FRANCIS BACON, Lord Verulam and

Viscount St. Albans (1561-1626), a great politician, philosopher, and writer, was born in London, studied law at Cambridge, and had a splendid career as a lawyer and statesman. In 1618 he reached the summit of his profession, being created Lord High Chancellor of England. But he was soon afterwards accused of bribery and corruption, and, being found guilty, was stripped of his offices and banished from court and parliament. The rest of his life he spent at his country-seat at Gorhambury, Hertford, bestowing all his time on philosophical and literary pursuits, to which he had always given attention since his student days, even while engaged in public affairs. His fame as a philosopher rests chiefly on his Novum Organum (written

in Latin, like most of his philosophical and scientific treatises; publ. 1620) and on the more popular Advancement of Learning (1605), in both of which he advocated the investigation of nature by observation and experiment, i. e. by inductive methods. As a writer he appears at his best in his Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral, which for their clear and concise style enjoy an immense popularity up to this day. From a first instalment of only ten Essays, published as early as 1597, they were increased by subsequent additions and revisions, to the final number of fifty-eight in 1625. His History of the Reign of King Henry VII. (1622) was a model of clear historical narration; and his unfinished posthumous New Atlantis (1660) is an interesting example of a didactic romance.

Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; 5 and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but

the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best 10 from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies, is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the 15 humour of a scholar. They perfect

nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by 20 study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies; simple men admire them; and 25 wise men use them: for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradict and confute, nor to 30 believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and 35 digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books 40 also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books: else distilled books 45 are, like common distilled waters, flashy things. Reading maketh a full man; conference, a ready man; and writing, an exact man. And, there

fore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he 50 confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not. Histories make men wise; poets, witty; 55 the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend. 'Abeunt studia in mores'. Nay, there is no stond or impediment in the wit but 60 may be wrought out by fit studies, like as diseases of the body may have appropriate exercises. Bowling is good for the stone and reins; shooting for the lungs and breast; gentle 65 walking for the stomach; riding for the head, and the like. So if a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away 70 never so little, he must begin again; if his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the schoolmen, for they are cymini sectores; if he be not apt to beat 75 over matters, and to call up one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyers' cases: so every defect of the mind may have a special receipt.

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BENJAMIN JONSON (1573-1637) was

born at Westminster in 1573, as the posthumous child of a minister of Scottish descent. His youth was full of vicissitudes. For a short time he worked as a brick-layer in his stepfather's business. Disliking the trade, he ran away, and served as a soldier in the Netherlands. Wether on his return, or at any other time, he had the benefit of a university education, cannot be ascertained; but he certainly afterwards displayed deep classical learning in his works, so that, in 1619, the University of Oxford conferred upon him the honorary degree of M.A. When he was about

twenty, he began his theatrical career, first as an actor and, probably not much later, as dramatic author. His first play was a comedy, entitled 'Every Man in his Humour (acted 1598), in which Shakspere used to perform the part of old Knowell. It was followed by about 50 other dramatic pieces, most of them masques for court entertainments, which were at that time very much in fashion. King James I. was delighted with his art and made him his court-poet. His literary reputation, his love of conviviality, and his colloquial powers gathered round him the greatest men of letters of his time; and their jovial