Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T19:06:40.153Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Politics and science: Francis Bacon and the true greatness of states*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2010

Markku Peltonen
Markku Peltonen
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The main aim of the article is to question the widely held view that Francis Bacon's different writings form a single great project. His numerous writings on the greatness of states were not part of his scientific programme. Since Bacon's scientific writings do not provide us with the context in which we should place his texts on the greatness of states, the attempt is made to place them in their contemporary political context. These texts, it is argued, addressed the issue of the union of England and Scotland as well as the question concerning England's possible intervention in the European war in early 1620s. Several scholars have also claimed that, in accordance with Bacon's scientific project, his idea of the greatness of states was an essentially modern programme. Nevertheless, the article attempts to show that as far as his writings on civic greatness are concerned Bacon's moral and economic ideas could be classified as classical republican. James Harrington's analysis of Bacon offers a historical point of departure for reading of his writings on the true greatness of states.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 35 , Issue 2 , June 1992 , pp. 279 - 305
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 White, Howard B., Peace among the willows: the political philosophy of Francis Bacon (The Hague, 1968), pp. 1, 2, 7, 11, 17, 58, 61–2, 64–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, ‘Bacon's imperialism1, American political science review, CII (1958), 489, 481. See also Klein, Jürgen, Francis Bacon oder die Modermsierung Englands (Hildesheim, 1987)Google Scholar;Wheeler, Harvey, ‘The constitutional ideas of Francis Bacon’, The Western political quarterly, IX (1956), 927–36Google Scholar;Hill, Christopher, Intellectual origins of the English revolution (Oxford, 1965), pp. 85–130Google Scholar;Greenleaf, W. H., Order, empiricism, and politics. Two traditions of English political thought 1500–1700 (Oxford, 1964), pp. 206–32Google Scholar;Kanerva, Jukka, Matkaan! Tutkimus Francis Baconin poliittisesta ajattelusta (Jyväskylä, 1985).Google Scholar For greatness see also Kraus, Oskar, Der Machtgedanke und die Friedensidee in der Philosophie der Englander. Bacon und Bentham (Leipzig, 1926)Google Scholar and Bock, Hellmut, Staat und Gesellschaft bei Francis Bacon: Ein Beitrag der politischen Ideologie der Tuderzeit (Berlin, 1937)Google Scholar.

2 Whitney, Charles, Francis Bacon and the modernity (New Haven, 1986), pp. 10, 11, 17, 50–4, 167, 197–8,CrossRefGoogle Scholar see also e.g. pp. 99, 104, 157, 162. Cf. Greenleaf, , Order, empiricism, and politics, pp. 201–3Google Scholar.

3 Weinberger, Jerry, Science, faith, and politics. Francis Bacon and the utopian roots of modem age. A commentary on Bacon's Advancement of learning (Ithaca, 1985), pp. 19–21, 28, 29, 128, 132–3, 139,Google Scholar cf. pp. 25–6; Bacon, Francis, The great instauration and New Atlantis, ed. Weinberger, J. (Arlington Heights, 1980), pp. VII, XVIII.Google Scholar For the transhistorical nature of Bacon's writings see also White, , Peace among the willows, p. 11Google Scholar.

4 Martin, Julian, ‘Knowledge is power’: Francis Bacon, the state, and the reform of natural philosophy, Ph.D. dissertation, Cambridge University (1988), pp. 1, 3–4Google Scholar.

5 Martin, , ‘Knowledge is power’, pp. 164, 204–5.Google Scholar Cf. Webster, Charles, The great instouration. Science, medicine, and reform 1626–1660 (London, 1975), pp. 341, 420–65, chapter 1.Google Scholar For greatness and the strong monarchy see also Theodore Rabb, K., ‘Francis Bacon and the reform of society’, in Action and conviction in early modern Europe, eds. Rabb, Theodore K., and Siegel, Jerrold E. (Princeton, 1969), p. 182CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 Cf. in general, Box, Ian, ‘Bacon's Essays: from political science to political prudence’, History of political thought, III (1982), 31–49Google Scholar;Whitaker, Virgil K., ‘Bacon's doctrine of forms: a study of seventeenth-century ecleticism’, The Huntingdon library quarterly, XXXIII (1970), 209–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar;Neustadt, Mark S., The making of the installation: science, politics, and law in the career of Francis Bacon (Ph.D. dissertation, The Johns Hopkins University, 1987)Google Scholar.

