CHAPTER VIII.

BACON AND ANTIQUITY.
** Crescit occulto yelat Arbor sevo Fams Baconi." — Manes VenUaminianL
Bacon writes : —
''Now if any one of ripe age, unimpaired senses, and well- purged mind, apply himself anew to experience and particulars, better hopes may be entertained of that man. In which point I promise to myself a like fortune to that of Alexander the Great; and let no man tax me with vanity till he have heard the end ; for the thing which I mean tends to the putting off of all vanity. For of Alexander and his deeds ^schinus spake thus: 'As- suredly we do not live the life of mortal men ; but to this end were we bom, that in after ages wonders might be told of us;' as if what Alexander had done seemed to him miraculous. But in the next age Titus Livius took a better and a deeper view of the matter, saying in effect, that Alexander ' had done no more than take courage to despise vain apprehensions.' And a like judg- ment I suppose may be passed on myself in future ages : that I did no great things, but simply made less account of things that were accounted great."
What is this " putting oflf of all vanity " of Bacon's ? Is he thinking of his renunciation and self-sacrifice as to the authorship of the plays ? And what wonders are these that are to be told of him in after ages ? Surely nobody who knows anything of Bacon's solid judgment and sober mind, can for an instant believe that Bacon is only thinking of his inductive method ) The lan- guage is extraordinary, because nobody knew better than Bacon that his system, or instrument of scientific discovery, might be
BA CON AND A NTIQ UITY. 157
termed great, but that it would speedily be forgotten by the generations who would make use of it, just as we cease to think of the inventor of a tool that we constantly use. No wonders to after ages can by any stretch of imagination be associated with it. Every day brings forth, it is true, the wonders of modem dis- covery. But though, like Hesperus, Bacon led the starry van, he was only at the head of a new method of natural research, which had already signalised itself in Torricelli, Galileo, Harvey, and Newton, who followed later. Does anybody pretend to assert that Newton's discovery of gravitation and its laws, was owing to his having studied Bacon 1 No, a thousand times no ! And nobody knew this better than Bacon. What is '' the thing" then, that he does not account great ?
That is what we want to know. " Far the thing I mean tends to the putting off of all vanity *\f What is this "thing"? It is evi- dently a mystery, something upon which we are to reserve our judgment till we hear the " end " / What end 1 Is this " end " that mysterious far-off astronomical finality, that seems connoted and suggested with the strange title, " Valerius Terminus," and the annotations of Hermes, Stella ?
Bacon's mind was the profoundest, subtlest intellect the world has ever seen. We see his imagination anticipating, (in the " New Atlantis ") the telephone and phonograph, botanical and zoological gardens, pisciculture, and other inventions of modern days, in a miraculous manner. They are no shrewd guesses, but really downright exact prophecies, or anticipations, which the more we study the more marvellous they seem. And not all of them are even yet realized, though his prophecy of explosives more power- ful than gunpowder, his sound-houses and observatories, are to a certain degree realized. Let no one smile at all this lest they betray their ignorance. Mr Edison, who dwells upon the Great Atlantis, has no doubt long recognised his peculiar discoveries as hinted at^ when Bacon describes his sound-houses. But as people very often read without thinking, and think without attributing a serious purpose to the " New Atlantis," it may be not amiss to
I S 8 BA CON AND ANTIQ UITY.
enforce a few of these prognostications home by quotation. This marvellous god-like intellect that refuses to lag one jot behind our times, can cast hack as deeply into the past as into the future. Take care we do not find his ship laden with all the knowledge of the remotest antiquity !
King Solomon's House, described in the "New Atlantis," is nothing else but the New World, which in Bacon's mind is to be discovered by his new method. We can see that the discovery of the New World, had acted so keenly upon his prophetic and godlike intellect, that he foresaw a new Intellectual World, which he places likewise in the west, and anticipates in the realms of imagination. We see in the favourite device and frontispiece, his typical ship passing beyond, — -plus tUtra, through the pillars of Hercules to this new Intellectual Kingdom, or House of Science and discoveries, wherein he almost anticipates, and hints at some of the modern miracles of science, which have really become realized. — It would almost seem as if Bacon had seen or heard Edison's phonograph !
'* We have also sound-houses, where we practise and demon- strate all sounds, and their generation. We have harmonies which you have not, of quarter-sounds, and lesser slides of sounds. Divers instruments of music likewise to you unknown, some sweeter than any you have ; together with beUs and rings that are dainty and sweet. We represent small sounds as great and deep ; likewise great sounds extenuate and sharp ; we make diverse tremblings and warblings of sounds, which in their original are entire. /Fe represent and imitale all articukUe sounds and Utters, and the voices and notes of beasts and birds. We have certain helps which set to the ear do further the hearing greatly. We have also diverse strange and artificial echos, re- flecting the voice many times, and as it were tossing it : and some that give back the voice louder than it came ; some shriller, and some deeper; yea, some rendering the voice.**
Or take this, does it not seem as if the writer were striving to describe the construction of guns and cannon by machinery, of
BACON AND ANTIQUITY. 159
the new explosives, (" new mixtures and compositions/') of gun- powder,— dynamite, which is indeed " unquenchable " in water, — ^and the submarine torpedoes : —
" We have also engine-houses, where are prepared engines and instruments for all sorts of motions. There we imitate and practise to make swifter motions than any you have, either out of your musket or any engine that you have; and to make them and multiply them more easily, and with small force, by wheels and other means : and to make them stronger, and more violent than yours are; exceeding your greatest cannons and basilisks. We represent also ordnance and instruments of war, and engines of all kinds : and, likewise new mixtures and com- ^positions of gun-powder, wildfires, burning in water, and un- quenchable. Also fire-works of all variety both for pleasure and use. We imitate also flights of birds ; we have some degrees of flying in the air ; 1^6 have ships and boats for going under water, and brooking of seas ; also swimming-girdles."
Here are zoological gardens and anatomical museums : — ** We have also parks and enclosures of all sorts of beasts and birds, which we use not only for view or rareness, but likewise for dissections and trials ; that thereby we may take light what may be wrought upon the body of man.''
