ile subserviency, to this
infamous favorite of the king. Surely, what lessons of the frailty of
human nature does the reign of James teach us! The most melancholy
instance of all the singular cases of human inconsistency, at this
time, is the conduct of the great Bacon himself, who reached the
zenith of his power during this reign. It is not the receiving of a
bribe, while exercising the highest judicial authority in the land, on
which alone his shame rests, but his insolent conduct to his
inferiors, his acquiescence in wrong, his base and unmanly sycophancy,
his ingratitude to his friends and patrons, his intense selfishness
and unscrupulous ambition while climbing to power, and, above all, his
willingness to be the tool of a despot who trampled on the rights and
liberties which God had given him to guard; and this in an age of
light, of awakened intelligence, when even his crabbed rival Coke was
seeking to explode the abuses of the Dark Ages. But "the difference
between the soaring angel and the creeping snake, was but a type of
the difference between Bacon the philosopher and Bacon the
attorney-general, Bacon seeking for truth and Bacon seeking for the
Seals." As the author of the Novum Organum, as the pioneer of modern
science, as the calm and patient investigator of nature's laws, as the
miner and sapper of the old false systems of philosophy which enslaved
the human mind, as the writer for future generations, he has received,
as he has deserved, all the glory which admiring and grateful millions
can bestow, of his own nation, and of all nations. No name in British
annals is more illustrious than his, and none which is shaded with
more lasting shame. Pope alone would have given him an immortality as
the "wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind." The only defence for the
political baseness of Bacon--and this is insufficient--is, that all
were base around him. The years when he was in power are among the
darkest and most disgraceful in English history.

[Sidenote: Trial and Execution of Raleigh.]

Allusion has been made to the reign of favorites; but this was but a
small part of the evils of the times. Every thing abroad and at home
was mismanaged. Patents of monopolies were multiplied; the most
grievous exactions were made; indefensible executions were ordered;
the laws were perverted; justice was sold; and an ignominious war was
closed by a still more ignominious peace. The execution of Raleigh was
a disgrace to th