The works of Francis Bacon, lord chancellor of England.

LIFE OF BACON. cxi,
On opening his will, his wish to be buried at St. may frequently be traced. His health was always
Albans thus appears: " For my burial, I desire it delicate, and, to use his own expression, hlie was
may be in St. Michael's church, near St. Albans: all his life puddering with physic.
there was my mother buried, and it is the parish He was of a middle stature, and well propotchurch of my mansion-house of Gorhambury, and tioned; his features were handsome and expres.
it is the only Christian church within the walls sive, and his countenance, until it was injured by
of Old Verulam." politics and worldly warfare, singularly placid.
Of his funeral no account can be found, nor is There is a portrait of him when he was only
there any trace of the site of the house where he eighteen now extant, on which the artist has
died. recorded his despair of doing justice to his subHe is buriedin the same grave with his mother, ject by the inscription, Si tabula daretur digin St. Michael's church. na, animum mallem." His portraits differ beOn his monument he is represented sitting in yond what may be considered a fair allowance
contemplation, his hand supporting his head. for the varying skill of the artist, or the natural
FRANCISCUS BACON. BARO DE VERULA. STI: ALBNI: VICMS: changes which time wrought upon his person; but
none of them contradict the description given by
SC EU NOTIORIBUS TITULIS. LE. one who knew him well, ", that he had a spacious
SIEN CTIARUM LUMEN. FACUNDLE LEI. forehead and piercing eye, looking upward as a
sIC SEDEBAT:
soul in sublime contemplation, a countenance worQUI POETQU AM OMNIA NATURALIS SAPIENTI thy of one who was to set free captive philosophy."
E.T CIVILtS ARCANA EV0LVISSET
NATURcvs DECRATUM EXPLEVIT His life of mind was never exceeded, perhaps
NATURJE DECRETUM EXPLEVIT
COMPOSITA SOLVANTUR. never equalled. When a child,
AN~ DNI MDCCVI " No childish play to him was pleasing."
ATATs LXVI
TANTI VIRI While his companions were diverting themselves
MEM. in the park, he was occupied in meditating upon
THOMAS MEAUTYS the causes of the echoes and the nature of imagiSUPERSTITIS CULTOR nation. In after life he was a master of the sciDEFUNCTI ADMIRATOR ence of harmony, and the laws of imagination he
H P studied with peculiar care, and well understood.
This monument, erected by his faithful secre- The same penetration he extended to colours, and
tary, has transmitted to posterity the image of his to the heavenly bodies, and predicted the modes
person; and, though no statue could represent his by which their laws would be discovered, and
mind, his attitude of deep and tranquil thought which, after the lapse of a century, were so beauticannot be seen without emotion. fiully elucidated by Newton.
No sculptured form gives the lineaments of Sir The extent of his views was immense. He
Thomas Meautys. A plain stone records the stood on a cliff, and surveyed the whole of nature.
fact, that he lies at his master's feet. Much time His vigilant observation of what we, in common
will not pass away before the few letters which parlance, call trifles, was, perhaps, more extraormay now be seen upon his grave will be effaced. dinary: scarcely a pebble on the shore escaped
His monument will be found in the veneration of his notice. It is thus that genius is, from its life
after times, in the remembrance of his grateful of mind, attentive to all things, and, from seeing
adherence to the fallen fortunes of his master, real union in the apparent discrepancies of nature,
",that he loved and admired him in life, and deduces general truths from particular instances.
honoured him when dead." His powers were varied and in great perfection.
His senses were exquisitely acute, and he used
them to dissipate illusions, by " holding firm to the
works of God and to the sense, which is God's
CONC CLUSION..lamp, Lucerna Dei, spiraculum hominis."
His imagination was fruitful and vivid; but he
IN his analysis of human nature, Bacon consi- understood its laws, and governed it with absoders first the general properties of man, and then lute sway. He used it as a philosopher. It
the peculiar properties of his body and of his never had precedence in his mind, hut followed in
mind. This mode may be adopted in reviewing the train of his reason. With her hues, her forms,
his life. and the spirit of her forms, he clothed the nakedHe was of a temperament of the most delicate ness of austere truth.
sensibility: so excitable, as to be affected by the He was careful in improving the excellences,
sli "test alterations in the atmosphere. It is and in diminishing the defects of his understandprobable that the temperament of genius may ing, whether from inability at particular times to
much depend upon such pressibility, and that to acquire knowledge, or inability to acquire partic,
this cause the excellences and failures of Bacon lar sorts of knowledge.
VOL. I.-C15) (K 2)