"unity" as one of the cardinal doctrines in religion, so much so that in the 1625 draft of the Essay in question he felt compelled to add the following sentences: Religion being the chief band of human society, it is a happy thing when itself is well contained within the true band of unity. nothing doth so much keep men out of the Church and drive men out of the Church as breach of unity.' Also in the Essays "On Atheism "" and "On Superstition "3 he refers to religious divisions, their causes and their effects, in terms that show how correctly he gauged the extent of the mischief they wrought. "1 2 Bacon also advocated at first the adoption of a via media with reference to the great controversy regarding the jus divinum, otherwise the respective limits of the royal prerogative and of popular privilege-a controversy which, commencing in the reign of James, culminated in the Civil War and the execution of Charles I. The dispute, however, started so many side issues, that insensibly Bacon was led to modify his tolerant liberalism until he could actually affirm from his place in Parliament: "The King holdeth not his prerogative of any kind from the law, but immediately from God as he holdeth his Crown." In his Essay "On Empire" he makes an observation somewhat analogous: "Princes are like All to heavenly bodies, which cause good and evil times, and which have much veneration but no rest. precepts concerning kings are in effect comprehended in these two remembrances: 'Memento quod es homo' and 'Memento quod es Deus,' or 'Vice Dei'; the one bridleth their power and the other their will."1 Despite all these engrossments his literary activity was not allowed to slacken. Every moment of his time that could be spared from Parliament and the Law Courts was devoted to the pursuit of letters. In 1609 the "Wisdom of the Ancients" appeared, in which he explains the classic fables and mythology on allegorical principles; while new editions of his "Essays" were published in 1607 and 1612. The latter was designated a revised edition, many of the papers being rewritten. Several new Essays also were added, bringing the total number up to thirty-eight. 2 Sir Robert Cecil, Bacon's cousin, who had recently been created Earl of Salisbury, died somewhat suddenly in 1612. Among the Essays recently added to his collection had been one on "Deformity," in which he was supposed to have sketched his relative's character to the life. Bacon made a bold bid to the King for the dead man's place, offering, as he said, "to manage parliaments and to obtain supplies 1 P. 83. 3 2 P. 186. 3 Nicolas Chamberlain, Court and Times of James I. without concerting undignified bargains as Salisbury had done." James did not accept the offer, being, perhaps, a little apprehensive as to what lengths the applicant's ideas on toleration might lead him. In his desire to secure the office of "Master of the Wards" also, Bacon was fated to suffer disappointment. In 1613, however, he was consoled with the long-sighed-for Attorney-Generalship. The Essay "On Great Place" is certainly written out of the fulness of his own weary experience, especially the sentence: "The rising into Place is laborious, and by paines men come to greater pains, and it is sometimes base; and by indignities men come to dignities, &c." Previous to this, he had been appointed president of a new Court called "The Verge," instituted to deal directly with offences committed within a range of twelve miles around the King's residence in London. His opening charge is remarkable for the earnestness wherewith he condemns "Duelling" as a national crime-"Life is grown too cheap in these times," he cries indignantly. When he became Attorney-General he went further, and proposed that the offender-whether by sending or accepting a challenge, or even acting as secondshould be permanently banished from the Court. The "Addled Parliament" saw the extinction of 1 P. 1 Bacon's political influence. Its dissolution in 1614 and the estranged relations ensuing between King and Commons, during the time when Parliament was unconvoked, entailed the destruction of that feeling of mutual sympathy arising from identity of interests, which Bacon had long striven to foster between the "first" and the "third" Estates of the realm. The Essay on "Seditions and Troubles" 1 deals with this question among others, and has probable reference to the course of government and of political events in general, in the second decade of the seventeenth century. The unconvoked Commons of England, among whom Pym, Wentworth, and Eliot were beginning to be prominent, saw James embarked on a new policy, that of attempted absolutism—the logical outcome of which was that scene outside Whitehall on the raw January morning of 1649, when the head of Charles Stewart was laid on the block. Bacon saw what that logical outcome would be, but he also saw that if he resisted the King his own promotion would be checked. From that hour, therefore, he was James's obsequious slave. Two notorious instances illustrate this. In one, he prosecuted Oliver St.. John for daring to denounce the system of "forced gifts" or Benevolences, to which the King was obliged to resort when the Commons refused to 1 P. 56. vote him supplies to the amount he wished; in the other, he was personally present at the torturing of a poor old Somersetshire clergyman for having written a sermon-which, however, he had never preached-justifying insurrection under certain cir cumstances. At this time Bacon showed his keen prevision and skill in reading the signs of the times, by severing the ties of friendship binding him to the King's "reigning" favourite-Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset and espousing the cause of the rising one-George Villiers, afterwards Duke of Buckingham. His foresight was justified. Somerset fell along with his Countess, both steeped in the infamy of the Overbury murder; Villiers rose like a rocket over the ruined splendour of his predecessor, being materially assisted by Bacon in the early stages of his upward course. Bacon's allusion to royal "favourites" in his Essay on "Ambition," is esteemed to refer to James's partiality for them. With characteristic servility he so far palliates the practice with the words: "It is accounted by some a weakness in princes to have favourites; but it is of all others the best remedy against ambitious great ones. Whatever services Bacon rendered, Buckingham amply repaid them, in exerting his influence to pro 1 P. 160. |