He had reached the age of
sixty, and had gained the object of his ambition. More than that, he was
conscious that in his great office he was finding full play for his
powers and his high public purposes. He had won greatly on the
confidence of the King. He had just received a fresh mark of honour from
him: a few days before he had been raised a step in the peerage, and he
was now Viscount St. Alban's. With Buckingham he seemed to be on terms
of the most affectionate familiarity, exchanging opinions freely with
him on every subject. And Parliament met in good-humour. They voted
money at once. One of the matters which interested Bacon most--the
revision of the Statute Book--they took up as one of their first
measures, and appointed a Select Committee to report upon it. And what,
amid the apparent felicity of the time, was of even greater personal
happiness to Bacon, the first step of the "Great Instauration" had been
taken. During the previous autumn, Oct. 12, 1620, the _Novum Organum_,
the first instalment of his vast design, was published, the result of
the work of thirty years; and copies were distributed to great people,
among others to Coke.
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