Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

sense wish, that women should be highly edu- | changed, their relative value, when compared cated, speak with rapture of the English ladies with the whole mass of mental wealth possess of the sixteenth century, and lament that they ed by mankind, has been constantly falling can find no modern damsel resembling those They were the intellectual all of our ancestors. fair pupils of Ascham and Aylmer who com- They are but a part of our treasures. Over pared, over their embroidery, the styles of Iso- what tragedy could Lady Jane Grey have wept, crates and Lysias, and who, while the horns over what comedy could she have smiled, if were sounding and the dogs in full cry, sat in the ancient dramatists had not been in her the lonely oriel, with eyes riveted to that library? A modern reader can make shift immortal page which tells how meekly and without dipus and Medea, while he pos. bravely the first great martyr of intellectual sesses Othello and Hamlet. If he knows noliberty took the cup from his weeping jailer. thing of Pyrgopolynices and Thraso, he is fa But surely these complaints have very little miliar with Bobadil, and Bessus, and Pistol, foundation. We would by no means dispa- and Parolles. If he cannot enjoy the delicious rage the 'adies of the sixteenth century or their irony of Plate, he may find some compensation pursuits But we conceive that those who in that of Pascal. If he is shut out from Ne extol them at the expense of the women of phelococcygia, he may take refuge in Lilliput. our time forget one very obvious and very We are guilty, we hope, of no irreverence important circumstance. In the reign of towards those great nations to which the hu Henry the Eighth, and Edward the Sixth, a man race owes art, science, taste, civil and person who did not read Greek and Latin intellectual freedom, when we say, that the could read nothing, or next to nothing. The stock bequeathed by them to us has been so Italian was the only modern language which carefully improved that the accumulated in. possessed any thing that could be called a terest now exceeds the principal. We believe literature. All the valuable books then extant that the books which have been written in the in all the vernacular dialects of Europe would languages of western Europe, during the last hardly have filled a single shelf. England did two hundred and fifty years, are of greater not yet possess Shakspeare's plays, and the value than all the books which, at the beginning Faerie Queen; nor France Montaigne's Essays; of that period, were extant in the world. With nor Spain Don Quixote. In looking round the modern languages of Europe English wo⚫ a well-furnished library, how few English or men are at least as well acquainted as English French books can we find which were extant men. When, therefore, we compare the ac when Lady Jane Grey and Queen Elizabeth quirements of Lady Jane Grey and those of an received their education. Chaucer, Gower, accomplished young woman of our own time, Froissart, Comines, Rabelais, nearly complete we have no hesitation in awarding the supethe list. It was therefore absolutely necessary riority to the latter. We hope that our readers that a woman should be uneducated or classi- will pardon this digression. It is long; but it cally educated. Indeed, without a knowledge can hardly be called unseasonable, if it tends of one of the ancient languages no person to convince them that they are mistaken in could then have any clear notions of what was thinking that their great-great-grandmothers passing in the political, the literary, or the were superior women to their sisters and their religious world. The Latin was in the six-wives. teenth century all and more than all that the French was in the eighteenth. It was the language of courts as well as of the schools. It was the language of diplomacy; it was the language of theological and political controversy. Being a fixed language, while the living languages were in a state of fluctuation, being universally known to the learned and the polite, it was employed by almost every writer who aspired to a wide and durable reputation. A person who was ignorant of it was shut out from all acquaintance-not merely with Cicero and Virgil-not merely with heavy treatises on canon-law and school divinity-but with the most interesting memoirs, state papers, and pamphlets of his own time; nay, even with the most admired poetry and the most popular squibs which appeared on the fleeting topics of the day-with Buchanan's complimentary verses, with Erasmus's dialogues, with Hutton's epistles.

