Francis Bacon married Alice BarnMarriage, ham, the "handsome daughter" of a London 1606 alderman and sheriff. Continuing to sue for preferment, he was at length successful. In June, 1607, he became Solicitor-General, receiving an annual salary of £1000. A year later the office of Clerk of the Star Chamber, the reversion of which had been promised him nineteen years before, fell vacant; the additional salary brought Bacon's income up to Clerk of the nearly $25,000 a year (£4975). An interesting Star Cham- document which has come down to us from this ber, 1608 time, the Miscellaneous Commentary, reveals much as to his secret thoughts and ambitions. His philosophical work has the chief place. He plans to inquire into the kinds of motion; to write a history of marvels, and a history of progress in the mechanical arts; to secure the foundation of a college for inventors. As a statesman and public servant he meditates much on the welfare Bacon's of Britain; on the problem of replenishing the ambitions coffers of the spendthrift King without further for England alienating the people and bringing on civil war; on confederation with the Low Countries; on reforms limiting the jurisdiction of courts of justice; on making and codifying new laws; on restoring "the Church to the true limits of authority since Henry 8th's confusion;" in short, on making Britain a real "Monarchy in the West," a power in European affairs. Truly these were great ends. Though constantly seeking office, Bacon was none the less a patriot. 66 sition in the struggle between the King and And England needed the loyal services of her sons. The struggle was beginning between King and Commons. "The great and pressing subject of the time," says Mr. Church, was the increasing difficulties of the revenue, created partly by the inevitable changes of a growing state, but much more by the King's incorrigible waste- Bacon's pofulness." By 1608 James was running behind £83,000 a year and was a million pounds in debt. The Earl of Salisbury, Bacon's cousin, who now became Lord Treasurer, proposed that the Commons should, by paying a fixed sum annually to the King, secure relief from certain burdens incident to the exercise of the royal prerogative. But after a good deal of haggling over terms, the "Great Contract" came to nothing. Bacon on the one hand defended as legal the King's claim of the right to levy custom duties on merchandize, and on the other tried to persuade the Commons to content themselves with restraining and limiting this right. But the breach was already too wide to be closed by any one man. the Com mons Bacon's literary activity kept pace with his energetic public life. His great philosophical scheme was constantly in his mind. In 1608 he wrote Heat and Cold and A History of Sound and Hearing, and probably began his Novum Organum, which he was not to publish for twelve years. The next year he sent to Bishop Andrewes a revised Minor works, 1608-12; including a new edi tion of the "Essays copy of his Thoughts and Judgments on the Interpretation of Nature, which he had written some two years before; and to Toby Matthew his Wisdom of the Ancients. In this he attempted an allegorical treatment of the Greek myths and fables, in which he thought there "lay enshrined physical discoveries and political mysteries." An enlarged edition of the Essays appeared in 1612. In the same year he wrote his Description of the Intellectual Globe, an account of astronomy, and his Theme of Heaven, its sequel, in which, ignoring Kepler's researches, he denied not only the density and solidity, but also the revolution, of the earth! He had too little time or inclination for patient study before writing. Upon the death of Salisbury in 1612, Bacon came into greater favor with the King. In 1613 he became AttorneyBacon made General, and now took a more prominent part Attorney- in state affairs. He delivered before the Star General by Chamber an earnest argument against duelling, 1613 which had become alarmingly prevalent. He also besought Parliament, though in vain, to provide for a thorough revision and codification of the laws. James, "The New Atlantis," To this period, though tradition has assigned it to the last years of his life, probably belongs The New Atlantis, an unfinished romance recalling the imaginary commonwealth of Plato's Critias, and describing 1613 especially an institution "for the interpreting of nature," as Rawley says, "and the producing of great and marvellous works for the benefit of men. . . . His Lordship thought also in this present fable to have composed a frame of laws, or of the best state or mould of a commonwealth; but foreseeing it would be a long work, his desire of collecting the Natural History diverted him, which he preferred many degrees before it." This torso is of peculiar interest, not only as the dream of an enthusiast in the cause of scientific investigation, but also from the fact that it undoubtedly |