In the registry of St. Martin's will be found this entry: Mr. Franciscus Bacon 1560 Jan 25 (filius D'm Nicho Bacon Magni AngliÆ sigilli custodis)." Rawley in his "Life of the Honourable Author" says: "Francis Bacon, the glory of his age and nation, was born in York House or York Place, in the Strand, on the two and twentieth day of January in the year of our Lord 1560." He relates that "His first and childish years were not without some mark of eminency; at which time he was endued with that pregnancy and towardness of wit, as they were pressages of that deep and universal apprehension which was manifest in him afterward." "The Queen then delighted much to confer with him, and to prove him with questions unto whom he delivered himself with that gravity and maturity above his years that Her Majesty would often term him 'Her young Lord Keeper.' Being asked by the Queen how old he was he answered with much discretion, being then but a boy[5] that he was two years younger than Her Majesty's happy reign, with which answer the queen was much taken." In the "Lives of the Statesmen and Favourites of Queen Elizabeth" there is reference to the early development of his mental and intellectual faculties. The author writes:—"He had a large mind from his Father and great abilities from his Mother; His parts improved more than his years, his great fixed and methodical memory, his solide judgement, his quick fancy, his ready expression, gave assurance of that profound and universal comprehension of things which then rendered him the observation of great and wise men; and afterwards the wonder of all." The historian continues:—"He never saw anything that was not noble and becoming," "at twelve his industry was above the capacity and his minde beyond the reache of his contemporaries."

This boy so marvellously endowed was brought up in surroundings which were ideal for his development. His father, a man of erudition, a wit and orator, occupying one of the highest positions in the country, his mother a lady of great classical accomplishments, who had enjoyed the benefits of an education and training by her father, that eminent scholar, Sir Anthony Cooke, and, lastly, there was this man—his grandfather—living within riding distance from his home. It seems inevitable that the natural powers of young Francis must have excited a keen interest in the old tutor of Edward VI., who had devoted his evenings to imparting to his daughters what he had taught the Prince during the day, so that if he left behind him no heirs of his body, he might leave heirs of his mind. The boy Francis was, indeed, a worthy heir of his mind, and it is impossible to believe otherwise than that Sir Anthony Cooke would throw himself heart and soul into the education of his grandchild, but no statement or tradition has come down to this effect. It may be, however, that a sentence which has already been quoted from "The Lives of Statesmen and Favourites" is intended to imply that Francis was the pupil of Sir Anthony: "He said first and his Grandchilde my Lord Bacon after him, That the Joys of Parents are Secrets, and so their Griefs and Fears.... Very providently did he secure his Eternity, by leaving the image of his nature in his Children and of his mind in his Pupil." The pupil referred to was not Edward VI., for he died twenty-three years before Sir Anthony, and he could not, therefore, have left the image of his mind in the young King. Following directly after the sentence "He said first and his Grandchilde Lord Bacon after him" it is possible that the reference may be to the boy Francis. Certainly Sir Anthony "would secure his eternity" if he left the image of his mind in his "Grandchilde." In any case the prodigious natural powers of the boy were placed in an environment well suited for their full development.

The historian says that "at twelve his industry was above the capacity and his mind beyond the reache of his Contemporaries." Who were the contemporaries alluded to? Those of his own age, or those who were living at the time? A boy of twelve, he excelled others in his great industry and the wide range of his mind. This industry appears to have accompanied him through life, for Rawley states that "he would ever interlace a moderate relaxation of his mind with his studies, as walking or taking the air abroad in his coach or some other befitting recreation; and yet he would lose no time, inasmuch as upon the first and immediate return he would fall to reading again, and so suffer no movement of time to slip from him without some present improvement." It is a remarkable fact on which too much stress cannot be laid that in the two Lives of Bacon, scanty as they are, by contemporary writers, his exceptional industry is pointed out. There are certainly no visible fruits of this industry.

Although there is no definite information as to what was the state of Francis Bacon's education at twelve, there is testimony as to that of some of his contemporaries. Three instances will suffice.

Philip Melancthon (whose family name was Schwartzerd) was born in 1497. His education was at an early age directed by his maternal grandfather, John Reuter. After a short stay at a public school at Bretten he was removed to the academy at Pforzheim. Here, under the tutorship of John Reuchlin, an elegant scholar and teacher of languages, he acquired the taste for Greek literature in which he subsequently became so distinguished. Here his genius for composition asserted itself. Amongst other poetical essays in which he indulged when eleven years of age, he wrote a humorous piece in the form of a comedy, which he dedicated to his kind friend and instructor, Reuchlin, in whose presence it was performed by the schoolfellows of the youthful author. After a residence of two years at Pforzheim, Philip matriculated at the University of Heidelberg on the 13th October, 1509, being eleven years and nine months old. Young as he was, he appears to have been employed to compose most of the harangues that were delivered in the University, besides writing some pieces for the professors themselves. Here, at this early age, he composed his "Rudiments of the Greek Language," which were afterwards published.

Agrippa d'AubignÉ was born in 1550 and died in 1630. At six years of age he read Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. When ten years he translated the Crito. Italian and Spanish were at his command.

Thomas Bodley was born in 1544 and died in 1612. In the short autobiography which he left he makes the following statement as to how far his education had advanced when his father decided to fix his abode in the city of Geneva in 1556:—

"I was at that time of twelve yeares age but through my fathers cost and care sufficiently instructed to become an auditour of Chevalerius in Hebrew, of Berealdus in Greeke, of Calvin and Beza in Divinity and of some other Professours in that University, (which was newly there erected) besides my domesticall teachers, in the house of Philibertus Saracenus, a famous Physitian in that City with whom I was boarded; when Robertus Constantinus that made the Greek Lexicon read Homer with me."

Bodley was undoubtedly proficient in French, for Calvin and Beza lectured in French. The "Institution of the Christian Religion," Calvin's greatest work, although published in Latin in 1536, was translated by him into French, and issued in 1540 or 1541. This translation is one of the finest examples of French prose. Bodley's English was probably very poor, and for a very good reason—there was no English language worthy of comparison with the languages of France, Italy, or Spain. It had yet to be created.

It is fair to assume that at twelve years of age Francis Bacon was as proficient in languages as were Philip Melancthon, Agrippa d'AubignÉ, or Thomas Bodley at that age. He, therefore, had at least a good knowledge of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, and such English as there was.

Another class of evidence is now available. It has already been stated that a large number of Bacon's books have been recovered, copiously annotated by him. Some of these books bear the date when the annotations were made. For the most part the marginal notes appear to be aids to memory, but in many cases they are critical observations of the text. These are, however, dealt with in a subsequent chapter.

Gilbert Wats, in dedicating to Charles I. his interpretation of "The Advancement of Proficiency of Learning" (1640), makes a statement which throws light on the course of Bacon's studies, and this strongly supports the present contention. He says:—

"He (Bacon) after he had survaied all the Records of Antiquity, after the volume of men, betook himselfe to the study of the volume of the world; and having conquerd whatever books possest, set upon the Kingdome of Nature and carried that victory very farre."

Speaking of him as a boy his biographer[6] describes his memory as "fixed and methodical," and in another place he says "His judgment was solid yet his memory was a wonder."

The extent of his reading at this time had been very wide. He had already taken all knowledge to be his province, and was with that industry which was beyond the capacity of his contemporaries rapidly laying the foundations which subsequently justified this claim.