NGIS BACON . tL, S KEM P,M.A.,Ph.D II - I Mi ll THEPEOPLE'S -B OOKS THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES GIFT OF FREDERIC THOMAS BLANCHARD FRANCIS BACON By a. R. SKEMP, M.A., Ph. WINTER9T0KR PROPESSOn CP ENGLISH ID THE BNIVKRSITY OP BRISTOL 9^ ^ -A LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK 67 LONG ACRE, W.C, AND EDINBURGH NEW YORK: DODGE PUBLISHING CO. \^'~\ CONTENTS CHAP. PAtlB I. THE DAYS OF PREPARATION .... 7 n. BACON AND ESSEX : THE DAYS OF STRUGGLE . 20 III. BACON AND JAMES I. : THE DAYS OF PROSPERITY 34 IV. BACON AND JAMES I. : THE DAYS OF ADVERSITY 47 V. bacon's philosophy 59 VI. NEW ATLANTIS — HISTORICAL WORK — ESSAYS — STYLE 76 FRANCIS BACON CHAPTER I THE DAYS OF PEEPAKATION The life of Francis Bacon (1561-1626) covers the period of richest fulfihnent in England of the Renascence spirit. Witliin the decade before his birth had been born Spenser, the poet who best expresses the positive moral and aesthetic ideals of the English Renascence ; Hooker, whose fine spirit apprehended the best elements in the settlement of the English Church, and whose massive intellect took service under his intense rehgious instinct to give a defined position, a coherent justification, and a philosophical apology to that wise compromise between inherited faith, reforming zeal, and political exigency; and Sidney, poet and soldier, lover and philosopher, idealist and courtier, the very perfect gentle knight of the new chivalry. Two years after him were bom Marlowe, in whose wild genius blazed into expression the Renascence craving for utter emotional and intel- lectual freedom and fulfilment ; and Shakespeare, in whom the fire of the new youth of the world brightened into the clearest flame of supreme genius. In this galaxy Bacon shines with the " dry light " which he praised for the illumination of truth ; a cold star, lighting the way of intellectual progress. Among the Elizabethans, Bacon stands second in intellectual power only to Shakespeare. His devotion to know- ledge, his sense that he was " bom to serve mankind," his optimism concerning man's ultimate government of 7 8 FRANCIS BACON Nature, the independence and vastness and massive power of his intellect, his foresight and insight as a statesman, the strength and beauty of his style, now terse and epigiammatic, now dignified and flowing, always lucid and vivid — all these compel admiration. But no man of comparable greatness offers less attrac- tion to hero-worship. This is not merely because some of Bacon's actions stand open to grave criticism, not because an extreme judgment might condemn him as non-moral or immoral. The gulf between Bacon's intellectual position and the usual moral-sentimental Victorian position was indeed too great to be bridged ; but a generation trained in criticism of traditional moral standards by Nietzsche, or at least by Mr. Bernard Shaw, should understand Bacon's character better and judge his actions more tolerantly than did most nineteenth century critics. Comprehension, however, brings no feeling warmer than admiration and pity, for Bacon himself stood aloof from warmer emotions. He used love and friendship, and hate and fear, and all personal emotions, as tools of the cold, governing mind. Personal ambition he knew, and the nobler ambitions of the scientist and statesman ; patriotism he felt, and the ^\^de^ emotion that seeks the progress of all mankind ; he was jealous of his rivals, he despised the httle minds that baffled him, he was moderately grateful to those who helped him ; but he was never the servant of either the best or the worst of these feehngs. He cherished great ideals and served them devotedly, but he never sacrificed himself for them. But though Bacon's life thus fails to make the intimate personal appeal of the life of Sidney or Raleigh, it is fascinating in its perfectly coherent revelation of a most striking personality, and its chmax moves the dramatic imagination. It is impossible to follow this story of a great character betrayed by its own weakness to the attack of circumstance, without feehng its tragedy, and paying due tribute of pity and awe. Bacon was marked out for great opportunities by his THE DAYS OF PREPARATION 9 birth. His father, Sir Nicholas Bacon, was Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, His mother was a daughter of Sir Anthony Cook, tutor of Edward VI. Her sister married Sir William Cecil, who became Lord Burghley in 1571 and Lord Treasurer in 1572. Francis was born on January 22nd, 1561, at York House, in the Strand, the Lord Keeper's official residence ; a house later to be the object of poignant associations, for Bacon became its master as Lord Chancellor in the hour of his triumph, and yielded it as the price of Buckingham's protection in the hour of his fall. His childhood was spent partly at York House, partly at his father's country house at Gorhambury, in Hertfordshire. He was the youngest of eight children — six by his father's first marriage, and one full brother, Anthony, with whom he was parti- cularly closely associated during the later years of his boyhood. Sir Nicholas Bacon was a sound lawyer, an honest, independent and intelligent statesman, a warm friend to education. Puttenham, North and Ben Jonson attest his eloquence, and a wealth of contemporary evidence proves the wide popularity which he gained by his genial temper and his pleasant wit. Bacon's character owed more, however, to his mother than to his father. It is reported that Lady Ann Bacon assisted her father in instructing Edward VI. ; certainly she was one of the learned women of the day, mistress of Latin, Greek, Itahan and French. More noteworthy even than her scholarship