7 Bacon's general debt to and connection with Machiavelli as well as their common preoccupation with the theme of greatness have been recognized by most commentators. It is, however, arguable that scholars have tended to concentrate mainly on producing complete lists of Bacon's Machiavelli–citations, and by doing this they have separated particular passages from their meaningful contexts and failed to produce interpretations which see Bacon as a follower of a tradition rather than as a borrower of few separate ideas. Orsini, Napoleone, Bacone e Mackiavelli (Genova, 1936), especially pp. 50–2.Google Scholar This is the source of virtually all of the later studies at this point. See also Allen, J. W., English political thought 1603–1644 (London, 1938), pp. 32, 58–9Google Scholar;Raab, Felix, The English face of Machiavelli: a changing interpretation 1300–1700 (London, 1964), pp. 73–6Google Scholar;Rossi, Paolo, Francis Bacon: from magic to science (London, 1968), pp. 110–15Google Scholar;Jardine, Lisa, Francis Bacon. Discovery and the art of discourse (Cambridge, 1974;, pp. 166–8Google Scholar;Marwil, Jonathan, The trials of counsel. Francis Bacon in 1621 (Detroit, 1976), p. 107Google Scholar;White, , ‘Bacon's imperialism’, pp. 473–6Google Scholar;Luciani, Vincent, ‘Bacon and Machiavelli’, Italica, XXIV (1947), 26–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar;Liljeqvist, Efraim, Om Francis Bacons filosofi med särskild hänsyn till del etiska problemet (Uppsala, 1894), PP. 334–5Google Scholar;Kraus, , Der Machtgedankt, pp. 19–31Google Scholar.

8 For the characterization of classical republicanism I have relied heavily on Pocock's, J. G. A. writings, The Machiavellian moment. Florentine political and the Atlantic republican tradition (Princeton, 1975)Google Scholar;Politics, language and time. Essays on political thought and history (London, 1971)Google Scholar;‘Historical introduction’, in The political works of James Harrington, ed. Pocock, J. G. A. (Cambridge, 1977), pp. 1–152Google Scholar;‘The Machiavellian moment revisited: a study in history and ideology’, Journal of modern history, LIII (1981), 49–72Google Scholar;‘Virtues, rights and manners, a model Tor historians of political thought’, Political theory, IX (1981), 353–68Google Scholar;Virtue, commerce, and history. Essays on political thought and history, chiefly in the eighteenth century (Cambridge, 1985).Google Scholar I am also indebted to Zera Fink, S., The classical republicans. An essay in the recovery of a pattern of thought in seventeenth century England (Evanston, 1945)Google Scholar;Worden, Blair, ‘Classical republicanism and the puritan revolution’, in History and imagination. Essays in honour of Trevor-Roper, H. R., eds. Hugh Lloyd-Jones, Valerie Pearl, and Blair Worden (London, 1981), pp. 182–200Google Scholar;Skinner, Quentin, ‘The idea of negative liberty: philosophical and historical perspectives’, in Philosophy in htstory. Essays on the historiography of philosophy, eds. Rorty, Richard, Schneewind, J. B., and Skinner, Quentin (Cambridge, 1984), pp. 193–221CrossRefGoogle Scholar;Robertson, John, The Scottish enlightenment and the militia issue (Edinburgh, 1985),Google Scholar and to the relevant articles in The languages of political theory in early-modern Europe, ed. Pagden, Anthony (Cambridge, 1987)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 The dating of Of the true greatness of the kingdom of Britain (hereafter cited as TGKB) has been a subject of scholarly dispute. James Spedding thought that it was written in 1608 on the grounds of an entry in Bacon's notebook, Commentarius solutus, see The works of Francis Bacon, eds. Spedding, James, Ellis, Robert Leslie, and Heath, Douglas Denon, 7 vols. (London, 1858–9), VII, 40–3Google Scholar(hereafter cited as Works). Although 1605 has also been suggested, Jonathan Marwil has attempted to show that Bacon wrote the paper as early as 1603. The evidence is inconclusive for either of these dates, and the issue does not seem to be of great importance. Whatever the exact date of the composition of the paper was, it is scarcely less interesting to ask what its political context was. Spedding surmised ‘that Bacon considered it an essential point of policy to provide the people and the House of Commons with some matter of interest or ambition which they might pursue with the government, and not against it’. Marwil, on the other hand, argues that the context of the paper was James’ accession; the treatise was meant to commend Bacon to James. The fact that the paper is clearly related to Bacon's speech in parliament on the question of naturalization and the fact that Bacon chose to speak about the greatness of Britain link the paper more specifically to the general context of the Anglo–Scottish union. From this point of view the date of the composition of the treatise could have been from 1603 to 1608.

