A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. John W. Cousin
may have been owing to a speech made by B. on a question of subsidies. To console him for them Essex presented him with a property at Twickenham, which he subsequently sold for £1800, equivalent to a much larger sum now. In 1596 he was made a Queen's Counsel, but missed the appointment of Master of the Rolls, and in the next year (1597), he pub. the first edition of his Essays, ten in number, combined with Sacred Meditations and the Colours of Good and Evil. By 1601 Essex had lost the Queen's favour, and had raised his rebellion, and B. was one of those appointed to investigate the charges against him, and examine witnesses, in connection with which he showed an ungrateful and indecent eagerness in pressing the case against his former friend and benefactor, who was executed on Feb. 25, 1601. This act B. endeavoured to justify in A Declaration of the Practices and Treasons, etc., of … the Earl of Essex, etc. His circumstances had for some time been bad, and he had been arrested for debt: he had, however, received a gift of a fine of £1200 on one of Essex's accomplices. The accession of James VI. in 1603 gave a favourable turn to his fortunes: he was knighted, and endeavoured to set himself right with the new powers by writing his Apologie (defence) of his proceedings in the case of Essex, who had favoured the succession of James. In the first Parliament of the new king he sat for St. Alban's, and was appointed a Commissioner for Union with Scotland. In 1605 he pub. The Advancement of Learning, dedicated, with fulsome flattery, to the king. The following year he married Alice Barnham, the dau. of a London merchant, and in 1607 he was made Solicitor-General, and wrote Cogita et Visa, a first sketch of the Novum Organum, followed in 1609 by The Wisdom of the Ancients. Meanwhile (in 1608), he had entered upon the Clerkship of the Star Chamber, and was in the enjoyment of a large income; but old debts and present extravagance kept him embarrassed, and he endeavoured to obtain further promotion and wealth by supporting the king in his arbitrary policy. In 1613 he became Attorney-General, and in this capacity prosecuted Somerset in 1616. The year 1618 saw him Lord Keeper, and the next Lord Chancellor and Baron Verulam, a title which, in 1621, he exchanged for that of Viscount St. Albans. Meanwhile he had written the New Atlantis, a political romance, and in 1620 he presented to the king the Novum Organum, on which he had been engaged for 30 years, and which ultimately formed the main part of the Instauratio Magna. In his great office B. showed a failure of character in striking contrast with the majesty of his intellect. He was corrupt alike politically and judicially, and now the hour of retribution arrived. In 1621 a Parliamentary Committee on the administration of the law charged him with corruption under 23 counts; and so clear was the evidence that he made no attempt at defence. To the lords, who sent a committee to inquire whether the confession was really his, he replied, "My lords, it is my act, my hand, and my heart; I beseech your lordships to be merciful to a broken reed." He was sentenced to a fine of £40,000, remitted by the king, to be committed to the Tower during the king's pleasure (which was that he should be released in a few days), and to be incapable of holding office or sitting in parliament. He narrowly escaped being deprived of his titles. Thenceforth he devoted himself to study and writing. In 1622 appeared his History of Henry VII., and the 3rd part of the Instauratio; in 1623, History of Life and Death, the De Augmentis Scientarum, a Latin translation of the Advancement, and in 1625 the 3rd edition of the Essays, now 58 in number. He also pub. Apophthegms, and a translation of some of the Psalms. His life was now approaching its close. In March, 1626, he came to London, and shortly after, when driving on a snowy day, the idea struck him of making an experiment as to the antiseptic properties of snow, in consequence of which he caught a chill, which ended in his death on 9th April 1626. He left debts to the amount of £22,000. At the time of his death he was engaged upon Sylva Sylvarum. The intellect of B. was one of the most powerful and searching ever possessed by man, and his developments of the inductive philosophy revolutionised the future thought of the human race. The most popular of his works is the Essays, which convey profound and condensed thought in a style that is at once clear and rich. His moral character was singularly mixed and complex, and bears no comparison with his intellect. It exhibits a singular coldness and lack of enthusiasm, and indeed a bluntness of moral perception and an absence of attractiveness rarely combined with such extraordinary mental endowments. All that was possible to be done in defence of his character and public conduct has been done by his accomplished biographer and editor, Mr. Spedding (q.v.). Singular, though of course futile, attempts, supported sometimes with much ingenuity, have been made to claim for B. the authorship of Shakespeare's plays, and have indeed been extended so as to include those of Marlowe, and even the Essays of Montaigne.
