BIOGRAPHY.

Of the importance of biography, Bacon speaks in his Advancement of Learning;* concluding his remarks by saying, "Bona Fama propria possessio "defunctorum," which possession I cannot but note, that in our times it lieth much waste and that therein there is a deficience. This deficience with respect to Elizabeth he was anxious to supply by the publication of his sentiments, "in Felicem Memoriam "Elizabethæ :" but this publication seems to have required some caution, and to have been attended with some difficulty. In 1605, Bacon thus spoke: "But for a tablet, or picture of smaller volume, (not presuming to speak of your majesty that

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liveth,) in my judgment the most excellent is that " of Queen Elizabeth, your immediate predecessor in "this part of Britain; a princess that, if Plutarch "were now alive to write lives by parallels, would "trouble him, I think, to find for her a parallel "amongst women. This lady was endued with "learning in her sex singular, and rare even amongst "masculine princes; whether we speak of learning, 66 language, or of science, modern, or ancient, divi

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nity or humanity: and unto the very last year of "her life she was accustomed to appoint set hours "for reading; scarcely any young student in any "university more daily, or more duly. As for her "government, I assure myself, I shall not exceed, "if I do affirm that this part of the island never had

* Page 111.

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"forty-five years of better times; and yet not "through the calmness of the season, but through "the wisdom of her regimen. For if there be con"sidered of the one side, the truth of religion " established, the constant peace and security, the good administration of justice, the temperate use "of the prerogative, not slackened, nor much "strained, the flourishing state of learning, sortable "to so excellent a patroness, the convenient estate " of wealth and means, both of crown and subject, the " habit of obedience, and the moderation of discon"tents; and there be considered, on the other side, "the differences of religion, the troubles of neigh"bour countries, the ambition of Spain, and opposi"tion of Rome: and then, that she was solitary and "of herself: these things, I say, considered, as I "could not have chosen an instance so recent and

so proper, so, I suppose, I could not have chosen "one more remarkable or eminent to the purpose "now in hand, which is concerning the conjunction "of learning in the prince with felicity in the people." So he wrote in the year 1605; but, about

the

year 1612, "The King," says Wilson," cast his thoughts towards Peterborough, where his mother lay, whom he caused to be translated to a magnificent tomb, at Westminster. And (somewhat suitable to her mind when she was living) she had a translucent passage in the night, through the city of London, by multitudes of torches: the ta

* See ante xxxiii.

pers placed by the tomb and the altar, in the cathedral, smoking with them like an offertory, with all the ceremonies, and voices, their quires and copes could express, attended by many prelates and nobles, who paid this last tribute to her memory."* ."* Before this time Bacon had written his essay in "Felicem Memoriam Elizabethæ," which he sent to Sir George Carew, whose death M. De Thou laments, in a letter to Mr. Camden, in the year 1613. The following is the letter to Sir George Carew. "Being asked a question by "this bearer, an old servant of my brother Anthony "Bacon's, whether I would command him any

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thing into France; and being at better leisure "than I would, in regard of sickness, I began to re"member that neither your business nor mine,

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though great and continual, can be, upon an exact "account, any just occasion why so much good-will "as hath passed between us should be so much dis

• Wilson.

"Sir George Carew, of Cornwall, was Master in Chancery in "the time of queen Elizabeth; and in 1597 sent ambassador "into Poland; and in 1606 went to the court of France with the "like character. After about three years continuance, he was "recalled by the king to make use of his services at home; but "he survived not many years. M. De Thou in a letter to Mr. "Camden in 1613, very much laments his death; as losing a "friend he much valued, and an assistant in the prosecution of "his history having received helps from him in that part which "relates to the dissentions between the Poles and the Swedes in "the year 1598, as appears before the contents of book cxxi."Stephens.

2

" continued as it hath been bi dezira, beelise one must begin. I thougin OR TO T "membrance of me by a mar: and taking o "fill it with somewhat besides sitio.es & came to "my mind, that this last summer funzon, by ser "sion of a factions book that endeavoured to very "Misera Fœmina, the adide of the pope's bi

upon Queen Elizabeth, I write a few lines in "her memorial, wikh I drught you would be pleased to read, both for the argument, and be"cause you were wont to bear affection to my pez Verum, ut aliud ex alio, if it came handsomely to pass, I would be glad the president De Thou, who "hath written an history, as you know, of that fame " and diligence, saw it; chiefly because I know not "whether it may not serve him for some use in his "story; wherein I would be glad he did write to "the truth, and to the memory of that lady, as I

perceive by that he hath already written he is well "inclined to do. I would be glad also, it were "some occasion, such as absence may permit, of "some acquaintance or mutual notice between us.

For though he hath many ways the precedence,

chiefly in worth, yet this is common to us both, "that we serve our sovereigns in places of law emi"nent and not ourselves only, but that our fa"thers did so before us. And lastly, that both of "us love learning and liberal sciences, which was "ever a bond of friendship in the greatest distance "of places. But of this I make no farther request, "than your own occasions and respects, to me

"known, may further or limit; my principal pur"pose being to salute you, and to send you this "token: whereunto I will add my very kind com"mendations to my lady; and so commit you both "to God's holy protection."

It seems probable that this tract was intended for publication during the life of the king. It says, "Restant felicitates posthumæ duæ, iis quæ "vivam comitabantur fere celsiores et augustiores: "una successoris, altera memoriæ. Nam successorem sortita est eum, qui licet et mascula virtute et

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prole, et nova imperii accessione fastigium ejus "excedat et obumbret; tamen et nomini et honori"bus ejus faveat, et actis ejus quandam perpetuita"tem donet: cum nec ex personarum delectu, nec "ex institutorum ordine, quicquam magnopere mu"taverit: adeo ut raro filius parenti, tanto silentio, " atquæ tam exigua mutatione et perturbatione suc" cesserit."* But it was not published during the life of the author; and the praise of Elizabeth, in the Advancement of Learning, is wholly omitted, and certainly not for its want of beauty, in the treatise De Augmentis," published in 1623, where he also omits the passage already cited in this preface.† Then the reign of a queen matched with a 'foreigner: then of a queen that lived solitary " and unmarried, and yet her government so "masculine that it had greater impression and