was her fervent and un- wavering zeal for Puritanism. She used her learning and her influence alike in its service, and her extant letters to her sons, at Cambridge and at Gray's Inn, show how strenuously she endeavoured to impart to them her o^\^l Puritan zeal. Sir Nicholas also showed Puritan leanings, though his chief desire was to estab- lish the Church of England firmly. Bacon thus grew up in an atmosphere which prepared him to feel tole- rantly towards the Puritans ; and the width of view and wisdom of judgment wliich mark his writings on Church controversies may be traced in some part to his 10 FRANCIS BACON early training. The massive practical sense of Bacon safeguarded him from following his mother in her wilder flights ; indeed fanaticism of all kinds repelled him, and without the influence of his early training he might well have failed in justice to the Puritans. His temperament made him moderate, his training helped to make him tolerant, and he extended to the Cathohcs the fairness of judgment which he had first learned for the sake of their bitterest enemies. The earliest influences in Bacon's life were thus high and serious. The child would perhaps appreciate rather the dignity and power of his father's office than the greatness of the affairs concerned ; but at least he would learn to think familiarly of great persons and movements. He would feel above all the supreme power of the Queen, and as he grew older he may well have heard something of the care and diplomacy needed in working for her. He commenced courtier while still a boy ; the Queen asked his age, and he answered : " Only two years younger than your Majesty's happy reign." The answer, with its apt emphasis on the memorable fact under which the httle personal fact must fall, suited the grave, seK-possessed yet deferential boy, and pleased the Queen ; and she named him " her young Lord Keeper." Of his early education we know little. Early in his thirteenth year, in April 1573, he and his brother Anthony were sent up to Trinity CoUege, Cambridge, where Whitgift, later Archbishop of Canterbury, was their tutor. Whitgift's influence, thrown wholly on the side of the Established Church, doubtless strengthened Bacon's natural inclination to the most practical solution of the rehgious controversies. Scant record remains of these undergraduate days. We learn, from charges paid to the " potigarie," that both boys were rather sickly ; and both gained a reputation for assiduous study. According to a late reminiscence of Bacon's, recorded by Ids first biographer (his chaplain. Dr. Rawley), he began, even in these days to distrust Aristotle, not for his matter, but for " the unfruitfulness of liis way." The THE DAYS OF PREPARATION 11 academic tradition of the Middle Ages still lingered in England, and Aristotle was the idol of its worship. Bacon was constitutionally incapable of idol-worship — a characteristic that explains some of liis hmitations as well as much of his greatness. His vigorous and sinewy mind was ever ready to wTestle for the blessing of truth ; and it may well be that even in these early days he tried a fall with the greatest of the estabhshed champions of philosophy. In Jime 1576 the two brothers were admitted together to Gray's Inn as " ancients " {de societate magistrorum) . Finally, completing his education in the recognized way, Francis was sent abroad to widen his experience and gain an insight into diplomatic methods. He was attached to the household of Sir Amyas Paulet, who went to France in September 1576, and took up duty as ambassador in the following February. Bacon spent the next two years with the embassy, following the Court from Paris to Blois, to Tours, to Poitiers. These years held many stirring events — the intrigues of Don John of Austria ^nth Mary Queen of Scots, planning their marriage and the invasion of England ; a Portuguese plan for the invasion of Ireland, supported by Spain and the Pope ; civil war in France — events offering education of a different kind from that of the University and Gray's Inn. We can imagine Bacon's patriotism and loyalty growing more devoted in face of attacks on his country and his Queen ; his Protestantism growing more definitely poUtical, and more careless of theological issues, in face of political CathoHcism ; his sense of the evil of civil war quickening by observa- tion ; and his mind developing among new experiences, testing its ideals and theories by practical Hfe and learning the supple and cynical wisdom of political intrigue. Bacon's apprenticeship to diplomacy was brought to an abrupt and sad close. In February 1579 his father died, very suddenly, from the effects of a chill. Bacon recorded later, in Sylva Sylvarum, that a dream warned him before the news arrived ; he dreamt that his father's 12 FRANCIS BACON house in the country was plastered all over with black mortar. The circumstance is noteworthy, for such an experience, whatever its explanation, must have dis- posed Bacon to view the so-called supernatural with more credulity. The suddenness of Sir Nicholas Bacon's death was calamitous to Bacon's material prospects. After providing for his other sons, his father had set aside a large sum to purchase an estate for Francis. Death prevented the provision, and Francis inherited only one- fifth of the fortune devised for him. His prospects were completely changed. Tlie son of the great minister, -with independent means, might have chosen his career freely ; fatherless, confronted by the need of making a Uving suitable to his position, with no more powerful support than the uncertain friendship of an uncle by marriage, he had no choice. His training, the example of his father's