empire work together in harmonious order, without waste, without
jealousy, without encroachment and collision; to unite not only the
interests but the sympathies and aims of the Crown with those of the
people and Parliament; and so to make Britain, now in peril from nothing
but from the strength of its own discordant elements, that "Monarchy of
the West" in reality, which Spain was in show, and, as Bacon always
maintained, only in show. The survey of the condition of his
philosophical enterprise takes more space. He notes the stages and
points to which his plans have reached; he indicates, with a favourite
quotation or apophthegm--"_Plus ultra_"--"_ausus vana
contemnere_"--"_aditus non nisi sub persona infantis_" soon to be
familiar to the world in his published writings--the lines of argument,
sometimes alternative ones, which were before him; he draws out schemes
of inquiry, specimen tables, distinctions and classifications about the
subject of Motion, in English interlarded with Latin, or in Latin
interlarded with English, of his characteristic and practical sort; he
notes the various sources from which he might look for help and
co-operation--"of learned men beyond the seas"--"to begin first in
France to print it"--"laying for a place to command wits and pens;" he
has his eye on rich and childless bishops, on the enforced idleness of
State prisoners in the Tower, like Northumberland and Raleigh, on the
great schools and universities, where he might perhaps get hold of some
college for "Inventors"--as we should say, for the endowment of
research. These matters fill up a large space of his notes. But his
thoughts were also busy about his own advancement. And to these sheets
of miscellaneous memoranda Bacon confided not only his occupations and
his philosophical and political ideas, but, with a curious innocent
unreserve, the arts and methods which he proposed to use in order to win
the favour of the great and to pull down the reputation of his rivals.
He puts down in detail how he is to recommend himself to the King and
the King's favourites--

"To set on foot and maintain access with his Majesty, Dean of the
Chapel, May, Murray. Keeping a course of access at the beginning of
every term and vacation, with a memorial. To attend some time his
repasts, or to fall into a course of familiar discourse. To find
means to win a conceit, not open, but private, of being
affectionate and assured to t