General, in April, 1594, Bacon became a candidate for the vacant office of Solicitor-General; but another person was eventually appointed. Upon this the Earl of Essex, who had exerted himself in his friend's behalf with extraordinary zeal, and took his failure much to heart, munificently presented him with an estate near Twickenham, which he afterwards sold for 18007. The fact has been circumstantially related by Bacon himself.

In 1596 he completed and dedicated to the Queen 'A Collection of some of the Principal Rules and Maxims of the Common Law, with their Latitude and Extent;' but this work was not published till 1630, some years after the author's death, when it was printed along with another tract subsequently written, 'The Use of the Law, for Preservation of our persons, goods, and good names, according to the practice of the laws and customs of this land;' both being included under the title of 'The Ele ments of the Common Law of England.'*

Seene

And now we come to the publication of the first edition of the ESSAYS, which appeared in a small 8vo. volume, with the following title:Essayes. Religious Meditations. Places of Perswasion and Disswasion. and allowed. At London. Printed for Humfrey Hooper, and are to be sold at the blacke Beare in Chauncery Lane. 1597. Only the leaves are numbered, and there are 45 of them in all, in two series; of which the first, extending to 13 leaves, is occupied with the Essays. The 14th leaf presents the following new title:- Meditationes Sacrae. Londini. Excudebat Johannes Windet. 1597.' Then follow, on 14 more leaves, the Meditationes Sacrae, in Latin, being the same that are called the Religious Meditations on the first or general titlepage. The leaf numbered 16 of this second series presents a third title:-'Of the Coulers of good and evill, a fragment. 1597;' and it is followed by 16 leaves con

* Mr. Montagu, nowever (Life,' p. xxxv.) appears to consider the Maxims' and the 'Use' as having originally formed one work. The Dedication to Elizabeth, and the Preface, clearly apply only to the Maxims.'

taining the tract so called, being the same that is called Places of Persuasion and Dissuasion in the general title. The Meditationes Sacrae are printed in the Italic letter; the Essays and Colours in the Roman. On the back of the last leaf are the words" Printed at London by John Windet for Humfrey Hooper. 1597."* We may observe, that, notwithstanding the date 1597, it is most probable that the volume really appeared in the early part of what we should now call the year 1598. The Essays are inscribed by the author "To M. Anthony Bacon, his deare Brother;" the Dedication being dated "From my chamber at Graies Inne this 30 of Januarie. 1597." This would mean January, 1598, according to the then usual mode of computation.

There is another edition of the same collection with exactly the same title-page, except only that the date is 1598. It may have appeared, therefore, either in the same year with the former or in the beginning of the year 1599. It is in 12mo., and the page is of a smaller size than in the former. Only the leaves, of which there are 50, are numbered. It is not so neatly printed as the edition marked 1597; but the chief difference is, that the Religious Meditations are now in English. They in particular are full of the grossest misprints-all of which have been carefully preserved in Mr. Montagu's edition. The only other known impression of the same collection (having also the Meditations in English) is a small 8vo., printed at London for John Jaggard, dwelling in Fleete Streete, at the hande and Starre, near Temple Barre. 1606." The date of the Dedication is also altered

66

* Mr. Montagu says that the 'Religious Meditations' are not printed, as the Essays' are, for Hooper. But in the next sentence but one he says, "Although the name of Hooper does not appear in the title prefixed to the 'Meditationes Sacrae,' it is evident that Windet was the printer for Hooper." The first or general title-page shows clearly enough that the entire volume was printed for Hooper. Mr. Montagu also expresses himself as if the Places of Perswasion and Disswasion' were a second title of the Religious Meditations.'

to 1606; and Mr. Montagu considers this to be a pirated edition.

The Essays, as they stand in these three first editions, are only ten in number; but several of the twelve Meditations are the rudimentary forms of compositions afterwards inserted among the Essays.

The next edition that has been discovered is dated 1612, and contains 38 Essays; namely, nine of those formerly published (the 8th, entitled Of Honour and Reputation,' being omitted), and 29 new ones. Of the nine that are reprinted, also, several are considerably enlarged. The Table of Contents enumerates 40 Essays; but the two last, entitled 'Of the Public,' and 'Of War and Peace,' are not given.

The Fifth edition, also dated 1612, appears to be another piracy of Jaggard's. It contains 39 Essays; namely, the 10 formerly printed (but without the enlargements), and the 29 new ones. It has likewise the Religious Meditations, and the Places of Persuasion and Dissuasion.