career, the hope that the influence he might expect to command would here be especially serviceable, the substantial prizes to be gained, the suitability of the profession as preparation for more attractive offices of state, all pointed to the law ; and Bacon at once turned to the law as the immediate practical business of his hfe. For a man of stronger character, this change of prospect might have been actually beneficial. The sense of self-dependence might have spurred him on to effort without any sacrifice of lofty purpose or of freedom of personality. But Bacon's moral consti- tution was not strong enough to bear the harsh discipline of adversity. The longing for power and for variety of experience, so characteristic of the Renascence, was strong in Bacon. In one mood he believed that he was " more fitted to hold a book than to govern affairs " ; but the scholar's life could not in any circumstances have satisfied him. The ultimate aim of his philosophy was to govern Nature ; and the governing temper, fostered by a boyhood passed among statesmen, could not turn away from practical affairs. " Only the dull are modest," and Bacon knew his own powers. He wished to use them in the service of his country and of man- THE DAYS OF PREPARATION 13 kind, but he wanted more than the mere joy of service. His desire not only for power, but also for the pomp and circumstance of power, was instinctive and un- appeasable ; and it sometimes drove him along devious paths. Intellectually he towers above his age ; in moral sense he is an average Elizabethan, keener indeed in apprehending the intellectual element in morality, correspondingly more contemptuous of the useful, unreflecting traditions of honourable action. He was adventurer and patriot, scholar and man of affairs, egoist and altruist. Endowed with true political wisdom, and eager to serve liis country well, his desire to keep his sovereign's favour could make him beheve that the best waj^ to his great end was the crooked way of flattery and timeserving compromise. Hungry for the truth, and nobly confident in the power of know- ledge, he could yet subordinate his pursuit of knowledge to his pursuit of place. Zealous to serve mankind, he was not prepared in that service to imperil the im- mediate interests of Francis Bacon. The elements in his complex nature were so combined that he was seldom conscious of any clash between them. He could believe that he acted meanly from noble motives. Bacon's life can only be understood if this complexity of character is kept constantly in view. We must remember, too, that his paradoxical combination of philanthropy and cynicism was stimulated by the in- tellectual and moral atmosphere of his age. That distrust of tradition which was natural to the new learning, a distrust which in the purely intellectual sphere was infinitely valuable, proving all things and holding fast that which was true, was a source of immediate danger in the moral sphere. After the break up of the mediaeval Christian code of action came a time of chaos ; the intellect experimented and blundered towards the development of a new code, in which reason gave new authority to the best elements in the old. The justification of the means by the end was not doctrine of the Jesuits only. Statesmen caught up 14 FRANCIS BACON the same idea. Maehiavelli's Prince, one of the most influential books of the Renascence, argued with very great power and subtlety for a statecraft based on ex- ploitation of the weaknesses of men, turning them to account for government. Two main characteristics emerge very early in Bacon's methods, both perfectly comprehensible in view of his character. He recognized that power was concentrated in the hands of a few, supremely in the hands of the sovereign ; and that the simplest practi- cal means of reaching an end was often not the method ethically ideal. From the first premise it followed that the first step towards practical power was to secure the favour of one who held it. From the second it followed that the means of doing this were chosen for convenience. Truth and openness he recognized as the ideals of a statesman ; but ideals could not always be fulfilled. Bacon's first efforts towards pro- motion were directed partly to prove his capacity, partly to secure influential support, without which the highest merit might remain a beggar. He settled at Gray's Inn, and pursued his studies in law ; but his wish was to obtain some Cro^Tn office, not to practise at the Bar. He turned naturally for patronage to Lord Treasurer Burghley. his uncle by marriage. Exactly what employment he sought remains uncertain. In his fii'st letter to Burghley he acknowledges " that the request is rare and unaccustomed," and declares " my hope of it resteth only upon your lordship's good affection towards me and grace with her Majesty." He concludes ^dth a protestation of boundless gratitude and service in a style which grows familiar in his later letters : " I cannot account yom- lordship's service distinct from that which I owe to God and my Prince ; the performance whereof to best proof and purpose is the meeting - point and rendezvous of all my thoughts." Bacon's next letter is full of gratitude to Burghley and to the Queen, who had promised " to vouchsafe to appropriate me into her service." But he was to THE DAYS OF PREPARATION 15 find to his cost that both the Queen and her Minister were past-masters of that art of inexpensive promising which later he himself applauded : " Certainly, the pohtic and artificial nourishing and entertaining of hopes, and carrying men from hopes to hopes, is one of the best antidotes against the poison of discontentments." Bacon had to