PREFACE UNDER the date 5 Feb. 1596 the following entry occurs in the books of the Stationers' Company. "Hufrey Hooper. Entred for his copie under thandes of Mr Fr Bacon Mr D Stanhope Mr Barlowe, and Mr Warden Dawson, a booke intituled Essaies Religious meditations, places of persuasion and diswasion by Mr Fr. Bacon," This was the first edition of Bacon's Essays. They were published in a small 8vo. volume, of which the full title is as follows: "Essayes. Religious Meditations. Places of perswasion and disswasion. Seene and allowed. At London, Printed for Humfrey Hooper, and are to be sold at the blacke Beare in Chauncery Lane. 1597." The dedication to Antony Bacon occupies three pages. Then follow the table of Contents and the Essays, ten in number; 1. Of studie. 2. Of discourse. 3. Of Ceremonies and respects. 4. Of followers and friends. 5. Sutors. 6. Of expence. 7. Of Regiment of health. 8. Of Honour and reputation. 9. Of Faction. 10. Of Negociating. The Essays occupy thirteen folios, and are followed by the "Meditationes Sacra," or Religious Meditations, in Latin, consisting of 15 folios besides the title, and these by "The Coulers of Good and euill," which are the "places of perswasion and disswasion" already mentioned. The numbering of the folios in the last two is consecutive, 32 in all. This volume was dedicated by Bacon to his brother Anthony in the following Epistle. THE EPISTLE DEDICATORIE To M. Anthony Bacon Louing and beloued Brother, I doe nowe like some that haue an Orcharde ill neighbored, that gather their fruit before it is ripe, to preuent stealing. These fragments of my conceites were going to print; To labour the staie of them had bin troublesome, and subiect to interpretation; to let them passe had beene to aduēture the wrong they mought receiue by untrue Coppies, or by some garnishment, which it mought please any that should set them forth to bestow upon them. Therefore I helde it best discreation to publish them my selfe as they passed long agoe from my pen, without any further disgrace, then the weaknesse of the Author. And as I did euer hold, there mought be as great a vanitie in retiring and withdrawing mens conceites (except they bee of some nature) from the world, as in obtruding them: So in these particulars I haue played my selfe the Inquisitor, and find nothing to my understanding in them contrarie or infectious to the state of Religion, or manners, but rather (as I suppose) medicinable. Only I disliked now to put them out because they will bee like the late new halfe-pence1, which though the Siluer were good, yet the peeces were small. But since they would not stay with their Master, but would needes trauaile abroade, I haue preferred them to you that are next my selfe, Dedicating them, such as they are, to our loue, in the depth whereof (I assure you) I sometimes wish your infirmities translated vppon my selfe, that her Maiestie mought haue the seruice of so actiue and able a mind, & I mought be with excuse confined to these contemplations & Studies for which I am fittest, so commend I you to the preseruation of the diuine Maiestie. From my Chamber at Graies Inne this 30. of Ianuarie. 1597. Your entire Louing brother. FRAN. BACON. The date of this letter, if not a printer's error, is evidently intended to be 1596-7, according to the then reckoning of the civil year, which began on the 25th of March. We have the entry at Stationers' Hall on Feb. 5; a memorandum on the title page of the copy in the British Museum that it was sold on the 7th of Feb., 39 Eliz. (i.e. 1596–7); and a letter of Anthony Bacon's to the Earl of Essex, written on the 8th of Feb. 1596, which appears to have accompanied a presentation copy of the Essays. There are MSS. of this edition in the British Museum (Lansd. MSS. 775), and the Cambridge Univ. Lib. (Nn. 4. 5). The latter I have 1 Coined for the first time in 1582-3, and used without interruption till 1601. See Folkes, Table of English Silver Coins, p. 57, ed. 1745. |