10 See Galloway, Bruce J., The union of England and Scotland 1603–1608 (Edinburgh, 1986), pp. 30–57Google Scholar;The Jacobean union. Six tracts of 1604, eds. Galloway, Bruce R. and Lcvack, Brian P., Scottish History Society, fourth series, XXI (1985)Google Scholar.

11 Cf. Epstein, Joel J., ‘Francis Bacon and the issue of union, 1603–1608’, The Huntington library quarterly, XXXIII (1970), 131,Google Scholar n. 26, where TGKB is related to the issue of the union.

12 See Galloway, , The union fo England and Scotland; The facobean union; Levack, Brian P., The formation of the British state. England, Scotland, and Ike union 1603–1707 (Oxford, 1987)Google Scholar.

13 Pont, Robert, ‘Of the union of Britayne’, in The Jacobean union, pp. 17, 20.Google Scholar Cf. also e.g. Russell, John, ‘A treatise of the happie and blissed union’, in The Jacobean union, p. 116Google Scholar.

14 Hayward, John. A treatise of mum of the two realnus of England and Scotland (London, 1604), pp. 3–6Google Scholar.

15 [Anthony Nixon], Oxfords triumph: in the royall entertainment of his moste excellent maiestu, the queene, and the prince: the 27. of August; 1605 (London, 1605),Google Scholar sig. C4V–D2V. Cf. Harrison, G. B., A Jacobean journal. Being a record ofthose things most talked of during the years 1603–1606 (London, 1941), pp. 323–30,Google Scholar where the field and the topic of the last disputation is left unrecorded.

16 See in general Cogswell, Thomas, The blessed revolution, English politics and the coming of war, 1621–1624 (Cambridge, 1989)Google Scholar; idem, ‘England and the Spanish match’. Conflict in early Stuart England. Studies in religion and politics 1603–1642, eds. Richard Cust and Ann Hughes (London, 1989), pp. 107–33.

17 Works, VII, pp. 3–36Google Scholar;Cogswell, , The blessed revolution, pp. 38–9Google Scholar.

18 letters and the life of Francis Bacon, ed. Spedding, James, 7 vols. (London, 1861–1874), VII, p. 445,Google Scholar cf. p. 446. Hereafter cited as Letters.

19 Letters, II, pp. 460–5, 469–505Google Scholar.

20 The translation was under way as early as the summer of 1622, see Bacon to Father Redemptus Baranzano, 30.6.1622, in Letters, VII, pp. 375–7Google Scholar.

21 TGKB, in Works, VII, p. 47Google Scholar.

22 Of the true greatnesse of kingdomes and estates, in Bacon, Francis, The essayes or counsels, civill and morall, ed. Kiernan, Michael (Oxford, 1983), p. 89. Hereafter cited as TGKE, and EssayesGoogle Scholar.

23 Considerations touching a war with Spain, in Letters, VII, p. 469Google Scholar.

24 Bacon to Buckingham 18.4.1623, in Letters,VII, p. 424Google Scholar.

25 Considerations touching a war with Spain, in Letters, VII, p. 469Google Scholar.

26 TGKB, in Works, VII, p. 48Google Scholar.

27 Considerations touching a war with Spain, in Letters, VII, p. 496Google Scholar.

28 TGKB, in Works, VII, p. 48Google Scholar.

29 TGKB, in Works, VII, p. 48Google Scholar.

30 Of seditions and troubles, in Essayes, p. 47; Apophthegms, in Works, VII, p. 160Google Scholar.

31 Of usurie, in Essayes, p. 126; Usury and the use thereof [1623], in Letters,VII, pp. 415–19, especially p. 416Google Scholar.

