mended than required: and we speak now of parts of learning supplemental, and not of supererogation.

But for Modern Histories, whereof there are some few very worthy, but the greater part beneath mediocrity, leaving the care of foreign stories to foreign states, because I will not be curiosus in aliena republica, [a meddler in other nations' matters,] I cannot fail to represent to your Majesty the unworthiness of the history of England in the main continuance thereof, and the partiality and obliquity of that of Scotland in the latest and largest author that I have seen; supposing that it would be honour for your Majesty and a work very memorable, if this island of Great Britain', as it is now joined in monarchy for the ages to come, so were joined in one history for the times passed; after the manner of the sacred history, which draweth down the story of the Ten Tribes and of the Two Tribes as twins together. And if it shall seem that the greatness of this work may make it less exactly performed, there is an excellent period of a much smaller compass of time, as to the story of England; that is to say, from the Uniting of the Roses to the Uniting of the Kingdoms; a portion of time, wherein to my understanding, there hath been the rarest varieties that in like number of successions of any hereditary monarchy hath been known. For it beginneth with the mixed adeption of a crown, by arms and title; an entry by battle, an establishment by marriage; and therefore times answerable, like waters after a tempest, full of working and swelling, though without extremity of storm; but well passed through by the wisdom of the pilot, being one of the most sufficient kings of all the number. Then followeth the reign of a king, whose actions, howsoever conducted2, had much intermixture with the affairs of Europe, balancing and inclining them variably; in whose time also began that great alteration in the state ecclesiastical, an action which seldom cometh upon the stage then the reign of a minor: then an offer of an usurpation, though it was but as febris ephemera, [a diary ague:] then the reign of a queen matched with a foreigner: then

1 Spelt Britanie in the original; Brittany in edd. 1629 and 1633.

2 The distinction between the father and the son is more clearly marked in the translation. Of Henry VII. he says qui unus inter antecessores reges consilio enituit; of Henry VIII.'s actions, licet magis impetu quam consilio administratæ. Had Bacon gone on with his history of Henry VIII. it would have been curious to contrast the portrait of the son governing more by passion than policy, with that of the father governing by policy without passion.

of a queen that lived solitary and unmarried, and yet her government so masculine as it had greater impression and operation upon the states abroad than it any ways received from thence and now last, this most happy and glorious event, that this island of Britain, divided from all the world, should be united in itself; and that oracle of rest given to Æneas, Antiquam exquirite matrem, [seek out your ancient mother,] should now be performed and fulfilled upon the nations of England and Scotland, being now reunited in the ancient mother name of Britain, as a full period of all instability and peregrinations: so that as it cometh to pass in massive bodies, that they have certain trepidations and waverings before they fix and settle; so it seemeth that by the providence of God this monarchy, before it was to settle in your Majesty and your generations, (in which I hope it is now established for ever,) it had these prelusive changes and varieties.

For Lives, I do find strange that these times have so little esteemed the virtues of the times, as that the writing of lives should be no more frequent. For although there be not many sovereign princes or absolute commanders, and that states are most collected into monarchies, yet are there many worthy personages that deserve better than dispersed report or barren elogies. For herein the invention of one of the late poets is proper, and doth well enrich the ancient fiction: for he feigneth that at the end of the thread or web of every man's life there was a little medal containing the person's name, and that Time waited upon the shears, and as soon as the thread was cut, caught the medals and carried them to the river of Lethe; and about the bank there were many birds flying up and down, that would get the medals and carry them in their beak a little while, and then let them fall into the river: only there were a few swans, which if they got a name, would carry it to a temple where it was consecrate. And although many men more mortal in their affections than in their bodies, do esteem desire of name and memory but as a vanity and ventosity,

Animi nil magnæ laudis egentes,

[souls that have no care for praise ;] which opinion cometh

This last clause is omitted in the De Augmentis. See note p. 277.

2 Ariosto, Orlando Furioso; at the end of the 34th and the beginning of the 35th books.

from that root, non prius laudes contempsimus, quam laudanda facere desivimus; [men hardly despise praise till they have ceased to deserve it;] yet that will not alter Salomon's judgment, Memoria justi cum laudibus, at impiorum nomen putrescet; [the memory of the just is blessed; but the name of the wicked shall rot;] the one flourisheth, the other either consumeth to present oblivion, or turneth to an ill odour. And therefore in that style or addition, which is and hath been long well received and brought in use, felicis memoriæ, piæ memoriæ, bonæ memoriæ, [of happy, of pious, of good memory,] we do acknowledge that which Cicero saith, borrowing it from Demosthenes, that bona fama propria possessio defunctorum1; [good fame is all that a dead man can possess ;] which possession I cannot but note that in our times it lieth much waste, and that therein there is a deficience.

For Narrations and Relations of particular actions, there were also to be wished a greater diligence therein; for there is no great action but hath some good pen which attends it. And because it is an ability not common to write a good history, as may well appear by the small number of them; yet if particularity of actions memorable were but tolerably reported as they pass, the compiling of a complete History of Times might be the better expected, when a writer should arise that were fit for it for the collection of such relations might be as a nursery garden, whereby to plant a fair and stately garden when time should serve.