find such nourishment as he could in hope, for no office was given to him. He continued his studies, and was admitted " Utter Barrister " in 1582. Two years later came a first instalment of " satisfaction " ; he was returned to Parhament for Melcombe Regis. At this time, the chief care of Parhament was to secure the throne, and with it Protestantism, against the attacks of Papists. Fourteen years before. Pope Pius V. had issued a Bull of Excommunication, de- posing the Queen ; and the intervening time had seen repeated plots against her rule and against her life. Elizabeth's death and the accession of Mary Stuart would have meant a retm-n of Cathohcism, or ci\dl war ; and the quarrelling sects in Parhament made common cause against the Cathohc, while patriotism stood to arms for the independence of England against the intrigues of Spain and of Rome. Parliament met in a fervour of Protestantism and patriotic enthusiasm. It sanctioned the " Bond of Association " by which subjects voluntarily bound themselves to defend the Queen, and put to death any person by whom or on whose behalf any attempt against her life should be made ; and new repressive measures against the Catholics were passed. At such critical times, it was the custom that any person of not too shght importance, who felt that he had valuable advice to offer, should address it to the sovereign or to a Minister of State. We have a letter to the Queen on the treatment of the Cathohcs, wTitten probably about the end of 1584, which, though the evidence does not amount to proof, we may probably ascribe to Bacon. In this, his first recorded utterance on the attitude of the state towards sectarians. Bacon takes up the position from 16 FRANCIS BACON which he never wavered. He considers the situa-l tion purely from the pohtical point of view, withj statesmanlike impartiahty. He could not appreciate the passionate strength of feeling with which the ex- tremists on either side viewed the theological issue. His own rehgious feehng laid httle stress on dogma ; indeed, it provided rather a supplement to his intel- lectual life than an essential element in it. The problem must thus have appeared to him simpler than it was. Ho advises a modification m the oath of allegiance, " to this sense : that whosoever would not bear arms against all foreign princes, and namely the Pope, that should in any way invade your Majesty's dominions, he should be a traitor." The issue is thus made pohtical, not theological ; and recusants would be punished for treachery, not for Romanism, He further suggests unobtrusive measures to weaken the Cathohc position : liberty to the Puritan preachers, whose de- partures from orthodox Anghcanism are outweighed by their powerful influence against Papistry ; super- vision of education ; pro\nsion that no Cathohc shall hold state office ; protection of Protestant tenants against Catholic landlords, and so on. More vigorous methods he deprecates as likely to drive Catholics to despair and desperate action. Above all, they must not be given the glory of martyrdom. " Compel them you would not, kill them you would not, so in reason trust them you would not." Events soon justified, and in their issue removed, the urgency of the national mistrust of Catholics and fear of Spain. Mary Queen of Scots was executed in 1587, and the Armada was defeated in 1588. And with the removal, for the time at least, of the general danger to Protestantism, Protestants threw their re- leased vigour again into their internal struggles. For thirty years the Puritans and the supporters of the middle way had been at strife. Archbishop Parker's demand for conformity had driven the first dissenters out of the Church. His successor, Grindal, on the other hand, had championed the cause of the moderate THE DAYS OF PREPARATION 17 Puritans against Elizabeth, and indeed was suspended for refusing to put doA^Ti their meetings or " prophesy- ings." In 1583 Bacon's old tutor, Whitgift, became Archbishop, and renewed with great severity the attempt to enforce conformity. The defeat of the Armada, which removed the cause of temporary truce, was promptly followed by the pubhcation of the Martin Marprelate tracts against the Archbishop ; and the theological issue lay, for the rest of Ehzabeth's reign, between the rival sects of Protestants, not between Protestant and CathoHc. Bacon had shown his attitude by some remarks in the Letter of Advice just discussed. " I am not given over, no, nor so much as addicted, to their preciseness ; therefore, till I think that you tliink othen^ise ^ I am bold to think that the bishops in this dangerous time take a very evil and unadvised course in driving them from their cures " ; for, he proceeds, England's influence abroad must suffer through internal dissensions, and though " oversqueamish and nice," the Puritans are useful in " lessening and diminishing the Papistical number." The same attitude characterizes An Advertisement touching the Controversies of the Church of England, wTitten in 1589. Bacon was the son of a zealous Puritan, but the pupil of Whitgift. His intervention was as impartial as these circumstances would lead us to expect. His religious views had long troubled his mother. She warns Anthony against his advice and example in these matters ; and again, advising Anthony to pray with his servants twice daily, remarks " Your brother is too negligent therein." Bacon's intellectual temper was above all critical. It led him in theological affairs to a position somewhat aloof ; he surveyed the strife without real sympathy for either party, for he could see no essential importance in the questions at issue. The real problem for him was to find a settlement