to
persuade them to be content with restraining. Whatever he thought of the
"Great Contract," he did what was expected of him in trying to gain for
it fair play. But he made time for other things also. He advised, and
advised soundly, on the plantation and finance of Ireland. It was a
subject in which he took deep interest. A few years later, with only
too sure a foresight, he gave the warning, "lest Ireland civil become
more dangerous to us than Ireland savage." He advised--not soundly in
point of law, but curiously in accordance with modern notions--about
endowments; though, in this instance, in the famous will case of Thomas
Sutton, the founder of the Charter House, his argument probably covered
the scheme of a monstrous job in favour of the needy Court. And his own
work went on in spite of the pressure of the Solicitor's place. To the
first years of his official life belong three very interesting
fragments, intended to find a provisional place in the plan of the
"Great Instauration." To his friend Toby Matthews, at Florence, he sent
in manuscript the great attack on the old teachers of knowledge, which
is perhaps the most brilliant, and also the most insolently unjust and
unthinking piece of rhetoric ever composed by him--the _Redargutio
Philosophiarum_.

"I send you at this time the only part which hath any harshness;
and yet I framed to myself an opinion, that whosoever allowed well
of that preface which you so much commend, will not dislike, or at
least ought not to dislike, this other speech of preparation; for
it is written out of the same spirit, and out of the same
necessity. Nay it doth more fully lay open that the question
between me and the ancients is not of the virtue of the race, but
of the rightness of the way. And to speak truth, it is to the other
but as _palma_ to _pugnus_, part of the same thing more large....
Myself am like the miller of Huntingdon, that was wont to pray for
peace amongst the willows; for while the winds blew, the wind-mills
wrought, and the water-mill was less customed. So I see that
controversies of religion must hinder the advancement of sciences.
Let me conclude with my perpetual wish towards yourself, that the
approbation of yourself by your own discreet and temperate
carriage, may restore you to your country, and your friends to your
society. And so I commend you to God's goodness.