er. University life was very different from
that of our times. The statutes of Cambridge forbade a student, under
penalties, to use in conversation with another any language but
Latin, Greek, or Hebrew, unless in his private apartments and in hours
of leisure. It was a regular custom at Trinity to bring before the
assembled undergraduates every Thursday evening at seven o'clock such
junior students as had been detected in breaches of the rules during the
week, and to flog them. It would be interesting to know in what
languages young Bacon conversed, and what experiences of discipline
befell him; but his subsequent achievements at least suggest that
Cambridge in the sixteenth century may have afforded more efficient
educational influences than our knowledge of its resources and methods
can explain. For it is certain that, at an age when our most promising
youths are beginning serious study, Bacon's mind was already formed, his
habits and modes of research were fixed, the universe of knowledge was
an open field before him. Thenceforth he was no man's pupil, but in
intellectual independence and solitude he rapidly matured into the
supreme scholar of his age.

After registering as a student of law at Gray's Inn, apparently for the
purpose of a nominal connection with a profession which might aid his
patrons in promoting him at court, Bacon was sent in June, 1576, to
France in the train of the British Ambassador, Sir Amyas Paulet; and for
nearly three years followed the roving embassy around the great cities
of that kingdom. The massacre of St. Bartholomew had taken place four
years before, and the boy's recorded observations on the troubled
society of France and of Europe show remarkable insight into the
character of princes and the sources of political movements. Sir
Nicholas had hitherto directed his son's education and associations with
the purpose of making him an ornament of the court, and had set aside a
fund to provide Francis at the proper time with a handsome estate. But
he died suddenly, February 20th, 1579, without giving legal effect to
this provision, and the sum designed for the young student was divided
equally among the five children, while Francis was excluded from a share
in the rest of the family fortune; and was thus called home to England
to find himself a poor man.

He made himself a bachelor's home at Gray's Inn, and devoted his
energies to the law, with such success that he was soon recognized as
o