satisfactory, not to the theologians on either side, but to the statesman. He saw in the Puritan movement an important force, producing results ^ Note the chai-acteristic readiness to withdraw his opinion if it is distasteful 18 FRANCIS BACON good and bad : making for righteousness and purity, and potent against the pohtical danger of Romanism ; but making also for intellectual narrowness, for intoler- ance, for impatience of authority, for a religion with the fault he combated in philosophy — the fault of slavery to words. He saw in the extreme Episcopahan move- ment another important force, making for law and order, for a Church system harmonizing with the general system of national government ; but at the same time making for arbitrary action, for an arrogant self-satis- faction wiiich ignored just criticism, for worldliness and laxity. His censures on both extremes were just; but he failed to see that each side was fighting for principles which it believed to be of the very first importance. His solution was that of the finest common sense; to combine on essentials, to agree to differ on non-essen- tials, to remedy the serious evils in the estabhshed system, and to leave liberty for intellectual differences not dangerous to that system. But fortunately for the soul, though unfortunately for the convenience of daily life, there are matters in religion, even in dogma, beyond the judgment of common sense. Bacon's cool and clear intellect could not imagine a mind so dominated by religious emotion that every detail of its behef, even every circumstance of its worship, was important to it beyond any worldly tiling. Therefore his solution was valueless to the intensely rehgious Puritan. Zealous for order and authority as necessary conditions of sound social organization, but intellectually an inveterate rebel against merely traditional authority, he was incapable of understanding a temper which held the law of the Church sacred and unquestionable, and which viewed dissent not merely as inconvenient to the State but as attacking the foundations of rehgion. Therefore his solution w^as valueless to the convinced Churchman. It is natural to compare Bacon's Advertisement t^mch- ing the Controversies of tJie Church of England with Hooker's Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, the first four books of wliich appeared only five years later, in 1594. Hooker is an apologist for the AngHcan position, and THE DAYS OF PREPARATION 19 he does not recognize so clearly as does Bacon the moral worth of Puritanism, or the justice of its criticisms of the Church ; but he comes nearer than Bacon to under- standing its reHgious basis. He sees that its essential claim is to individual responsibihty to God, so that only the word of God can give its law. He sees in this claim the danger of the naiTower tyranny of the Scriptures, and argues with all his magnificent resources of intellect and eloquence for the broader revelation of God through the laws of nature, the law of reason, the law of the Church, as well as the Bible. He arrives at a solution not dissimilar from Bacon's, though naturally more favoxu-able to the Estabhshed Church ; but he bases Ms conclusions philosophically, recognizing the true meaning of the claim which he combats. Hooker writes of rehgion hke a philosopher, though prejudiced by dogmatic prepossessions. Bacon writes of rehgion like a pohtician, though with the loftiest purposes and fine ethical feehng. The wisdom and lucidity of the Advertisement must have suggested the emplojrment of its author as apologist for the Government against criticism at home and abroad. For the relations of England wdth France, in particular, it was important that neither the Pro- testant nor the moderate Catholic party in France should be alienated by the attitude of the English Government towards English co-religionists. With this need in view, a letter was addressed to M. Critoy, " Secretary of France," over the signature of Walsing- ham ; in all probability its author was Bacon. He defends the moderation and consistency of the Govern- ment's treatment of Puritan and Cathohc ahke. An apologist was again urgently needed in 1592, when a pamphlet caUed Responsio ad Edictum Begince Anglioe was published on the continent, attacking in unmeasured terms the Government's treatment of Roman Cathofics. Bacon at once took the opportunity of a " device," or entertainment, given in honour of the Queen by Essex, probably on the anniversary of her coronation, to compose a " Discourse in Praise of 20 FRANCIS BACON the Queen," in which her poHcy as well as her personal quaUties received eloquent eulogy. Before the year ended, he gave a specific answer to the charges of the Responsio in the weighty and closely reasoned Observa- tion on a Libel Publislwd this present year 1592.^ Here Bacon was driven to argue ex parte ; his business was to offer a defence of Government action, and to deliver a counter-attack on pohtical Cathohcism. He did his work excellently, but the paper necessarily lacks the fine balance and impartiahty which make his general discussions of the theological situation so attractive and so valuable. CHAPTER II BACON AND ESSEX : THE DAYS OF STRUGGLE DuEiNG the years covered by these difficulties of the Government in the religious settlement. Bacon had con- tinued legal work, and in 1586 had become a " bencher " of Gray's Inn, \vith the right to plead in the Courts at Westminster. Still promotion passed him by. Burgliley continued to flatter his hopes, but for some unknown reason — it may have been merely personal antipathy — never exerted himself on his behalf. Bacon grew weary of waiting. One of his motives in seeking