MORAL, ECONOMICAL, AND POLITICAL, BY FRANCIS BACON, BARON OF VERULAM, VISCOUNT ST. ALBAN, AND LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND. A A 4786 PUBLISHED BY MALEPEYRE, RUE GIT-LE-COEUR, N° 4. M DCCC XXII. mmm THE LIFE OF LORD CHANCELLOR BACON. IMPERFECT MPERFECTION being the character of every thing that is human, one great misfortune may be considered as attending brilliant talents when placed in an exalted station, that vices which might have remained unnoticed, or been latent, in the mind of one who moved in a more humble sphere, are, from having a more extended field opened before them, either indirectly called into action, or, if existing before, more immediately exposed to public observation: and the world having an almost invincible propensity to exaggerate what is evil and disparage what is good, few indeed are the characters whose talents can so engross the public eye, as to preclude its wandering from their intellectual strength to their mental imbecility; and still fewer are they, who, in every sense superior to the rest of their fellow-creatures, are unassailed and unsullied by the opinion of mankind. Such are the reflections occasioned by the life of the illustrious author of the following Essays. Francis Bacon, youngest son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal to Queen Elizabeth, by his second wife Anne, daughter of Sir Anthony Cook, tutor to Edward VI., was born in London, January 22, 1560, I. By whom the foundation of his education was laid does not appear, but he is reported to have given such early indications of his abilities that Queen Elizabeth called him her young chancellor. He was subsequently brought up at Trinity College, Cambridge, under Dr. Whitgift. His progress in literature was rapid and astonishing, and the futility of the Peripatetic philosophy, which young Bacon then discovered, may be considered almost as the dawn of true science in Europe. At an early age he entered upon public life, for in his sixteenth year he went to France in the suit of Sir Amias Powlet, ambassador to that court. But having, |