The Sixth edition is also by Jaggard, and is dated 1613. It is a transcript of the Fourth edition, with the addition of the Essay Of Honour and Reputation,' there omitted. It contains, therefore, the same 39 Essays as the Fifth edition, but differently arranged, and with several of them extended and altered.

The Seventh is an Edinburgh edition, printed for Andro Hart, and dated 1614. It is a copy of the last mentioned.

The Eighth edition, dated 1624, is printed for Elizabeth Jaggard (probably Jaggard's widow), and is also copied from the edition of 1613. These three last-mentioned editions all contain the Meditations and the Places of Persuasion and Dissuasion, as well as the Essays.

6

The Ninth edition, the last published in Bacon's lifetime, is a small quarto of 340 pages, entitled The Essayes or Counsels, Civell and Morall, of Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount St. Alban. Newly enlarged. London, Printed by John Haviland for Hanna Barret and Richard Whitaker, and are to be sold at the signe of the King's

head in Paul's Churchyard. 1625.' It contains 58 Essays; namely, the 38 published in the Fourth edition, and 20 additional ones. Several of. those formerly published have also new titles, and are otherwise altered.*

In the original Dedication of the Essays to "Mr. Anthony Bacon, his dear Brother," Bacon says, "Loving and Beloved Brother, I do now like some that have an orchard ill neighboured; that gather their fruit before it is ripe, to prevent stealing. These fragments of my conceits were going to print; to labour the stay of them had been troublesome, and subject to interpretation ;† to let them pass had been to adventure the wrong they might receive by untrue copies, or by some garnishment which it might please any that should set them forth to bestow upon them." From this it may be inferred that, as was then common, they had already been for some time circulating in manuscript. He goes on to speak of them as having passed long ago from his pen, and intimates that they are now published as they were originally written. And in this statement, it should be observed, he seems to refer to all the contents of the little volume-to the Meditations and the Colours of Good and Evil, as well as to the Essays.

The short address concludes with an expression of strong affection, which is further interesting for a disclosure, at this early date, of what appears to have been Bacon's conviction in regard to his own true sphere at the close as well as at the outset of his public life. In the depth of their reciprocal love, he says to his brother,

*We have abstracted the notices of the last six of these editions, as well as we could, from Mr. Montagu's detailed account, Life,' note 3 I. But in his tabular comparison of the edition of 1625 with the regular edition of 1612, he makes the 1st Essay of the former to be the same with the 1st of the latter, whereas it is quite different and new; the 3rd of the former to be new, whereas it corresponds in great part to the 1st of the latter; and the 29th of the former to be new, whereas it is an extension of the 38th of the latter.

That is, as we should now say, to misconstruction.
To risk.

"I assure you, I sometimes wish your infirmities translated upon myself, that her Majesty might have the service of so active and able a mind; and I might be, with excuse, confined to these contemplations and studies, for which I am the fittest." Mr. Anthony Bacon, who was a person of great ability and accomplishment, was most of his life so afflicted with gout as to incapacitate him for walking, and died in 1601 or 1602. When the Essays were republished in 1612, increased to four times their original number and extent, but without the Meditations and the Colours of Good and Evil, the former of which had been now mostly turned into Essays, while the latter tract was reserved to be incorporated in the De Augmentis Scientiarum, Bacon dedicated them to Sir John Constable, who was married to a sister of Lady Bacon's. He says, My last Essays I dedicated to my dear brother, Mr. Anthony Bacon, who is with God. Looking amongst my papers this vacation, I found others of the same nature; which if I myself shall not suffer to be lost, it seemeth the world will not, by the often printing of the former." These last words may lead us to suspect that Jaggard's edition of 1606 (supposed to be pirated) had not been the only re-impression of the former Essays after their first appearance in 1597 or 1598, although no other intermediate edition is now known.

It appears from a letter first published in Stephens's Second Collection ('Letters and Remains,' 4to., Lond. 1734), that Bacon had originally designed to dedicate this 1612 edition to Henry Prince of Wales, who died on the 6th of November in that year. The book, therefore, we may infer did not come out till towards the end of the year, or perhaps not till after the beginning of 1613. The letter is in fact the intended Dedication to the Prince. 66 Having," Bacon begins, "divided my life into the contemplative and active part, I am desirous to give his Majesty and your Highness of the fruits of both, simple though they be." The Essays he goes on to describe as only "brief notes, set down rather significantly than anxiously." "The word," he continues,

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