友邻哲学旅人 E57跌宕的余生

But he left the warnings unnoticed.
但是培根对此并没有在意。

He seemed to be in good favor with the King; he had been made Baron Verulam of Verulam in 1618, and Viscount St.Albans in 1621; and for three years he had been Chancellor.
此时他看上去很得国王信任；1618年，他被封为维鲁兰男爵，1621年，又被封为圣阿尔本斯子爵；大法官的职位更是一做就是3年。

Then suddenly the blow came.
突然祸从天降。

In 1621 a disappointed suitor charged him with taking money for the despatch of a suit; it was no unusual matter, but Bacon knew at once that if his enemies wished to press it they could force his fall.
1621年，他被一个非常失望的诉讼人控告在分配一个案件时收受贿赂；这本不算什么大不了的事，然而培根立即意识到，假如这件事被他的对手利用，那他很可能会垮台。

He retired to his home, and waited developments.
于是他告老还乡，静观其变。

When he learned that all his foes were clamoring for his dismissal, he sent in his "confession and humble submission" to the King.
当他得知他所有的敌人都在叫嚷着要他引咎辞职时，他向国王递交了“忏悔且谦卑的服罪信”。

James, yielding to pressure from the now victorious Parliament against which Bacon had too persistently defended him, sent him to the Tower.
尽管培根多次为维护国王詹姆士而得罪议会，但趋于正得势的议会压力下，詹姆士只能将培根关入伦敦塔。

伦敦塔那时是皇宫著名的高管监狱。

詹姆士一世是最后一个进入了英国的下议院的国王，从此以后英国的国王再也没有进过下议院。

两个利益集团相争时，死的最惨的叫白手套--中间利益的代言人。培根相当于王权的代言人，直接被议会当作一个靶子，王权最后为了保全自己，不得不把培根祭出当作牺牲品。

But Bacon was released after two days; and the heavy fine which had been laid upon him was remitted by the King.
不过没几天，培根就被释放了；国王还下令免除了对他的巨额罚金。

His pride was not quite broken.
他的骄傲并未遭受太大损伤。

"I was the justest judge that was in England these fifty years," he said; "but it was the justest judgment that was in Parliament these two hundred years."
“我是英国这50年间最公正的法官，”他说，“但这次对我的判决也是200年来议会最公正的判决。”

培根并不是詹姆士的棋子，詹姆士是非常仰仗培根来去代表皇权去和议会作战的，但是议会能力在不断增加。工业革命，殖民扩张，甩脱封建领主，而形成自己自足或者形成交换手工业者，新富阶层，对原有政治贵族还是有冲击的。

詹姆士之后，下议院有几个传统。

1.上议院每次邀请医院去开会，自己是不能进去的，让黑手杖去砸门传话。

2.下议院辩论桌子上横着一个国王的权杖--替国王治理国家。

He spent the five years that remained to him in the obscurity and peace of his home, harassed by an unwonted poverty, but solaced by the active pursuit of philosophy.
他余生的最后5年是在隐居中平静度过的。尽管生活极端贫困，但醉心于哲学探索让他稍得安慰。

In these five years he wrote his greatest Latin work, De Augmentis Scientiarum, published an enlarged edition of the Essays, a fragment called Sylva Sylvarum, and a History of Henry VII.
5年间，他写就了他最伟大的拉丁文著作《学术的进展》，出版了《论说文集》增补版以及《林木集》的残篇和《亨利七世》。

He mourned that he had not sooner abandoned politics and given all his time to literature and science.
他很遗憾自己没能早点放弃政治来全身心投入到文学创作与科学研究中。

To the very last moment he was occupied with work, and died, so to speak, on the field of battle.
知道生命的最后一刻，他仍在工作，甚至可以说，他是死在了工作场上。

In his essay "Of Death" he had voiced a wish to die "in an earnest pursuit, which is like one wounded in hot blood, who for the time scarce feels the hurt." Like Cæsar, he was granted his choice.
在《论死亡》中，他高声出自己的一个愿望:能“在热烈的追求中，仿佛受伤倒在血泊中的人一样，毫无疼痛地死去。”就像凯撒一样，他得偿所愿。

In March, 1626, while riding from London to Highgate, and turning over in his mind the question how far flesh might be preserved from putrefaction by being covered with snow, he resolved to put the matter to a test at once.
1626年3月，他骑马自伦敦前往海落特，一路上思索着一个问题：用雪覆盖的肉体多久才会腐烂，他决心立即试验一下。

Stopping off at a cottage, he bought a fowl, killed it, and stuffed it with snow.
他停在一个小屋旁买了只鸡，杀死后用雪塞满。

While he was doing this he was seized with chills and weakness; and finding himself too ill to ride back to town, he gave directions that he should be taken to the nearby home of Lord Arundel, where he took to bed. He did not yet resign life; he wrote cheerfully that "the experiment...succeeded excellently well."
实验过程中，他感觉全身发冷、无力，他意识到自己病得没法回家了，边吩咐人将他送到附近的阿伦德尔勋爵家，安置在床上。他没有悲观地等待呼吸停止，甚是喜悦地写下：“那个实验......非常成功。”

But it was his last. The fitful fever of his varied life had quite consumed him; he was all burnt out now, too weak to fight the disease that crept up slowly to his heart.
这是他的最后一次实验。坎坷多舛颠沛流离的生活让他筋疲力尽，他再也无力对抗病魔的袭击了。

He died on the ninth of April, 1626, at the age of sixty.
1626年4月9日，弗兰西斯.培根告别了人世，终年65岁。

He had written in his will these proud and characteristic words: "I bequeath my soul to God... My body to be buried obscurely. My name to the next ages and to foreign nations."
他在遗嘱中写下了这样一段骄傲而独特的话：“我将我的灵魂赠与上帝......将我的肉体随便埋葬，我的名字留给后代以及国外。