TO THE Right Honourable my very good Lord THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM, His Grace Lord High Admiral of England. EXCELLENT LORD, SOLOMON says, "A good name is as a pre"cious ointment;" and I assure myself such will your Grace's name be with posterity: for your fortune and merit both have been eminent; and you have planted things that are like to last. I do now publish my Essays; which, of all my other works, have been most current for that, as it seems, they come home to men's business and bosoms. I have enlarged them both in number and weight; so that they are indeed a new work: I thought it therefore agreeable to my affection and obligation to your Grace, to prefix your name be fore them, both in English and Latin; for I do conceive, that the Latin volume of them, being in the universal language, may last as long as books last. My Instauration I dedi cated to the king; my History of Henry the Seventh, which I have now translated into Latin, and my portions of Natural History, to the Prince; and these I dedicate to your Grace, being of the best fruits, that, by the good increase which God gives to my pen and labours, I could yield. God lead your Grace by the hand. Your Grace's most obliged And faithful servant, FR. ST. ALBAN. |