Govermnent employment was to gain influence for the promotion of a great project wliich he had long been meditating — nothing less than the fundamental reform of Knowledge. Delay in preferment meant not only disappointment of natural ambition, but waste of time in pursuing his greater ulterior purpose. " I wax now somewhat ancient," he writes to Burghley, presumably in 1592, " one and thirty years is a great deal of sand in the hour-glass. ... I confess that I have as vast con- templative ends, as I have moderate civil ends : for I have taken all knowledge to be my province ; and if I could purge it of two sorts of rovers, whereof the one ^ Written in January or February, therefore 1593 in modern reckoning. THE DAYS OF STRUGGLE 21 with frivolous disputations, computations, and ver- bosities, the other Anth bhnd experiments and auricular traditions and impostures, hath committed so many spoils, I hope I should bring in industrious observa- tions, grounded conclusions, and profitable inventions and discoveries ; the best state of that province, . . . And I do easily see that place of any reasonable coun- tenance doth bring commandment of more -uits than a man's o^vn ; which is the thing I greatly affect, . . . And if your Lordship will not carry me on ... I wall sell the inheritance that I have, and purchase some lease of quick revenue . . . and so give over all care of service, and become some sorry book-maker, or a true pioneer in that mine of truth," Just before this letter was wTitten, in the mood which it depicts. Bacon had made the acquaintance of the Earl of Essex. Essex was the rising star at the Court. He had gained Elizabeth's favour with astonishing rapidity, and though he was only twenty-five, his brilliant and attractive personahty made him a serious rival to the stohdly worthy Burghley. Burghley may well have distrusted Bacon for his very wealth of ideas, and for his bookish interests. Essex, himself a student of adventurous mind, was singularly well quahfied to appreciate these quahties. To Bacon, weary of begging favours from a man for whose intellect he must have felt some contempt, Essex must have appeared the ideal patron, and further acquaintance for a time confirmed his hopes. Essex was as generous practically as intellectually ; as zealous to serve his friends as he was quick to understand their ideas. In him united all the graces and many of the powers of the ideal Elizabethan ; he lacked only the strength and balance of character to bear success unspoiled. His tragedy is the converse of Bacon's ; Bacon's character was confirmed in its worst parts and crippled in some noble possibihties by adverse circumstances ; success betrayed Essex into a sensitive self-assertiveness and an im- patience of authority which at last ruined him. This new and powerful patronage might well have 22 FRANCIS BACON gained prompt promotion for Bacon, had not a situation arisen in which pohtical honesty compelled him to stand against the Queen and the Government. When Parhament met in February 1593, the Government urgently needed money to combat a Spanish plot in Scotland. The Committee of the Commons recognized the need, and voted two subsidies instead of the usual one ; but Burghley regarded this as insufficient, and not only demanded three subsidies, but also declared that the amount should be determined in conference with the Lords. This proposal struck at the very root of the power of the Lower House — its absolute control of supply ; and the same regard for order in the State which had inspired Bacon's writings on the Church settlement now drove him to lead the opposition to this demand. The Government found it advisable to drop the plan of a Conference, but still urged that the three subsidies should be paid in four years instead of six years. Bacon again objected, on the ground that taxation thus concentrated into the briefer time would impose too heavy a burden on the country, and further would create a dangerous precedent unless distinctly noted as extraordinary. Tlie Commons, however, were satisfied with their victory on the point of principle, and Bacon stood alone in opposition. Burghley de- manded an explanation. Instead of apologizing, Bacon justified his attitude in terms at once modest and dignified : " Tlie manner of my speech did most evi- dently show that I spake simply and only to satisfy my conscience, and not with any advantage or pohcy to sway the cause ; and my terms carried all signi- fication of duty and zeal towards her INIajesty and her service." Tliis incident, entirely creditable to Bacon's char- acter, raised a new obstacle to his promotion. No honesty of motive could justify opposition to Ehza- beth or her ministers. In a great minister it had some- times to be tolerated, but in a candidate for office it was presumption deserving sharp punishment. For some time Bacon found it advisable to avoid the Court, THE DAYS OF STRUGGLE 23 trusting that the Queen might forgive him when she had in part forgotten the offence. Just at this inoppor- tune moment the Mastership of the Rolls fell vacant, and brought into prospect a change in the office of Attorney-General. Bacon gained the intercession of his cousin, Sir Thomas Cecil, with Burghley, and Essex sued urgently and persistently on his behalf. In another letter to Burghley, though still he will not apologize, Bacon expresses regret for the impression his action has made on the Queen. One bitter phrase shows that he has learned the lesson of the incident : in future, if he cannot give unquestioning support to the royal pohcy, he vrill at least abstain from unwelcome comment. " If the not seconding of some particular person's opinion shall be presumption, and