This is no longer the case. All political and religious controversy is now conducted in the modern languages. The ancient tongues are used only in comments on the ancient writers. The great productions of Athenian and Roman genius are indeed still what they were. But though their positive value is un

Francis Bacon, the youngest son of Sir Nicholas, was born at York House, his father's residence in the Strand, on the 22d of January, 1561. His health was very delicate, and to this circumstance may be partly attributed that gravity of carriage, and that love of se dentary pursuits, which distinguished him from other boys. Everybody knows how much his premature readiness of wit and sobriety of deportment amused the queen; and how she used to call him her young Lord Keeper. We are told that while still a mere child he stole away from his playfellows to a vault in St. James's Fields, for the purpose of investi gating the cause of a singular echo which he had observed there. It is certain that, at only twelve, he busied himself with very ingenious speculations on the art of legerdemaina subject which, as Professor Dugald Stewart has most justly observed, merits much more attention from philosophers than it has ever received. These are trifles. But the eminence which Bacon afterwards attained renders them interesting.

In the thirteenth year of his age he was en tered at Trinity College, Cambridge. That celebrated school of learning enjoyed the pe culiar favour of the Lord Treasurer and the

Lord Keeper; and acknowledged the advantages which it derived from their patronage in a public letter which bears date just a month after the admission of Francis Bacon. The master was Whitgift, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, a narrow-minded, mean, and tyrannical priest, who gained power by servility and adulation, and employed in persecuting with impartial cruelty those who agreed with Calvin about church government, and those who differed from Calvin touching the doctrine of reprobation. He was now in the chrysalis state-putting off the worm and putting on the dragon-fly-a kind of intermediate grub between sycophant and oppressor. He was indemnifying himself for the court which he found it expedient to pay to the ministers, by exercising much petty tyranny within his own college. It would be unjust, however, to deny him the praise of having rendered about this time one important service to letters. He stood up manfully against those who wished to make Trinity College a mere appendage to Westminster school, and by this act, the only good act, as far as we remember, of his long public life, he saved the noblest place of education in England from the degrading fate of King's College and New College.

of deciphering with great interest; and invent ed one cipher so ingenious that many years later he thought it deserving of a place in the De Augmentis. In February, 1580, while en gaged in these pursuits, he received intelli gence of the almost sudden death of his father, and instantly returned to England.

His prospects were greatly overcast by this event. He was most desirous to obtain a provision which might enable him to devote himself to literature and politics. He applied to the government, and it seems strange that he should have applied in vain. His wishes were moderate. His hereditary claims on the administration were great. He had himself been favourably noticed by the queen. His uncle was Prime Minister. His own talents were such as any minister might have been eager to enlist in the public service. But his solicitations were unsuccessful. The truth is, that the Cecils disliked him, and did all that they could decently do to keep him down. It has never been alleged that Bacon had done any thing to merit this dislike; nor is it at all probable that a man whose temper was naturally mild, whose manners were courteous, who, through life, nursed his fortunes with the utmost care, and who was fearful even to a fault of offending the powerful, would have given any just canse of displeasure to a kinsman who had the means of rendering him essential service, and of doing him irreparable injury. The real explanation, we have no doubt, is this: Robert Cecil, the Treasurer's second son, was younger by a few months than Bacon. He had been educated with the utmost care; had been initiated, while still a boy, in the mysteries of diplomacy and court intrigue; and was just at this time about to be

It has often been said that Bacon, while still at college, planned that great intellectual revolution with which his name is inseparably connected. The evidence on this subject, however, is hardly sufficient to prove what is in itself so improbable as that any definite scheme of that kind should have been so early formed, even by so powerful and active a mind. But it is certain that, after a residence of three years at Cambridge, Bacon departed, carrying with him a profound contempt for the course of study pursued there; a fixed convic-introduced on the stage of public life. The tion that the system of academic education in England was radically vicious; a just scorn for the trifles on which the followers of Aristotle had wasted their powers, and no great reverence for Aristotle himself.

