INTRODUCTION.
 

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Francis Bacon was born three years before Shakespeare, on the 22nd of
January, 1561, and died ten years after Shakespeare, on the 9ih of April,
1626. Shakespeare's age when he died was 52, and Bacon's 65. The two
men were the greatest births of their own time. One glanced *^from
heaven to earth, from earth to heaven'' as a poet. The other taught men to
look abroad into God's world, and by patient experiment to find their way
from outward signs to knowledge of the inner working of those laws of
Nature which are fixed energies appointed by the wisdom of the Creator as
sources of all that we see and use. As the working of each law is d's-
covered, Bacon would have the searcher next look for its applications to
the well-being of man.

Sir William Cecil, afterwards Lord Burleigh, and Sir Nicholas Eacon,
Queen Elizabeth's Lord Keeper, married two daughters of Sir Anthony
Cooke. Anne Cooke was the second wife of Sir Nicholas, who had six
children by a former marriage. His second wife had two sons, Anthony and
Francis. Francis was thus the youngest in a family of eight, living sometimes
in London, at York House, and sometimes at Gorhambury, near St. Albans.
In April, 1573, Francis Bacon, twelve years old, entered, with his elder
brother Anthony, as fellow-commoner, at Trinity College, Cambridge. He
left Cambridge after about four years' study there.

At Cambridge he felt the fruitlessness of those teachings in philosophy
which bade him get clear understanding by beating the bounds of his
own brain. This was a philosophy, he used to say, only strong for dispu¬
tations and contentions, but barren of the production of works for the
benefit of the life of man. The desire to turn philosophic thought into a
more useful course became strong in him even then.

He was to be trained for the service of the State, and after leaving Cam¬
bridge, at sixteen, went in the suite of an ambassador to Paris- But while
he was in France his father died, before he had made the provision he
designed for his sons by the second marriage. Bacon then, at the age of
eighteen, came to London to* prepare for earning by the practice of the
law. He became a barrister in June, 1582. He entered the House of
Commons in November, 1584, .as member for Melcombe Regis in Dorset¬
shire. He sat for Taunton in the Parliament that met in October, 15S6, and
was among those who petitioned for the execution of Mary Queen of Scots.
He sat next for Liverpool, and in October, 1589, obtained by his Court inte¬
rest the reversion to the office of Clerk of the Council in the Star Chamber,
which was of great money value ; but it did not become vacant for him untii
1608. He was member for Middlesex in the Parliament that met in 1593,
and piqued the Queen by raising constitutional objections to her  mannei?