_Chau._--The selfe same man who hath no labor spar'd, To helpe what time and writers had defaced: And made old words, which were unknoun of many, So plaine, that now they may be knoun of any. _Rea._--Well fare his heart: I love him for thy sake, Who for thy sake hath taken all this pains. _Chau._--Would God I knew some means amends to make, That for his toile he might receive some gains. But wot ye what? I know his kindnesse such, That for my good he thinks no pains too much: And more than that; if he had knoune in time, He would have left no fault in prose nor rime. There is a catalogue of the library of Sir Thomas Smith[17] on August 1, 1566, in his gallery at Hillhall. It was said to contain nearly a thousand books. Of these only five were written in the English language. Under Theologici, K. Henry VIII. book; under Juris Civilis, Littleton's Tenures, an old abridgement of Statutes; under Historiographi, Hall's Chronicles, and Fabian's Chronicles and The Decades of P. Martyr; under Mathematica, The Art of Navigation. The remainder are in Greek, Latin, French, and Italian. Burghley's biographer states that Burghley "never read any books or praiers but in Latin, French, or Italian, very seldom in Englishe." At this time Francis Bacon thought in Latin, for his mother tongue was wholly insufficient. There is abundant proof of this in his own handwriting. Under existing conditions there could be no English literature worthy of the name. If a Gentleman of the Court wrote he either suppressed his writings or suffered them to be published without his name to them, as it was a discredit for a gentleman to seem learned and to show himself amorous of any good art. Here is where Spedding missed his way and never recovered himself. Deep as is the debt of gratitude due to him for his devoted labours in the preparation of "Bacon's Life and Letters" and in the edition of his works, it must be asserted that he accomplished this work without seeing Francis Bacon. There was a vista before young Bacon's eyes from which the practice of the law and civil dignities were absent. He arrived at the French Court at the psychological moment when an object-lesson met his eyes which had a more far-reaching effect on the language and literature of the Anglo-Saxon race than any or all other influences that have conspired to raise them to the proud position which to-day they occupy. It is necessary briefly to explain the position of the French language and literature at this juncture.