Great as a student of physical nature, Bacon was a master in the knowledge of human nature.  Pope only chose the epithet which all the world had applied, when he wrote of the

  “Words that wise Bacon or grave Raleigh spake.”

And nowhere is his wisdom more apparent than in the book of his “Essays.”  The sixth volume of the edition before us contains, beside the “Essays,” the “History of King Henry VII.,” with other fragmentary histories, and the “De Sapienda Veterum,” with a translation, which, like the translations of the principal philosophical works in previous volumes, is executed with admirable spirit and appropriateness.

All these works give the same evidence of editorial ability and skill as those in the division of Philosophy.  Mr. Spedding’s Preface to the “Henry VII.” is not only an interesting essay in itself, but an able and satisfactory vindication of Bacon’s general historic accuracy.  Bacon’s view of the true office of history is very different from the theory which has lately prevailed to a considerable extent, and it would be well, perhaps, were its wisdom more considered.  “It is the true office of history,” he says, (Advancement of Learning, Book II.,) “to represent the events themselves, together with the counsels; and to leave the observations and conclusions thereupon to the liberty and faculty of every man’s judgment.”  And to this he adds, with much pith, in the “De Augmentis,” II. 9,—­“Licet enim Historia quaeque prudentior politicis praeceptis et monitis veluti impregnata sit, tamen scriptor ipse sibi obstetricari non debet.”  Bacon wrote history according to his own rule, and proved its value by the practical exemplification which he gave of it.  There are few better pieces of historic narrative in English than this “History of Henry VII.”

Special thanks are due to Mr. Spedding for having reprinted, in full, the first three editions of the “Essays,”—­the three that were published by Bacon himself.  The first appeared in 1597, and contained but ten essays; the second in 1612, when Bacon was in the height of prosperity, and contained thirty-eight; the third appeared in 1625, after his downfall, less than a year before his death, and contained fifty-eight essays.  The three thus afford, as well by the successive additions of new essays as by the alterations which are made in the earlier, a most interesting exhibition of the direction of Bacon’s thought at different periods of his life, and the changes in his style.  The comparison is one of very great interest, but more space is required to develop it than we have for the present at command.  One fact only may be noted in passing,—­that the essay on Adversity, which contains that most memorable and noble sentence, “Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament, Adversity is the blessing of the New,” is one of those added in the last edition, after Bacon himself had experienced all the bitterness of adversity.