to differ upon the maimer shall be to impeach the end, it shall teach my devotion not to exceed Avashes, and those in silence." These efforts gradually dispersed the Queen's active disfavour, but they could not gain Bacon the Attorney- Generalship. His rival for the office was Edward Coke, a great and unscrupulous lawyer, who as Speaker of the House of Commons had used all his influence for Govern- ment in the very debate where Bacon showed such obnoxious independence. It was the first incident in a hfelong hostility between the two men, and Coke scored the first jwint. The Solicitor-Generalship now fell vacant. For this too Bacon apphed, and again, after more than a year's delay, it was given elsewhere. The disappointment left Bacon in a position almost desperate. He was heavily in debt, for his income was quite inadequate to the position which he had to keep up at Court. His brother Anthony had disposed of an estate to help him, but Anthony's own financial position was now embarrassed. Essex came to the rescue with characteristic magnificence of generosity, and gave Bacon land worth £1800.^ " You fare ill because you have chosen me for your mean and dependence ; you have spent your time and thoughts in my matter. I die if I do not somewhat towards your fortune ; you ^ Multiply by seven to give modern equivalent value. 24. FRANCIS BACON shall not deny to accept a piece of land which I uill bestow upon you." Bacon, after some demur, accepted the gift, and gratefully namejl himself Essex's " hom- ager." " But do you know the manner of doing homage in law ? " he added, qualifying the term — " Always it is with a saving of his faith to his king and his other lords ; and therefore, my lord, I can be no more yours than I was, and it must be with the ancient savings." But while obligations bound Bacon more and more closely to Essex, his confidence that he had found an ideal patron must have already become troubled. The phrases just quoted^ suggest the recognition that Essex's desires might not always harmonize with the good of the State. Already Essex had, on several occasions, shown himself too headstrong for a statesman. This, coupled with his practical disappointments, made Bacon feel hopeless of the career he had planned, and he wrote to Essex : "I am purposed not to follow the practice of the law . . . because it drinketh too much time, which I have dedicated to better purposes. . . . For your Lordship, I do think myself more beholding to you than to any man. And I say I reckon myself as a common (not popular, but common) ; and as much as is lawful to be enclosed of a common, so much your Lordship shall be sure to have." ^ ^ Their value is diminished by the fact that they are drawn from Bacon's own account, published nine years later to justify his abandonment of Essex. 2 The last sentence is interesting. It has generally been inter- preted in the sense which Bacon later put upon it for his own justification, as implying "a significant reserve of his devotion" to Essex. But may it not well refer to the "better purposes" to which Bacon proposed to dedicate his time ? "I reckon myself a common " — the property of the community ; does not this mean that he holds his talents in trust for the general good, and feels that he dare not devote to any individual more than "is lawful" of the powers which it is his duty to employ for the benefit of mankind ? The phrase may apply to political and personal service, without any special foreboding of a clash between the service of Essex and that of the State. The clash is rather between the service of temporary ends and that of the permanent general THE DAYS OF STRUGGLE 25 Still, even when further disappointments followed, when he was passed over for the Mastership of the Rolls, and again outstripped by Coke, this time as suitor to the rich young wddow of Sir Christopher Hatton, Bacon did not follow tliis impulse to give up his original plans and devote himself solely to philosophical work. He clung to the hope of office, growing steadily more cynical in his view of the means by which success must be gained. Essex's brilliant success in the capture of Cadiz, in 1596, seemed to him ominous rather than auspicious ; for he feared that it would make Essex new enemies at Court, and still more that the Queen would distrust his growing power and pojaularity wdth the army and -wdth the people. Bacon accordingly wrote an elaborate letter of advice to Essex. " Win the Queen ; if tliis be not the beginning, of any other course I see no end " ; and he sets forth a number of ways in which Essex should shape his behaviour and his actions. The advice holds much common sense, but savours unpleasantly of conscious trickiness and courtier's cunning. And, though it recognizes the da-ngerous elements in Essex's character and position, it fails to suggest a course of action possible to him. His virtues and his faults ahke unfitted liim for careful court intrigue ; it was largely by his daring independence that he had gained the Queen's favour. Tlie character of his relations with the Queen made his position particularly difficult. He had to display the privileged familiarity of the personal favourite, or the instant submission of the courtier, according to Elizabeth's mood. Wlien plans were being made for " The Island Voyage," to strike a further blow against Spain, in 1597, his jealousy of Lord Howard and of Sir Walter Raleigh caused new friction \\'ith the Queen, who " had resolved to break him of his Tvill and pull do-wn his great heart." The expedition was a failure, progress of mankind. Cf. the opening sentence of De Interpretatione NaturcE Proixmium. On the closing phrase I may echo a MS. comment