THE BRIEFLESS BARRISTER.

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As during this period none of the legal reporters allude to him, the conclusion is inevitable-that Bacon, notwithstanding the honours with which he was treated by the Benchers of his Inn, was not honoured by the attorneys with briefs. If he were a good lawyer, he had no opportunity of displaying his attainments, and from his nineteenth to his thirty-second year, had ample leisure to cultivate those scientific and literary pursuits to which he was much addicted. But it is also evident that Bacon longed for more substantial power than books conferred, or than posthumous fame would give. He was not, like Shakspere, content either with his reputation in future ages, or with peaceful competency and rural life. Parliament being up, there was no opening for him to make headway there. Practice shunned him and his law failed, while his means of livelihood were scanty. So we find him in 1592, the thick darkness before the forthcoming day of a new parliament, oppressing him, writing to Burleigh the following mournful letter-mournful, because it shows his ambition and his disappointment. It is not dated, but the age mentioned determines the date.

"MY LORD,-.

"With as much confidence as mine own honest and faithful devotion unto your service, and your honourable correspondence unto me, and my poor estate can need in a man, do I commend myself unto your lordship. I wax now somewhat ancient; one-and-thirty years is a great deal of sand in the hour-glass. My health, I thank God, I find confirmed; and I do not fear that action shall impair it, because I account my ordinary course of study and meditation to be more painful than most points of action are. I ever bear a mind in some middle place that I could discharge, to serve her Majesty; not as a

D

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VAST CONTEMPLATIVE ENDS.

man born under Sol, that loveth honour, nor under Jupiter, that loveth business; for the contemplative planet carrieth me away wholly; but as a man born under an excellent sovereign that deserveth the dedication of all men's abilities. Besides, I do not find in myself so much self-love, but that the greater parts of my thoughts are to deserve well. If I were able of my friends, and namely of your lordship, who being the Atlas of this Commonwealth, the honour of my house, and the second founder of my poor estate, I am tied by all duties, both of a good patriot, and of an unworthy kinsman, and of an obliged servant, to employ whatsoever I am to do you service. Again, the meanness of my estate doth somewhat move me; for though I cannot accuse myself that I am either prodigal or slothful, yet my health is not to spend, nor my course to get. Lastly, I confess I have as vast contemplative ends as I have moderate civil ends, for I have taken all knowledge to be my providence (province), and if I could purge it of two sorts of rovers, whereof the one with frivolous disputations, compilations, and verbosities; the other with blind experiments, and auricular traditions and impostures, hath committed so many spoils; I hope I should bring in industrious observations, grounded conclusions, and profitable inventions and discoveries; the best state of that province. This, whether it be curiosity, or vain glory, or nature, or, if we take it favourably, philanthropy, is so fixed in my mind as it cannot be returned. And I do easily see, that place of any reasonable countenance doth bring commendment of more wits than of a man's own, which is the thing I greatly affect. And for your lordship, perhaps you shall not find more strength and less encounter in any other. And if your lordship shall find now, or at any time, that I do seek or affect any place whereunto any that is nearer unto your lordship shall be concurrent, say then that I am a most dishonest man. And if your lordship will not carry me on, I will not do as Anaxagoras did, who reduced himself with contemplation into voluntary poverty. But this I will do, I will sell the inheritance that I have and purchase some lease of quick revenue, or some office of gain

CRITICISM ON STYLE.

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that shall be executed by deputy, and so give over all care of service, and become a sorry book-maker.

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"As a true pioneer in that mine of truth, which, he said, lay so deep; this which I have writ unto your lordship, is rather thoughts than words, being set down without all art, disguising, or reservation; wherein I have done honour, both to your lordship's wisdom, in judging that that will be best believed of your lordship which is truest; and to your lordship's good nature in retaining nothing from you. And even so I wish your lordship all happiness, and to myself means and occasion to be added to my faithful desire to do you service."