32 Essayes, p. 62. See in general also The case de rege inconsulte [25.1.1615/16], in Works, VII, p. 702.Google Scholar For a succinct account of Bacon's economic thinking from a liberal point of view see Hill, , Intellectual origins, pp. 96–8Google Scholar;White, , Peace among the willows, pp. 40–3.Google Scholar For a criticism see Rabb, , ‘Francis Bacon and the reform of society’Google Scholar.

33 TGKB, in Works,VII, p. 55Google Scholar.

34 Gesta Grayorum, in Letters, I, p. 339Google Scholar.

35 Essayes, p. 109. Harrington, James, The common–wealth ofOceana (London, 1656), p. 145. For Bacon cf. alsoGoogle ScholarSylva Sylvarum, in Works,II, p. 672Google Scholar.

36 TGKB, in Works,VII, pp. 58–61.Google Scholar The most important of these conditions was the Machiavellian idea that money should be ‘so disposed, as it is readiest and easiest to come by for the public service and use’, p. 59; cf. Machiavelli, , The discourses, ed. Bernard Crick, translated by Leslie J. Walker (Harmondsworth, 1970), bk. II, ch. 19, p. 335Google Scholar.

37 TGKB, in Works,VII, p. 48Google Scholar.

38 The case of the post-nati, in Works, VII, pp. 664–5Google Scholar;Lowe's case of tenures, in Works, VII, p. 548.Google Scholar Cf. History of the reign of Henry VII, in Works, VI, pp. 95–6.Google Scholar See however The case de rege inconsulto, in Works, VII, p. 702,Google Scholar where Bacon declared that ‘the eye of the law of England ever beholds the King's treasure and profit as matter of state, as it b indeed; - they are the sinews of crown’.

39 Bacon in parliament 17.2.1606/7, in Letters,III, p. 323, cf. p. 313Google Scholar.

40 TGKB, in Works, VII, p. 59Google Scholar.

41 TGKB, in Works, VII, p. 55Google Scholar.

42 TGKB, in Works,VII, pp. 55–7,Google Scholar cf. p. 59; Bacon in parliament 17.2.1606/7, in letters,III, pp. 324–5Google Scholar.

43 TGKB, in Works,VII, p. 59.Google Scholar Closely related to this is Bacon's argument that ‘a just fear will be a just cause of the preventive war’, Considerations touching a war with Spain, in Letters, VII, p. 473Google Scholar.

44 Advancement of learning, in Works, III, p. 275Google Scholar;TGKB, in Works, VII, p. 57Google Scholar; Bacon in parliament 17.2.1606/7, in Letters,III, p. 324Google Scholar.

45 TGKB, in Works, VII, p. 49; cf. TGKE, in Essays, p. 97. lines 261–3Google Scholar.

46 De augmentis, VII, III, in Works, v, p. 79Google Scholar.

47 New Atlantis, in Works,III, p. 156Google Scholar. Cf. Novum organum, I, CXXIXGoogle Scholar, in Works, IV, p. 114Google Scholar; Instauratio Magna, in Works, IV, p. 21Google Scholar; cf. Bock, , Stoat wut Gesellschaft, pp. 42–3, 44Google Scholar.

48 Novum organum, I, XCIII, in Works,IV, p. 92Google Scholar; cf. ibid. I, CXIV, in Works,IV, p. 102Google Scholar; Valerius Terminus, in Works,III, p. 923Google Scholar; Advancement of learning, in Works,III, pp. 476–7, also p. 340Google Scholar.

49 The history of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Queen Mary and part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, in Works, VI, p. 19Google Scholar; cf. Reading on statute of uses [1600], in Works, VII, p. 416Google Scholar.

50 De augmentis, VIII, iii, in Works, VI, p. 110Google Scholar. I have modified Spedding's translation. See the original in Works,I, p. 827Google Scholar; Advancement of learning, in Works,III, p. 476Google Scholar.

