s resolving itself ultimately
into a study of men; and it thus explains how he wished to be free
to describe the times wherein he lived. He is on the whole earlier
than Bacon, who wrote his _Historie of the Reigne of King Henry the
Seventh_ late in life, during the leisure that was forced on him
by his removal from all public offices. Written to display the
controlling policy in days that were 'rough, and full of mutations,
and rare accidents', it is a study of the statecraft and character of
a king who had few personal gifts and small capacity for a brilliant
part, yet won by his ready wisdom the best of all praises that 'what
he minded he compassed'. How he compassed it, is what interested
Bacon. 'I have not flattered him,' he says, 'but took him to the life
as well as I could, sitting so far off, and having no better light.'
Would that Bacon had felt at liberty to choose those who sat near at
hand. Who better than the writer of the _Essays_ could have painted a
series of miniatures of the courts of Elizabeth and James?

When at last the political upheaval of this century compelled men to
leave, whether in histories, or memoirs, or biographies, a record of
what they had themselves experienced, the character attained to its
full importance and excellence. 'That posterity may not be deceaved
by the prosperous wickednesse of these tymes, into an opinyon, that
lesse then a generall combination and universall apostacy in the whole
Nacion from their religion and allegiaunce could in so shorte a tyme
have produced such a totall and prodigious alteration and confusion
over the whole kingdome, and so the memory of those few who out of
duty and conscience have opposed and resisted that Torrent which hath
overwhelmed them, may loose the recompence dew to ther virtue, and
havinge undergone the injuryes and reproches of this, may not finde
a vindication in a better Age'--in these words Clarendon began his
_History of the Rebellion_. But he could not vindicate the memory
of his political friends without describing the men who had overcome
them. The history of these confused and difficult years would not be
properly understood if the characters of all the chief actors in the
tragic drama were not known. For to Clarendon history was the record
of the struggle of personalities. When we are in the midst of a
crisis, or view it from too near a distance, it is natural for us
to think of it as a fight between the opposing leaders, and the