I have printed this long and in part involved communication, because in the absence of any more interesting data, such correspondence, written without view to publication, is one of the most absolutely authentic sources of history. From its tenor I deduce, that Mr. Francis Bacon is unhappy; that he is devoted to philosophy already; that he is not succeeding as a man of the world, or as a practical lawyer; that he fears Lord Burleigh considers him an antagonist of young Robert Cecil, for who else is "nearer to his lordship" than one of his sons? that his uncle has already been his patron, has helped him forward so far, but is now somewhat neglecting him.

Criticised as to style, it is neither clear nor businesslike, nor to the purpose. The letters of Lord Burleigh, of Walsingham, of Essex, a younger man, contrast with it very favourably. Its merits are not of a kind to find grace in the eyes of the Lord Treasurer. It is foreign to Sir Nicholas's style, full of conceits, of the fashion it is true, but not likely to find grace with a man of the world like Burleigh. It is in parts abject to meanness, of an affected humility which is set at nought by a daring

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"A SORRY BOOK-MAKER."

self-assertion not unworthy the young author of The Greatest Heir of Time,' not unworthy a man confident, as every man is of his own gifts, when he has them (some are equally confident when they have them not), but still not well or wisely to urge, in a search for employment.

The writer makes no plea to Lord Burleigh's affection; asks nothing for his father's sake; but, as in every letter which he writes, attempts by mingled cajolery and flattery, and by pleading self-interest, to gain its end. The passage, "that place of any reasonable countenance doth bring commandment of more wits than a man's own, which is the thing I greatly affect," though not very clear, seems to indicate, what he has otherwise expressed, that he is prepared to sacrifice himself to his uncle's fame, and that his wits are worth the buying. What can be meaner than the passage that follows that Lord Burleigh shall not have strength and less encounter in any other?" It is vaunting, and self-glory, and meanness mingled. He will not cross the old statesman. He has very "moderate civil ends;" he will not step in before young Robert Cecil. And if his lordship will not consent, he will "become a sorry book-maker." As an isolated effusion of the author's pen, it would be of little value. Interpreted by subsequent letters, by acts, we see that in it lies concealed, a true photograph of Lord Bacon's mind.

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It may seem too much importance to attach to a letter, yet it cannot be denied that its arguments are of a selfish and mean kind; that it is not daringly self-reliant, but that it is presumptuous without courage. A daring or a truly self-reliant man would have said, For yourself, sir, take care; I will shake you in your seat-which would

have been more presumptuous still, but would have been courageous to boot. Bacon already has no belief in aught other than self. He insinuates that he does not desire honour, nor love business enough to be dangerous, and that he will be a most obsequious servant if he is rewarded. If he is not he will do nothing rash to his lordship, nothing to resent, but will become "a sorry book-maker."

A Jesuitical letter, pretending to no art, but full of art, infused by conceits, by irrelevant assertions as to what the author purposed in philosophy, base in its flattery, servile in its protestations, selfish in its pleading, vaunting, "I have taken all knowledge to be my province," and false in its last asseveration, and herein, as in all his other correspondence, shall we trace Lord Bacon's character fully formed.

Two or three other of his epistles exist of this year. One is of February, 1592, asking his mother to apply to Lord Burleigh for the wardship of Alderman Hayward's son. In those days the King has by the feudal laws the wardship in his grant of all the heirs of the nobility and gentry, which in the case of a wealthy child left without parents, is of course an eminently profitable affair. Whether the application succeeds or not is not known. As he does not apply for it till after his brother Anthony's return from France, it is possible that he urged the suit not at his own instance, but at his brother's, who was then too newly arrived to ask the favour.* Of this brother Anthony, who will play a not inconsiderable part in these memoirs, we are bound to take notice. The eldest son of the second marriage, he has been a truant for nearly ten years, in voluntary exile. While Bacon has been plodding at home, he Letter, Birch's 'Memoirs of Elizabeth,' vol. i., p. 72.