Here are telescopes, microscopes, prisms, &c. : — " We procure means of seeing objects afar off; as in the heaven and remote places ; and represent things near as afar off, and things afar off as near ; making feigned distance& We have also helps for the sight, far above spectacles and glasses in use. We have also glasses and means to see small and minute bodies per- fectly and distinctly ; as the shapes and colours of small flies and worms, grains and flaws in gems, which cannot otherwise be seen ; observations in urine and blood, not otherwise to be seen. We make artificial rain-bows, halos, and circles about light. We represent also all manner of reflections, refractions, and multipli- cations of visual beams of objects."
Here are guanos and chemical manures : —
i6o BACON AND ANTIQUITY.
*' We have also great variety of composts, and soils, for the making of the earth fruitful."
Windmills and Watermills, Generation of Motor Force (not yet fully realized) : —
" We have likewise violent streams and cataracts, which serve us for many motions : and likewise engines for multiplying and enforcing of winds, to set also on going divers motiona"
Observatories, Fish . Culture, Condensing Water, EiffePs Tower : —
" We have high towers ; the highest about half a mile in height ; and some of them likewise set upon high mountains ; so that the vantage of the hill with the tower is in the highest of them three miles at least. And these places we call the Upper Region : accounting the air between the high places and the low, as a Middle Region. We use these towers, according to their several heights and situations, for insolation, refrigeration, conservation; and for the view of divers meteors; as winds, rain, snow, hail ; and some of the fiery meteors also. And upon them, in some places, are dwellings of hermits, whom we visit sometimes, and instruct what to observe.
" We have also particular pools, where we make trials upon fishes, as we have said before of beasts and birds. We have also pools, of which some do strain fresh water out of salt; and others by art do turn fresh water into salt."
Antiquity and its Restoration,
So much for the future and present times as anticipated and placed in the west by Bacon, on his New Atlantis, in the direc- tion of the New World of America. Now let us examine whether this glorious intellect, in which poetical imagination is as godlike, as his sober judgment is solid and profound, does not freight his emblematic ship, with all that is most worthy to be preserved, and gathered, from the wrecks of knowledge in the Old World, to be married to the New 1
BA CON A ND ANTIQ UITY, 1 6 1
The first thing that strikes us in a study of Bacon's works, is his contempt for much of antiquity, that we have considered worthy of respect So much is this the case, that Goethe quarrels with him on this account : —
'' But, on the other hand, most revolting to us is Bacon's in- sensibility to the merits of his predecessors, his want of reverence for antiquity. For how can one listen with patience when he compares the works of Aristotle and Plato to light planks, which, because they consist of no solid material, may have floated down to us on the flood of agesl" (Goethe's Works, vol. xxix. p. 88.)
But although Bacon casts Aristotle overboard, and makes light of many of the Grsecian philosophers, we find him inclining to accept, (with implied reservations of his own,) the atomic theory of Demociitus, the Strife and Friendship of Empedocles, and the fire philosophy of Heraclitus, (which greatly resembles that of Empedocles,) and which is connected with the Persian doctrines of two opposing principles. It is indeed curious to find Bacon drawing close to the cults representative of dual antagonistical principles, which philosophy is so conspicuous in the Sonnets attributed to Shakespeare.
'* But the elder of the Greek philosophers, Empedocles, Anaxa- goras, Leucippus, Democritus, Parmenides, Heraclitus, Xeno- phanes, Philolaus, and the rest (I omit Pythagoras as a mystic), did not, so far as we know, open schools ; but more silently and severely and simply ; that is, with less affectation and parade, betook themselves to the inquisition of truth. And, therefore, they were, in my judgment, more successful; only that their works were, in the course of time, obscured by those slighter persons who had more which suits and pleases the capacity and tastes of the vulgar: time, like a river, bringing down to us things which are light and puffed up, but letting weighty matters sink" (Ixxi., Works).
Again —
^'For the Homoeomera of Anaxagoras; the Atoms of Leu-
L
1 62 BA CON AND ANTIQ UITY.
cippus and Democritus; the Heaven and Earth of Parmenides; the Strife and Friendship of Empedodes; Heraclitus*s doctrine how bodies are resolved into the indifferent nature of fire, and remoulded into solids; have all of them some taste of the natural philosopher — some savour of the nature of things and experience."
We see that Bacon is inclined to look favourably upon these philosophies. We find Bacon elsewhere commending Telesius of Cozensa as " the last of the novelists." He was one of the Italian reformers of philosophy, and he attempts to explain all things, on the hypothesis of the continuous conflict and reciprocal action of two formal principles, heat and cold. His other doctrines are either subordinated to this dualism, or merely complimentary to such a system. The disciple of Telesius was Gampanella, who wrote the " City of the Sun," which, like Bacon's *• Atlantis " and Sir Thomas More's " Utopia," is a visionary ideal of a better state of society. It is to be noted that Telesius joins hands with Empedocles and Heraclitus in a system of philosophic dualism. We have drawn attention to this because, iu his works. Bacon devotes much space to this philosophy of ** Strife and Friendship," or Mars and Venus. He works it out under the forms of heat and cold, dense and rare, heavy and light, and mysteriously calls it the Keys of Works.
It is a remarkable coincidence that the Rosicrucians held similar principles for their philosophic system. They were the recondite searchers after the Wisdom of Persia and Eg3rpt, searchers after the hidden mysteries of Art and Nature, and they were anti-papal. Here let us repeat that the philosophy of Heraclitus is derived from Persia, and found its exposition at Ephesus, around the worship of the great Diana, whose temple we find presented to us in the play of Ferides. Yarker (in his " Ancient Mysteries ") says, " The English Kosicrucians taught that two original prin- ciples proceeded in the beginning from the Divine Father — light and darkness, or form and idea." These, of course, we see are nothing but the good and bad principles of the Zend-Avesta,
BA CON AND ANTIQ UITY. 1 63
Ormuzd, and Ahriman. But we will quote from Jacob Boehmen, who is generally accepted as a genuine member of the mystic brotherhood, and who happens to be in vogue at the present moment with occultists —
" The First Principle.
" What God is, considered as without and beyond Nature and Creature. And what the Great Mystery — Mysterium Magnum — should be. Showing how God hath, by his ' Breathing forth,' or 'Speaking,' introduced himself into Nature and Creature.
