Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients · Francis Bacon
THE SAME IN ENGLISH.
MY LORD AMBASSADOR, MY SON: Seeing that your Excellency makes and treats of Marriages, not only betwixt the Princes of France and England, but also betwixt their languages (for you have caused my book of the Advancement of Learning to be translated into French), I was much inclined to make you a present of the last book which I published, and which I had in readiness for you. I was sometimes in doubt whether I ought to have sent it to you, because it was written in the English tongue. But now, for that very reason, I send it to you. It is a recompilement of my Essays Moral and Civil; but in such manner enlarged and enriched both in number and weight, that it is in effect a new work. I kiss your hands, and remain your most affectionate friend and most humble servant, &c. Of the translation of the Essays into Latin, Bacon speaks in the following letter:— “TO MR. TOBIE MATHEW: It is true my labors are now most set to have those works which I had formerly published, as that of Advancement of Learning, that of Henry VII., that of the Essays, being retractate and made more perfect, well translated into Latin by the help of some good pens which forsake me not. For these modern languages will, at one time or other, play the bankrupt with books; and since I have lost much time with this age, I would be glad, as God shall give me leave, to recover it with posterity. For the Essay of Friendship, while I took your speech of it for a cursory request, I took my promise for a compliment. But since you call for it, I shall perform it.”
In his letter to Father Fulgentio, giving some account of his writings, he says:— “The _Novum Organum_ should immediately follow; but my moral and political writings step in between as being more finished. These are, the History of King Henry VII., and the small book, which, in your language, you have called _Saggi Morali_, but I give it a graver title, that of _Sermones Fideles_, or _Interiora Rerum_, and these Essays will not only be enlarged in number, but still more in substance.” The nature of the Latin edition, and of the Essays in general, is thus stated by Archbishop Tenison:— “The Essays, or Counsels Civil and Moral, though a by-work also, do yet make up a book of greater weight by far than the Apothegms; and coming home to men’s business and bosoms, his lordship entertained this persuasion concerning them, that the Latin volume might last as long as books should last. His lordship wrote them in the English tongue, and enlarged them as occasion served, and at last added to them the Colors of Good and Evil, which are likewise found in his book _De Augmentis_. The Latin translation of them was a work performed by divers hands: by those of Dr. Hacket (late Bishop of Lichfield), Mr. Benjamin Jonson (the learned and judicious poet,) and some others, whose names I once heard from Dr. Rawley, but I cannot now recall them. To this Latin edition he gave the title of _Sermones Fideles_, after the manner of the Jews, who called the words Adagies, or Observations of the Wise, Faithful Sayings; that is, credible propositions worthy of firm assent and ready acceptance. And (as I think), he alluded more particularly, in this title, to a passage in _Ecclesiastes_, where the preacher saith, that he sought to find out _Verba Delectabilia_ (as Tremellius rendereth the Hebrew), pleasant words; (that is, perhaps, his Book of Canticles;) and _Verba Fidelia_ (as the same Tremellius), Faithful Sayings; meaning, it may be, his collection of Proverbs. In the next verse, he calls them Words of the Wise, and so many goads and nails given _ab eodem pastore_, from the same shepherd [of the flock of Israel”].
In the year 1638, Rawley published, in folio, a volume containing, amongst other works, _Sermones Fideles, ab ipso Honoratissimo Auctore, præterquam in paucis, Latinitate donati_. In his address to the reader, he says:— _Accedunt, quas priùs_ Delibationes Civiles _et_ Morales _inscripserat; Quas etiam in Linguas plurimas Modernas translatas esse novit; sed eas posteà, et Numero, et Pondere, auxit; In tantum, ut veluti Opus Novum videri possint; Quas mutato Titulo_, Sermones Fideles, _sive_ Interiora Rerum, _inscribi placuit_. The title-page and dedication are annexed: _Sermones Fideles sive Interiora Rerum. Per Franciscum Baconum Baronem de Vervlamio, Vice-Comitem Sancti Albani. Londini Excusum typis Edwardi Griffin. Prostant ad Insignia Regia in Cœmeterio D. Pauli, apud Richardum Whitakerum_, 1638. Illustri et Excellenti Domino _Georgio_ Duci _Buckinghamiæ_, Summo _Angliæ_ Admirallio. _Honoratissime Domine_, _Salomon_ inquit, _Nomen bonum est instar Vnguenti fragrantis et pretiosi_; Neque dubito, quin tale futurum sit _Nomen_ tuum apud Posteros. Etenim et Fortuna, et Merita tua, præcelluerunt. Et videris ea plantasse, quæ sint duratura. In lucem jam edere mihi visum est _Delibationes meas_, quæ ex omnibus meis Operibus fuerunt acceptissimæ: Quia forsitan videntur, præ cæteris, _Hominum_ Negotia stringere, et in sinus fluere. Eas autem auxi, et Numero, et Pondere; In tantum, ut planè Opus Novum sint. Consentaneum igitur duxi, Affectui, et Obligationi meæ, erga _Illustrissimam Dominationem_ tuam, ut _Nomen_ tuum illis præfigam, tam in _Editione Anglicâ_, quam _Latinâ_. Etenim, in bonâ spe sum, Volumen earum in _Latinam_ (_Linguam_ scilicet universalem), versum, posse durare, quamdiù _Libri_ et _Literæ_ durent. _Instaurationem_ meam _Regi_ dicavi: _Historiam Regni Henrici Septimi_ (quam etiam in _Latinum_ verti et Portiones meas _Naturalis Historiæ_, _Principi_): Has autem _Delibationes Illustrissimæ Dominationi_ tuæ dico, Cùm sint, ex Fructibus optimis, quos Gratia divinâ Calami mei laboribus indulgente, exhibere potui. _Deus illustrissimam Dominationem_ tuam manu ducat. _Illustrissimæ Dominationis_ tuæ Servus Devinctissimus et Fidelis. In the year 1618, the Essays, together with the Wisdom of the Ancients, was translated into Italian, and dedicated to _Cosmo de Medici_, by Tobie Mathew; and in the following year the Essays were translated into French by Sir Arthur Gorges, and printed in London.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.