PREFACE.

N the early part of the Year 1597 Lord Bacon's firft Publication appeared. It is a small 12mo. volume, entitled Effayes, Religious Meditations, Places of Perfwafion and Diffwafion. It is dedicated 'To M. Anthony Bacon, his deare Brother. Louing and beloued Brother, I doe nowe like some that have an Orcharde ill Neighbored, that gather their Fruit before it is ripe, to preuent stealing. Thefe Fragments of my Conceites were going to print, To labour the ftaie of them had bin troublesome, and fubiect to interpretation; to let them paffe had beene to aduenture the wrong they mought receiue by vntrue Coppies, or by fome Garnifhment, which it mought please any that should fet them forth to beftow vpon them. Therefore I helde it beft as they paffed long agoe from my Pen, without any further difgrace, then the weakneffe of } the Author. And as I did euer hold, there mought be as great a vanitie in retiring and withdrawing mens conceites (except they bee of fome nature) from the World, as in obtruding them: So in these particulars I haue played myself the Inquifitor, and b

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find nothing to my vnderstanding in them contrarie or infectious to the state of Religion, or Manners, but rather (as I fuppofe) medecinable. Only I disliked now to put them out, because they will be like the late new Halfe-pence, which, though the Siluer were good, yet the Peeces were small. But fince they would not stay with their Master, but would needes trauaile abroade, I haue preferred them to you that are next my felfe, Dedicating them, fuch as they are, to our Loue, in the depth whereof (I affure you) I fometimes wish your Infirmities tranflated vppon my felfe, that her Maieftie mought haue the Seruice of fo actiue and able a Mind, and I mought be with excufe confined to these Contemplations and Studies for which I am fittest, so commend I you to the Preferuation of the Diuine Maieftie: From my Chamber at Graies Inne, this 30 of Januarie, 1597. Your entire Louing Brother, FRAN. BACON.'

The Essays, which are ten in number, abound with condensed Thought and practical Wifdom, neatly, preffly, and weightily stated, and, like all his early Works, are fimple, without imagery. They are written in his favourite ftyle of Aphorifms, although each Effay is apparently a continued Work, and without that love of antithefis and false glitter to which truth and justness of thought are frequently facrificed by the Writers of Maxims.

A fecond Edition, with a Translation of the Meditationes Sacra, was published in the next Year; and another Edition enlarged in 1612, when he was Solicitor-general, containing thirty

eight Effays; and one ftill more enlarged in 1625, containing fifty-eight Effays, the Year before his death.

The Essays in the subsequent Editions are much augmented, according to his own Words, “I always alter when I add, so that nothing is finished till all is finished," and they are adorned by happy and familiar Illustration, as in the Effay of Wisdom for a Man's felf, which concludes in the edition of 1625, with the following extract, not to be found in the previous edition :-" Wisdom for a Man's Self, is, in many Branches thereof, a depraved thing. It is the Wisdom of Rats, that will be sure to leave a House, somewhat before it fall. It is the Wif dom of the Fox, that thrusts out the Badger, who digged and made Room for him. It is the Wif dom of Crocodiles, that shed tears, when they would devour. But that which is specially to be noted is, that those, which (as Cicero fays of Pompey) are, Sui Amantes fine Rivali, are many times unfortunate. And whereas they have all their time facrificed to Themselves, they become in the end themfelves Sacrifices to the Inconftancy of Fortune; whose Wings they thought, by their Self-Wisdom, to have pinioned."

So in the Effay upon Adverfity, on which he had deeply reflected, before the edition of 1625, when it first appeared, he says: "The Virtue of Profperity is Temperance; the Virtue of Adversity is Fortitude; which in Morals is the more Heroical Virtue. Profperity is the bleffing of the Old Testament; Adverfity is the Bleffing of the New,

which carrieth the great Benediction, and the clearer Revelation of God's Favour. Yet, even in the Old Testament, if you liften to David's Harp, you fhall hear as many hearfe-like Airs, as Carols: And the Pencil of the Holy Ghost hath laboured more, in describing the Afflictions of Job, than the Felicities of Solomon. Profperity is not without many Fears and Distastes; and Adversity is not without Comforts and Hopes. We see in Needleworks and Embroideries, it is more pleafing to have a lively Work, upon a Sad and Solemn Ground, than to have a dark and melancholy Work, upon a lightsome Ground: Judge, therefore, of the Pleafure of the Heart, by the Pleasure of the Eye. Certainly, Virtue is like precious Odours, most fragrant when they are incensed, or crushed: For Profperity doth best discover Vice; but Adversity doth beft discover Virtue."

The Effays were immediately translated into French and Italian, and into Latin by some of his Friends, amongst whom were Hacket, Bishop of Lichfield, and his conftant affectionate Friend, Ben: Fonfon.

His own eftimate of the value of this Work is thus ftated in his Letter to the Bishop of Winchefter: "As for my Essays, and fome other Particulars of that nature, 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 Affiduity, perhaps yield more Luftre and Reputation to my Name than the others I have in hand."