² "The World's a bubble, and the Life of Man Less than a span" is the opening line to Bacon's poem, "Life," one of blupete's poetry picks.

³ See W. G. Thorpe's The Hidden Lives Shakespeare & Bacon and their Business Connection; with some Revelations of Shakespeare's Early Struggles 1587-1592 (London: Chiswick Press, 1897).

⁴ Life Letters of Francis Bacon, 7 vols., [1861-1874]; there are numerous briefer lives as for example see Bowen.

⁵ That is not to say that Bacon did not believe that there was a God, for, as he said in "Of Atheism": "I had rather believe all the fables in the legends and the Talmud and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a mind."

⁶ Henry Hallam, Introduction to Literature ..., as quoted by OED2.

⁷ Scholars located in Christendom, in those days, wrote in Latin: the point is, that the few that read, read Latin. Latin then was to the world of thinkers what English is today to scientists -- an international language which facilitated free movement of thought and research.

⁸ For what Macaulay thought of Bacon's character is set forth, in his usual brilliant fashion, by Macaulay in his 100 page essay on Bacon.