n was required in his professional
character, and this circumstance excited the mean jealousies of the
minister Cecil, and the Attorney-General Coke. Both were mere practical
men of business, whose narrow conceptions and whose stubborn habits
assume that whenever a man acquires much knowledge foreign to his
profession, he will know less of professional knowledge than he ought.
These men of strong minds, yet limited capacities, hold in contempt all
studies alien to their habits.

Bacon early aspired to the situation of Solicitor-General; the court of
Elizabeth was divided into factions; Bacon adopted the interests of the
generous Essex, which were inimical to the party of Cecil. The queen,
from his boyhood, was delighted by conversing with her "young
lord-keeper," as she early distinguished the precocious gravity and the
ingenious turn of mind of the future philosopher. It was unquestionably
to attract her favour, that Bacon presented to the queen his "Maxims and
Elements of the Common Law," not published till after his death.
Elizabeth suffered her minister to form her opinions on the legal
character of Bacon. It was alleged that Bacon was addicted to more
general pursuits than law, and the miscellaneous books which he was
known to have read confirmed the accusation. This was urged as a reason
why the post of Solicitor-General should not be conferred on a man of
speculation, more likely to distract than to direct her affairs.
Elizabeth, in the height of that political prudence which marked her
character, was swayed by the vulgar notion of Cecil, and believed that
Bacon, who afterwards filled the situation both of Solicitor-General and
Lord Chancellor, was "a man rather of show than of depth." We have
recently been told by a great lawyer that "Bacon was a master."

On the accession of James the First, when Bacon still found the same
party obstructing his political advancement, he appears, in some
momentary fit of disgust, to have meditated on a retreat into a foreign
country; a circumstance which has happened to several of our men of
genius, during a fever of solitary indignation. He was for some time
thrown out of the sunshine of life, but he found its shade more fitted
for contemplation; and, unquestionably, philosophy was benefited by his
solitude at Gray's Inn. His hand was always on his work, and better
thoughts will find an easy entrance into the mind of those who feed on
their thoughts, and live amidst their reve