entered into the wedded state, is interesting from the persistence with which he tries to present both sides of the question. For fifteen years Bacon's life appears to have flowed along placid reaches of domestic felicity, until after his fall, when an estrangement took place between him and his wife, which was never healed.

Thirteen months after his marriage Bacon at last obtained legal office, when he became SolicitorGeneral (June 25, 1607). For the next two or three years he was employed in adjusting differences between the two great parties in the land, the High Anglicans, who urged the enforcement of the whole doctrine and discipline of the Church of England, and the Puritans, who, where not Nonconformists, were so Low Church as to approximate nearer to them than to any other party within or without its pale. Bacon urged toleration on both parties as well as upon the King. The irreconcilability of Cartwright and his followers tended to change Bacon's views somewhat, causing him to lean in the future rather to the Erastian than the Nonconformist side. His opinions on this topic may be read in his Essay "On Unity in Religion." It is significant that as the paper originally appeared in 1612 it was entitled "On Religion," and dealt more with doctrine than divisions. His experiences at this stage and later in the reign led him to rank

unity" as one of the cardinal doctrines in religion, so much so that in the 1625 draft of the Essay in question he felt compelled to add the following sentences: "Religion being the chief band of human society, it is a happy thing when itself is well contained within the true band of unity

nothing doth so much keep men out of the Church and drive men out of the Church as breach of unity." Also in the Essays "On Atheism "2 and "On Superstition" he refers to religious divisions, their causes and their effects, in terms that show how correctly he gauged the extent of the mischief they wrought.

Bacon also advocated at first the adoption of a via media with reference to the great controversy regarding the jus divinum, otherwise the respective limits of the royal prerogative and of popular privilege a controversy which, commencing in the reign of James, culminated in the Civil War and the execution of Charles I. The dispute, however, started so many side issues, that insensibly Bacon was led to modify his tolerant liberalism until he could actually affirm from his place in Parliament: "The King holdeth not his prerogative of any kind from the law, but immediately from God as he holdeth his Crown." In his Essay "On Empire" he makes an observation somewhat analogous: "Princes are like

to heavenly bodies, which cause good and evil times, and which have much veneration but no rest. All precepts concerning kings are in effect comprehended in these two remembrances: 'Memento quod es homo' and 'Memento quod es Deus,' or 'Vice Dei'; the one bridleth their power and the other their will."1

Despite all these engrossments his literary activity was not allowed to slacken. Every moment of his time that could be spared from Parliament and the Law Courts was devoted to the pursuit of letters. In 1609 the "Wisdom of the Ancients" appeared, in which he explains the classic fables and mythology on allegorical principles; while new editions of his "Essays" were published in 1607 and 1612. The latter was designated a revised edition, many of the papers being rewritten. Several new Essays also were added, bringing the total number up to thirty-eight.

2

Sir Robert Cecil, Bacon's cousin, who had recently been created Earl of Salisbury, died somewhat suddenly in 1612. Among the Essays recently added to his collection had been one on "Deformity," in which he was supposed to have sketched his relative's character to the life. Bacon made a bold bid to the King for the dead man's place, offering, as he said, "to manage parliaments and to obtain supplies

3 Nicolas Chamberlain, Court and Times of James I.

without concerting undignified bargains as Salisbury had done." James did not accept the offer, being, perhaps, a little apprehensive as to what lengths the applicant's ideas on toleration might lead him. In his desire to secure the office of "Master of the Wards" also, Bacon was fated to suffer disappointment. In 1613, however, he was consoled with the long-sighed-for Attorney-Generalship. The Essay "On Great Place" is certainly written out of the fulness of his own weary experience, especially the sentence: "The rising into Place is laborious, and by paines men come to greater pains, and it is sometimes base; and by indignities men come to dignities, &c."

1

Previous to this, he had been appointed president of a new Court called "The Verge," instituted to deal directly with offences committed within a range of twelve miles around the King's residence in London. His opening charge is remarkable for the earnestness wherewith he condemns "Duelling" as a national crime-"Life is grown too cheap in these times," he cries indignantly. When he became Attorney-General he went further, and proposed that the offender-whether by sending or accepting a challenge, or even acting as secondshould be permanently banished from the Court. The "Addled Parliament saw the extinction of

1 P.
41.

Bacon's political influence. Its dissolution in 1614 and the estranged relations ensuing between King and Commons, during the time when Parliament was unconvoked, entailed the destruction of that feeling of mutual sympathy arising from identity of interests, which Bacon had long striven to foster between the "first" and the "third" Estates of the realm. The Essay on "Seditions and Troubles" 1 deals with this question among others, and has probable reference to the course of government and of political events in general, in the second decade of the seventeenth century. The unconvoked Commons of England, among whom Pym, Wentworth, and Eliot were beginning to be prominent, saw James embarked on a new policy, that of attempted absolutism-the logical outcome of which was that scene outside Whitehall on the raw January morning of 1649, when the head of Charles Stewart was laid on the block. Bacon saw what that logical outcome would be, but he also saw that if he resisted the King his own promotion would be checked. From that hour, therefore, he was James's obsequious slave. Two notorious instances illustrate this. In one, he prosecuted Oliver St. John for daring to denounce the system of "forced gifts" or Benevolences, to which the King was obliged to resort when the Commons refused to

1 P. 56.