Resuscitatio, or, Bringing into Publick Light Severall Pieces

...an opportunity to see him and speak with him. One traveler carried his Lordship’s portrait, from head to foot, over with him into France, as something which he foresaw would be much desired there; so that they might enjoy the image of his person as well as the images of his mind—his books. Among the rest, Marquis Fiat original: "Fiat"; Antoine Coëffier de Ruzé, Marquis d'Effiat (1581–1632), a French diplomat, a French nobleman who came as Ambassador to England at the beginning of the reign of Queen Mary Henrietta Maria, wife of King Charles I, who was commonly called "Queen Mary" by the English at the time, wife to King Charles, was seized with an extraordinary desire to see him. For this purpose, he made arrangements through a friend. When he came to him, Bacon being then confined to his bed through weakness, the Marquis saluted him with this high expression: "That his Lordship had always been to him like the angels, of whom he had often heard and read much in books, but he had never seen them." After this, they established an intimate acquaintance, and the Marquis revered him so much that, besides his frequent visits, they wrote letters to one another under the titles and names of "Father" and "Son." As for his many greetings by letters from foreign worthies devoted to learning, I refrain from mentioning them, because that is a thing common to other men of learning or note as well as him.

But yet, regarding this matter of his fame, I speak only in a comparative sense and not an exclusive one. For his reputation is great in his own nation also, especially among those who possess a more acute and sharper judgment. I will illustrate this with only two testimonies and no more. The former: when his History of King Henry the Seventh was about to be published, it was delivered to the old Lord Brooke Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke (1554–1628), a poet and statesman to be reviewed by him. When he had finished reading it, he returned it to the author with this tribute:

Give my regards to my Lord, and bid him take care to get good paper and ink, for the work is incomparable.

The other shall be that of Doctor Samuel Collins, late Provost of King’s College in Cambridge, a man of no ordinary intellect original: "no vulgar Wit", who affirmed to me that when he had read the book of the Advancement of Learning, he found him-