And his own work went on in spite of the pressure of the Solicitor's place.

To the first years of his official life belong three very interesting fragments, intended to find a provisional place in the plan of the "Great Instauration." To his friend Toby Matthews, at Florence, he sent in manuscript the great attack on the old teachers of knowledge, which is perhaps the most brilliant, and also the most insolently unjust and unthinking piece of rhetoric ever composed by him--the _Redargutio Philosophiarum_.
"I send you at this time the only part which hath any harshness; and yet I framed to myself an opinion, that whosoever allowed well of that preface which you so much commend, will not dislike, or at least ought not to dislike, this other speech of preparation; for it is written out of the same spirit, and out of the same necessity.

Nay it doth more fully lay open that the question between me and the ancients is not of the virtue of the race, but of the rightness of the way.

And to speak truth, it is to the other but as _palma_ to _pugnus_, part of the same thing more large....
Myself am like the miller of Huntingdon, that was wont to pray for peace amongst the willows; for while the winds blew, the wind-mills wrought, and the water-mill was less customed.

So I see that controversies of religion must hinder the advancement of sciences.
Let me conclude with my perpetual wish towards yourself, that the approbation of yourself by your own discreet and temperate carriage, may restore you to your country, and your friends to your society.