第218章 FRANCIS BACON(18)

Under the reign of James, Bacon grew rapidly in fortune and favour.In 1604 he was appointed King's Counsel, with a fee of forty pounds a year; and a pension of sixty pounds a year was settled upon him.In 1607 he became Solicitor-General, in 1612Attorney-General.He continued to distinguish himself in Parliament, particularly by his exertions in favour of one excellent measure on which the King's heart was set, the union of England and Scotland.It was not difficult for such an intellect to discover many irresistible arguments in favour of such a scheme.He conducted the great case of the Post Nati in the Exchequer Chamber; and the decision of the judges, a decision the legality of which may be questioned, but the beneficial effect of which must be acknowledged, was in a great measure attributed to his dexterous management.While actively engaged in the House of Commons and in the courts of law, he still found leisure for letters and philosophy.The noble treatise on the Advancement of Learning, which at a later period was expanded into the De Augmentis, appeared in 1605.The Wisdom of the Ancients, a work which, if it had proceeded from any other writer, would have been considered as a masterpiece of wit and learning, but which adds little to the fame of Bacon, was printed in 1609.In the meantime the Novum Organum was slowly proceeding.Several distinguished men of learning had been permitted to see sketches or detached portions of that extraordinary book; and, though they were not generally disposed to admit the soundness of the author's views, they spoke with the greatest admiration of his genius.Sir Thomas Bodley, the founder of one of the most magnificent of English libraries, was among those stubborn Conservatives who considered the hopes with which Bacon looked forward, to the future destinies of the human race as utterly chimerical, and who regarded with distrust and aversion the innovating spirit of the new schismatics in philosophy.Yet even Bodley, after perusing the Cogitata et Visa, one of the most precious of those scattered leaves out of which the great oracular volume was afterwards made up, acknowledged that in "those very points, and in all proposals and plots in that book, Bacon showed himself a master-workman";and that "it could not be gainsaid but all the treatise over did abound with choice conceits of the present state of learning, and with worthy contemplations of the means to procure it." In 1612 a new edition of the Essays appeared, with additions surpassing the original collection both in bulk and quality.Nor did these pursuits distract Bacon's attention from a work the most arduous, the most glorious, and the most useful that even his mighty powers could have achieved, "the reducing and recompiling," to use his own phrase, "of the laws of England."Unhappily he was at that very time employed in perverting those laws to the vilest purposes of tyranny.When Oliver St.John was brought before the Star Chamber for maintaining that the King had no right to levy Benevolences, and was for his manly and constitutional conduct sentenced to imprisonment during the royal pleasure and to a fine of five thousand pounds, Bacon appeared as counsel for the prosecution.About the same time he was deeply engaged in a still more disgraceful transaction.An aged clergyman, of the name of Peacham, was accused of treason on account of some passages of a sermon which was found in his study.The sermon, whether written by him or not, had never been preached.It did not appear that he had any intention of preaching it.The most servile lawyers of those servile times were forced to admit that there were great difficulties both as to the facts and as to the law.Bacon was employed to remove those difficulties.He was employed to settle the question of law by tampering with the judges, and the question of fact by torturing the prisoner.