ACCOUNT OF BOOKS.
493
tituled/ Profitable inftrucllonSjde- ' fcrib.ng what fpecial oblervations
- are to be taken by travellers in
- all nations '
• Verfes in his trouble,' likewife
- Meditation?,' both preferved in
the King's library.
- A letter of great energy, with
- a for.net to the Queen.'
- Another fannet,' fung before
the Quen by one Hales, in whofe voice Ihe took fome pleafure. It was occafioned by a difcovery that Sir Fulk Greville, his feenaing friend, had projefled to plant the Lord So..;hamptoa in the Queen's favour in EfTcx's room, during one of his eclipfes. ' This fonner, me
- thinks,' fays Sir Harry Wotton,
- had as much of the Hermit as of
- the Poet:' It concluded thus.
And if thou (hould'ft by her be now
fori A ken, She made thy heart too ftrong for to
be fliaken.
The fame author mentions another ol'the earl's compofuions, but un- fortunately does not give any ac- count what it was : he calls it
' His Darling piece of Love and ' Self-love.
• A pretious and mod divine let-
- ter from that famous and ever
- to be renowned Earl of EfTex
- [father to the now Lord General
- his Excellence] to the Earl of
- Southampton, in the latter end cf
- QueenElizabeth's reign.' Printed
in 1643. Reprinted in Cogan's
Collection of Tracls from Lord So- mers's library, vol. 4. p. 132. ' A letter to the Lord Cham-
- berlain.'
Some of his letters in beautiful Latin to the celebrated Antonio Pe- rez are publifhed among the Bacon- papers. Butof ali his compofuions the moft excellent, ana in many refpecls equal to the performances of the greateil geniufes, is a long letter to the queen from Ireland *, ftating the {ituation of that country in a molt raai'er'y manner, both aj a genera! and liatefman, and con- cluding wiih [grains of the tenderefl eloquence on finding himfelffo un- happily expcfed to the artifices of hi enemies during his abfence. Ic cannot fail to excite admiration, that a man ravifhed from all im- provement and refledion at the age of feventeen, to be nurfed, pervert- ed, fondled, dazzledin a court, fhou Id no:withl>andlnghave fnatched fuch opportunities of cultivating hij mind and underflanding 1 Jn ano- ther letter from Ireland he fays movingly, * I provided for this
- fervicc a breaft-p'ate, but not a
' cuirafs ; that is, I am armed oq
- the bread, but not on the back/
Dr. Eirch has a volume of letters, manufcripc, containing fome from the earl, and others adJreiTed to him. Befidei thefe, we have great variety in the Cabala and amono- Bacon's papers of the earl's occa- fional letters +, written in a ftyle as nervous as the belt compofitions of
- It (hould be mentioned here, that formerly his difpatches were attrihuted to
Bacon ; of late to his fecretary CutTe. The latttr might have fome hand in col- lefluig the ma^enal^ relative to bufinefs, but there runs through all the EaiTs letters a p'-ciiliarity of fty'e, fo adapted to his fituation and feelings, as could r.ot have been felt for him, or diftated by any body elle. See th.e letter mentioned in the text in the Bacon-papers, vol. 2, p. 415.
f Two little notes af hi* are in the introduction to the Sidr.ey-paprr?, vol. i. p. lif.
9 that
