(2) That in the year 1580, when 19 years old, he sought the assistance of Burghley to induce the Queen to supply him with means and the opportunity to carry out some great work upon the achievement of which he had set his heart. The work was without precedent, and in carrying it out he was prepared to dedicate to her Majesty the use and spending of his life. (3) That for ten years he waited and hoped for the granting of his suit, which was rare and unaccustomed, until eventually he was compelled to relinquish it and rely upon his own resources to effect his object. (4) But he desired to command other wits than his own, and that could be more easily achieved by one holding place of any reasonable countenance. He therefore sought through Burleigh place accompanied by income, so that he might be enabled to achieve the vast contemplative ends he had in view. (5) That during the years 1580 to 1597, in which he claims that he was not slothful, there is no evidence of his being occupied in his profession or in State affairs to any appreciable extent, and yet there do not exist any acknowledged works as the result of his labours. Rawley states that Bacon would "suffer no moment of time to slip from him without some present improvement." (6) He received pecuniary assistance from his uncle, Lord Burghley. He strained the monetary resources of his mother and brother, which were not inconsiderable, to the utmost, exhausted his own, and heavily encumbered himself with debts, and yet he was not prodigal or extravagant. (7) Money and time he must have to carry out his scheme, which, if one takes it favourably, might be termed philanthropia, and he therefore decided that, failing obtaining some sinecure office, he would sell the inheritance he had, purchase some lease of quick revenue or office of gain that could be executed by a deputy, give over all care of serving the State, and become some sorry bookmaker or a true pioneer in the mine of truth. (8) Spedding says, "He could at once imagine like a poet and execute like a clerk of the works"; but whatever his contemplative ends were there is nothing known to his biographers which reveals the result of his labours as clerk of the works. (9) If he carried out the course of action which he contemplated it is clear that he decided to do so without himself appearing as its author and director. From 1580 to 1590 something more was on his mind than the works he published after he had arrived at sixty years of age. "I am no vain promiser," he said. Where can the fulfilment of his promise be found? Can his course be followed by tracing through the period the trail which was left by some great and powerful mind directing the progress of the English Renaissance? FOOTNOTES: [19] Spedding prints this in small type, being doubtful as to the authorship. [20] That is, never held a brief.