AN ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE AND WORKS BY EDWIN A. ABBOTT, D.D. Author of "Bacon and Essex," and Editor of Bacon's Essays; formerly Fellow of London MACMILLAN AND CO. 1885 PREFACE THE present work was undertaken six or seven years ago, at the request of the late Mr. J. R. Green, for the series of "Literature Primers." But although the rough draft was prepared as early as 1880, unavoidable delays deferred completion, till Mr. Green's lamented death destroyed the hope that the volume might receive his supervision. In these circumstances it was thought best that, instead of curtailing the work-which, from the first, considerably exceeded the limits of the primer series-it should be amplified and published independently. This ended in its being rewritten on a much larger scale. 1 By inserting the dates for all Bacon's letters and "Occasional Works," and by adding references for all the philosophical and larger literary works, I have endeavoured to make the book of use not only to those readers of limited leisure who may be prepared to accept it on its own merits as a fairly complete account of the life and works of Bacon (so far as one volume on such a subject can be called complete), but also to such more leisurely readers as may desire to refer to that treasure-house of Baconian facts for which many 1 The letters and "Occasional Works" are arranged in Mr. Spedding's edition in chronological order, so that, for these, the date is a sufficient. reference. |