e had much of the modern idea of growth in both
government and religion, and he "accepts no system of government
either in church or state as unalterable."

FRANCIS BACON, 1561-1626

[Illustration: FRANCIS BACON. _From the painting by Van Somer,
National Portrait Gallery._]

Life.--A study of Bacon takes us beyond the limits of the reign of
Elizabeth, but not beyond the continued influences of that reign.
Francis Bacon, the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great
Seal under Elizabeth, was born in London and grew up under the
influences of the court. In order to understand some of Bacon's
actions in later life, we must remember the influences that helped to
fashion him in his boyhood days. Those with whom he early associated
and who unconsciously molded him were not very scrupulous about the
way in which they secured the favor of the court or the means which
they took to outstrip an adversary. They also encouraged in him a
taste for expensive luxuries. These unfortunate influences were
intensified when, at the age of sixteen, he went with the English
ambassador to Paris, and remained there for two and a half years,
studying statecraft and diplomacy.

When Bacon was nineteen, his father died. The son, being without
money, returned from Paris and appealed to his uncle, Lord Burleigh,
one of Elizabeth's ministers, for some lucrative position at the
court. In a letter to his uncle, Bacon says: "I confess I have as vast
contemplative ends as I have moderate civil ends; for I have taken all
knowledge to be my province." This statement shows the Elizabethan
desire to master the entire world of the New Learning. Instead of
helping his nephew, however, Lord Burleigh seems to have done all in
his power to thwart him. Bacon thereupon studied law and was admitted
to the bar in 1582.

Bacon entered Parliament in 1584 and distinguished himself as a
speaker. Ben Jonson, the dramatist, says of him "There happened in my
time one noble speaker who was full of gravity in his speaking. No man
ever spoke more neatly, more presly, more weightily, or suffered less
emptiness, less idleness, in what he uttered. His hearers could not
cough or look aside from him without loss. The fear of every man that
heard him was lest he should make an end." This speaking was valuable
training for Bacon in writing the pithy sentences of his _Essays_. A
man who uses the long, involved sentences of Hooker can never become a
speaker to whom peo