In his sixteenth year he visited Paris, and resided there for some time, under the care of Sir Amias Paulet, Elizabeth's minister at the French court, and one of the ablest and most upright of the many valuable servants whom she employed. France was at that time in a deplorable state of agitation. The Huguenots and the Catholics were mustering all their force for the fiercest and most protracted of their many struggles: while the prince, whose duty it was to protect and to restrain both, had by his vices and follies degraded himself so deeply that he had no authority over either. Bacon, however, made a tour through several provinces, and appears to have passed some time at Poitiers. We have abundant proof that during his stay on the continent he did not neglect literary and scientific pursuits. But nis attention seems to have been chiefly directed to statistics and diplomacy. It was at this time that he wrote those Notes on the State of Europe which are printed in his works. He studied the principles of the art

#trype's Life of Whitgift.

wish nearest to Burleigh's heart was that his own greatness might descend to this favourite child. But even Burleigh's fatherly partiality could hardly prevent him from perceiving that Robert, with all his abilities and acquirements, was no match for his cousin Francis. This seems to us the only rational explanation of the Treasurer's conduct. Mr. Montagu is more charitable. He supposes that Burleigh was influenced merely by affection for his nephew, and was "little disposed to encourage him to rely on others rather than on himself, and to venture on the quicksands of politics, instead of the certain profession of the law." If such were Burleigh's feelings, it seems strange that he should have suffered his son to venture on those quicksands from which he so carefully preserved his nephew. But the truth is, that if Burleigh had been so disposed, he might easily have secured to Bacon a comfortable provision which should have been exposed to no risk. And it is equally certain that he showed as little disposition to enable his nephew to live by a profession as to enable him to live without a profession. That Baco1 himself attributed the conduct of his relative 3 to jealousy of his superior talents, we have not the smallest doubt. In a letter, written many years after to Villiers he expresses himself thus: "Countenance, encourage, and

advance able men in all kinds, degrees, and professions. For in the time of the Cecils, the father and the son, able men were by design and of purpose suppressed."*

Whatever Burleigh's motives might be, his purpose was unalterable. The supplications which Francis addressed to his uncle and aunt were earnest, humble, and almost servile. He was the most promising and accomplished young man of his time. His father had been ine brother-in-law, the most useful colleague, the nearest friend of the minister. But all this availed poor Francis nothing. He was forced, much against his will, to betake himself to the study of the law. He was admitted at Gray's Inn, and, during some years, he laboured there in obscurity.

young barrister than his nearest kinsmen had been. In his twenty-sixth year he became a bencher of his Inn; and two years later he was appointed Lent reader. At length, in 1590, he obtained for the first time some show of favour from the court. He was sworn in Queen's Counsel extraordinary. But this mark of honour was not accompanied by any pecu. niary emolument. He continued, therefore, to solicit his powerful relatives for some provision which might enable him to live without drudging at his profession. He bore with a patience and serenity, which, we fear, bordered on meanness, the morose humours of his uncle, and the sneering reflections which his cousin cast on speculative men, lost in philosophical dreams, and too wise to be capable of transacting public business. At length the Cecils were generous enough to procure for him the reversion of the Registrarship of the Star-Chamber. This was a lucrative place; but as many years elapsed before it fell in, he was still under the necessity of labouring for his daily bread.

What the extent of his legal attainments may have been, it is difficult to say. It was not hard for a man of his powers to acquire that very moderate portion of technical knowledge which, when joined to quickness, tact, wit, ingenuity, eloquence, and knowledge of the world, is sufficient to raise an advocate to the highest professional eminence. The gene- In the Parliament which was called in 1593 ral opinion appears to have been that which he sat as member for the county of Middlesex, was on one occasion expressed by Elizabeth. and soon attained eminence as a debater. It "Bacon," said she, “had a great wit and much is easy to perceive from the scanty remains learning; but in law showeth to the uttermost of his oratory, that the same compactness of of his knowledge, and is not deep." The Ce-expression and richness of fancy which appear cils, we suspect, did their best to spread this in his writings characterized his speeches; opinion by whispers and insinuations. Coke and that his extensive acquaintance with liteopenly proclaimed it with that rancorous inso-rature and history enabled him to entertain lence which was habitual to him. No reports his audience with a vast variety of illustraare more readily believed than those which tions and allusions which were generally hapdisparage genius and soothe the envy of con- py and apposite, but which were probably not scious mediocrity. It must have been inex-least pleasing to the taste of that age when pressibly consoling to a stupid sergeant, the they were such as would now be thought forerunner of him who, a hundred and fifty childish or pedantic. It is evident also that years later, "shook his head at Murray as a he was, as indeed might have been expected, wit," to know that the most profound thinker, perfectly free from those faults which are and the most accomplished orator of the age, generally found in an advocate who, after havwas very imperfectly acquainted with the lawing risen to eminence at the bar, enters the touching bastard eigné and mulier puisné, and confounded the right of free fishery with that of common of piscary.

