The works of Francis Bacon, lord chancellor of England.

THE PRAISE OF
HENRY, PRINCE OF WALES,
BY FRANCIS BACON.
WRITTEN IN LATIN BY HIS LORDSHIP. AND TRANSLATED BY DR. BIRCH.*
HE.NRY, Prince of Wales, eldest son of the King highly valued by him; and he breathed himself
of Great Britain, happy in the hopes conceived of something warlike. He was much devoted to
him, and now happy in his memory, died on the the magnificence of buildings and works of all
6th of Nov. 1612, to the extreme concern and re- kinds, though in other respects rather frugal; and
gret of the whole kingdom, being a youth who was a lover both of antiquity and arts. HIe showhad neither offended nor satiated the minds of ed his esteem of learning in general more by the
nien. He had by the excellence of his disposition countenance which he gave to it, than by the time
excited high expectations among great numbers of which he spent in it. His conduct in respect of
all ranks; nor had through the shortness of his morals did him the utmost honour; for he was
life disappointed them. One capital circumstance thought exact in the knowledge and practice of
added to these was, the esteem in which he was every duty. His obedience to the king his father
commonly held, of being firm to the cause of re- was wonderfully strict and exemplary: towards
ligion: and men of the best judgment were fully the queen he behaved with the highest reverence:
persuaded, that his life was a great support and to his brother he was indulgent; and had an ensecurity to his father from the danger of conspira- tire affection for his sister, whom he resembled in
cies; an evil, against which our age has scarce person as much as that of a young man could the
found a remedy; so that the people's love of re- beauty of a virgin. The instructors of his younger
ligion and the king overflowed to the prince: and years (which rarely -happens) continued high in
this consideration deservedly heightened the sense his favour. In conversation he both expected a
of the loss of him. His person was strong and proper decorum, and practised it. In the daily
erect; his stature of a middle size; his limbs well business of life and the allotment of hours for the
made; his gait and deportment majestic; his face several offices of it, he was more constant and relong and inclining to leanness: his habit of body gular than is usual at his age. His affections and
full; his look grave, and the motion of his eyes passions were not strong, but rather equal than
rather composed than spirited. In his counte- warm. With regard to that of love, there was a
nance were some marks of severity, and in his air wonderful silence, considering his age, so that he
some appearance of haughtiness. But whoever passed that dangerous time of his youth, in the
looked beyond these outward circumstances, and highest fortune, and in a vigorous state of health,
addressed and softened him with a due respect and without any remarkable imputation of gallantry.
seasonable discourse, found the prince to be gra- In his court no person was observed to have any
cious and easy; so that he seemed wholly differ- ascendant over him, or strong interest with himent in conversation from what he was in appear- and even the studies, with which he was most deance, and in fact raised in others an opinion of him- lighted, had rather proper times assigned them,
self very unlike what his manner would at first than were indulged to excess, and were rather rehave suggested. He was unquestionably ambi- peated in their turns, than that any one kind of
tious of commendation and glory, and was strong- them had the preference of and controlled the
ly affected by every appearance of what is good and rest: whether this arose from the moderation of his
honourable; which in a young man is to be con- temper, and that in a genius not very forward, but
sidered as virtue. Arms and military men were ripening by slow degrees, it did not yet appear
* He savs, " The following translation is an attempt, for the what would be the prevailing object of his inclirake of the English reader, to give the sense of the original, nation. He had certainly strong parts, and was
without pretending to reach the force and conciseness of ex- endued both with curiosity and capacity; but in
pression peculiar to the great writer as well as to the Roman and u
language." speech he was slow, and in some measure hesi404