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"The Essays, or Counsels Civil and Moral, though "a By-work also, do yet make up a Book of greater weight by far, than the Apothegms: And coming "home to Men's Business and Bosomes, his Lordship "entertain❜d this persuasion concerning them, that "the Latine Volume might last as long as Books "should last. His Lordship wrote them in the English Tongue, and enlarged them as Occasion "serv'd, and at last added to them the Colours of "Good and Evil, which are likewise found in his "Book De Augmentis. The Latine Translation of "them was a Work performed by divers Hands; by "those of Doctor Hacket (late Bishop of Lichfield) "Mr. Benjamin Johnson (the learned and judicious

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Poet) and some others, whose Names I once heard "from Dr. Rawley; but I cannot now recal them. "To this Latine Edition, he gave the Title of "Sermones Fideles, after the manner of the Jews, "who call'd the words Adagies, or Observations of "the Wise, Faithful Sayings; that is, credible "Propositions worthy of firm Assent, and ready Ac

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ceptance. And (as I think) he alluded more parti

cularly, in this Title, to a passage in Ecclesiastes, "where the Preacher saith that he sought to find "out Verba Delectabilia, (as Tremellius rendreth "the Hebrew) pleasant Words, (that is, perhaps, "his Book of Canticles;) and Verba Fidelia (as the same Tremellius) Faithful Sayings; meaning, it

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may be, his Collection of Proverbs. In the next "Verse, he calls them Words of the Wise, and so many Goads and Nails given "Ab eodem Pastore,"

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"from the same Shepherd [of the Flock of Israel."] And of this translation, Bacon speaks in the following letter.

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"To Mr. TOBIE MATTHEW."

"It is true, my labours are now most set to have "those works, which I had formerly published, as "that of Advancement of Learning, that of Hen. VII. "that of the Essays, being retractate, and made more perfect, well translated into Latin by the help of some good pens, which forsake me not. "For these modern languages will, at one time or "other, play the bankrupt with books: and since I "have lost much time with this age, I would be glad, as God shall give me leave, to recover it with posterity.

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"For the Essay of Friendship, while I took your speech of it for a cursory request, I took my pro"mise for a compliment. But since you call for it, "I shall perform it.

In his letter to Father Fulgentio giving some account of his writings, he says, "The Novum Or66 ganum should immediately follow, but my Moral "and Political writings step in between as being "more finished. These are the History of King

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Henry the Seventh, and the small Book, which in

your language you have called Saggi Morali, but "I give it a graver title, that of Sermones Fideles, "or Interiora Rerum, and these Essays will not

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only be enlarged in number but still more in "substance."

Baconiana, page 196.

“A

I have annexed an Appendix* containing "fragment of an Essay of Fame," which was published by Dr. Rawley in his Resuscitatio: and "Of a King," which was published in 1648, in a volume entitled " Remains," which also contains an Essay "On Death." This Essay I have inserted in page 432 of this volume.

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During the life of Bacon, various editions of the Essays were published and in different languages, in 1618, in Italian:§ in 1619, in French :|| in 1621, in Italian, and in French. ** ་

Since Lord Bacon's death, the press has abounded with editions. In some of these editions the editors have substituted their own translations of the Latin for the beautiful English by Lord Bacon.

+ There is a manuscript of this Essay in the Lansdown Collection, B. Museum 135, 6. In Blackburn's edition of Bacon's Works, published in 1640, he says, "I have inserted "from the Remains, an Essay of a King: and my reason is, it "is so collated and corrected by Archbishop Sancroft's well "known hand, that it appears to be a new work; and though "it consists of short propositions mostly, yet I will be so pre"sumptuous as to say, that I think it now breathes the true spirit of our author; and there seems to be an obvious reason it was omitted before."

"why

There is a MS. of this in the Harleiam MS. Vol. II. p. 196. § Essays, Italice, 8vo. B. Museum and Oxford.

|| Essays Moraux, par Gorges. B. Museum and Oxford. ¶ Saggi Morali, opera nuova de F. Bacon corretta a data en luce dal. Sig. Andr: Croli et un tributo, 24mo. B. Museum.

** Essais trad. en Francois, par Bandouin, 16mo. Paris. B. Museum.

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How well they have succeeded the reader may judge by the following specimens. In a translation published by William H. Willymott, L. L. D. A. D. 1720, he says, "Wanting an English Book for my Scholars "to Translate, which might improve them in Sense "and Latin at once, (Two Things which should "never be divided in Teaching) I thought nothing 66 more proper for that purpose than Bacon's Essays, provided the English, which is in some Places grown obsolete, were a little reformed, and made more fashionable. Accordingly having by me his Lordship's Latin Volume of the Essays, (which as “it was a later, so seems to be a perfecter Book) I "fell to Translating it, not tying myself strictly to "the Latin, but comparing both Languages toge"ther, and setting down that Sense (where there "was any Difference) that seem'd the fullest and plainest."

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So too Shaw has made a similar attempt, of which the following is a specimen from the Essay "Of Goodness and Goodness of Nature."