The works of Francis Bacon, lord chancellor of England.

EDITOR'S PREFACE. 403
as in most of his philosophical works; nor written pressly1 and weightily,2 as the Novum
Organum: but they seem remarkable only for antithesis, something like Fuller, without his spirit: a
sort of dry Fuller, or, as he would say, Fuller's earth: or like the Essay on Death, published also in
the Remains, and ascribed without authority to the same illustrious author.3
The evidence in favour of the authenticity of the Paradoxes, from the style, is, that-1. Aphorisms
are the favourite style of Lord Bacon.4 2. The paradoxes contain two of Lord Bacon's expressions;
the one is in the beginning of the 26th Paradox, " He is often tossed and shaken, yet is as Mount Sion:
he is a serpent and a dove."5 The other in the 10th Paradox. ", He lends and gives most freely, and
yet he is the greatest usurer.s" 3d. That although the Paradoxes do not contain any patent internal evidence of their authenticity, yet there is latent evidence from the dissimilarity of the style, as
Lord Bacon, knowing how to discover the mind through words,7 well knew the art of concealment,
by which he could cast a cloud about him so as to obscure himself from his enemies. To this refined
reason which, without proving the authenticity of the Paradoxes, shows only that, by possibility,
they may be authentic, it is sufficient to say that, as they were not published or intended for publication, it seems difficult to discover any assignable cause for this mystery.
CONSIDERATIONS TOUCHING THE PACIFICATION OF THE CHURCH.
This was published in 1640, and there are copies in the British Museum, and at Cambridge: and
a MSS. in Sloane's Collection, 23.
THE TRANSLATION OF CERTAIN PSALMS.
This was published in 8vo. in 1625, and in the Resuscitatzo.
HOLY WAR.
This was written and published in 4to. in 1623, and in 1629; and there are MSS. in the British
Museum.
1 Ben Jonson in his Discoveries says, Dominus Verulamius.-One though he be excellent, and the chief, is not to be
imitated alone; for no imitator ever grew up to his author: likeness is always on this side of truth; yet there happened in
my time one noble speaker, who was full of gravity in his speaking. His language (where he could spare or pass by a jest)
was nobly censorious. No man ever spake more neatly, more pressly, more weightily, or suffered less emptiness, less idleness, in what he uttered. No member of his speech but consisted of his own graces. His hearerscould not cough, or look
aside from him without loss. lie commanded where he spoke; and had his judges angry and pleased at his devotion. No
man had their affections more in his power. The fear of every man that heard him was lest he should make an end.
2 Take for instance any of the Nervous Aphorisms, in the Novum Organum, and compare it with the sentences of the
Paradoxes.
See Preface to vol. i.
4 No man was, for his own sake, less attached to system or ornament than Lord Bacon. A plain, unadorned style in
aphorisms, in which the.NJovum Organurm is written, is, he invariably states, the proper style for philosophy. In the midst
of his own arrangement, in the Advancement of Learning, he says: " The worst and most absurd sort of triflers are those
who have pent the whole art into strict methods and narrow systems, which men commonly cry up for the sake of their regularity and style." Then see Advancement of Learning.
5 This union of the serpent and the dove is a favourite image of Lord Bacon's. See the Advancement of Learning, vol.
i. p. 223: "It is not possible to join serpentine wisdom with the columbine innocency, except men know exactly all the
conditions of the serpent; his baseness and going upon his belly, his volubility and lubricity, his envy and sting, and the
rest; that is, all forms and natures of evil: for without this, virtue lieth open and unfenced." See also the Meditationes
Saclre, "of the innocency of the dove, and the wisdom of the serpent."
6 See Apophthegm 148, in vol. i. p. 115, it is as follows:
"' They would say of the Duke of Guise, Henry, that had sold and oppignerated all his patrimony, to suffice the great
donatives that he had made; that he was the greatest usurer of France, because all his state was in obligations."
7 See Treatise De Augmentis, b. vi. c. 1, a 11.