George Bancroft, History of the Colonization of the United States, Vol. 1, 17th edition.

[2] to colonial enterprise. The settlements of the

Chap. VIII.} 1617.

Scotch in Ireland ever enjoyed his particular favor. To him, as ‘to the encourager, pattern, and perfecter of all vertuous endeavors,’ Strachey at this time dedicated his Historie of Travaile into Virginia; to him John Smith, in his ‘povertie,’ now turned for encouragement in colonizing New England, as to ‘a chief patron of his country and the greatest favorer of all good designs.’ To him Sir George Villiers, who was lately risen to the state of favorite to James, addressed himself for advice, and received instructions how to govern himself in the station of prime minister.

The profound philosophy of the great master of speculative wisdom, included necessarily the lessons of a liberal toleration; but it only scattered the seeds of truth which were not to ripen till a later generation. He saw that the Established Church, which he cherished as the eye of England, was not without blemish; that the wrongs of the Puritans could neither be dissembled nor excused; that the silencing of ministers for the sake of enforcing the ceremonies, was, in the scarcity of good preachers, a punishment that lighted on the people; and he esteemed controversy ‘the wind by which truth is winnowed.’ But Bacon was a man for contemplative life, not for action; his will was feeble, and having no power of resistance, and yet an incessant yearning for vain distinction and display, he became a craven courtier and an intolerant statesman. ‘Discipline by bishops,’ said he, ‘is fittest for monarchy of all others. The tenets of separatists and sectaries are full of schism, and inconsistent with monarchy. The king will beware of Anabaptists, ’