upon them. Therefore I held it best discretion to publish them myself, as they passed long ago from my pen, without any further disgrace than the weakness of the author. And as I did ever hold, there might be as great a vanity in retiring and withdrawing men's conceits (except they be of some nature) from the world, as in obtruding them: so in these particulars I have played myself the inquisitor, and find nothing to my understanding in them contrary or infectious to the state of religion, or manners, but rather, as I suppose, medicinable. Only I disliked now to put them out, because they will be like the late new halfpence, which, though the silver were good, yet the pieces were small. But since they would not stay with their master, but would needs travel abroad, I have preferred them to you that are next myself; dedicating them, such as they are, to our love, in the depth whereof, I assure you, I sometimes wish your infirmities translated upon myself, that her Majesty might have the service of so active and able a mind; and I might be with excuse confined to these contemplations and studies, for which I am fittest: so commend I you to the preservation of the Divine Majesty. From my chamber at Gray's Inn, this 30th of January, 1597.

"Your entire loving brother,

"FRANCIS BACON."

This edition was reprinted in 1598 by Humphrey Hooper, with the Religious Meditations in English,

but otherwise unchanged, and eight years later John Jaggard put out a pirated edition.

The second regular and authorized edition was printed at London, in 1612, in an octavo entitled "The Essaies of Sir Francis Bacon, Knight, the Kings Solliciter Generall. Imprinted at London by John Beale, 1612," and dedicated in the following words to Sir John Constable, Bacon's brother-inlaw:

"To My Loving Brother,

"SIR JOHN CONSTABLE, KNT.

"My last Essays I dedicated to my dear brother, Mr. Anthony Bacon, who is with God. Looking among my papers this vacation, I found others of the same nature: which, if I myself shall not suffer to be lost, it seemeth the world will not, by the often printing of the former. Missing my brother, I found you next; in respect of bond both of near alliance, and of straight friendship and society, and particularly of communication in studies. Wherein I must acknowledge myself beholding to you. For as my business found rest in my contemplations, so my contemplations ever found rest in your loving conference and judgment. So wishing you all good, 1 remain your loving brother and friend,

"1612."

"FRANCIS BACON.

Bacon had originally intended to dedicate this edition to Henry, Prince of Wales, who, however, died

before the book was published. It contained thirtyeight essays, including all but one-"Honour and Reputation" — of the original group, though in forms much revised and amplified. "I always alter," said Bacon, "when I add, so that nothing is finished till all is finished." Though the table gives forty titles, the last two, "Of the Public" and "Of War and Peace," were virtually merged with "Of Greatness of Kingdoms."

Four pirated editions followed, dated one in 1612, one in 1613, and two in 1624. The third regular edition, a quarto, appeared in 1625, entitled "The Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall, of Francis L. Verulam, Viscount St. Alban. Newly enlarged. London, Printed by John Haviland for Hanna Barret and Richard Whitaker, and are to be sold at the Signe of the King's Head in Paul's Churchyard." It was dedicated to the Duke of Buckingham, and contained fifty-eight essays, the original ten, including "Honour and Reputation"; the twenty-nine added in 1612; and nineteen new. Of the thirtynine previously published nearly all had undergone close revision, and much new material had been added to them. "Of Religion" and "Of Friendship," two of the essays of the second edition, were re-written in toto.

That the Essays brought him more contemporary popularity as a writer than any other of his works was early recognized by Bacon, "for that, as it seems, they come home to men's business and

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bosoms." It cannot be said, however, that he ever looked upon them as peculiarly of his own business and bosom. As for my Essays, and some other particulars of that nature," he writes to the Bishop of Winchester, "I count them but as the recreations of my other studies, and in that manner purpose to continue them; though I am not ignorant that these kind of writings would, with less pains and assiduity, perhaps yield more lustre and reputation to my name than the others I have in hand." Bacon's idea of them would seem to be that they were as the diverse byways leading to the large and solid structure of his thought-system, represented by such works as the Novum Organum, De Augmentis Scientiarum, and Advancement of Learning, and that though many of his readers would doubtless be content to wander in these little paths, so perhaps catching occasional and various glimpses of the central building, yet that possibly those very glimpses might lead a few at least to undertake the more toilsome excursion into and through the building itself. It is not difficult, on this hypothesis, to account for Bacon's eagerness to have the Essays, with his other English works, translated into Latin, a task in which his good friends George Herbert and Ben Jonson, with others, participated. The Essays appeared also in French and Italian.

Why Bacon placed such positive faith in the future of the Latin tongue is a question less readily answered when we consider the power, aspiration, and

essential independence of the Elizabethan temper, and the boldly successful use of homeliest Saxon by such men as Shakespeare, Spenser, Raleigh, and even Bacon himself, as occasion directed and justified. It cannot, of course, be fairly said that Shakespeare and Spenser deliberately anticipated their fame, or thought much about the permanency of their vernacular, despite Spenser's dedicatory phrase of hope that the Faerie Queene should live. with the eternity of Elizabeth's fame. Indeed, the really great Elizabethans, with the prominent exception of Bacon, show for the most part a much more royal indifference to their future memories and influence than their modern successors are accustomed to do. It is true that late Tudor English shows a marked Latinizing tendency, owing to the revival of interest in classical literature and the unquenchable curiosity of the men of the Renaissance in both intellectual and physical travel. The prevailing craze for Euphuisma vice from which Shakespeare, Sidney, and Bacon themselves, though condemning it, were not wholly free, especially in their earlier work was due to the belief of John Lyly, its foremost exponent, and others, that there was as yet no standard of good English style a defect they sought to remedy by the over-nice use of classical balance and Italian ornament. Antithesis, alliteration, and assonance are its prevailing characteristics, and excellent specimens, outside of Lyly's Euphues, may be found in such a phrase as this, from Sidney's