House of Commons; that it was his habit to deal with every great question, not in small detached portions, but as a whole; that he reIt is certain that no man in that age, or in- fined little, and that his reasonings were those deed during the century and a half which of a capacious rather than a subtle mind. followed, was better acquainted with the phi- Ben Jonson, a most unexceptionable judge, losophy of law. His technical knowledge was has described his eloquence in words, which, quite sufficient, with the help of his admirable though often quoted, will bear to be quoted talents, and his insinuating address, to procure again. "There happened in my time one noclients. He rose very rapidly into business, ble speaker who was full of gravity in his and soon entertained hopes of being called speaking. His language, where he could spare within the bar. He applied to Lord Burleigh or pass by a jest, was nobly censorious. No for that purpose, but received a testy refusal. man ever spoke more neatly, more pressly, Of the grounds of that refusal we can, in some more weightily, or suffered less emptiness, less measure, judge by Bacon's answer, which is idleness, in what he uttered. No member of still extant. It seems that the old lord, whose his speech but consisted of his own graces. temper, age, and gout had by no means altered His hearers could not cough or look aside for the better, and who omitted no opportunity from him without loss. He commanded where of marking his dislike of the showy, quick- he spoke, and had his judges angry and pleased itted young men of the rising generation, at his devotion. No man had their affections took this opportunity to read Francis a very sharp lecture on his vanity, and want of respect for his betters. Francis returned a most submissive reply, thanked the Treasurer for the admonition, and promised to profit by it. Strangers meanwhile were less unjust to the

See page 61, vol xii, of the present edition. VOL. II.-32.

more in his power. The fear of every man that heard him was lest he should make an end." From the mention which is made of judges, it would seem that Jonson had heard Bacon only at the bar. Indeed, we imagine that the House of Commons was then almost inaccessible to strangers. It is not probable that a man of Bacon's nice observation would

speak in Parliament exactly as he spoke in the Court of King's Bench. But the graces of manner and language must, to a great extent, have been common between the Queen's Counsel and the Knight of the Shire.

ened with fear and envy as he contemplated the rising fame and influence of Essex.

The history of the factions which, towards the close of the reign of Elizabeth, divided her court and her council, though pregnant with instruction, is by no means interesting or pleas ing. Both parties employed the means which are familiar to unscrupulous statesmen; and neither had, or even pretended to have, any im

then reposing from one great effort, and col lecting strength for another. That impetuous and appalling rush with which the human intellect had moved forward in the career of truth and liberty, during the fifty years which followed the separation of Luther from the communion of the Church of Rome, was now over. The boundary between Protestantism and Poremains. England, Scotland, the Northern kingdoms were on one side; Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, on the other. The line of demarcation ran, as it still runs, through the midst of the Netherlands, of Germany, and of Switzerland-dividing province from province, electorate from electorate, and canton from canton. France might be considered as a debatable land, in which the contest was still undecided. Since that time, the two religions have done little more than maintain their ground. A few occasional incursions have been made. But the general frontier remains the same. During two hundred and fifty years no great society has risen up like one man, and emancipated itself by one mighty effort from the enthralling superstition of ages. This spectacle was common in the middle of the sixteenth century. Why has it ceased to be so? Why has so violent a movement been followed by so long a repose? The doctrines of the Reformers are not less agrecable to rea

