Of making gold,

361

Of the several natures of gold,

364

Of inducing and accelerating putrefaction, ibid.

Of prohibiting and preventing putrefaction, 367

Of rotten wood shining,

370

Of acceleration of birth,

372

Of acceleration of growth and stature,

ibid.

Of bodies sulphureous and mercurial,

373

Of the chameleon,

375

Of subterrany fires,

376

Of nitrous water,

ibid.

Of congealing of air,

ibid.

Of congealing of water into crystal,

377

Of preserving the smell and colour in rose leaves, ibid.

Of the lasting of flame,

378

Of infusions or burials of divers bodies in earth, 382

Of the effects of men's bodies from several winds, 383

Of winter and summer sicknesses,

384

Of pestilential years,

ibid,

Of epidemical diseases,

ibid.

Of preservation of liquors in wells, or deep vaults, 385

Of stutting,

ibid.

Of sweet smells,

386

Of the goodness and choice of waters,

387

Of temperate heats under the equinoctial, 388

Of the coloration of black and tawny moors,

ibid.

Of motion after the instant of death,

389

CENTURY V.

Of accelerating or hastening forward germination, 391

Of retarding or putting back germination, 395

Of meliorating, or making better, fruits and plants,

397

Of compound fruits and flowers,

410

Of sympathy and antipathy of plants,

Of maŝing herbs and fruits medicinable,

417

411
CENTURY VI.

Of curiosities about fruits and plants,

419

Of the degenerating of plants, and of their transmuta-

tion one into another,

424.

Of the procerity and lowness of plants, and of artificial

dwarfing them,

428

Of the rudiments of plants, and of the excrescences of

plants, or super-plants,

429

Of producing perfect plants without seed,

435

Of foreign plants,

437

Of the seasons of several plants,

438

Of the lasting of plants,

440

Of several figures of plants,

442

Of some principal differences in plants,

443

Of all manner of composts and helps for ground, 445

CENTURY VII.

Of the affinities and differences between plants, and

bodies inanimate,

449

Of affinities and differences between plants and living

creatures, and of the confiners and participles of

both,

451

Of plants experiments promiscuous,

452

Of the healing of wounds,

472

Of fat diffused in flesh,

473

Of ripening drink speedily,

ibid.

Of pilosity and plumage,

ibid.

Of the quickness of motion in birds,

474

Of the clearness of the sea, the north wind blowing,

ibid.

Of the different heats of fire and boiling water, ibid.

Of the qualification of heat by moisture,

475

Of yawning,

ibid.

Of the hiccough,

476

Of sneezing,

ibid.

Of the tenderness of the teeth,

ibid.

Of the tongue,

477

Of the mouth out of taste,

ibid.
Of some prognostics of pestilential seasons, ibid.

Of special simples for medicines,

478

Of Venus,

ibid.

Of the insecta, or creatures bred of putrefaction, 480

Of leaping,

484

Of the pleasures and displeasures of hearing, and of the

ibid.

other senses,

CENTURY VIII.'

Of veins of earth medicinal,

486

Of spunges,

ibid.

Of sea-fish in fresh waters,

ibid.

Of attraction by similitude of substance,

487

Of certain drinks in Turkey,

488

Of sweat,

ibid.

Of the glow-worm,

490

Of the impressions upon the body from several passions

of the mind,

ibid.

Of drunkenness,

495

Of the hurt or help of wine, taken moderately, 496

Of caterpillars,

497

Of the flies cantharides,

ibid.

Of lassitude,

498

Of casting the skin, and shell, in some creatures, ibid.

Of the postures of the body,

499

Of pestilential years,

ibid.

Of some prognostics of hard winters,

500

Of certain medicines that condense and relieve the
spirits,

ibid.

Of paintings of the body,

501

Of the use of bathing and anointing,

ibid.

Of chambletting of paper,

502

Of cuttle ink,

ibid.

Of earth increasing in weight,

ibid.

Of sleep,

503

Of teeth, and hard substances in the bodies of living

creatures,

504

Of the generation, and bearing of living creatures in

the womb,

507

Of species visible,

509

Of impulsion and percussion

510

THE LIFE

OP

FRANCIS BACON,

LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND.

The ancient Egyptians had a law, which ordained that the actions and characters of their dead should be solemnly.canvassed before certain judges, in order to regulate what was due to their memory. No quality, however exalted; no abilities, however eminent; could exempt the possessors from this last and impartial trial. To ingenuous minds this was a powerful incentive, in the pursuit of virtue; and a strong restraint on the most abandoned, in their career of vice. Whoever undertakes to write the life of any person, deserving to be remembered by posterity, ought to look upon this law as prescribed to him. He is fairly to record the faults as well as the good qualities, the failings as well as the perfections, of the dead ; with this great view, to warn and improve the living. For this reason, though I shall dwell with pleasure on the shining part of my

lord Bacon's character, as a writer; I shall not dare either to conceal or palliate his blemishes, as a man. It equally concerns the public to be made acquainted with both.

Sir Nicholas Bacon was the first lord keeper of the seals invested with all the dignity, and trusted with all the power, of a lord chancellor. This high employment he held under queen Elizabeth

b

VOL. 1.

Parsons

1561.

near twenty years: a minister considerably learned, of remarkable prudence and honesty; serving his country with the integrity of a good man, and preserving, through the whole course of his prosperity, that moderation and plainness of manners which adorn a great man.

His second wife was a daughter of Sir Antony Cooke, who had been preceptor to Edward the sixth, and of whom historians have made honourable mention for his skill in the learned languages. Neither have they forgot to celebrate this

lady on the same account. To the truth of which the Jesuit. even an enemy bore testimony, while he reproached

her with having translated, from the Latin, bishop Jewel's Apology for the Church of England.

Such were the parents of Francis Bacon, whose life I am writing. Of two sons, by this marriage, he was the youngest; and born at York-house, in the Strand, the twenty-second of January, 1561. As he had the good fortune to come into the world at a period of time when arts and sciences were esteemed and cultivated, by the great and powerful, almost in the same degree they are now neglected, so he brought with him a capacity for every kind of knowledge, useful and ornamental. An original genius, formed not to receive implicit notions of thinking and reasoning from what was admitted and taught before him ; but to prescribe laws himself, in the empire of learning, to his own and suceeeding ages.

He gave marks, very early, of a pregnant and happy disposition, far above his years. We are told that queen Elizabeth took a particular delight in trying him with questions; and received so much satisfaction from the good sense and manliness of his answers, that she was wont to call him, in mirth, her young lord keeper. One saying of his deserves to be remembered. The queen having asked him his age, while he was yet a boy; he answered readily, that he was just two years younger than her happy reign.

Qf his education I know no particulars, till he was sent to study in the university of Cambridge,