SUMMARY.—B. London 1561, ed. Trinity Coll., Cambridge, dissatisfied with Aristotelean philosophy, entered Gray's Inn 1576, in France 1576–79, called to Bar 1582, enters Parliament 1584, became friend of Essex 1591, who presents him with estate 1593, pub. 1st ed. of Essays 1597, prosecutes Essex 1601, pub. Advancement of Learning 1605, Solicitor-Gen. 1607, pub. Wisdom of the Ancients 1609, Attorney-Gen. 1613, prosecuted Somerset 1616, Lord Keeper 1618, Lord Chancellor with title of Verulam 1619, Visc. St. Albans 1621, pub. Novum Organum 1620, charged with corruption, and retires from public life 1621, pub. Henry VII. and 3rd part of Instauratio 1622, d. 1626.
The standard edition of B.'s works is that of Spedding, Ellis, and Heath (14 vols. 1857–74), including Life and Letters by Spedding. See also Macaulay's Essays; Dean Church in Men of Letters Series; Dr. Abbott's Life (1885), etc. For philosophy Fowler's Novum Organum (1878).
BACON, ROGER (1214?-1294).—Philosopher, studied at Oxford and Paris. His scientific acquirements, regarded in that age as savouring of witchcraft, and doubtless also his protests against the ignorance and immorality of the clergy, excited the jealousy and hatred of the Franciscans, and he was in consequence imprisoned at Paris for ten years. Clement IV., who had been a sympathiser, desired on his accession to see his works, and in response B. sent him Opus Majus, a treatise on the sciences (grammar, logic, mathematics, physics, and philosophy), followed by Opus Secundum and Opus Tertium. Clement, however, was near death when they arrived. B. was comparatively free from persecution for the next ten years. But in 1278 he was again imprisoned for upwards of ten years. At the intercession of some English noblemen he was at last released, and spent his remaining years at Oxford. He possessed one of the most commanding intellects of his own, or perhaps of any, age, and, notwithstanding all the disadvantages and discouragements to which he was subjected, made many discoveries, and came near to many more. There is still preserved at Oxford a rectified calendar in which he approximates closely to the truth. He received the sobriquet of the "Doctor Mirabilis."
BAGE, ROBERT (1728–1801).—Novelist, b. in Derbyshire, was the s. of a paper-maker. It was not until he was 53 that he took to literature; but in the 15 years following he produced 6 novels, of which Sir Walter Scott says that "strong mind, playful fancy, and extensive knowledge are everywhere apparent." B., though brought up as a Quaker, imbibed the principles of the French Revolution. He was an amiable and benevolent man, and highly esteemed. Hermsprong; or, Man as He is Not (1796) is considered the best of his novels, of which it was the last. The names of the others are Mount Kenneth (1781), Barham Downs (1784), The Fair Syrian (1787), James Wallace (1788), and Man as He is (1792).
BAGEHOT, WALTER (1826–1877).—Economist, s. of a banker, b. at Langport, Somerset, ed. at University Coll., London, and called to the Bar, but did not practise, and joined his f. in business. He wrote for various periodicals, and from 1860 was editor of The Economist. He was the author of The English Constitution (1867), a standard work which was translated into several languages; Physics and Politics (1872), and Lombard Street (1873), a valuable financial work. A collection of essays, biographical and economic, was pub. after his death.
BAILEY, PHILIP JAMES (1816–1902).—Poet, s. of a journalist, b. at Nottingham, and ed. there and at Glasgow, of which he was made an LL.D. in 1891. His life was a singularly uneventful one. He lived at Nottingham, Jersey, Ilfracombe, London, and again at Nottingham, where he d. He travelled a good deal on the Continent. He