** The Second Principle,
"Here beginneth the Great Mystery — Mysterium Magnum, Namely, the Distinction in the speaking of the ' Word.' Wherein the ' Word ' through the Wisdom becometh distinct. Also the evocation of Natural^ Sensible, Perceptible, and Palpable (or Inventible) Means. Whereby the Two Eternal Principles of God's Love and Anger— m Light and Darkness, in Good and Evil, in Reason and Faith, in Heaven and in Hell."
In the dedicatory epistle to James the First, prefacing the Great Instauration, which we prefer to term the Great Restora- tion, these words: —
"Most Gracious and Mighty King, — Your Majesty may per- haps accuse me of larceny, having stolen from your affairs so much time as was required for this work. I know not what to say for myself. For of time there can be no restitution, unless it be that what has been abstracted from your business may perhaps go to the memory of your name and the honour of your age ; if these things are indeed worth anything. Certainly they are quite new ; totally new in their very kind : and yet they are copied from a very ancient model"
The italics are ours. We have here Bacon's words to describe his work as " copied from a very ancient model," and directly
1 64 BA CON AND ANTIQ UITY,
we open and commence his preface, we find him writing thus, " That Time is like a river, which has brought down to us things light and puffed up, while those that are weighty and solid have sunk" Spedding acknowledges that Bacon looks back as well as forward, and his own expression, that of " handing on the lamps to posterity," is a sufficiently ambiguous one, must be confessed.
'* Certain it is that the tendency was strong in Bacon to credit the past with wonders j to suppose that the world had brought forth greater things than it remembered, had seen periods of high civilisation buried in oblivion, gre^it powers and peoples swept away and extinguished. In the year 1607, he avowed before the House of Commons a belief that in some forgotten period of her history (possibly during the Heptarchy) England had been far better peopled than she was then. In 1609, when he published the * De Sapientid Veteriim* he inclined to believe that an age of higher intellectual development than any the world then knew of had flourished and passed out of memory long before Homer and Hesiod wrote." (Preface to " New Atlantis.'') TVe find him in another instance quoting the Egyptians, Persians, and Culdees as more worthy sources of reliable authority. Thus we see his mind is equally inclined to go profoundly backwards, as to forecast the future.
Spedding draws attention to Bacon's " Commeniarius Solutus" or sort of note-book, in which this passage is to be found : — " DiscouTMng scornfully of the philosophy of the Grecians, with some better respect to the -Egyptians, Persians, Caldees, and the utmost antiquity, and the mysteries of the poets;" and again, a little farther on, " Talcing a greater confidence and authority in discourses of this nature, tanqmim sui certus et de alto despiciens." Now we cannot overestimate this passage. How is it Bacon is turning to the Egyptians, Persians, and Chaldees, from whom the Rosicrucians derived their sources of learning? Samuel Butler writes in his " Hudibras," 1663 : —
" As for the Rosy Cross Philoaophei-s, Whom you will have to be but sorcerers,
BA CON AND ANTIQ UITY. 1 65
What they pretend to is no more, Than Trisraegiatus did before. Pythagoras, old Zoroaster And Appolonius, their master, To wliom they do confess they owe, All that they do and all they know."
Hermes Trismegistus belongs to Egypt, Zoroaster to Persia, and Chaldaea especially has always been associated with the mystic brotherhood, {Vide *' Zanoni," by Bulwer.)
Butler further writes : — " The fraternity of the Rosicnicians is very like the sect of the Ancient Gnostics, who called them- selves so from the excellent learning they pretended to." As Butler lived within a reasonable distance of Bacon's times, and of the age when Kosicruciauism made itself felt, this is all worthy of our notice. At any rate. Bacon's own writing is evidence of his profundity, of the extraordinary far-reaching (back as well as forwards) propensities of his mind ; and every student of this remarkable fact will do well to reckon with it, seeing that what we probably know of Bacon's mind, or of its learning, is but a fraction of the real truth. We now come to the mysterious con- fession of his adherence to antiquity, with regard to works.
In the ** Novum Organum^' (p. 41) we find Bacon stating that, he is going the same road as the ancients. "For if I should profess that I, going the same road as the ancients, have something better to produce, there must needs have been some comparison or rivalry between us (not to be avoided by any art of words) in respect of excellency or ability of wit."
This comparison of himself with the ancients is most curious, because there is nothing in his prose works to warrant the com- parison. Nor can we by any extravagant stretch of fancy, imagine he is alluding to his ** Wisdom of the Ancients," or his '* Advancement of Learning." Bacon at the age of sixteen disap- proved of the Aristotelian philosophy. " Not (as his Chaplain Rawley writes) for the worthlessness of the author, to whom he would ascribe all high attributes, but for the unfruitfulness of the way, being a philosophy (as his lordship used to say), only
1 66 BACON AND ANTIQUITY.
strong for disputations and contentions; but barren for the production of works, for the benefit of the life of inan« In which mind he continued to his dying day" (Life of Bacon, Kawley, ninth edition, " Sylva Sylvarum," 2.) If then, as we see, he re- pudiated the philosophy of the ancients in Aristotle, in what other direction can we discover that he accompanies them on the same road ? In the " Advancement of Learning " he says —
" To me it seemeth best to keep way, With Antiquity usque ad arcu.^
The Latin quotation is a curious and striking expression^ meaning, " even to the altars " ^ {of Antiquity). But is there no sly hint here to the drama and its origin 1 For it was round the altars of the Greek diviaities that the mysterious choruses arose, and the divine drama of the rape of Proserpine first took shape. Nor is our belief that he is thus alluding to the Greek drama lessened by the fact, that in the preceding section he uses the following quite unnecessary similes connected with the Theatre — "The play books of philosophical systems ;" again, "The plays of this philosophical theatre " (Ixi., Ixii.). It is evident his mind is running upon plays and the theatre. And it is indeed curious here to call to mind the curious fact that Ben Jonson, in his "Discoveries" (printed 1640) makes use of the same comparison for Bacon as he does for Shakespeare. Ben Jonson, after describ- ing many celebrities of his own and of the preceding age, arrives at Sir Francis Bacon : —
" Lord Egerton, a grave and great orator, and best when he was provoked, but his learned and able, but unfortunate, suc- cessor (Sir Francis Bacon) is he that hath filled up all numbers, and performed that in our tongue which may be compared or preferred either to insolent Ch'eece or haughty Borne," Ben Jonson translated for Bacon his philosophical works. And, moreover, Ben Jonson was a profound classical scholar himself, not likely
' *' Usque ad aras" is Bometimes translated, "as far as conscience per- mits," meaning **a8 far as the altars" — to the Gods themselves, — that is, with the sanction of religion.
