After his release, Bacon passed the remaining five years of his life in retirement,--studying and writing. His interest in observing natural objects and experimenting with them was the cause of his death. He was riding in a snowstorm when it occurred to him to test snow as a preservative agent. He stopped at a house, procured a fowl, and stuffed it with snow. He caught cold during this experiment and, being improperly cared for, soon died. The Essays.--The first ten of his _Essays_, his most popular work, appeared in the year 1597. At the time of his death, he had increased them to fifty-eight. They deal with a with range of subjects, from _Studies_ and _Nobility_, On the one hand, to _Marriage and Single Life_ and _Gardens_ on the other. The great critic Hallam say: "It would be somewhat derogatory to a man of the slightest claim to polite letters, were he unacquainted with the _Essays_ of Bacon. It is, indeed, little worth while to read this or any other book for reputation's, sake; but very few in our language so well repay the pains, or afford more nourishment to the thoughts." [Illustration: TITLE PAGE OF BACON'S ESSAYS, 1597.] The following sentence from the essay _Of Studies_ will show some of the characteristics of his way of presenting thought:-- "Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man: and, therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he need have much cunning to seem to know that he doth not." We may notice here (1) clearness, (2) conciseness, (3) breadth of thought and observation. A shrewd Scotchman says: "It may be said that to men wishing to rise in the world by politic management of their fellowmen, Bacon's _Essays_ are the best handbook hitherto published." In justification of this criticism, we need only quote from the essay _Of Negotiating_:-- "It is generally better to deal by speech than by letter... Letters are good, when a man would draw an answer by letter back again, or when it may serve, for a man's justification, afterwards to produce his own letter, or where it may he danger to be interrupted or heard by pieces. To deal in person is good, when a man's face breedeth regard, as commonly with inferiors, or in tender cases, where a man's eye upon the countenance of him with whom he speaketh may give him a direction how far to go, and generally, where a man will reserve to himself liberty either to disavow or to expound."