Notwithstanding, I trust what has been said shall find a correspondence in their minds which are not embarked in partiality, and which _love the whole letter than a part_" Up to this time, though Bacon had showed himself capable of taking a broad and calm view of questions which it was the fashion among good men, and men who were in possession of the popular ear, to treat with narrowness and heat, there was nothing to disclose his deeper thoughts--nothing foreshadowed the purpose which was to fill his life.
He had, indeed, at the age of twenty-five, written a "youthful" philosophical essay, to which he gave the pompous title "_Temporis Partus Maximus_," "the Greatest Birth of Time." But he was thirty-one when we first find an indication of the great idea and the great projects which were to make his name famous.

This indication is contained in an earnest appeal to Lord Burghley for some help which should not be illusory.

Its words are distinct and far-reaching, and they are the first words from him which tell us what was in his heart.
The letter has the interest to us of the first announcement of a promise which, to ordinary minds, must have appeared visionary and extravagant, but which was so splendidly fulfilled; the first distant sight of that sea of knowledge which henceforth was opened to mankind, but on which no man, as he thought, had yet entered.

It contains the famous avowal--"_I have taken all knowledge to be my province_"-- made in the confidence born of long and silent meditations and questionings, but made in a simple good faith which is as far as possible from vain boastfulness.
"MY LORD,--With as much confidence as mine own honest and faithful devotion unto your service and your honourable correspondence unto me and my poor estate can breed in a man, do I commend myself unto your Lordship.

I wax now somewhat ancient: one and thirty years is a great deal of sand in the hour glass.