t complained of, for he relieves it, while acknowledging it, of
those details which imply bribery.

He devoted the last five years of his life to putting forth the greatest
works ever published by man; including the first complete edition of the
so-called Shakespeare plays. Fortunate is it for the world that he was
driven from the task of settling petty squabbles about the trash of the
time, listening to "weary lawyers with endless tongues;" adjudicating
questions of pounds, shillings, and pence between litigants whose very
names have disappeared; and was shipwrecked by the stress of the great
storm that struck him, like _Prospero_, on an island of solicitude, with
books that "he prized above his dukedom," to perform labors in which all
mankind will be interested even to the consummation of civilization on
earth.

His patience, his gentleness, his forbearance were saint-like; still in
his right hand he carried "gentle peace to silence envious tongues." His
appearance, we are told, struck all men who beheld him with a great
sense of awe. Those who were most closely associated with him loved him
most dearly. His purposes were Godlike. They were "the glory of the
Creator and the relief of man's estate." Macaulay says of Bacon's
experimental philosophy:

"It has lengthened life; it has mitigated pain; it has extinguished
diseases; it has increased the fertility of the soil; it has given new
securities to the mariner; it has furnished new arms to the warrior; it
has spanned great rivers and estuaries with bridges of form unknown to
our fathers; it has guided the thunderbolt innocuously from heaven to
earth; it has lighted up the night with the splendor of the day; it has
extended the range of the human vision; it has multiplied the power of
human muscle; it has accelerated motion; it has annihilated distance; it
has facilitated intercourse, correspondence, all friendly offices, all
despatch of business; it has enabled men to descend to the depths of the
sea; to soar into the air; to penetrate securely into the noxious
recesses of the earth; to traverse the land with cars which whirl along
without horses; and the ocean with ships which sail against the wind."

In other words, the brain of this tremendous, this incomprehensible,
this complex man, lies at the base of all our literature and of all our
modern progress and civilization. The world is hardly big enough for his
fame, and the praises of mankind cannot fill the meas