51 Cf. in general Box, ‘Bacon's Essays’, p. 41.

52 TGKB, in Works,VII, p. 48Google Scholar.

53 TGKE, in Essayes, p. 95. The same story was used byGoogle ScholarDigges, Thomas, Foure paradoxes, or politxque discourses (London, 1604), p. p 108.Google Scholar See Livy, I, xvi. 6–8Google Scholar.

54 TGKE, in Essayes, pp. 95–6.

55 TGKE, in Essayes, p. 90.

56 Considerations touching a war with Spain, in Letters, VII, p. 499Google Scholar. The mental capacity Bacon once ‘Magnanimity no doubt consisteth in contempt of peril, in contempt of profit, and in meriting of the times wherein one liveth.’ Mr. Bacon's discourse in the praise of his sovereign, in letters,I, p. 126Google Scholar.

57 Advertisement touching an holy war, in Works, VII, p. 18; Of great place, in Essayes, pp. 34–5Google Scholar.

58 TGKE, in Essayes, p. 95.

59 TGKE, in Essayes, p. 91.

60 TGKE, in Essayes, p. 91; TGKB, in Works, VII, pp. 59, 48Google Scholar; Considerations touching a war with Spain, in Letters, VII, p. 494Google Scholar; cf. The cast of the post–nati, in Works, VII, p. 661Google Scholar.

61 Weinberger, , Science, faith, and politics, p. 128, in general pp. 125–31Google Scholar. Bacon to George Villiers, n.d., in Letters, VI, p. 46Google Scholar.

62 Draught of a proclamation for a parliament 18.10.1620, in Letters, VII, p. 126. At the beginning of the draft Bacon flatly contradicted his stated principles of true greatness. He wrote that greatness based on wars and conquests was ‘swelling greatness’ and claimed that the right kind of greatness consisted ‘in the plantations and improvements of such parts of our dominions as have in former times been more desolate or uncivil, and in the maintaining of all our loving subjects in general tranquillity and security, and the other conditions of good government and happy times.’Google Scholar

64 TGKB, in Works, VII, p. 58Google Scholar.

65 TGKB, in Works, VII, p. 56.

66 TGKE, in Essayes, p. 91; cf. Lowe's case oftaaus, in Works, VII, p. 548Google Scholar.

67 Bacon in parliament 17.2.1606/7, in Letters, III, pp. 323–4.

68 TGKB, in Works, VII, pp. 55–6Google Scholar.

69 TGKB, in Works, VII, p. 53Google Scholar.

70 TGKB, in Works, VII, p. 59Google Scholar.

71 Lowe's case of tenures, in Works, VII, p. 548Google Scholar; see also The cast of the pest–nati, in Works, VII, pp. 664–5Google Scholar; on the fortunate memory of the Queen Elizabeth, in Works, VI, p. 307Google Scholar; Of vicissitude of things, in Essayts, p. 175; Considerations touching a war with Spam, in Letters, VII, p. 483Google Scholar; TGKB, in Works, VII, P. 55Google Scholar; Notes of a speech concerning a war with Spain, in Letters, VII, p. 463Google Scholar; Draught of a proclamation for a parliament, in Letters, VII, p. 124Google Scholar; Memorial of Httuy Prince of Walts, in Works, VI, p. 328Google Scholar; Gesta Grayorum, in Letters, I, p. 333Google Scholar.

72 Cf. liljeqviit, , Om Francis Bacons filosofi, p. 335Google Scholar.

73 Bacon to Toby Matthew, 10.10.1609, in Lttttrs, IV, pp. 137–8Google Scholar.

74 De augmtnhs, IV, i, in Works, IV, pp. 372–3Google Scholar.

75 Advancment of learning, in Works, III, pp. 476–7Google Scholar; cf. however, Of the interpretation of matters, in Letters, III, p. 86Google Scholar.

76 Thoughts and conclusions, in Farrington, Benjamin, The philosopy of Francis Bacon: an essay on development from 1603 to 1609 (Liverpool 1964), pp. 94–5Google Scholar; original, Works, III, p. 613Google Scholar.

