"half talent, or what it is, which God hath given "me, not as heretofore, to particular exchanges, "but to banks or mounts of perfpicuity, which " will not break. "VERULAM." "Lord Chancellor Bacon," fays Howell in his Letters, "is lately dead of a long languishing illness. He died fo poor, that he scarce " left money to bury him, which (though he "had a great wit) did argue no great wisdom, "it being one of the effential properties of a "wife man to provide for the main chance. I "have read, that it had been the fortunes of all poets commonly to die beggars; but for an Orator, a Lawyer, and a Philofopher to die fo, 'tis rare. It feems the fame fate befell him "that attended Demofthenes, Seneca, and Cicero (all great men), of whom the two first fell by "corruption. The faireft diamond may have a "flaw in it; but I believe he died poor from a contempt of the pelf of fortune, as alfo out of "an excess of generofity, which appeared (as in "divers other paffages) fo once, when the King "had sent him a ftag, he fent up for the underkeeper, and having drank the King's health to "him in a great filver gilt bowl, he gave it to him " for his fee. "He "He wrote a pitiful letter to King James not long "before his death, and concludes, Help me, "dear Sovereign, Lord and Master, and pity me "fo far, that I who have been born to a bag, be " not now, in my age, forced in effect to bear a "wallet; nor that I, who defire to live to study, may be driven to study to live." σε "I write not this to derogate from the noble "worth of the Lord Viscount Verulam, who was "a rare men, reconditæ fcientia et ad falutem litera"rum natus; and, I think, the eloquenteft that " was born in this Ifle. Wilfon, in his Life of King James, fays, Though Lord Bacon had a pension allowed him by the King, he wanted to his last; living obfcurely in his lodging at Gray's Inn; where "his loneness and defolate condition wrought "upon his ingenious (and therefore then more "melancholy) temper, that he pined away. And "he had this unhappiness, after all his height of plenitude, to be denied beer to quench his thirft. For having a fickly tafte, he did not "like the beer of the house, but sent to Sir Fulk "Greville, Lord Brooke, in his neighbourhood, (now and then,) for a bottle of his beer, and "after fome grumbling, the butler had order to deny him. So fordid was the one that advanced "himfelf to be called Sir Philip Sidney's friend, " and " and fo friendlefs was the other after he had "Lord Bacon," adds Wilfon," was of a middling ftature: his countenance had in"dented with age before he was old; his pre"fence grave and comely; of a high-flying and lively wit; ftriving in fome things to be rather " admired than understood, yet fo quick and easy "where he would exprefs himself, and his me mory fo ftrong and active, that he appeared the mafter of a large and plenteous ftorehouse of knowledge, being (as it were) Nature's midwife, stripping her callow brood, and cloathing them " in new attire." сс SIR EDWARD COKE, LORD CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE COURT OF KING'S BENCH, On receiving from Lord Bacon, (who was not fupposed to be a very profound lawyer,) as a prefent, his celebrated Treatife " De Inftauratione Scienti"arum," wrote on a blank leaf, malignantly enough, this diftich: Inftaurare paras veterum documenta fophorum, TOL. I. R You You with a vain and ardent zeal explore "Five forts of perfons," fays Fuller, "this great man used to foredefign to mifery and poverty: chymifts, monopolizers, concealers, promoters, and rythming poets. For three things he faid he would give God folemn "thanks:-that he never gave his body to phyfic, nor his heart to cruelty, nor his hand "to corruption. In three things he much ap plauded his own fuccefs: in his fair fortune "with his wife, in his happy ftudy of the law, "and in his free coming by all his preferment, "nec prece nec pretio; neither begging nor bribing for preferment. He conftantly had prayers faid "in his own house, and charitably relieved the " poor with his conftant alms. The foundation of "Sutton's Hospital (the Charter-Houfe, when "indeed but a foundation) had been ruined before "it was raifed, and crushed by fome courtiers in "the hatching thereof, had not his great care "preferved the fame." When Sir Edward had loft all his public employments, and fome Peer was inclined to queftion the rights of the Cathedral of Norwich, he hindered it, by telling him plainly, "that if he "proceeded, he would put on his cap and gown gown, and follow the caufe through Weftmin❝fter-hall." He took for the motto to his rings, when he was made Serjeant: Lex eft tutiffima caffis. The Law is the fureft helmet. "This great Lawyer," fays Wilfon, " was a man " of excellent parts, but not without his frailties. "For as he was a storehouse and magazine of the "common law for the present times, and laid fuch "a foundation for the future, that pofterity may "for ever build upon, fo his paffions and pride "were so predominant, that, boyling over, he loft by them much of his own fullness, which extinguished not only the valuation, but the refpect "due to his merit. "A breach," continues Wilson, " happened "between the Lord Chief Juftice Coke and the "Lord Chancellor Ellesmere, which made a paf fage to both their declines. Sir Edward Coke "had heard and determined a caufe at common law, and fome report that there was juggling " in the bufinefs. The witnefs that knew and "fhould have related the truth was wrought "upon to be abfent if any man would under" take to excufe his non-appearance. A prag"matical fellow of the partie undertook it, went "with the witness to a tavern, called for a gal"lon pot full of fack, bid him drink, and « fo R 2 1 |