Francis Bacon.

Baron of Verulam, viscount St. Albans, and lord high chancellor of
England, born in the year 1561. He was one of the most remarkable men of
whom any age or country can boast; and his writings furnish incontestable
proofs that his knowledge, wisdom, and benevolence, were very
extraordinary. Lord Bacon died in 1626.

That this illustrious character was deeply influenced by a truly humble
and religious spirit, is manifest from the following prayer, which was
found amongst his papers, in his own hand-writing:--

"Most gracious Lord God, my merciful Father; my creator, my
Redeemer, my Comforter! thou soundest and searchest the depths and
secrets of all hearts; thou acknowledgest the upright; thou
judgest the hypocrite; vanity and crooked ways cannot be hid from
thee.

"Remember, O Lord, how thy servant has walked before thee;
remember what I have first sought, and what has been principal in
my intentions. I have loved thy assemblies; I have mourned for the
divisions of thy church; I have delighted in the brightness of thy
sanctuary; I have ever prayed unto thee, that the vine which thy
right hand hath planted in this nation, might have the former and
the latter rain, and that it might stretch its branches to the
seas and to the floods. The state and bread of the poor and
oppressed have been precious in my eyes; I have hated all cruelty
and hardness of heart; I have, though a despised weed, endeavored
to procure the good of all men. If any have been my enemies, I
thought not of them, neither has the sun gone down upon my
displeasure; but I have been as a dove, free from superfluity of
maliciousness. Thy creatures have been my books, but thy
Scriptures much more so. I have sought thee in the courts, the
fields, and the gardens; but I have found thee in thy temples.

"O Lord, my strength! I have, from my youth, met with thee in all
my ways; in thy fatherly compassions, in thy merciful
chastisements, and in thy most visible providences. As thy favors
have increased upon me, so have thy corrections; as my worldly
blessings were exalted, so secret darts from thee have pierced me;
and when I have ascended before men, I have descended in
humiliation before thee. And now, when I have been thinking most
of peace and honor, thy hand is heavy upon me, and has humbled me
according to th