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to bestow such praise unless it were deserved. Bat now comes
the strange but significant fact that Ben Jonson employs the
same words — the same comparison, " insolent Greece or haughty
Rome/' to Shakespeare in the well-known verses addressed to
him: —
'' Or when thy socks were on, Leave thee alone for the comparison Of all that itisolerU Greece or haughty Rome Sent forth, or since did from their ashes come."
Now these sort of parallels produce different effects on different minds. With some they are cogent proofs, with others they weigh nothing. To ourselves this is a tremendous piece of pre- sumptive evidence that Bacon was the author of the plays, because Ben Jonson would never have applied the same compari- son to Bacon that he does to Shakespeare — the exact words — unless he knew the trutL There is nothing in Bacon's prose works whatever to warrant any comparison of the sort. That Ben Jonson is alluding to poetry is plain ; *' filled up all numbers," is to have written every style of verse, exhausted poetry. And even if we allow that some of Bacon's prose works could find favourable comparison with Latin compositions of like character, how are we to account for the Greek parallel % No ! The truth is plain. Ben Jonson is alluding to the plays, and he is perfectly conscious who the real author is. He therefore applies to the real author (Sir Francis Bacon) the same comparison and words he employs for the false author. In each case we see he is think- ing of plays that have surpassed the Greek and Latin dramatic masterpieces.
It is a remarkable thing to again find Ben Jonson, in his dedicatory lines prefacing the engraving of Shakespeare (which stands as frontispiece to the Folio Edition of the Comedies and Tragedies, 1623), using the same figure, or turn of speech, and idea, as is to be found in words inscribed round the miniature of Bacon, painted by Hilliard in 1578.^ Mr Spedding writes : — ** There is
^ ThiB was written before we dUcovered that both these parallels were broaght forward in Mr Donnelly's "Great Cryptogram." But as they are
i68 BACON AND ANTIQUITY,
an inscription on a miniature painted by Hilliard in 1578, which indicates the impression made by his conversation upon those who heard it. There may be seen his face as it was in his eighteenth year, and round it may be read the significant words — the natural ejaculation, we may presume, of the artist's own emotion — Si tabula daretur digna, animum mallem: If one could but paint his mind ! " (Life, vol. L)
Now in reading the well-known lines of Ben Jonson, this idea is exactly repeated : —
'^ This figure that thou here seest put, It was for gentle Shakespeare cut ; Wherein the graver had a strife With Nature to out do the life : 0, could he hut have drawn his vnt, As well in brass as he hath hit His face ; the Print would theu surpasse All that was ever writ in brass."
The line in italics is nothing but Hilliard's words :— " If one could but paint (draw) his mind " (wit) ; and there is no question that Ben Jonson, who was Bacon's translator, and intimate, is thinking of Bacon. We quite agree with Mr Donnelly about the sense in which the brass is brought in by Jonson. We can fairly apply Shakespeare's lines to his own portrait, "Can any face of brass hold longer out !" (Lovers Labour's Lost, v. 2.) As Mr Donnelly truly points out, Ben Jonson is fully in the secret, for he applies the same language to both.
We are accustomed to translate " Magna Insiauraiio " as the ''Great Instauration," but it is forgotten that Instaura- tion does mean Restoration, or Benewal, also. How is it that Bacon, who quotes, every other few lines, a Latin or Greek author, has said that he intends keeping way with the ancients, " usque ad aras " f What are we to make of this declaration, uttered by a man who quite understands the expression he is using, which is ''as far as conscience permits ! " We find Bacon saying in his
most important, we again advance them, acknowledging Mr Donnelly's complete prior claim to their discovery.
BA CON AND ANTIQ UITY. 1 69
'* Prosemium" — (which he "judged it to be for the interest of the present and future generations that they should be made acquainted with his thoughts ") : — " whether that (the) commerce between the mind of man and the nature of things, which is more precious than anything on earth, might at any time be restored to its perfect and original condiiion"
We see from this Bacon is bent upon a restoration, and his mind is not entirely occupied with only a new philosophy. What is this Restoration 9 Certainly not Aristotle's philosophy, with which he disagreed at an early age. Coupled with this we have to consider the reasons why he distinctly veils his method, not only in ambiguous language, which has perplexed his commen- tators and editors like Ellis and Spedding, but directly states his intention is to write so as to *' choose his reader/^' For what reason on earth should Bacon, who is apparently orthodox and profoundly religious, veil and obscure a philosophical new method, that depends upon clearness for comprehension 1 His philo- sophical method (ostensibly) pretends to unlock, by means of induction and experiment, a new system, by means of which man shall be able to arrive at the secrets of Nature. There is nothing in such an instrument to suggest the slightest necessity for obscurity or for mysticism. As we have remarked, such a system to be understood, must above all things be lucid, plain, and as far from obscurity as possible. But let us quote to the purpose. Spedding not only recognizes the fact that he desired to keep his " system secret" but gives us (in his Notes to the Preface of the " Novum Organum") extracts from Bacon's own writings upon this point. Space does not permit us to insert all, but there are altogether ten selections from his works in which he insists or hints at the necessity of secrecy.
1. Valerius Terminus. Ch. 18.
"That the discretion anciently observed, though by the pre- cedent of many vain persons and deceivers abused, of publishing part and reserving part to a private succession, and of publishing in
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8uch a manner whereby it may not be to the taste or capacity of all, hui shall as it were single and adopt his reader, is not to be laid aside ; both for the avoiding of abuse in the excladed, and the strengthening of affection in the admitted."
