Bacon - English Men Of Letters, Edited By John Morley by Richard William Church
page 27 of 212 (12%)
page 27 of 212 (12%)
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opinions, but we are thrall unto her in necessity; but if we could
be led by her in invention, we should command her in action." To the same occasion as the discourse on the _Praise of Knowledge_ belongs, also, one in _Praise of the Queen_. As one is an early specimen of his manner of writing on philosophy, so this is a specimen of what was equally characteristic of him--his political and historical writing. It is, in form, necessarily a panegyric, as high-flown and adulatory as such performances in those days were bound to be. But it is not only flattery. It fixes with true discrimination on the points in Elizabeth's character and reign which were really subjects of admiration and homage. Thus of her unquailing spirit at the time of the Spanish invasion-- "Lastly, see a Queen, that when her realm was to have been invaded by an army, the preparation whereof was like the travail of an elephant, the provisions infinite, the setting forth whereof was the terror and wonder of Europe; it was not seen that her cheer, her fashion, her ordinary manner was anything altered; not a cloud of that storm did appear in that countenance wherein peace doth ever shine; but with excellent assurance and advised security she inspired her council, animated her nobility, redoubled the courage of her people; still having this noble apprehension, not only that she would communicate her fortune with them, but that it was she that would protect them, and not they her; which she testified by no less demonstration than her presence in camp. Therefore that magnanimity that neither feareth greatness of alteration, nor the vows of conspirators, nor the power of the enemy, is more than heroical." These papers, though he put his best workmanship into them, as he |
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