his precocious intellect, and was accustomed to call him “the young Lord Keeper.”  Here also he became dissatisfied with the Aristotelian philosophy as being unfruitful and leading only to resultless disputation.  In 1576 he entered Gray’s Inn, and in the same year joined the embassy of Sir Amyas Paulet to France, where he remained until 1579.  The death of his f. in that year, before he had completed an intended provision for him, gave an adverse turn to his fortunes, and rendered it necessary that he should decide upon a profession.  He accordingly returned to Gray’s Inn, and, after an unsuccessful attempt to induce Burghley to give him a post at court, and thus enable him to devote himself to a life of learning, he gave himself seriously to the study of law, and was called to the Bar in 1582.  He did not, however, desert philosophy, and pub. a Latin tract, Temporis Partus Maximus (the Greatest Birth of Time), the first rough draft of his own system.  Two years later, in 1584, he entered the House of Commons as member for Melcombe, sitting subsequently for Taunton (1586), Liverpool (1589), Middlesex (1593), and Southampton (1597).  In the Parliament of 1586 he took a prominent part in urging the execution of Mary Queen of Scots.  About this time he seems again to have approached his powerful uncle, the result of which may possibly be traced in his rapid progress at the Bar, and in his receiving, in 1589, the reversion to the Clerkship of the Star Chamber, a valuable appointment, into the enjoyment of which, however, he did not enter until 1608.  About 1591 he formed a friendship with the Earl of Essex, from whom he received many tokens of kindness ill requited.  In 1593 the offices of Attorney-general, and subsequently of Solicitor-general became vacant, and Essex used his influence on B.’s behalf, but unsuccessfully, the former being given to Coke, the famous lawyer.  These disappointments may have been owing to a speech made by B. on a question of subsidies.  To console him for them Essex presented him with a property at Twickenham, which he subsequently sold for L1800, equivalent to a much larger sum now.  In 1596 he was made a Queen’s Counsel, but missed the appointment of Master of the Rolls, and in the next year (1597), he pub. the first edition of his Essays, ten in number, combined with Sacred Meditations and the Colours of Good and Evil.  By 1601 Essex had lost the Queen’s favour, and had raised his rebellion, and B. was one of those appointed to investigate the charges against him, and examine witnesses, in connection with which he showed an ungrateful and indecent eagerness in pressing the case against his former friend and benefactor, who was executed on Feb. 25, 1601.  This act B. endeavoured to justify in A Declaration of the Practices and Treasons, etc., of ... the Earl of Essex, etc. His circumstances had for some time been bad, and he had been arrested for debt:  he had, however,