There is yet another portion of history which Cornelius Tacitus maketh, which is not to be forgotten, specially with that application which he accoupleth it withal, Annals and Journals: appropriating to the former matters of estate, and to the later acts and accidents of a meaner nature. For giving but a touch of certain magnificent buildings, he addeth, Cum ex dignitate populi Romani repertum sit, res illustres annalibus, talia diurnis urbis actis mandare: [that it had been thought suitable to the dignity of the Roman people to enter in their annals only matters of note and greatness; leaving such things as these to the journal records of the city.] So as there is a

1 Compare Cicero, Philippic. 9. 5., with the opening of the λóyos émiτápios, 1389-10.

2 De Aug. ii. 9. Between this paragraph and the last there is introduced in the translation a chapter on the advantages and disadvantages of histories of the world, as distinguished from histories of particular countries.

kind of contemplative heraldry, as well as civil. And as nothing doth derogate from the dignity of a state more than confusion of degrees; so it doth not a little embase the authority of an history, to intermingle matters of triumph or matters of ceremony or matters of novelty with matters of state. But the use of a Journal hath not only been in the history of times', but likewise in the history of persons, and chiefly of actions; for princes in ancient time had, upon point of honour and policy both, journals kept of what passed day by day: for we see the Chronicle which was read before Ahasuerus2, when he could not take rest, contained matter of affairs indeed, but such as had passed in his own time, and very lately before but the Journal of Alexander's house expressed every small particularity, even concerning his person and court 3; and it is yet an use well received in enterprises memorable, as expeditions of war, navigations, and the like, to keep diaries of that which passeth continually.

4

¶ I cannot likewise be ignorant of a form of writing which some grave and wise men have used, containing a scattered history of those actions which they have thought worthy of memory, with politic discourse and observation thereupon; not incorporate into the history, but separately, and as the more principal in their intention; which kind of Ruminated History I think more fit to place amongst books of policy, whereof we shall hereafter speak, than amongst books of history5; for it is the true office of history to represent the events themselves together with the counsels, and to leave the observations and conclusions thereupon to the liberty and faculty of every man's judgment. But mixtures are things irregular, whereof no man can define.

So also is there another kind of history manifoldly mixed,

1 time in the original and also in edd. 1629 and 1633. The translation omits this clause.

2 Esther, vi. 1.

Not that greater matters were excluded; but great and small were entered promiscuously as they occurred. (Neque enim sicut annales tantum gravia, ita diaria tantum levia complexa sunt; sed omnia promiscue et cursim diariis excipiebantur, seu majoris seu minoris momenti.)

1 De Aug. ii. 10.

5 This remark is omitted in the translation, and another substituted, to the effect that this kind of ruminated history is an excellent thing, provided it be understood that the matter in hand is not history but observations upon history (modo hujusmodi scriptor hoc agat et hoc se agere confiteatur); for in a regular history the narrative ought not, he says, to be interrupted by comments of this kind. It should be pregnant with politic precepts, but the writer should not play the midwife.

and that is History of Cosmography: being compounded of natural history, in respect of the regions themselves; of history civil, in respect of the habitations, regiments, and manners of the people; and the mathematics, in respect of the climates and configurations towards the heavens: which part of learning of all others in this latter time hath obtained most proficience. For it may be truly affirmed to the honour of these times, and in a virtuous emulation with antiquity, that this great building of the world had never through-lights made in it, till the age of us and our fathers; for although they had knowledge of the antipodes,

Nosque ubi primus equis oriens afflavit anhelis,

Illic sera rubens accendit lumina Vesper:

[And while on us the fresh East breathes from far,
For them the red West lights her evening star:]

yet that might be by demonstration, and not in fact; and if by travel, it requireth the voyage but of half the globe. But to circle the earth, as the heavenly bodies do, was not done nor enterprised till these later times: and therefore these times may justly bear in their word, not only plus ultra, in precedence of the ancient non ultra, and imitabile fulmen in precedence of the ancient non imitabile fulmen,

Demens qui nimbos et non imitabile fulmen &c.

but likewise imitabile cœlum; in respect of the many memorable voyages, after the manner of heaven, about the globe of the earth.

And this proficience in navigation and discoveries may plant also an expectation of the further proficience and augmentation of all sciences; because it may seem they are ordained by God to be coevals, that is, to meet in one age. For so the prophet Daniel speaking of the latter times foretelleth, Plurimi pertransibunt, et multiplex erit scientia: [many shall pass to and fro, and knowledge shall be multiplied:] as if the openness and through passage of the world and the increase of knowledge were appointed to be in the same ages; as we see it is already performed in great part; the learning of these later times not much giving place to the former two periods or returns of learning, the one of the Grecians, the other of the Romans.

History Ecclesiastical receiveth the same divisions with

1 De Aug. ii, 11.