Page images
PDF
EPUB

'most of us are grown Gray-headed in our Dear 'Master's Service, he has left us Pensions and Leg'acies, which we may live very comfortably upon, 'the remaining part of our Days. He has be'queath'd a great deal more in charity, which is not 'yet come to my Knowledge; and it is peremptorily 'said in the Parish that he has left Mony to build 'a Steeple to the Church; for he was heard to say 'some time ago, that if he lived two Years longer, 'Coverley Church should have a Steeple to it. The 'Chaplain tells everybody he made a very good 'End, and never speaks of him without Tears. He 'was buried, according to his own Directions, among 'the Family of the Coverleys, on the Left Hand of 'his Father Sir Arthur. The Coffin was carried by 'Six of his Tenants, and the Pall held up by Six of the Quorum. The whole Parish follow'd the 'Corps with heavy Hearts, and in their Mourning 'Suits; the Men in Frize, and the Women in Rid'ing Hoods. Captain SENTRY, my Master's 'Nephew, has taken Possession of the Hall-House 'and the whole Estate. When my old Master saw 'him a little before his Death, he shook him by the 'Hand, and wished him Joy of the Estate, which 'was falling to him, desiring only to make a good 'Use of it, and to pay the several Legacies and the 'Gifts of Charity, which he told him he had left as 'Quit rents upon the Estate. The Captain truly 'seems a courteous Man, though he says but little. 'He makes much of those whom my Master loved, 'and shows great Kindness to the old House-dog, 'that you know my poor Master was so fond of. 'It would have gone to your Heart to have heard 'the Moans the dumb Creature made on the Day

'of my Master's Death. He has ne'er joyed him'self since; no more has any of us. 'T was the 'melancholiest Day for the poor People that ever 'happened in Worcestershire. This is all from, 'Honoured Sir,

Your most Sorrowful Servant,

EDWARD BISCUIT.

'P. S.-My Master desired, some Weeks before 'he died, that a Book, which comes up to you by the 'Carrier, should be given to Sir Andrew Freeport 'in his Name."

This letter, notwithstanding the poor butler's manner of writing it, gave us such an idea of our good old friend, that upon the reading of it there was not a dry eye in the club. Sir Andrew opening the book, found it to be a collection of acts of parliament. There was in particular the Act of Uniformity, with some passages in it marked by Sir Roger's own hand. Sir Andrew found that they related to two or three points which he had disputed with Sir Roger the last time he appeared at the club. Sir Andrew, who would have been merry at such an incident on another occasion, at the sight of the old man's writing burst into tears and put the book in his pocket. Captain Sentry informs me that the knight has left rings and mourning for every one in the club.

2. In several of the essays Sir Roger is in very sharp' debate with Sir Andrew.

[T

SIR FRANCIS BACON

HE "wisest, brightest, meanest of inankind" was born in 1561 and died in 1626. In the brilliant age of Queen Elizabeth the name of Bacon is second to that of Shakespeare only. Born of cultured parents and related closely to nobility, he had in youth all the advantages the age afforded. His precocious intellect enabled him to profit at once by the instruction he received, so that at thirteen years of age he entered Trinity College, Cambridge. At sixteen he visited Paris and saw the world of fashion and diplomacy in that brilliant capital. At the death of his father he returned to England and began the study of law. His progress was rapid and under King James it was phenomenal. Advanced from one position of favor to another, he did not rest until he had been appointed Lord High Chancellor of England and made Viscount St. Albans. He was extravagant in his tastes and expended much more than his large income. If his rise was rapid his fall was sudden, complete, and disgraceful. Before the House of Lords he was accused of accepting bribes, and unable to clear himself, he confessed to numerous offenses. He was subjected to a heavy fine, deprived of all his offices, made ineligible to future preferment, and sentenced to imprisonment at the King's pleasure. Though he was subsequently pardoned, he never regained his power or influence.

It was as an author and philosopher that he achieved his greatest distinction. His extraordinary intellect early saw the weakness of the system of philosophy taught in the universities, and he set for himself the gigantic task of destroying the old and creating a new. His task was too great for the life of one man, but "he passed a sponge over the table of human knowledge and propounded enough of his new philosophy to place his name with those of Plato and Aristotle." In a certain sense, he fell a martyr to his own love for science, as his fatal illness was contracted in an experiment to see if snow had not for flesh the same preservative power that salt possessed.

As an author his chief contribution to English literature is his little volume of fifty-eight essays treating of a variety of subjects. These essays are replete with meaning and worthy of frequently repeated reading, for so condensed are they that one can not at the first perusal appreciate their wealth of thought and vigor of expression. Emerson calls them "a little bible of earthly wisdom." Dugald Stewart, the famous Scotch metaphysician, declares, "They may be read from beginning to end in a few hours; and yet, after the twentieth perusal, one seldom fails to remark in them something unobserved before."

Directness, terseness, and forcefulness are Bacon's most prominent qualities of style. His sentences are short, pointed, incisive, and often of balanced structure. Many of them have the force of epigrams and maxims. He makes frequent use of figurative language, but not so much for beauty of expression as for clearness of thought.

R

OF EXPENSE

By SIR FRANCIS BACON

ICHES are for spending, and spending for honor and good actions; therefore extraordinary expense must be limited by the worth of the occasion; for voluntary undoing may be as well for a man's country as for the kingdom of heaven; but ordinary expense ought to be limited by a man's estate, and governed with such regard, as it be within his compass; and not subject to deceit and abuse of servants; and ordered to the best show, that the bills may be less than the estimation" abroad. Certainly, if a man will keep but of even hand, his ordinary expenses ought to be but to the half of his receipts; and if he think to wax rich, but to the third part.

4

It is no baseness for the greatest to descend and look into their own estate. Some forbears it, not upon negligence alone, but doubting to bring themselves into melancholy, in respect they shall find it broken; but wounds can not be cured without searching. He that can not look into his own estate at all, had need both choose well those whom he

1. Unusual.

2. Importance.

3. Reach.

4. Managed so as to receive the best returns for the money.

5. Opinion.

.

6. Degradation.

7. Examine the condition of their own property.

8. Give no heed to.

« PreviousContinue »