And again (Ch. 11), "To ascend farther by scale I do forbear, partly because it would draw on the example to an over-great length, but chiefly because it would open that which in this work I determine to reserve"
Here is something that cannot be too sufficiently studied, ie., that Bacon declares that he has " reserved part of his publications for a * private stLCcession,* " " This system is not to he laid aside" He determines ''to reserve something — to pyblish part and to reserve part for a ^private s^iccession,' " This is indeed more than extraordinary ! Because^ it falls in with all that Mr Sped* ding remarks upon the plan or " distributio cperis " of his work, which he divides into a number of parts, of which we have a large part wanting.^
But we have additional proof that there was some reserved secret or mystery, some pvhlications not comprised with the acknowledged works in the following —
'' ' Publicandi autem ista ratio ea est, ut quae ad ingeniorum correspondentias captandas et mentium areas purgandas per- tinent, edantur in vulgus et per ora volitent : reiiqua per manus tradantur cum eledione et judicio: * the ' reiiqua ' being, as appears a little further on, ' ipsa Interpretationis formtda et inventa per eandem : ' from which it seems to be inferred that the exposition of the new method was not only not to be published along with the rest of the work, but to be excluded from it altogether ; to be kept as a secret^ and transmitted orally"
What are these ** reiiqua f" Where are theyl Why should they be necessary 1 What do they treat off And a thousand
^ We have this strange title given us : —
THB TIBST FABT OF THE mSTAUKATIOK,
which comprises the Divisions of the Sciences,
IS WA19TINO.
BA CON AND ANTIQ UITY. 1 7 1
such questions suggest themselves. Mr Spedding labours, with praiseworthy simple-mindedness, to dispose of the mystery (being, to him, utterly unnecessary and unintelligible on any grounds whatever) in a thoroughly unsatisfactory manner. Why does Bacon give us this piece about publishing? Spedding ingeniously suggests that the " reliqua " is " to be kept as a secret and transmitted orally,**
Here are facts of declaration on the part of Bacon that there are two ways of pMishing. One is to acknowledge your works, the other is not to acknowledge them^ and he pretty plainly hints that he has adopted both methods. What are the doctrines that are to fit themselves to the capacities and choose their readers 1 Surely not the Inductive Method with which Bacon's name stands connected ! Spedding, after giving us everywhere abun- dant evidence of this kind, goes on to try and explain it, his lamentable failure doing more to strengthen the case than the quotations themselves. But he betrays all the time an uncom- fortable feeling that it is above his ability. What is the oral transmission 1 Freemasonry is the only solution we can arrive at of this mystery.
Spedding writes : —
"The part which he proposed to reserve is distinctly defined in the fourth extract as ' ipsa interpretationis formula et inventa per eandem;' the part to be published is 'ea qua ad in- geniorum correspondentias captandas et mentium areas pur- gandas pertinent.' "
We have given the Latin to avoid errors of translation. Here is something very curious. To our minds, nothing could more clearly indicate a double system of publication and of subjects related, as key to works. What is it Bacon has reserved ) Are these the missing parts of the Great Restoration, or the plays known as Shakespeare's % Even Mr S|)edding acknowledges the reservation. He writes —
" It is true that in both of these Bacon intimates an intention to reserve the communication of one part of his philosophy — the
172 BA CON AND ANTJQ UITY.
' formula ipsa interpretationis et inventa per eandem ' — to certain fit and chosen persons. May we infer from the expressions which he there uses, that his object was to prevent it from be- coming generally known, as being a treasure which would lose its value by being divulged ? Such a supposition seems to me inconsistent, not only with all we know of his proceedings, purposes, and aspirations, but with the very explanation with which he himself accompanies the suggestion." (Notes to Preface of the "Nov. Org.," 112).
Bacon writes :—
" Nay, further, as it was aptly said by one of Plato's school, the sense of man resembles the sun, which openeth and revealeth the tenestrial ghhey hut obscureth and concealeth the celestial; so doth the sense discover natural things, but darken and shut up divine. And this appeareth sufficiently in that there is no proceeding in invention of knowledge but by similitude ; and God is only self-like, having nothing in common with any creature, otherwise than as in shadow and trope,^^
This passage is remarkable. Because it gives us a sort of key to Bacon's profoundest innermost thoughts and depths. It shows us that he regarded Nature as the " shadow and trope " of the Divine Art — that is, as concealing and hiding the celestial image. Now we find in Hamlet a play introduced (as interlude) within the play, representatively, or tropically (that is), as image or reflection of the King's conscience : —
" King, What do you call the play 1
Ham. The Mouse-trap. Marry, how \ TropicaUy, This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna."
So we find the expression " trope,'' " tropically " employed in the plays, and by Bacon in the same sense as image, that is, shadow or reflection. Bacon seems to us (in the passage quoted from him), to tell us that Nature is a reflection, shadow, image, of God —done tropically, which immediately recalls the playwriters'
BA CON AND ANTIQ UITY, 1 7 3
art. Indeed, we find him in the Dream terming his actors " shadows " : —
" Theseus, The best in this kind are but sJiadowsJ^
Again —
" Puck. If we shadows have offended.
Think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumber'd here While these visions did appear. And this weak and idle theme, No more yielding but a dream."
Have we not (in the passage quoted above from Bacon) a key to his philosophical view of Nature, as the shadow, and trope or reflection of God 1 It is just such a view as we should expect of the author of the plays, which are all shadow and trope, being figurative and privative, of concealed light from first to last.
Tlie Two Favourite Sayings of Bacon,
'' And it appears worthy of remark in Solomon, that though mighty in empire and in gold j in the magnificence of his works, his court, his household, and his fleet ; in the lustre of his name and the worship of mankind ; yet he took none of these to glory in, but pronounced that * The glory of God is to conceal a thing ; the glory of tlie king to search it out,' "
This is Bacon's favourite saying. He repeats it at intervals over and over again throughout his works. And it is to be remarked that this is the only thing he does repeat, and that, therefore, it must have been very much in his mind indeed ! We see at once that the secrecy or reserve of Nature, is to him the greatest glory of God. His admiration and reverence for the Almighty and His works, finds its top note of praise in what he rightly terms the "glory of God" — i.e., in the immeasurable silence and concealment which characterises Nature. To be hidden and revealed — concealed and open — is to Bacon the greatest of all proofs of the Divine Artist's excellence and Wisdom. In Bacon's view (as we see by his works). Nature
1 74 BA CON AND ANTIQ UITY.
withholds nothing except to the incapable. Nature is " openly secret/' and, as he says, ^Unfinitely more subtle than the senses of man" We find Bacon, evidently, and thoroughly, entertain- ing, and holding fast the belief, that God is in his works as the Divine Word. And that this is so, is shown in another variation upon this remark of Solomon's, which Bacon never tires of, but which is the keynote of his mind and character, so endlessly reiterated is it : —
" Whereas of the sciences which regard Nature, the divine philosopher declares that * it is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but it is the glory of the Ring to find a thing out.' Even as though the divine nature took pleasure in the innocent and kindly sport of children playing at hide and seek, and vouchsafed of his kindness and goodness to admit the human spirit for his playfellow at that game."
