To the King

The first booke of Francis Bacon; of the proficience and advancement of Learning divine, and humane. To the King.

There were under the Lawe (excellent King) both dayly Sacrifices, and free will Offerings; The one proceeding upon ordinarie observance; The other uppon a devout cheerefulnesse: In like manner there belongeth to Kings from their Servants, both Tribute of dutie, and presents of affection: In the former of these, I hope I shal not live to be wanting, according to my most humble dutie, and the good pleasure of your Majesties employments: for the later, I thought it more respective to make choyce of some oblation, which might rather referre to the proprietie and excellencie of your individuall person, than to the businesse of your Crowne and State.

Wherefore representing your Majestie many times unto my mind, and beholding you not with the inquisitive eye of presumption, to discover that which the Scripture telleth me is inscrutable; but with the observant eye of dutie and admiration: leaving aside the other parts of your vertue and fortune, I have been touched, yea and possessed with an extreame woonder at those your vertues and faculties, which the Philosophers call intellectuall: The largenesse of your capacitie, the faithfulnesse of your memorie, the swiftnesse of your apprehension, the penetration of your Judgement, and the facilitie and order of your elocution; and I have often thought, that of all the persons living, that I have knowne, your Majestie were the best instance to make a man of Platoes opinion, that all knowledge is but remembrance, and that the minde of man by nature knoweth all things, and hath but her owne native and originall motions (which by the strangenesse and darkenesse of this Tabernacle of the bodie are sequestred) againe revived and restored such a light of Nature I have observed in your Majestie, and such a readinesse to take flame, and blaze from the least occasion presented, or the least sparke of anothers knowledge delivered. And as the Scripture sayth of the wisest King: That his heart was as the sands of the Sea, which though it be one of the largest bodies, yet it consisteth of the smallest & finest portions; So hath God given your Majestie a composition of understanding admirable, being able to compasse & comprehend the greatest matters, & neverthelesse to touch and apprehend the least; wheras it should seeme an impossibility in Nature, for the same Instrument to make it selfe fit for great and small workes. And for your gift of speech, I call to minde what Cornelius Tacitus sayth of Augustus Cæsar: Augusto profluens & quæ principem deceret, eloquentia fuit: For if we note it well, speech that is uttered with labour and difficultie, or speech that savoreth of the affectation of art and precepts, or speech that is framed after the imitation of some patterne of eloquence, though never so excellent: All this hath somewhat servile, and holding of the subject. But your Majesties manner of speech is indeed Prince-like, flowing as from a fountaine, and yet streaming & branching it selfe into Natures order, full of facilitie, & felicitie, imitating none & & inimitable by any. And as in your civile Estate there appeareth to be an emulation & contention of your Majesties vertue with your fortune, a vertuous disposition with a fortunate regiment, a vertuous expectation (when time was) of your greater fortune, with a prosperous possession thereof in the due time; a vertuous observation of the lawes of marriage, with most blessed and happie fruite of marriage; a vertuous and most christian desire of peace, with a fortunate inclination in your neighbour Princes thereunto; So likewise in these intellectuall matters, there seemeth to be no lesse contention betweene the excellencie of your Majesties gifts of Nature, and the universalitie and profection of your learning. For I am well assured, that this which I shall say is no amplification at all, but a positive and measured truth: which is, that there hath not beene since Christs time any King or temporall Monarch which hath ben so learned in all literature & erudition, divine & humane. For let a man seriously & diligently revolve and peruse the succession of the Emperours of Rome, of which Cæsar the Dictator, who lived some yeeres before Christ, and Marcus Antoninus were the best learned: and so descend to the Emperours of Grecia, or of the West, and then to the lines of Fraunce, Spaine, England, Scotland and the rest, and he shall finde this judgement is truly made. For it seemeth much in a King, if by the compendious extractions of other mens wits and labours, he can take hold of any superficiall Ornaments and shewes of learning, or if he countenance and preferre learning and learned men: But to drinke indeed of the true Fountaines of learning, nay, to have such a fountaine of learning in himselfe, in a King, and in a King borne, is almost a Miracle. And the more, because there is met in your Majesty a rare Conjunction, aswell of divine and sacred literature, as of prophane and humane; So as your Majestie standeth invested of that triplicitie, which in great veneration, was ascribed to the ancient Hermes; the power and fortune of a King; the knowledge and illumination of a Priest; and the learning and universalitie of a Philosopher. This propriety inherent and individuall attribute in your Majestie deserveth to be expressed, not onely in the same and admiration of the present time, nor in the Historie or tradition of the ages succeeding; but also in some solide worke, fixed memoriall, and immortall monument, bearing a Character or signature, both of the power of a king, and the difference and perfection of such a king.

Therefore I did conclude with my selfe, that I could not make unto your Majesty a better oblation, then of some treatise tending to that end, whereof the summe will consist of these two partes: The former concerning the excellencie of learning and knowledge, and the excellencie of the merit and true glory, in the Augmentation and Propagation thereof: The latter, what the particuler actes and workes are, which have been imbraced and undertaken for the advancement of learning: And againe what defects and underualewes I finde in such particuler actes: to the end, that though I cannot positively or affirmativelie advise your Majestie, or propound unto you framed particulers; yet I may excite your princely Cogitations to visit the excellent treasure of your owne mind, and thence to extract particulers for this purpose, agreeable to your magnanimitie and wisedome.