Facsimile of a letter from Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam and Viscount St. Albans to Sir John Puckering Lord Keeper of the Great Seal Yt may please your lordship But Thear hath nothing happened to me in the course of my busines more contrary to my expecticion then your lordships failing me and crossing me now in the conclusion when frendes are best trued now I desire no more fauour of your lordship then I would do if I were a sutour in the Chauncerye, which is this onely, that you would doc me right: And I for my part though I have much to alledg, yet neverthelesse, if I see her majesty settle her choise ron an able man, such a one as Mr. Sergeaunt Flemmyng. I will make no means to alter it. On the other side, if I perecyve any insufficient obscure idole man offred to her majesty, then I thinke my self double bond to rse the best meanes I can for my self, which I humbly pray your lordship I may doe with your fauour, and that you will not disable me furder then is cause. And 80 I comend your lordship to Goddes preservacion. From Graies Inne, this æxviij th of July, 1595. That beareth your lordship all humble respoet, FR. BACON. Addressed: To the right honorable the Lord Keeper of the great Scale There shall be seen upon a day, When that that is come and gone, England build houses of lime and stone, It was generally conceived to be meant of the Spanish fleet that came in '88: for that the king of Spain's surname, as they say, is Norway. The prediction of Regiomontanus, Octogesimus octavus mirabilis annus [The eighty-eighth, a year of wonders], was thought likewise accomplished in the sending of that great fleet, being the greatest in strength, though not in number, of all that ever swam upon the sea. As for Cleon's dream, I think it was a jest. It was, that he was devoured of a long dragon; and it was expounded of a maker of sausages, that troubled him exceedingly. There are numbers of the like kind; especially if you include dreams, and predictions of astrology. But I have set down these few only of certain credit, for example. My judgment is, that they ought all to be despised; and ought to serve but for winter talk by the fireside. Though when I say despised, I mean it as for belief; for otherwise, the spreading or publishing of them is in no sort to be despised. For they have done much mischief; and I see many severe laws made to suppress them. That that hath given them grace, and some credit, consisteth in three things. First, that men mark when they hit, and never mark when they miss; as they do generally also of dreams. The second is, that probable conjectures, or obscure traditions, many times turn themselves into prophecies; while the nature of man, which coveteth divination, thinks it no peril to foretell that which indeed they do but collect. As that of Seneca's verse. For so much was then subject to demonstration, that the globe of the earth had great parts beyond the Atlantic, which mought be probably conceived not to be all sea and adding thereto the tradition in Plato's Timæus, and his Atlanticus, it mought encourage one to turn it to a prediction. The third and last (which is the great one) is, • Infer. |