man, as he thought, had yet entered. It contains the famous avowal--"_I
have taken all knowledge to be my province_"--made in the confidence
born of long and silent meditations and questionings, but made in a
simple good faith which is as far as possible from vain boastfulness.

"MY LORD,--With as much confidence as mine own honest and faithful
devotion unto your service and your honourable correspondence unto
me and my poor estate can breed in a man, do I commend myself unto
your Lordship. I wax now somewhat ancient: one and thirty years is
a great deal of sand in the hour glass. My health, I thank God, I
find confirmed; and I do not fear that action shall impair it,
because I account my ordinary course of study and meditation to be
more painful than most parts of action are. I ever bare a mind (in
some middle place that I could discharge) to serve her Majesty, not
as a man born under Sol, that loveth honour, nor under Jupiter,
that loveth business (for the contemplative planet carrieth me away
wholly), but as a man born under an excellent sovereign that
deserveth the dedication of all men's abilities. Besides, I do not
find in myself so much self-love, but that the greater parts of my
thoughts are to deserve well (if I be able) of my friends, and
namely of your Lordship; who, being the Atlas of this commonwealth,
the honour of my house, and the second founder of my poor estate, I
am tied by all duties, both of a good patriot, and of an unworthy
kinsman, and of an obliged servant, to employ whatsoever I am to do
you service. Again, the meanness of my estate doth somewhat move
me; for though I cannot accuse myself that I am either prodigal or
slothful, yet my health is not to spend, nor my course to get.
Lastly, I confess that I have as vast contemplative ends as I have
moderate civil ends; for I have taken all knowledge to be my
province; and if I could purge it of two sorts of rovers, whereof