We see that the idea of the Divine Nature, as playing " hide and seek/* is only to be reconciled with the philosophy which teaches that the universe is the thought of God.^ The Divine Artist is in His works, which reveal and conceal Him. Both Goethe and Jacobi had ideas of this sort. But it is Plato really who presents us with a world which is as a work of a Divine Poet, who has through the Word — (his archetypal Idea) — hidden himself in his works. Is it asking too much to suggest that the mystery as to the authorship of the plays finds solution in this admiration of Bacon's for " concealment " or " hide and seek " ? Much argument and discussion has been carried on as to the motives which prompted concealment of the authorship of the plays. As yet the only arguments adduced are to the point that playwriting was a sort of " despised weed," and harmful to acknowledge during Bacon's life. This mode of reasoning is not worth much. But to come down hidden through the ages is sublime. And we have every reason to believe that the keynote
^ The idea that the univerBe ia the thought of God clothed in the art of Natare, ia a right one. Both Bruno aod Spinoza were led to the col- clusion that God ia to be sought for tcithm nature and not without.
BA CON AND ANTIQ UITY, 1 7 5
of admiration sounded in the passages so often quoted by Bacon, was and is the keynote on which the entire cycle of the plays was founded — i.e., to come down to man after the fashion of Nature in plays which present an answer to what we are seeking, that, like Nature, are openly secret, and whose interest is heightened by the whetstone ^ of mystery, enigma, and profundity. One of the maxims of the Rosicrucians was concealment and sacrifice — to be everywhere, and know everything, yet be recognised by nobody, and to hand on their secrets from generation to genera- tion in unbroken succession of inefiable silence.
Turn to the play of Measure for Measure^ and we immediately recognise in the disguised duke, who, whilst supposed to be absent from his kingdom, is in reality ubiquitous, and watching and supervising everything, this idea repeated. It completely realizes the conception of an ubiquitous Providence perfectly con- cealed, yet directing and supervising His works, so that evil — even the wickedness of Angelo — is directed into an instrument of restitution. God affords no revelation of Himself outside or BEYOND His Works. Nature is the Divine Art, and the Divine Art, were it interpreted, would reveal the Artist's Miod. The discipUne of life, of education and science, revolves upon this mystery of existence, where we are face to face with a mighty problem, that reserves nothing except the right of illusion through our limited senses. We have to mine, to work, and dig for truth, and we are bettered by the process. It seems to us there is much pregnant argument in all this to suggest (if not prove) that Bacon has put into practice, that which he so admires in the Divine Mind and Works — viz., concealment. We find Bacon eager for new intellectual wonders which shall rival the wonders of dis- covery of his own age in the New World. We find him invent- ing a New Atlantis, with Solomon's House, and presenting us with a frontispiece of a ship sailing beyond the pillars of Hercules in search of New Worlds, with the proud device, plus ultra, " For
^ **But if a Man be thought Secret, it inviteth discovery." — EUaays, 1625.
176 BA CON AND ANTIQ UIT K
how long shall we let a few received authors stand up like Hercules' columns, beyond which there shall be no sailing or discovery in science, when we have so bright and benign a star as your Majesty to conduct and prosper us % "
Here is an eager mind, on the very tip-toe of expectation, looking for dawn across the ocean — to new worlds — in the direc- tion of America — his little ship pointing west to that land from whence (as if his great mind knew and foresaw it) has first come X the voice of souls to give him due. " Nor must it go for nothing that by the distant voyages and travels which have become frequent in our times, many things in nature have been laid open and discovered which may let in new light upon philosophy. And surely it would be disgraceful if, while the regions of the material globe, — that is, of the earth, of the sea, and of the stars, — have been in our times laid widely open and revealed, the intellectual globe should remain shut . up within the narrow limits of old discoveries."
So that the " ship device" is no mere fancy, but a voyage of genuine adventure ^ of the intellectual sort, something sent forth upon the ocean of Time, which Bacon evidently thinks is as great from an intellectual point of view, as the discovery of the New World. How is it we find in the Sonnets this idea of a ship or bark repeated with unmistakable allusion to the ocean, and as unquestionably relating to the plays and poems ?
LXXX
" O, how I faint when I of you do write, Knowing a better spirit doth use your name, And in the praise thereof spends all his might, To make me tongue-tied, speaking of your fame ! But since your worth, wide as the ocean is, The humble as the proudest sail doth bear, My sauci/ bark, inferior far to his, On your broad main doth wilfully appear."
^ Compare Dedication of the Sonnets — " To the only begetter of these ensuing Sonnets, Mr VV. H., all happiness and that eternity promised by our ever-living poet, wisheth the well-wishing cuiveiUurer in setting forth, T. T."
BA CON AND ANTIQ UITY. 1 7 7
The allusion to '*fame" makes the reference or subject-matter unmistakable. Here is a metaphorical poetical picture of an intellectual venture, or ship sent forth on the ocean of Time, to Posterity : — " Seeing now, most excellent king, thai my little hark, such as it is, has sailed round the whole circumference of the eld and new world of sciences (with what success and fortune it is for posterity to decide), what remains but that having at length finished my course I should pay my vows 1 But there still remains Sacred or Inspired Divinity; whereof however if I proceed to treat I shall step out of the hark of human reason, and enter into the ship of the church** (Book ix., chap. 1, " De Aug- mentis/')
We thus see that Bacon employs the same image and even word " bark," we find in the Sonnets. Moreover, we find him addressing posterity in connection with this bark, which carries in it the precious argosy of the Old World and the New. So that we at once perceive that his work contains two parts — that belonging to antiquity (which he calls ** going the same road as the ancients '') ; the other, this inductive method, which belongs to the New World. Miranda, in The Tempest exclaims —
" O, brave New World."
