Part 45 (1/2)

BOOKS TO READ

Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley may be read in ill.u.s.tration of this chapter.

Chapter LII BACON--NEW WAYS OF WISDOM

WHEN we are little, there are many things we cannot understand; we puzzle about them a good deal perhaps, and then we ask questions. And sometimes the grown-ups answer our question and make the puzzling things clear to us, sometimes they answer yet do not make the puzzling things any clearer to us, and sometimes they tell us not to trouble, that we will understand when we grow older. Then we wish we could grow older quick, for it seems such a long time to wait for an answer. But worst of all, sometimes the grown-ups tell us not to talk so much and not to ask so many question.

The fact is, though perhaps I ought not to tell you, grown-ups don't know everything. That is not any disgrace either, for of course no one can know everything, not even father or mother.

And just as there are things which puzzle little folks, there are things which puzzle big folks. And just as among little folks there are some who ask more questions and who ”want to know” more than others, so among grown-ups there are some who more than others seek for the answer to those puzzling question. These people we call philosophers. The word comes from two Greek words, philos loving, sophos wise, and means loving wisdom. In this chapter I am going to tell you about Francis Bacon, the great philosopher who lived in the times of Elizabeth and James.

I do not think that I can quite make you understand what philosophy really means, or what his learned books were about, nor do I think you will care to read them for a long time to come. But you will find the life of Francis Bacon very interesting. It is well, too, to know about Bacon, for with him began a new kind of search for wisdom. The old searchers after truth had tried to settle the questions which puzzled them by turning to imaginary things, and by mere thinking. Bacon said that we must answer these questions by studying not what was imaginary, but what was real--by studying nature. So Bacon was not only a lover of truth but was also the first of our scientists of to-day. Scientist comes from the Latin word scio to know, and Science means that which we know by watching things and trying things,--by making experiments. And although Bacon did not himself find out anything new and useful to man, he pointed out the road upon which others were to travel.

It was upon a cold day in January in 1560 that Francis Bacon ”came crying into the world.”* He was born in a fine house and was the child of great people, his father being Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. But although his father was one of the most important men in the kingdom, we know little about Francis as a boy. We know that he met the Queen and that he must have been a clever little boy, for she would playfully call him her ”young Lord Keeper.” Once too when she asked him how old he was, he answered, ”Two years younger than your Majesty's happy reign.” So if you know when Elizabeth began to reign you will easily remember when Bacon was born.

*James Spedding.

Francis was the youngest of a big family, and when he was little more than twelve years old he went to Trinity College, Cambridge.

Even in those days, when people went to college early, this was young.

For three years Bacon remained at college and then he went to France with the English amba.s.sador. While he was in France his father died and Bacon returned home. At eighteen he thus found himself a poor lad with his future to make and only his father's great name and his own wits to help him. He made up his mind to take Law as his profession. So he set himself quietly to study.

He worked hard, for from the very beginning he meant to get on, he meant to be rich and powerful. So he bowed low before the great, he wrote letters to them full of flattery, he begged and promised.

Bacon is like a man with two faces. We look at one and we see a kindly face full of pity and sorrow for all wrong and pain that men must suffer, we see there a longing to help man, to be his friend. We look at the other face and there we see the greed of gain, the desire for power and place. Yet it may be that Bacon only strove to be great so that he might have more power and freedom to be pitiful. In spite of Bacon's hard work, in spite of his flattery and begging, he did not rise fast. After five years we find him indeed a barrister and a Member of Parliament, but among the many great men of his age he was still of little account. He had not made his mark, in spite of the fact that the great Lord Burleigh was his uncle, in spite of the fact that Elizabeth had liked him as a boy. Post after post for which he begged was given to other men. He was, he said himself, ”like a child following a bird, which when he is nearest flieth away and lighteth a little before, and then the child after it again, and so in infinitum. I am weary of it.”

But one friend at court he found in the Earl of Ess.e.x, the favorite of Elizabeth, the rival of Raleigh. Ess.e.x, however, who could win so much favor for himself, could win none for Francis Bacon. Being able to win nothing from the Queen, on his own account Ess.e.x gave his friend an estate worth about 1800 pounds.

But although that may have been some comfort to Bacon, it did not win for him greatness in the eyes of the world, the only greatness for which he longed. As to the Queen, she made use of him when it pleased her, but she had no love for him. ”Though she cheered him much with the bounty of her countenance,” says an early writer of Bacon's life, his friend and chaplain,* ”yet she never cheered him with the bounty of her hand.” It was, alas, that bounty of the hand that Bacon begged for and stooped for all through his life. Yet he cared nothing for money for its own sake, for what he had, he spent carelessly. He loved to keep high state, he loved grandeur, and was always in debt.

* William Rawley.

Ess.e.x through all his brilliant years when the Queen smiled upon him stuck by his friend, for him he spent his ”power, might, authority and amity” in vain. When the dark hours came and Ess.e.x fell into disgrace, it was Bacon who forgot his friends.h.i.+p.

You will read in history-books of how Ess.e.x, against the Queen's orders, left Ireland, and coming to London, burst into her presence one morning before she was dressed. You will read of how he was disgraced and imprisoned. At first Bacon did what he could for his friend, and it was through his help that Ess.e.x was set free. But even then, Bacon wrote to the Earl, ”I confess I love some things much better than I love your lords.h.i.+p, as the Queen's service, her quiet and contentment, her honour, her favour, the good of my country, and the like. Yet I love few persons better than yourself, both for grat.i.tude's sake, and for your own virtues.”

Set free, Ess.e.x rushed into pa.s.sionate, futile rebellion. Again he was made prisoner and tried for high treason. It was then that Bacon had to choose between friend and Queen. He chose his Queen and appeared in court against his friend. To do anything else, Bacon told himself, had been utterly useless. Ess.e.x was now of no more use to him, he was too surely fallen. To cling to him could do not good, but would only bring the Queen's anger upon himself also. And yet he had written: ”It is friends.h.i.+p when a man can say to himself, I love this man without respect of utility. . . . I make him a portion of my own wishes.”

He wrote that as a young man, later he saw nothing in friends.h.i.+p beyond use.

The trial of Ess.e.x must have been a brilliant scene. The Earl himself, young, fair of face, splendidly clad, stood at the bar.

He showed no fear, his bearing was as proud and bold as ever, ”but whether his courage were borrowed and put on for the time or natural, it were hard to judge.”* The Lord Treasurer, the Lord High Steward, too were there and twenty-five peers, nine earls, and sixteen barons to try the case. Among the learned counsel sat Bacon, a disappointed man of forty. There was nothing to single him out from his fellows save that he was the Earl's friend, and as such might be looked upon to do his best to save him.

*John Chamberlain.

As the trial went on, however, Bacon spoke, not to save, but to condemn. Did no memory of past kindliness cross his mind as he likened his friend to ”Cain, that first murderer,” as he complained to the court that too much favor was shown to the prisoner, that he had never before heard ”so ill a defense of such great and notorious treasons.” The Earl answered in his own defense again and yet again. But at length he was silent. His case was hopeless, and he was condemned to death. He was executed on 25th February, 1601.

Perhaps Bacon could not have saved his friend from death, but had he used his wit to try at least to save instead of helping to condemn, he would have kept his own name from a dark blot. But a greater betrayal of friends.h.i.+p was yet to follow. Though Ess.e.x had been wild and foolish the people loved him, and now they murmured against the Queen for causing his death. Then it was thought well, that they should know all the blackness of his misdeeds, and it was Bacon who was called upon to write the story of them.

Even from this he did not shrink, for he hoped for great rewards.