was born in London, on the 22d of January, 1560-61, to an enviable
social lot. His father, Sir Nicholas Bacon, was for twenty years lord
keeper of the great seal, and was eulogized by George Buchanan as "Diu
Britannici regni secundum columen." His mother was Anne Cook, a person of
remarkable acquirements in language and theology. Francis Bacon was a
delicate, attractive, and precocious child, noticed by the great, and
kindly called by the queen "her little lord keeper." Ben Jonson refers to
this when he writes, at a later day:

England's high chancellor, the destined heir
In his soft cradle to his father's chair.

Thus, in his early childhood, he became accustomed to the forms and
grandeur of political power, and the modes by which it was to be striven
for.

In his thirteenth year he was entered at Trinity College, Cambridge, then,
as now, the more mathematical and scientific of the two universities. But,
like Gibbon at Oxford, he thought little of his alma mater, under whose
care he remained only three years. It is said that at an early age he
disliked the Logic of Aristotle, and began to excogitate his system of
Induction: not content with the formal recorded knowledge, he viewed the
universe as a great storehouse of facts to be educed, investigated, and
philosophically classified.

After leaving the university, he went in the suite of Sir Amyas Paulet,
the English ambassador, to France; and recorded the observations made
during his travels in a treatise _On the State of Europe_, which is
thoughtful beyond his years. The sudden death of his father, in February,
1579-80, recalled him to England, and his desire to study led him to apply
to the government for a sinecure, which would permit him to do so without
concern as to his support. It is not strange--considering his youth and
the entire ignorance of the government as to his abilities--that this was
refused. He then applied himself to the study of the law; and whatever his
real ability, the jealousy of the Cecils no doubt prompted the opinion of
the queen, that he was not very profound in the branch he had chosen, an
opinion which was fully shared by the blunt and outspoken Lord Coke, who
was his rival in love, law, and preferment. Prompted no doubt by the
coldness of Burleigh, he joined the opposition headed by the Earl of
Essex, and he found in that nobleman a powerful friend and generous
patron, who used his utmost endeavors to have Bacon appointed
at