And the imagination cannot be bridled from perhaps as yet, pre- mature speculation as to the whereabouts of Prosperous island of souls, to which this ship is bound, plus ultra, across the Atlantic. Is the island of Prospero the New Atlantis — (Plato's New Republic), the Ogygia of Homer, or the Avalon of Arthur, for Mr Baring-Gould, in his " Curious Myths of the Middle Ages," has declared them all to be the same ? But of this we have discussed at length in the chapter on the play of The Tempest, One thing is plain : in Bacon's system and works there is something incom- plete, something that even his editors, like Ellis and Spedding, are at a loss to explain ; an air of mystery and enigma (otherwise unnecessary) ; obscure references to art, to philosophical play systems, idols of the theatre, joined with a most extravagant
M
178 BA CON AND ANTIQ UIT^ \
faith iu relationship to posterity. He writes as if he were going to reveal a world to us, and to put his system to a test, upon some model or exemplar, some copy of the universe.
Once more, and lastly, Bacon declares he is going '* the same road as the ancients." This is a piece of evidence that it is impossible to explain or get over. For it cannot be his method of Philosophy. His method is inductive, and he disclaimed Aristotle. What is it, then? Does he join hands with the ancients upon their Mysteries, around their altars, with Heracli- tus, Empedocles, the creative doctrines of Orpheus, and with the Platonic Philosophy 1 This, we believe, is the true solution to the question. It is in the plays that we find these subjects over and over again more than exhaustively treated. It is the origin of the Drama, which is his prototype, and which he even goes beyond, as Ben Jonson well knew when he declared that he had done and gone beyond "all that Insolent Greece or Haughty Bome had performed I " We find Bacon too instituting a com- parison between himself, as a rival to the ancients in what they had done.
'* Upon these premises two things occur to me, of which, that they may not be overlooked, I would have men reminded. First, it falls out fortunately, as I think, for the allaying of contradic- tions and heart-burnings, that the honour and reverence due to the ancients remains untouched and undiminished ; while I may carry out my designs, and at the same time reap the fruit of my modesty} For if I should profess that I, going the same road as the ancients, have something better to produce, there must needs have been some comparison or rivalry between us (not to be avoided by any art of words) in respect of excellency or ability of wit; and though in this there would be nothing unlawful or new (for if there be anything misapprehended by them, or &kely laid down, why may not I, using a liberty common to all, take exception to it 1)"
I Will some of the clever sceptics explain to as wherein this moduty of Baoon*8 consisted, unless in his silence as to the plays ?
BA CON AND ANTIQ UlTY, 1 7 9
Now, nobody can for a moment assert that the method com- monly known as the Inductive, or the Baconian, has any rivalry, or is on any parallel lines with anything done by Antiquity. Bacon's is only a method after all, an instrument, and a system, which, though having foreshadowed all our modern discoveries and science, has nothing to place it in any category of comparison with Antiquity. Where, then, is this rivalry or road that he is going ? Let us ask ourselves wherein rivalry could exist, so as to make these words real and comprehensible 7 We reply that Antiquity has one pre-eminent literary landmark or monument, wherein it stands discoverer, inventor, and beyond which nobody (except one) seems hitherto to have gone. We allude to the Drama, its origin and its source ; the Mysteries, Greece, iBschylus, Euripides, Sophocles, whose motto might have been ne plus ultra / The only plays that can be placed in the same line are those known as Shakespeare's. But the comparison is, in some respects, disadvantageous to the poet; that is, apparently from certain points of view, and those points of view must be in every student's eyes — depth, seriousness as to didactic import ; in short, a want of purport, to the apparent disadvantage of the English- man. We say apparently only. It is certain that the Ancient Drama arose in the service, and around the altars of the Gods. It was thus religious in its origin, first commencing with creative hymns, which, as choruses, gradually developed into representa- tive action and poetry combined. All that was serious, solemn, awful, pertaining to the creation of the World, its Mysteries, and the immortality of the soul, was included in it It is philoso- phical and theological at once. Its serious purport and severe sense of retribution or justice are quite apart from anything modem. If Shakespeare instead had used these words to suggest rivalry with the ancients, on the same road with them, it would be partly explicable. Yet we should consider the com- parison (which is undoubtedly one made by Bacon to his own superiority and advantage) as requiring explanation and develop- ment. Because {at first sight) the plays seem to have no points of
i8o BACON AND ANTIQUITY.
contact or touch to institute a parallel between themselves and antiquity. In this work, we pretend to have discovered, the myth of Dem^ter (Ceres) and Persephone, not only incorporated in The IFirUer's Tale, but given in its title. Further, we refind in The Tempest, and in the Midsummer-Nights Dream, un- mistakable traces of the Mysteries. We mean by the Mysteries — the Eleusinian Mysteries — ^particularly the Dem^ter and Per- sephone myth — (which formed its central doctrine), and around which (together with the worship of Apollo and Bacchus) the drama takes its origin. If the poet has really done what we assert, then, indeed, the comparison which Bacon institutes needs no apology, needs no further explanation. If he has done this, then indeed he may say with his proud motto, that he has gone beyond Antiquity and the Old World in point of Art, plus ultra. Unfortunately our space is limited, else the argument might be pursued further with even greater interest. We find Ben Jonson a contributor to.that mysterious work, Chester's " Love's Martyr " (published 1601), in which Shakespeare's poem. The Phcenix and Turtle, appears. There again we find the Greek literature challenged and defied, with some humorous lines suggesting that " Old Homer " has met his equal : —
'' Arise old Homer, and make no excuses, Of a rare piece of art must be my song."
What description of Art is this that is going to surpass all that insolent Greece or haughty Home have performed) It is Nature's Art, as Plato presents it to us in his Divine Philosophy — true Art in the second degree of initiation — ^not a copy of a copy, but of Divine ideas imprinted on matter, — as a stamp, die, or seal is imprinted on wax.^
LXVIII.
