Languages & literature > Bacon's essays, and Goldsmith's essays

BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. IX
mislress, he acted in direct opposition to his
best feelings, and affords little palliation of the
baseness of violating, for selfish ends, the
sacred obligations of friendship and gratitude.
The general dissatisfaction which the conduct
of Bacon, through the whole of this transac¬
tion, excited in the mind of the public, in¬
duced him to write a long and elaborate
“ Apology” for himself, which he addressed
to the Earl of Devonshire. His ingenuity
and eloquence were, however, on this occa¬
sion, thrown away; for It was easily perceived,
that no plea of duty to his sovereign, or of im¬
prudence, rashness, or criminality on the part
of Essex, could exculpate him from the odious
charge of ingratitude. If Bacon expected to
reap any benefit from this base servility, he was
disappointed: no new honours or emoluments
were bestowed upon him during the remainder
of Elizabeth’s reign; and to the men in power
he still continued an object of jealousy and
aversion.
Notwithstanding the pusillanimity and servi¬
lity which Bacon discovered in the affair of the
Earl of Essex, there were other public concerns
in which he acted with firmness and dignity.
Having been, in 1593, chosen to represent the