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PREFACE.


In preparing this sketch it is needless to say how deeply I am indebted
to Mr. Spedding and Mr. Ellis, the last editors of Bacon's writings, the
very able and painstaking commentators, the one on Bacon's life, the
other on his philosophy. It is impossible to overstate the affectionate
care and high intelligence and honesty with which Mr. Spedding has
brought together and arranged the materials for an estimate of Bacon's
character. In the result, in spite of the force and ingenuity of much of
his pleading, I find myself most reluctantly obliged to differ from him;
it seems to me to be a case where the French saying, cited by Bacon in
one of his commonplace books, holds good--"_Par trop se débattre, la
vérité se perd_."[1] But this does not diminish the debt of gratitude
which all who are interested about Bacon must owe to Mr. Spedding. I
wish also to acknowledge the assistance which I have received from Mr.
Gardiner's _History of England_ and Mr. Fowler's edition of the _Novum
Organum_; and not least from M. de Rémusat's work on Bacon, which seems
to me the most complete and the most just estimate both of Bacon's
character and work which has yet appeared; though even in this clear