“To Mr. Tobie Mathew: It is true my labors are now most set to have those works which I had formerly published, as that of Advancement of Learning, that of Henry VII., that of the Essays, being retractate and made more perfect, well translated into Latin by the help of some good pens which forsake me not. For these modern languages will, at one time or other, play the bankrupt with books; and since I have lost much time with this age, I would be glad, as God shall give me leave, to recover it with posterity. For the Essay of Friendship, while I took your speech of it for a cursory request, I took my promise for a compliment. But since you call for it, I shall perform it.”
In his letter to Father Fulgentio, giving some account of his writings, he says:—
“The *Novum Organum* should immediately follow; but my moral and political writings step in between as being more finished. These are, the History of King Henry VII., and the small book, which, in your language, you have called *Saggi Morali*, but I give it a graver title, that of *Sermones Fideles*, or *Interiora Rerum*, and these Essays will not only be enlarged in number, but still more in substance.”
The nature of the Latin edition, and of the Essays in general, is thus stated by Archbishop Tenison:—