Bacon tried to play a very difficult game in politics. He wished to be at once a favourite at court and popular with the multitude. If any man could have succeeded in this attempt, a man of talents so rare, of judgment so pre-portant end in view. The public mind was maturely ripe, of temper so calm, and of manners so plausible, might have been expected to succeed. Nor indeed did he wholly fail. Once, however, he indulged in a burst of patriotism which cost him a long and bitter remorse, and which he never ventured to repeat. The court asked for large subsidies, and for speedy payment. The remains of Bacon's speech breathe all the spirit of the Long Par-pery had been fixed very nearly where it still liament. "The gentlemen," said he, "must sell their plate, and the farmers their brass pots, ere this will be paid; and for us, we are here to search the wounds of the realm, and not to skin them over. The dangers are these. First, we shall breed discontent and endanger her majesty's safety, which must consist more in the love of the people than their wealth. Secondly, this being granted in this sort, other princes hereafter will look for the like; so that we shall put an evil precedent on ourselves and on our posterity; and in histories, it is to be observed, of all nations, the English are not to be subject, base, or taxable." The queen and her ministers resented this outbreak of public spirit in the highest manner. Indeed, many an honest member of the House of Commons had, for a much smaller matter, been sent to the Tower by the proud and hot-blooded Tudors. The young patriot condescended to make the most abject apologies. He adjured the Lord Treasurer to show some favour to his poor servant and ally. He bemoaned him-son or to revelation now than formerly. The self to the Lord Keeper, in a letter which may keep in countenance the most unmanly of the epistles which Cicero wrote during his banishment. The lesson was not thrown away. Bacon never offended in the same manner again.

He was now satisfied that he had little to hope from the patronage of those powerful kinsmen whom he had solicited during twelve years with such meek pertinacity; and he began to look towards a different quarter. Among the courtiers of Elizabeth had lately appeared a new favourite-young, noble, wealthy, accomplished, eloqaent, brave, generous, aspiring -a favourite who had obtained from the grayheaded queen such marks of regard as she had scarce vouchsafed to Leicester in the season of the passions; who was at once the ornament of the palace and the idol of the city; who was the common patron of men of letters and of men of the sword; who was the common refuge of the persecuted Catholic and of the persecuted Puritan. The calm prudence which had enabled Burleigh to shape his course through so many dangers, and the vast experience which he had acquired in dealing with two generations of colleagues and rivals, see ned scarcely sufficient to support him in this new competition; and Robert Cecil sick

public mind is assuredly not less enlightened now than formerly. Why is it that Protestantism, after carrying every thing before it in a time of comparatively little knowledge and little freedom, should make no perceptible progress in a reasoning and tolerant age; that the Luthers, the Calvins, the Knoxes, the Zwingles, should have left no successors; that during two centuries and a half fewer converts should have been brought over from the Church of Rome than at the time of the Reformation were sometimes gained in a year? This has always appeared to us one of the most curious and interesting problems in history. On some other occasion we may perhaps attempt to solve it. At present it is enough to say, that at the close of Elizabeth's reign, the Protestant party, to borrow the language of the Apocalypse, had left its first love and had ceased to do its first works.

The great struggle of the sixteenth century was over. The great struggle of the seventeenth century had not commenced. The confessors of Mary's reign were dead. The members of the Long Parliament were still in their cradles. The Papists had been deprived of all power in the state. The Puritans had not yet attained any formidable extent of power. True it is, that a student well acquainted with the