77 De augmentis, VIII, iiiGoogle Scholar, in Works, v, p. 110Google Scholar.

78 TGKB, in Works, VI, p. 48Google Scholar.

79 TGKB, in Works, VII, p. 62Google Scholar.

80 TGKB, in Works, VII, p. 49Google Scholar.

81 TGKE, in Essayes, pp. 97–8; Considerations touching a war with Spain, in Letters, VII, pp. 499–500Google Scholar; Notes of a speech concerning a war with Spain, in Letters, VII, p. 464Google Scholar. It is of some importance to notice that those authors, who emphasized the maritime situation for commercial reasons, derived their discussion in most cases from Aristotle's Politics VII, 6, 1327311–28, where both aspects of the maritime situation – defence and transportation – are equally emphasizedGoogle Scholar.

82 TGKB, in Works, VII, p. 49Google Scholar; TGKE, in Essayes, p. 94; Considerations touching a war with Spain, in Letters, VII, p. 499Google Scholar; cf. e.g. Observations on a libel [1592], in Letters, I, p. 159Google Scholar.

83 Bacon to the Earl of Essex, n.d. [March 1599], in Letters, II, pp. 129–33Google Scholar; Bacon to Robert Cecil, n.d. [1602], in Letters, III, pp. 50–1Google Scholar; Bacon in parliament, 17.2.1606/7, in Letters, III, pp. 312–13Google Scholar; Certain considerations touching the plantation in Ireland, in Letters, IV, pp. 116–26Google Scholar; Bacon to George Villien, n.d., in Letters, VI, pp. 49–52Google Scholar; Bacon's speech to SirJones, William, in Letters, VI, p. 205Google Scholar; Bacon in parliament, 3.2.1620/1, in Letters, VII, p. 175; of plantations, in Essayes, pp. 106–8Google Scholar.

84 TGKE, in Essayes, p. 94; The case of the post–nati, in Works, VII, p. 661Google Scholar. Cf. Quinn, D. B., ‘Renaissance influences in English colonization’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, XXVI (1976), 73–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Canny, N., ‘The ideology of English colonization: Ireland to America’, William and Mary quarterly, 3rd. ser. xxx (1973), 575–98. for the English debate of colonies and its renaissance backgroundCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

55 TGKE, in Essayes, p. 96; Discourse touching the union, in Letters, III, pp. 93–5Google Scholar; A draught of a proclamation, in Letters, III, pp. 235–6Google Scholar; Certain considerations touching the plantation in Ireland, in Letters, IV, pp. 116–17Google Scholar.

86 Considerations touching a war with Spain, in Letters, VII, pp. 500–1Google Scholar; cf. Notes of a speech concerning a war with Spain, in Letters, VII, p. 462, and especially p. 464Google Scholar.

87 Discourse touching the union, in Letters, III, p. 96, see also p. 95Google Scholar.

88 Bacon in parliament 17.2.1606/7, in Letters, III, p. 319Google Scholar.

89 Letters, III, p. 313Google Scholar.

90 The case of the post–nati, in Works, VII, pp. 664–5, see also p. 661Google Scholar.

91 TGKB, in Works, VII, pp. 52–3; TGKE, in Essayes, pp. 93–4Google Scholar.

92 White, , Peace among the willows, p. 91Google Scholar; Martin, , ‘Knowledge is power’ pp. 206–12Google Scholar; Weinberger, (ed.), The great instauratim, p. xviiiGoogle Scholar; idem, Science, faith, and politics, pp. 132–3; Whitney, , Francis Bacon and modernity, p. 198Google Scholar.

93 Cf. Box, , ‘Bacon's Essays’, 43Google Scholar.

94 New Atlantis, in Works, III, pp. 136, 137Google Scholar.

95 TGKB, in Works, VII, pp. 63–4Google Scholar.

96 New Atlantis, in Works, III, pp. 136, 139Google Scholar.

97 New Atlantis, in Works, III, p. 144, cf. p. 149Google Scholar.

98 New Atlantis, in Works, III, p. 136Google Scholar.

99 New Atlantis, in Works, III, p. 144Google Scholar.

100 Martin, , ‘Knowledge is power’, p. 206Google Scholar.

101 New Atlantis, in Works, III, p. 144Google Scholar.

102 New Atlantis, in Works, III, p. 142Google Scholar.

103 TGKE, in Essayes, pp. 95, 97. The maxim appeared the first time already in Observations on a libel, in Letters, I, p. 174Google Scholar.

