them, "of _Delays_," "of _Cunning_," "of _Wisdom for a Man's
Self_," "of _Despatch_," which show how vigilantly and to what purpose
he had watched the treasurers and secretaries and intriguers of
Elizabeth's and James's Courts; and there are curious self-revelations,
as in the essay on _Friendship_. But there are also currents of better
and larger feeling, such as those which show his own ideal of "_Great
Place_," and what he felt of its dangers and duties. And mixed with the
fantastic taste and conceits of the time, there is evidence in them of
Bacon's keen delight in nature, in the beauty and scents of flowers, in
the charm of open-air life, as in the essay on _Gardens_, "The purest of
human pleasures, the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man."

But he had another manner of writing for what he held to be his more
serious work. In the philosophical and historical works there is no want
of attention to the flow and order and ornament of composition. When we
come to the _Advancement of Learning_, we come to a book which is one of
the landmarks of what high thought and rich imagination have made of
the English language. It is the first great book in English prose of
secular interest; the first book which can claim a place beside the
_Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity_. As regards its subject-matter, it has
been partly thrown into the shade by the greatly enlarged and elaborate
form in which it ultimately appeared, in a Latin dress, as the first
portion of the scheme of the _Instauratio_, the _De Augmentis
Scientiarum_. Bacon looked on it as a first effort, a kind of call-bell
to awaken and attract the interest of others in the thoughts and hopes
which so interested himself. But it contains some of his finest writing.
In the _Essays_ he writes as a looker-on at the game of human affairs,
who, according to his frequent illustration, sees more of it than the
gamesters themselves, and is able to give wiser and faithful counsel,
not without a touch of kindly irony at the mistakes which he observes.
In the _Advancement_ he is the enthusiast for a great cause and a great
hope, and all that he has of passion and power is enlisted in the effort
to advance it. The _Advancement_ is far from being a perfect book. As a
survey of the actual state of knowledge in his day, of its deficiencies,
and what was wanted to supply them, it is not even up to the materials
of the time. Even the improved _De Augmentis_ is inadequate; and there
is