history of the next generation can easily dis- so unlikely a matter. Can you name onc pre cern in the proceedings of the last Parliaments cedent of so raw a youth promoted to so great of Elizabeth the germ of great and ever-memo- a place?" This objection came with a singu rable events. But to the eye of a contempo- | larly bad grace from a man who, though young rary nothing of this appeared. The two sec-er than Bacon, was in daily expectation of tions of ambitious men who were struggling being made Secretary of State. The blet was for power differed from each other on no im- too obvious to be missed by Essex, who seldom portant public question. Both belonged to the forbore to speak his mind. "I have made no Established Church. Both professed bound- search," said he, "for precedents of young men less loyalty to the queen. Both approved the who have filled the office of Attorney-General. war with Spain. There is not, as far as we But I could name to you, Sir Robert, a man are aware, any reason to believe that they en- younger than Francis, less learned, and equally tertained different views concerning the suc- inexperienced, who is suing and striving with cession to the crown. Certainly neither fac- all his might for an office of far greater weight." tion had any great measure of reform in view. Sir Robert had nothing to say but that he Neither attempted to redress any public griev- thought his own abilities equal to the place ance. The most odious and pernicious griev- which he hoped to obtain ; and that his father's ance under which the nation ther suffered was long services deserved such a mark of gratitude a source of profit to both, and was defended by from the queen; as if his abilities were comboth with equal zeal. Raleigh held a monopoly parable to his cousin's, or as if Sir Nicholas of cards-Essex a monopoly of sweet wines. Bacon had done no service to the state. Cecil In fact, the only ground of quarrel between the then hinted that if Bacon would be satisfied parties was, that they could not agree as to with the Solicitorship, that might be of easier their respective shares of power and patron-digestion to the queen. "Digest me no diges age. Nothing in the political conduct of Essex entitles him to esteem; and the pity with which we regard his early and terrible end is diminished by the consideration, that he put to hazard the lives and fortunes of his most attached friends, and endeavoured to throw the whole country into confusion, for objects purely personal. Still, it is impossible not to be deeply interested for a man so brave, high-spirited, and generous;-for a man who, while he conducted himself towards his sovereign with a boldness such as was then found in no other subject, conducted himself towards his dependants with a delicacy such as has rarely been found in any other patron. Unlike the vulgar herd of benefactors, he desired to inspire, not gratitude, but affection. He tried to make those whom he befriended to feel towards him as towards an equal. His mind, ardent, susceptible, naturally disposed to admiration of all that is great and beautiful, was fascinated by the genius and the accomplishments of Bacon. A close friendship was soon formed between them -a friendship destined to have a dark, a mournful, a shameful end.

tions," said the generous and ardent earl. "The Attorneyship for Francis is that I must have; and in that I will spend all my power, might, authority, and amity; and with tooth and nail procure the same for him against whomsoever; whosoever getteth this office out of my hands for any other, before he have it, it shall cost him the coming by. And this be you assured of, Sir Robert, for now I fully declare myself; and for my own part, Sir Robert, 1 think strange both of my Lord Treasurer and you, that can have the mind to seck the preference of a stranger before so near a kinsman; for if you weigh in a balance the parts every way of his competitor and him, only excepting five poor years of admitting to a house of court before Francis, you shall find in all other respects whatsoever no comparison between them."

When the office of Attorney-General was filled up, the ear! pressed the queen to make Bacon Solicitor-General, and, on this occasion, the old Lord Treasurer professed himself not unfavourable to his nephew's pretensions. But after a contest which lasted more than a year and a half, and in which Essex, to use his own words, "spent all his power, might, authority, and amity," the place was given to another. Essex felt this disappointment keenly, but found consolation in the most munifi cent and delicate liberality. He presented Bacon with an estate, worth near two thousand pounds, situated at Twickenham, and this, as Bacon owned many years after, “with so kind and noble circumstances as the manner was worth more than the matter."

In 1594 the office of Attorney-General became vacant, and Bacon hoped to obtain it. Essex made his friend's cause his own-sued, expostulated, promised, threatened,-but all in vain. It is probable that the dislike felt by the Cecils for Bacon had been increased by the connection which he had lately formed with the earl. Robert was then on the point of being made Secretary of State. He happened one day to be in the same coach with Essex, and a remarkable conversation took place be- It was soon after these events that I acon first tween them. "My lord," said Sir Robert, "the appeared before the public as a writer. Early in queen has determined to appoint an Attorney-1597 he published a small volume of Essays, General without more delay. I pray your which was afterwards enlarged by successive lordship to let me know whom you will fa- additions to many times its original bulk. This vour." "I wonder at your question," replied little work was, as it well deserved to be, ex the earl. "You cannot but know that reso-ceedingly popular. It was reprinted in a few lutely, against all the world, I stand for your cousin, Francis Bacon." Good Lord," cried Cecil, unable to bridle his temper, "I wonder your lordship should spend your strength on

66

months; it was translated into Latin, French, and Italian; and it seems to have at once es. tablished the_literary reputation of its author But though Bacon's reputation rose, his for

« AnteriorContinuar »