BACON ***
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BACON
BY
R.W. CHURCH
DEAN OF ST. PAUL'S
HONORARY FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE
ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS.
EDITED BY JOHN MORLEY.
JOHNSON Leslie Stephen. GIBBON J.C. Morison. SCOTT R.H. Hutton. SHELLEY J.A. Symonds. HUME T.H. Huxley. GOLDSMITH William Black. DEFOE William Minto. BURNS J.C. Shairp. SPENSER R.W. Church. THACKERAY Anthony Trollope. BURKE John Morley. MILTON Mark Pattison. HAWTHORNE Henry James, Jr. SOUTHEY E. Dowden. CHAUCER A.W. Ward. BUNYAN J.A. Froude. COWPER Goldwin Smith. POPE Leslie Stephen. BYRON John Nichol. LOCKE Thomas Fowler. WORDSWORTH F. Myers. DRYDEN G. Saintsbury. LANDOR Sidney Colvin. DE QUINCEY David Masson. LAMB Alfred Ainger. BENTLEY R.C. Jebb. DICKENS A.W. Ward. GRAY E.W. Gosse. SWIFT Leslie Stephen. STERNE H.D. Traill. MACAULAY J. Cotter Morison. FIELDING Austin Dobson. SHERIDAN Mrs. Oliphant ADDISON W.J. Courthope. BACON R.W. Church. COLERIDGE H.D. Traill. SIR PHILIP SIDNEY J.A. Symonds. KEATS Sidney Colvin.
12mo, Cloth, 75 cents per volume. _Other volumes in preparation._
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PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK.
_Any of the above works will be sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States or Canada, on receipt of the price._
PREFACE.
In preparing this sketch it is needless to say how deeply I am indebted to Mr. Spedding and Mr. Ellis, the last editors of Bacon's writings, the very able and painstaking commentators, the one on Bacon's life, the other on his philosophy. It is impossible to overstate the affectionate care and high intelligence and honesty with which Mr. Spedding has brought together and arranged the materials for an estimate of Bacon's character. In the result, in spite of the force and ingenuity of much of his pleading, I find myself most reluctantly obliged to differ from him; it seems to me to be a case where the French saying, cited by Bacon in one of his commonplace books, holds good--"_Par trop se débattre, la vérité se perd_."[1] But this does not diminish the debt of gratitude which all who are interested about Bacon must owe to Mr. Spedding. I wish also to acknowledge the assistance which I have received from Mr. Gardiner's _History of England_ and Mr. Fowler's edition of the _Novum Organum_; and not least from M. de Rémusat's work on Bacon, which seems to me the most complete and the most just estimate both of Bacon's character and work which has yet appeared; though even in this clear and dispassionate survey we are reminded by some misconceptions, strange in M. de Rémusat, how what one nation takes for granted is incomprehensible to its neighbour; and what a gap there is still, even in matters of philosophy and literature, between the whole Continent and ourselves--
"Penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos."
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _Promus_: edited by Mrs. H. Pott, p. 475.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. PAGE EARLY LIFE 1
CHAPTER II. BACON AND ELIZABETH 26
CHAPTER III. BACON AND JAMES I. 55
CHAPTER IV. BACON SOLICITOR-GENERAL 77
CHAPTER V. BACON ATTORNEY-GENERAL AND CHANCELLOR 95
CHAPTER VI. BACON'S FALL 118
CHAPTER VII. BACON'S LAST YEARS--1621-1626 149
CHAPTER VIII. BACON'S PHILOSOPHY 168
