"calamity in others. For examples make a "quicker impreffion than arguments; and be"fides, they inform us of that which the Scrip"ture also propounds to us for our fatisfaction, "that no new thing has happened to us. "they do the better, by how much the examples 66 are more like in circumftances to our own "cafe, and yet more particularly, if they fall

This

upon persons who are greater and worthier "than ourselves. For as it favours of vanity to "match ourselves highly in our own conceit; "fo, on the other fide, it is a good and found "conclufion, that if our betters have sustained "the like events, we have the lefs caufe to be grieved.

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"In this kind of confolation I have not been "wanting to myself, though as a Christian I "have tafted (through God's great goodness) "of higher remedies. Having therefore, through "the variety of my reading, fet before me many "examples, both of ancient and latter times, my "thoughts, I confefs, have chiefly stayed upon "three particulars, as both the most eminent and

most resembling; all three perfons who had "held chief place and authority in their countries; all three ruined, not by war or any "other difafter, but by juftice and fentence, as 66 delinquents and criminals; and all three fa❝mous writers. Infomuch as the remembrance sad and R141 S

❝ of

"of their calamity is now to posterity but as "fome little night-piece, remaining amongst the "fair and excellent tables of their acts and "works. And all three (if that were anything "to the matter) are fit examples to quench any "man's ambition of rifing again; for that they were, every one of them, reftored with great" "glory; but to their further ruin and deftruction, all ending in a violent death..

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"The men were Demofthenes, Cicero, and "Seneca; perfons with whom I durft not claim any affinity at all, if the fimilitude of our fortunes had not contracted it.

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"When I caft mine eyes upon these exam-" "ples, I was carried further on to obferve, how

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they bore their fortunes; and principally how"

they employed their times, being banished, "and difabled for public bufinefs; to the end” "that I might learn by them, that fo they might "be as well my counfellors as my comforters." Whereupon I happened to note how diverfly "their fortunes wrought upon their minds, efpecially in that point at which I aimed moft;" " which was, the employing of their times and

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pens. In Cicero, I faw that, during his ba"nifhment (which was almoft for two years) he was fo foftened and dejected, as that he wrote >> "nothing but a few womanifh epiftles. And

yet, in my opinion, he had leaft reafon of the "three to be discouraged; because, though it "were judged (and judged by the highest kind "of judgment in form of a ftatute and law) "that he should be banished, and his whole "eftate confifcated and feized, and his houfes

pulled down; and that it fhould be highly penal for any man to propound his repeal; 66 yet his cafe, even then, carried no great blot "of ignominy with it; for it was thought to be "but a tempest of popularity which overthrew

"him.

"Demofthenes, on the contrary fide, though "his cafe were foul, he being condemned for "bribery, and bribery in the nature of treason "and difloyalty, took yet fo little knowledge of ❝his fortune, as that, during his banifhment, he "bufied himself, and intermeddled as much "with matters of State by letters, as if he had "been ftill at the helm, as appears by fome "epiftles of his which are extant.

"Seneca indeed, who was condemned for "many corruptions and crimes, and banished "into a folitary island, kept a mean for though "his pen did not freeze, yet he abstained from "intruding into matters of business; but spent

his time in writing books of excellent argu

" ment

"ment and ufe for all ages. Thefe examples "confirmed me much in a refolution (to which "I was otherwife inclined) to spend my time "wholly in writing, and to put forth that "poor talent, or half talent, or what it is, which “God hath given me, not as heretofore, to par"ticular exchanges, but to banks or mounts of "perfpicuity, which will not break.

"VERULAM."

"Lord Chancellor Bacon," fays Howell in his Letters, "is lately dead of a long languish* ing illness. He died fo poor, that he scarce "left money to bury him, which (though he "had a great wit) did argue no great wisdom, "it being one of the effential properties of a "wife man to provide for the main chance. I "have read, that it had been the fortunes of all poets commonly to die beggars; but for an "Orator, a Lawyer, and a Philofopher to die "fo, 'tis rare. It seems the fame fate befell him that attended Demofthenes, Seneca, and "Cicero (all great men), of whom the two first "fell by corruption. The faireft diamond may « have a flaw in it; but I believe he died poor "from a contempt of the pelf of fortune, as also "out of an excefs of generosity, which appeared

..

ઠંડ

દ્રઢ

(as in divers other paffages) fo once, when the

King had fent him a ftag, he fent up for the

"under

"under-keeper, and having drank the King's "health to him in a great filver gilt bowl, he gave it to him for his fee.

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"He wrote a pitiful letter to King James not long before his death, and concludes, "Help dear Sovereign, Lord and Master, and pity me fo far, that I who have been born to

me,

a bag, be not now, in my age, forced in effect 66 to bear a wallet; nor that I, who defire to "live to study, may be driven to study to live."

"I write not this to derogate from the noble "worth of the Lord Viscount Verulam, who

was a rare man, recondita fcientiæ et ad falutem "literarum natus; and, I think, the eloquentest "that was born in this Ifle.

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Wilfon, in his Life of King James, fays, Though Lord Bacon had a pension allowed "him by the King, he wanted to his last; living "obfcurely in his lodging at Gray's Inn; where "his loneness and defolate condition wrought

upon his ingenious (and therefore then more "melancholy) temper, that he pined away. And "he had this unhappiness, after all his height of "plenitude, to be denied beer to quench his "thirst. For having a fickly taste, he did not "like the beer of the house, but sent to Sir Fulk "Greville, Lord Brooke, in his neighbourhood,

(now and then,) for a bottle of his beer, and,

"after