, "without a notable public disgrace laid upon him by
her majesty's royal censure delivered amongst other things, by herself,
after my lord keeper's speech[114]."

[Note 114: Birch's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 96.]

In this parting harangue to her parliament, the queen, little touched by
the unprecedented liberality of the supplies which it had granted her,
and the passing of her favorite bill against the schismatics and
recusants, animadverted in severe terms on the oppositionists,
reiterated the lofty claims with which she had opened the sessions, and
pronounced an eulogium on the justice and moderation of her own
government. She also entered into the grounds of her quarrel with the
king of Spain; showed herself undismayed by the apprehension of any
thing which his once dreaded power could attempt against her; and
characteristically added, in adverting to the defeat of the armada, the
following energetic warning: "I am informed, that when he attempted this
last invasion, some upon the sea coast forsook their towns, fled up
higher into the country, and left all naked and exposed to his
entrance. But I swear unto you by God, if I knew those persons, or may
know hereafter, I will make them know what it is to be fearful in so
urgent a cause."

The appearance of Francis Bacon in the house of commons affords a fit
occasion of tracing the previous history of this wonderful man, and of
explaining his peculiar situation between the two great factions of the
court and the influence exerted by this circumstance on his character
and after fortunes. That early promise of his genius which in childhood
attracted the admiring observation of Elizabeth herself, had been
confirmed by every succeeding year. In the thirteenth of his age, an
earlier period than was even then customary, he was entered, together
with his elder brother Anthony, of Trinity college Cambridge. At this
seat of learning he remained three years, during which, besides
exhibiting his powers of memory and application by great proficiency in
the ordinary studies of the place, he evinced the extraordinary
precocity of his penetrating and original intellect, by forming the
first sketch of a new system of philosophy in opposition to that of
Aristotle.

His father, designing him for public life, now sent him to complete his
education in the house of sir Amias Paulet, the queen's ambassador in
France. He gained the confidence of this able and honorable man to such
a degree, a