Thoughts, philosophical and medical / selected from the works of Francis Bacon ; with an essay on his health and medical writings by John Dowson.

  • Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626.
Date:
[1867]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Thoughts, philosophical and medical / selected from the works of Francis Bacon ; with an essay on his health and medical writings by John Dowson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    G many accounts his most promising resource, anG he sat flown at once to make himself a working lawyer. He left Paris for England on the 20th of March, 1579.” (L. & L. i. 8.) Having engaged in this profession, he applied himself with diligence to its study, and in duo time to its practice and im- provement. “ I hold every man” he says, (and the remarks are as applicable to the practitioner of medicine as of law) “ a debtor to his profession ; from the which as men of course do seek to receive countenance and profit, so ought they of duty to endeavour themselves, by way of amends, to be a help and ornament thereunto. This is performed in some degree by the honest and liberal practice of a profession, when men shall carry a respect not to descend into any course that is corrupt and unworthy thereof, and preserve themselves free from the abuses wherewith the same profession is noted to be infected ; but much more is this performed if a man be able to visit and strengthen the roots and foundation of the science itself; thereby not only gracing it in reputation and dignity, but also amplifying it in perfection and substance”. (W. vii. 319). It is no part of the purpose of this sketch to trace the legal and political life of Lord Bacon. It may be found in his “ Life by Montagu; in the “ Stonj and the “ Personal His- tory of his Life by Dixon; and at much greater length when- ever the work may be completed, in his Letters and Life by Spedding ; but it may be mentioned, for every important and long continued engagement would have some influence upon his health, that he sat in parliament from 1584 successively for Melcombe, Taunton, and Liverpool, and that in 1592 he \\as chosen member for Middlesex. At the beginning of this year he wrote to his uncle, the Lord Treasurer Burghley, a letter from which the following passages are extracted. “ I wax now somewhat ancient; one and thirty' years is a