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THE

WORKS

OF

FRANCIS BACON,

BARON OF VERULAM, VISCOUNT ST. ALBANS, AND

LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small]

PUBLISHED BY HURD AND HOUGHTON. H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY, BOSTON.

Cambridge: The Riverside Press.

18

MDCCCLXXVII.

192

v. 2

RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE:

STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.

375854

PREFACE.

In making the division of Bacon's writings included in the present edition, the classification adopted in the complete works has been followed. The Philosophical writings which comprise, in Latin and in English the first ten volumes of that edition, are represented here by the companion volume to this. The three next volumes with a portion of the fourteenth are devoted to Literary writings, "by which," says Mr. Spedding, "I mean works which were intended to take their place among books; as distinguished from writings of business, which though they may be collected into books afterwards, were composed without reference to anything beyond the particular occasion to which they relate." This distinction is intended also to include certain of the writings embraced under the title Philosophical.

Under the division of Literary, Mr. Spedding has also included the Religious writings, but for the sake of distinctness the specific title chosen for this volume mentions that class. In a few instances the Latin original has here been given as well as the translation, but in the main the general rule has been fol

lowed of giving only English writings and those which represent Bacon to the general reader. Mr. Spedding makes the following note regarding the frontispiece :

"The engraving which stands as frontispiece is a very correct representation of a bust belonging to the Earl of Verulam, to whose kindness I am indebted for permission to have a drawing made of it for this purpose, as well as for the facilities given to the artist. It is a colored bust in terra-cotta, and is one of a set of three, done in the same style and material, and apparently by the same hand; said to be portraits of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Anne, his second wife, and their son Francis, when twelve years old. I regret that I could not learn anything more about them. They must have been done about the year 1572, by an artist of no ordinary skill, and have probably been at Gorhambury ever since. They show, among other things, that Bacon's likeness was to his mother; a fact, I believe, not otherwise known."

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