104 The issue of king's power occurred towards the end of TGKE where Bacon remarked that ‘it is in the power of Princes, or Estates, to adde Amplitude and Greatnesse to their Kingdomes’. This was done ‘by introducing such Ordinances, Constitutions, and Customes, as we have now touched’. Essayes, p. gg.

105 TGKE, in Essayes, p. 89.

106 TGKB, in Works, VII, pp. 48–9Google Scholar.

107 History of the reign of Henry VII, in Works, VI, p. 95; TGKE, in Essayes, pp. 90–3Google Scholar.

108 TGKE, in Essayes, p. 95; De augmentis, VIII, iii, in Works, v, p. 84Google Scholar.

109 TGKE, in Essayes, p. 92; De augmentis, VIII, iii, in Works, v, p. 81Google Scholar.

110 Of the colours of good and evil, in Works, VII, p. 79Google Scholar; Character of Julius Caesar, in Works, VI, p. 344Google Scholar.

111 Advancement of learning, in Works, III, p. 313Google Scholar. For Bacon's source see Wolff, Emil, Francis Bacon undseine Quellen (Berlin, 1913), II, pp. 27–8Google Scholar. Cf. Considerations touching a war with Spain, in Letters, VII, pp. 482–3, 495Google Scholar.

112 Vegetius, , The foure bookes… contayninge a plaine forme and perfect knowledge of martiall policye… Translated by John Sadler (London, 1572), I, 7, fo. 3e-vGoogle Scholar.

113 History of the reign of Henry VII, in Works, VI, p. 95Google Scholar; cf. e.g. Machiavelli, , The art of war, in The chief works and others, translated by Allan Gilbert (3 vols., Durham, N.C., 1965) II, pp. 598–9, 602, 625Google Scholar.

114 History of the reign of Henry VII, in Works, VI, p. 95, in general pp. 93–5; TGKE, in Essayes, pp. 92–3Google Scholar.

115 The common–wealth of Oceana, sig. Br-v, pp. 39–40.

116 TGKE, in Essayes, p. 95.

117 TGKB, in Works, VII, p. 49Google Scholar.

118 Bacon in Parliament 17.2.1606/7, in Letts, III, p. 315Google Scholar.

119 Works, VII, p. 22Google Scholar.

120 Works, VII, p. 649Google Scholar.

121 Discourse on the union of the kingdoms, in Letters, III, p. 97Google Scholar; cf. The case of the posl–nati, in Works, VII, p. 661Google Scholar. Levack, , The formation of the British state, p. 60, in general pp. 59–62Google Scholar.

123 Essentially the same argument was used e.g. by Craig, Thomas, De unione regnorum Britanniae tractatus, ed. Terry, C. Sanford (Edinburgh, 1909), pp. 329–53, especially pp. 330–1, 344, 351–2, 437–45Google Scholar.

124 Bacon in parliament 17.2.1606/7, in Letters, III, p. 309Google Scholar.

125 TGKE, in Essayes, p. 94; De augmentis, VIII, iii, in Works, v, p. 83Google Scholar.

126 Of nobility, in Essayes, p. 41. See also TGKE, in Essayes, p. 92. Cf. Digges, Thomas, Foure paradoxes, pp. 89–90Google Scholar.

127 Maxims of the law, in Works, VII, pp. 343, 345Google Scholar. Cf. De augmentis, VII, i, in Works, v, pp. 7–15Google Scholar; A view of the differences in question betwixt the King's Bench and the Council in the Marches [1607], in Letters, III, p. 379Google Scholar; Character of Julius Caesar, in Works, VI, pp. 341–5Google Scholar.

128 Essayes, pp. 89–90. Cf. Advancement of learning, in Works, III, pp. 278–9, 310Google Scholar; Of fortune, in Essayes, p. 123. Onini, , Bacone e Machiavelli, pp. 109–17. See, however, Of wisedome for a mans selfe, in Essayes, pp. 74–5Google Scholar.

