AFFECTION,'IS, WITH HIS MAJESTY'S GRACIOUS PERMISSION, MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY HIS MAJESTY'S FAITHFUL SUBJECT AND OBLIGED SERVANT BASIL MONTAGU. PREFACE. The Advancement of Learning was published in the year 1605. It is entitled THE TVVOO BOOKES OF FRANCIS BACON, Of the proficience and aduancement of Learning, diuine and humane. TO THE KING. AT LONDON, shop in Graies Inne Gate in Holborne. 1605. It is a small thin quarto, of 119 pages, somewhat incorrectly printed, the subjects being distinguished by capitals and italics introduced into the text, with a few marginal notes in Latin. The following is an exact specimen : History is NATVRALL, CIVILE, ECCLESIASTICALL & LITERARY, whereof the three first I allow as extant, the fourth I note as deficient. For no man hath propounded to himselfe the generall state of learning to bee described and represented from age to age, as many haue done the works of nature, & the State ciuile and Ecclesiastical; without which the History of the world seemeth to me, to be as the Statua of Polyphemus with his eye out, that part being wanting, which doth most shew the spirit, and life of the person. Of this work he sent a copy, with a letter, to the King; to the university of Cambridge ; to Trinity college, Cambridge; to the university of Oxford; to Sir Thomas Bodley; to Lord Chancellor Egerton ; to the Earl of Salisbury; to the Lord Treasurer Buckhurst: and to Mr. Matthews. From these letters, which are all in existence, the letter to the Lord Chancellor, as a favourable specimen, is annexed : “ MAY IT PLEASE YOUR LORDSHIP, o the “I humbly present your lordship with a work, “ wherein, as you have much commandment over the author, so your lordship hath great interest in argument: For to speak without flattery, few “ have like use of learning or like judgment in “ learning, as I have observed in your lordship. And “ again, your lordship hath been a great planter “ of learning, not only in those places in the “ church which have been in your own gift, but “ also in your commendatory vote, no man hath “ more constantly held ; let it be given to the most deserving, detur digniori : And therefore, both your lordship is beholding to learning and learn ing beholding to you ; which maketh me presume “ with good assurance that your lordship will accept “ well of these my labours; the rather because your lordship in private speech hath often begun to me “ in expressing your admiration of his majesty's learning, to whom I have dedicated this work ; " and whose virtue and perfection in that kind did chiefly move me to a work of this nature. And “ so with signification of my most humble duty and “ affection to your lordship, I remain." Some short time after the publication of this work, probably about the year 1608, Sir Francis Bacon was desirous that the Advancement of Learning should be translated into Latin ; and, for this purpose, he applied to Dr. Playfer, the Margaret professor of divinity in the university of Cambridge.* This appears by the following letter, without any date : MR. DR. PLAYFER, “A great desire will take a small occasion to hope and put in “ trial that which is desired. It pleased you a good while since, to express unto me the good liking which you conceived of my book “ of the Advancement of Learning; and that more significantly, (as “it seemed to me) than out of courtesie, or civil respect. Myself, as I then took contentment in your approbation thereof; so I esteem and acknowledge, not onely my contentment encreased, but my labours advanced, if I might obtain your help in that na“ ture which I desire. Wherein before I set down in plain terms my request unto you, I will open myself, what it was which I chiefly sought and propounded to myself in that work; that you may perceive that which I now desire, to be persuant thereupon. "If I do not much err, (for any judgment that a man maketh of his own doings, had need be spoken with a Si nunquam fallit Imago, “ I have this opinion, that if I had sought mine own commendation, “it had been a much fitter course for me to have done as gardeners “ used to do, by taking their sced and slips, and rearing them first “ into plants, and so uttering them in pots, when they are in flower, “ and in their best state. But for as much as my end was Merit of |