of the late Professor Charles Eowley : " How much of a common is it lawful to enclose 1 " 26 FRANCIS BACON and he returned, discontented and in disfavour, to play into his enemies' hands. At this time affairs in Ireland were in a very disquieting state. Hugh O'Neil, Earl of Tyrone, an old rebel against the harsh English yoke, a general who knew how to use all the great advantages of his country in guerilla war- fare, and a shrewd and unscrupulous politician, kept up a series of rebellions which threatened at last to spread through the whole country. The negotiations with him offered an opportunity for making a reputation in the Council, and in March 1598, Bacon advised Essex to " devote special attention to the question." The negotiations fell through ; and after a violent quarrel with the Queen over the appointment of a commander- in-chief for the new campaign, Essex himself was ordered to the post. A far greater soldier than he. Sir John Norreys, had already failed to suppress the rebellion ; and only an optimist with an exaggerated notion of his own powers could have hoped for glory from the undertaking. Bacon had repeatedly urged Essex to avoid military employment and to seek civil office. He claimed later that he advised Essex to avoid the command in Ireland. The only extant letter on the subject, however, encourages Essex to go ; setting forth the very great difficulties and dangers of the under- taking, but noting the glory, and still more the patriotic service, of success. It is important to determine Bgicon's attitude, for, while his later conduct was at best ungenerous, it was dastardly if he had urged Essex to take the risk. Professor Gardiner thinks it possible that Bacon \vrote an earher letter, urging Essex to refuse, and that this has been lost. On the other hand. Sir Sidney Lee suggests that Bacon advised Essex to go, with heartless indifference to the results of failure : " His patron's case, as it presented itself to Bacon's tortuous mind, was one of kill or cure . . . Bacon, from liis point of view, thought it desirable that Essex should have the opportunity of achieving some definite triumph in life which would render his future influence supreme. Or, if he were incapable of conspicuous ?PE DAYS OF STRUGGLE 27 success in, life, then the more patent his inefficiency became, f l!'d the quicker he was set on one side the better for his pr(;,tege's future."^ Tlie second, harsher view may be '^^v.ismissed ; for miUtary success would nofe have secured Essex's position with the Queen, as Bacon had clearly recognized in liis letter to the earl after the capture of Cadiz ; and on the other hand, mere military failure might have left Essex's position little worse if 'he had behaved discreetly to the Queen. Without supposing the loss of an earher letter, we may beheve that ^dacon's attitude remained unchanged ; he feared the'Tesults of Essex's military employment, but recognizeu^ the hopelessness of dissuading him, and contented himstlf with mingling as much warning as possible ^^dth lii^ forecast. He \\Tote the letter only on invitation : " Yc„iv late note of my silence on your occasion hath made me set down these few wandering lines." His fait/, in Essex was growing feebler, his confidence in the " veight of his own advice had suffered since Essex had n'>t followed earlier advice ; and he let things go, with miiigled hope and grave foreboding. Essex complete/y failed to subdue the rebels ; he never even engagv^d them seriously, and after wasting his forces in five mc.uths' blundering, desultory warfare, he proposed peace, en terms very favourable to Tyrone, in September. Despatches from the Queen had for- bidden him. to return mthout orders, but in the face of them he left Ireland and sought the Queen at Norwich, It must be remembered that he feared the intrigues of his enemies in his absence ; he at first intended " to carry with him so much of the army as he could conveniently transport," and actually was accompanied as far as London by "the main part of his household and a great part of captains and gentle- men." That he cherished any project hostile to the Queen herself is altogether improbable ; but he lost his head, and trusted by violent means to defeat his ^ Great Englishmen of the IGth Century, p. 272. Here, and again on p. 43, I have expressly noted my disagreement with Sir Sidney Lee, because his opinion is too weighty to be ignored. 28 FRANCIS BACON enemies, who, headed by Cecil, outplayed h^in at every point in the game of wits. The Queen waw thoroughly displeased, and with justice ; but she waL not disin- clined to receive him again into favour when she had thoroughly humiliated him. Essex coukl not endure the uncertainty of his position and the constant pricks to his pride. By January 1601, he and his friends had formed a plot to surprise the Court, seize the Queen's person, and compel her to dismiss from the Council Cecil, Raleigh, and other enemies, and to grant^other demands. Discovery precipitated their action ; oi- February 8th, accompanied by some two hundred gentlemen, on foot, armed only with swords, he marched to Paul's Cross, and tried to raise the people to his support. He failed. Instead of attempting to escape he returned to Essex House, perhaps to burn incriminatir g papers. About ten o'clock the same night he was a j^pisoner. Up to tliis time Bacon's conduct /iiad been consist- ently friendly to Essex, though his hne of action was comphcated by the difficulty of serving him -vs-ithoufc offending the Queen. Bacon's position was extra- ordinarily dehcate. In September /598, he had been arrested for debt ; so that clearly he had reached the limits of his resources, and needed