r. The short, pithy sayings have become
popular mottoes and household words. The style is quaint, original,
abounding in allusions and witticisms, and rich, even to gorgeousness, with
piled-up analogies and metaphors.[46] The first edition contained only ten
essays, but the number was increased in 1612 to thirty-eight, and in 1625
to fifty-eight. The short tract, _Colours of Good and Evil_, which with the
_Meditationes Sacrae_ originally accompanied the Essays, was afterwards
incorporated with the _De Augmentis_. Along with these works may be classed
the curiously learned piece, _De Sapientia Veterum_, in which he works out
a favourite idea, that the mythological fables of the Greeks were
allegorical and concealed the deepest truths of their philosophy. As a
scientific explanation of the myths the theory is of no value, but it
affords fine scope for the exercise of Bacon's unrivalled power of
detecting analogies in things apparently most dissimilar. The
_Apophthegms_, though hardly deserving Macaulay's praise of being the best
collection of jests in the world, contain a number of those significant
anecdotes which Bacon used with such effect in his other writings. Of the
historical works, besides a few fragments of the projected history of
Britain there remains the _History of Henry VII._, a valuable work, giving
a clear and animated narrative of the reign, and characterizing Henry with
great skill. The style is in harmony with the matter, vigorous and flowing,
but naturally with less of the quaintness and richness suitable to more
thoughtful and original writings. The series of the literary works is
completed by the minor treatises on theological or ecclesiastical
questions. Some of the latter, included among the occasional works, are
sagacious and prudent and deserve careful study. Of the former, the
principal specimens are the _Meditationes Sacrae_ and the _Confession of
Faith_. The _Paradoxes_ (Characters of a believing Christian in paradoxes,
and seeming contradictions), which was often and justly suspected, has been
conclusively proved by Grosart to be the work of another author.

_Philosophical Works._--The great mass of Bacon's writings consists of
treatises or fragments, which either formed integral parts of his grand
comprehensive scheme, or were closely connected with it. More exactly they
may be classified under three heads: (A) Writings originally intended to
form parts of the _Instauratio_, but which were aft