129 Charge touching duels, in Letters, IV, p. 401; Of honour and reputation, in Essayes, p. 165Google Scholar.

130 Bacon to the Earl of Essex, n.d. [1599], in Letters, II, p. 131Google Scholar.

131 Bacon to George Villiers, 12.8.1616, in Letters, VI, p. 6Google Scholar.

132 Advancement of learning, in Works, III, p. 456Google Scholar. Cf. De augmentis, VII, ii, in Works, v, p. 18; Of honour and reputation, in Essayes, p. 165Google Scholar.

133 De augmentis, VIII, iii, in Works, V, p. 87; cf. TGKE, in Essayes, p. 99Google Scholar.

134 Considerations touching a war with Spain, in Letters, VII, p. 495Google Scholar.

135 Reading on the statute of uses, in Works, VII, p. 407Google Scholar. See in general Clark, Stuart, Francis Bacon: the study of history and the science of man. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge (1970)Google Scholar.

136 Bacon in parliament, 17.2.1606/7, in Letters, III, p. 311Google Scholar.

137 Considerations touching a war with Spain, in Letters, VII, p. 477Google Scholar.

138 The refutation of philosophies, in Farrington, Benjamin, Tht philosophy of Francis Bacon, p. 115Google Scholar; I have modified Farrington's translation, see the original, in Works, III, p. 569Google Scholar. Cf. Advancement of Inning, in Works, III, p. 335Google Scholar; Charge touching duels, in Letters, IV, p. 404Google Scholar. See in general Fischer, Kuno, Francis Bacon of Vtrulam. Realistic philosophy and its age (London, 1857), p. 288Google Scholar.

139 Cf. Marwil, , Trials of counsel, especially pp. 57–8, 66–70, 94–7, 105, 123–4, 134–5, 173Google Scholar.

140 De augmentis, VI, iii, in Works, IV, p. 455Google Scholar. For Bacon's conception of rhetoric see e.g. Wallace, Karl R., Francis Bacon on communication and rhetoric or: the art of applying reason to imagination for the better moving of the will (Chapel Hill, 1943)Google Scholar; idem, ‘Bacon's conception of rhetoric’, in Historical studies of rhetoric and rhetoricians, ed. Howes, Raymond F. (Ithaca, 1961), pp. 114–38Google Scholar; Harrison, John L., ‘Bacon's view of rhetoric, poetry and imagination’, The Huntington library quarterly, xx, (1957). 107–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

141 Tinkler, John F., ‘The rhetorical method of Francis Bacon's History of the reign of Henry VII’, History and theory, xxv (1987), 17–34Google Scholar. For a different interpretation see Berry, Edward I., ‘History and rhetoric in Bacon's Henry VII’, in Seventeenth-Century prose. Modem essays in criticism, ed. Fish, Stanley E. (New York, 1971), pp. 281–308Google Scholar. It is worth noting that in Certain considerations touching the plantation in Inland, in Letters, IV, p. 120, Bacon used the common argument of deliberative rhetoric declaring that ‘[a]ll men are drawn into actions by three things, – pleasureGoogle Scholar, honour, and profit.’

142 Steadman, John M., ‘Beyond Hercules: Bacon and the scientist as hero’, Studies in literary imagination, IV (1971), 3–47Google Scholar; cf. Wiley, Margaret L., ‘Francis Bacon: induction and/or rhetoric’, Studies in literary imagination, IV (1971), 65–79, who found extensive similarities between rhetoric and Bacon's new inductionGoogle Scholar.

143 De augmentis, in Works, IV, p. 434Google Scholar. Aristotle, , Nicomachean ethics, 1094b26–8Google Scholar.

144 De augmentis, in Works, IV, pp. 457–8Google Scholar.

145 Advancement of learning in Works, III, p. 411Google Scholar.

146 Of the colours of good and evil, in Works, VII, p. 77Google Scholar.

147 Valerius Terminus, in Works, III, p. 223Google Scholar; Of the interpretation of nature, in Letters, III, p. 84Google Scholar; Of honour and reputation, in Essayes, p. 164. It is worth pointing out that Bacon was ready as the occasion required to change even the hierarchy of honourable civil actions. An offer to the king of a digest to be made of the laws of England, in Letters, VII, p. 358Google Scholar; Observations on a libel, in Letters, I, p. 157Google Scholar.