Bacon's Essays/Epistle Dedicatoire
TO
THE RIGHT
HONORABLE MY
VERY GOOD Lo. THE DVKE
of Buckingham his Grace, Lo.
High Admirall of England.
Excellent Lo.
SALOMON saies, A good Name is as a precious oyntment; And I assure my selfe, such wil your Grace's Name bee with Posteritie. For your Fortune and Merit both have beene Eminent. And you have planted Things, that are like to last. I doe now publish my Essayes; which of all my other workes have beene most Currant; For that, as it seemes, they come home to Men's Businesse and Bosomes. I have enlarged them, both in Number and Weight; So that they are indeed a New Worke. I thought it therefore agreeable, to my Affection and Obligation to your Grace, to prefix your Name before them, both in English and in Latine. For I doe conceive, that the Latine Volume of them, (being in the Universall Language) may last, as long as Bookes last. My Instauration, I dedicated to the King: My Historie of HENRY the Seventh, (which I have now also translated into Latine) and my Portions of Naturall History, to the Prince: And these I dedicate to your Grace; Being of the best Fruits, that by the good Encrease, which God gives to my Pen and Labours, I could yeeld. God leade your Grace by the Hand.
Your Grace's most Obliged and
faithfull Servant,
Fr. St. ALBAN.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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