Francis Bacon Volume 1 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1888 edition. Excerpt: ...of Ealeigh and Henry of Navarre. The two designs ran through Bacon's whole career: side by side with the 'Cogitata et Visa, ' and the 'Advancement of Learning, ' he was writing his 'In Felicem Memoriam Elizabethan, ' and recording in the same lofty strain his view "of the true greatness of the kingdom of Britain"--a greatness to be founded on The King and the Nation. 103 supremacy abroad and reform from precedent to precedent at home. But he regarded this reform as a concession to be won, not as a right to be demanded. Unless we accept the view that his whole public career, from this point, was that of a mere self-seeking lawyer, we must believe that the principles which Bacon inherited from the days of Elizabeth, gathered strength from his increasing distrust of popular government; and that he came to regard conciliation and concessions in detail, with submission in the last resort to the King's will, as the best security for the prosperity of the nation. In any case it became more and more the ruling maxim of his policy, already at variance with the spirit of the times; doubly destined to failure under a monarch devoid alike of grasp to understand, or the tact to play his part in carrying it out. Bacon's misfortune was that he rarely knew when his advice was vain, and, in the tenacity if not the enthusiasm of loyalty, "slid from position to position," till he abandoned almost all the ground which, as a reformer, it was necessary for him to hold. It is impossible to accept his expressions regarding James, whom he proposed to himself to "amuse" in order to lead, as wholly sincere; it is absurd to suppose they were as false to him as they seem to us. Infatuated by a prepossession in favour of his person as well...