Bacon very often quotes inaccurately. Sometimes, no doubt, this was unintentional, the fault of his memory; but more frequently, it was done deliberately, for the sake of presenting the substance in a better form, or a form better suited to the particular occasion.

In citing the evidence of witnesses, on the contrary, in support of a narrative statement or an argument upon matter of fact, he is always very careful.

“Yet there happened in my time one noble speaker, who was full of gravity in his speaking. His language (where he could spare or pass by a jest) was nobly censorious. No man ever spake more neatly, more pressly, more weightily, or suffered less emptiness, less idleness, in what he uttered. No member of his speech but consisted of his own graces. His hearers could not cough, or look aside from him, without loss. He commanded where he spoke; and had his judges angry and pleased at his devotion. No man had their affections more in his power. The fear of every man that heard him was, lest he should make an end.” Ben Jonson: Discoveries: under title Dominus Verulamius.