Bacon's Essays, with annotations by Richard Whately and notes and a glossarial index, by Franklin Fiske Heard.

xliv TIE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE ESSAYS.
lation of Bacon's Essays into Latin, which was published in
1619, was donle by the famous John Selden; but this is proved
decisively by a letter from N. N. (John Selden N.) to Camden
(See Camden. Epqistol., 4to. 1691, p. 278). In the General
Diet. and several other books, this translation is ascribed to
Bishop Hacket and Ben Jonson." The letter to which Malone alludes is anonymous, and the writer says that he had
translated Bacon's Essays into Latin, after the correctest copy
published in Italian. The original is among the Cotton MSS.
Julius C. 5, and is evidently a transcript in some hand not
Selden's. In the heading as it stands in the printed volume,
" N. N. Clarissimo Viro Gulielmo Camdeno suo," N. N. (i. e.
non nominato) is added by tlle editor, who was certailly not
aware tlhat Selden was the writer. What authority Malone
had for speaking so positively upon the point I have been
unable to discover. There is nothing contrary to probability
in the supposition that Selden may have translated tlle Essays
in 1619, but there is nothing to shew that his translation was
ever published, as Malone asserts. It certainly is not indicated in tlhe letter itself, of which the following is the passage
in question. " Joannes Sarisburiensis e niostris pene solus est,
qui rimatus arcana Ethices et Philologia puriora, monimentum reliquit mentis Philosophicae in libris de nugis Curialium;
nuperrime vero magnus ille Franciscus Baconus in tentamentis suis Etliico-politicis, quue ex Anglico sermone ad correctissimum, Italice editum, exemplar, in Latinum transtuli."
The date of the letter is " Londini xiv Julii Anglorum
CI0.DC.XIX." There is one allusion in it which favours tlie
supposition that it may have been Selden's. " Propterea si
sapieltiae et scientiarum in Britannia nondum coelitus edocta
lineamenta enicleatius exposuero inll Historiis meis, qualia
apud priscos cum Druydes, tum Saxones (parentes nostros)
ea extitisse comperero, haud perperam ego aut inutiliter bonas
horas trivisse judicer, utpote qus ad bonam mentem suo more
fecerint." This may refer to his Analecta Anglo-Britannica,