Thomas Hobbes could not have escaped a connection with Sir Francis Bacon had he wanted to. As we have already seen, he was implicated from the moment he arrived at Hardwick Hall. The presentation copy of the ten “Essayes” deliberately composed on the Baconian model, which young Sir William Cavendish gave to his father, is a fair copy in the handwriting of his tutor, and Hobbes in all likelihood supervised his pupil's composition of A Discourse against Flatterie and its publication as well.

We do not know when the Malmesbury philosopher first met Sir Francis Bacon, but the account books of the first earl of Devonshire show Hobbes visiting the Lord Chancellor on his employer's behalf in May 1619 and again in May 1620, and it is most unlikely that this was the first time their paths had crossed. Indeed, it is perfectly possible that their first encounter took place more than a decade before. We know, moreover, that Bacon corrected the Italian translation of his essays before the final version of the London edition was published in 1618, and it is reasonable to suppose that Hobbes, who had in the interim become Sir William's secretary, played a considerable role in the management of this project and even in the work of translation.