"I send you at this time the only part which hath any harshness;
and yet I framed to myself an opinion, that whosoever allowed well
of that preface which you so much commend, will not dislike, or at
least ought not to dislike, this other speech of preparation; for
it is written out of the same spirit, and out of the same
necessity. Nay it doth more fully lay open that the question
between me and the ancients is not of the virtue of the race, but
of the rightness of the way. And to speak truth, it is to the other
but as _palma_ to _pugnus_, part of the same thing more large....
Myself am like the miller of Huntingdon, that was wont to pray for
peace amongst the willows; for while the winds blew, the wind-mills
wrought, and the water-mill was less customed. So I see that
controversies of religion must hinder the advancement of sciences.
Let me conclude with my perpetual wish towards yourself, that the
approbation of yourself by your own discreet and temperate
carriage, may restore you to your country, and your friends to your
society. And so I commend you to God's goodness.
"Gray's Inn, this 10th of October, 1609."
To Bishop Andrewes he sent, also in manuscript, another piece,
belonging to the same plan--the deeply impressive treatise called _Visa
et Cogitata_--what Francis Bacon had seen of nature and knowledge, and
what he had come by meditation to think of what he had seen. The letter
is not less interesting than the last, in respect to the writer's
purposes, his manner of writing, and his relations to his correspondent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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