" Thus is his cheek the map of days outwom, When beauty liv'd and died as flowers do now, Before these bastard signs of fair were borne, Or durst inhabit on a living brow ;
^ *' Art," writes Plato, *' is to be regarded as the capacity of creating a v'holt that is inspired hy an invmble. order; and its aim is to guide the human soul." — Ph%lehu», pp. 64-67. Phadrus, p. 264.
BA CON AND ANTIQ UITY. 1 8 1
Before the golden tresses of the dead, The right of sepulchres, were shorn away, To live a second life on second head, £re beauty's dead fleece made another gay : In hiin those holy antique hours are seen. Without all ornament, itself, and true, Making no summer of another's green. Bobbing no old to dress his beauty new ; And him as for a map doth nature store. To show false art what beauty was of yore."
Compare this —
** So that eternal love in love's fresh case
Weighs not the dust and injury .of age,
Nor gives to necessary wrinkles place,
But makes antiquity for aye his page ;
Finding the first conceit of love there bred. Where time and outward form would show it dead."
Idols of the Theatre,
"But the Idols of the Theatre are not innate, nor do they steal into the understanding secretly, but are plainly impressed and received into the mind from the play-books of philosophical systems and the perverted rules of demonstration. To attempt refutations in this case would be merely inconsistent with what I have already said : for since we agree neither upon principles nor upon demonstrations there is no place for argument. And this is so far well, inasmuch as it leaves the honour of the ancients untouched. For they are no wise disparaged — ^the question between them and me being only as to the way. For as the saying is, the lame man who keeps the right road outstrips the runner who takes a wrong one. Nay it is obvious that when a man runs the wrong way, the more active and swift he is the further he will go astray." (" Advancement of Learning.")
In all Bacon's works, there is no passage so pregnant with reference to the plays, and to the ancients, as this. Can we not at once see that the " Idols of the Theatre " are the Idols of *' the play-books of the philosophical systems," hitherto known as Shake-
1 82 BACON AND ANTIQUITY,
speare's, but in reality Bacon's 9 Bat first, let us examine what Bacon means by an IM f An Idol is an imaga But it is the image of something. It is that something^ which is the 'direct beam," whilst the image is " the reflected beam."
" For the third vice or disease of learning, which concerneth deceit or untruth, it is of all the rest the foulest ; as that which doth destroy the essential form of knowledge ; which is nothing but a representation of truth ; for the truth of being, and the truth of knowing are one, differing no more than ilie direct beam, and the beam reflected^ (" Advancement of Learning.")
Again : —
" It seems to me that Pygmalion's frenzy is a good emblem or portraiture of this vanity; for u^ords are but the images of matter, and except they have life of reason and invention, to fall in love with them is all one as to fall in love with a picture." ("Ad- vancement of Learning.")
"It is to be remarked that he uses the word idolon in anti- thesis to idea, the first place where it occurs being the twenty- third aphorism. ' Kon leve quiddam interest,' it is there said, 'inter humanse mentis idola et divinsd mentis ideas.' He nowhere refers to the common meaning of the word, namely the image of a false god. Idols are with him 'placita qu»dam inania,' or more generally, the false notions which have taken possession of men's minds." (Spedding.)
We find Bacon's entire theory of Idols, founded upon the worshipping of the False for the True, particularly these Idoh of the Theatre, which we do not for a moment doubt, refers to the plays, and our worship of the mere image or Idol (reflected beam), which we confound with the " direct beam," taking the shadow for the reality. Let the reader study the passage in the original Latin, not in the translation, where, of course, the bias of the translator, has naturally endeavoured to bring the English into hannony with the subject^ without any suspicion of ulterior mean- ing. That there is ulterior meaning — in short, that Bacon is really covertly alluding to his " philosophical play systems," which are
BA CON AND ANTIQ UITY. 1 83
rivals to the ancients, is most plain.^ In the plays themselves, we find exactly the same contempt of words, as idols, liars, personified in the character of Parolles, whose name expresses his character — Empty Words : —
" I know him a notorious liar, Think him a great way fool, solely a coward."
—AWb Well That Bnds Well, Act L sc. 1 .
Bacon has presented us with it system of philosophical plays, which shall exemplify his inductive philosophy. For example, we are face to face with the Idols of the Theatre, which we take simply, worshipping dead images, which are only reflections of inner spiritual truth, philosophically created like Nature to illus- trate Nature.' . The Idols of the Theatre are nothing unless in Bacon's own words, *' they have life of reason and invention, else we fall in love with a picture" All this is repeated so often in the sonnets and in the plays, that it is marvellous, and will seem more marvellous to later ages, how determinedly blind the human mind is where a prejudged opinion shuts up all the alleys and entrances to the mind against the Truth. Nothing illustrates better Bacon's Idols of the four kinds than the question of the authorship of the plays. Take the following double parallel and continue to doubt the authorship : —
** Thus, in the ' Advancement of Learning :' — ' Poetry ia nothing else but feigned history.'
Twelfth Night, Act i sc. 2 :—
' Vicla, Tis poetical.
Olivia, It is the more likely to be feigned/
Aa You Like It, Act iii. sc. 7 : —
* The truest poetry h the most feigning.'
J We are quite aware that Baoon first wrote in Engliih, and had his works translated for him.
' "Pygmalion's fnnzy" we see exemplified in Hermione upon her pedestal — "a picturt** till she descends^ when she will discover a life *' of reason and invention " — which will show that the idols of this theatre are living, and not dead, idols.
1 84 BA CON AND ANTIQ UITY.
* Natural.Hist/ cent. L 98 : —
' Like perspectives, which show things intcards when they are but paintings.'
Richard IL, Act iL so. 2 : —
' Like perspectives, which rightly gazed upon Show nothing but confusion— ey'd awry, Distinguish form."
— " Bacon and Shakespeare,'' Smith.
Compare Sonnet XXIV. : —
" Perspective it is best painters* art, For through the painter must you see his skill."
" A natural perspective that is and is not.' "
—Twelfth Night.
It is not the use of the same words which gives point to the parallels, but the identity of thought presented in the same lan- guage ; which is striking. Both Bacon and Shakespeare reveal themselves as artists of the highest order, comprehending the proper use of perspective in the literary art — that is, in being openly secret. But to return to the passage quoted from Bacon, about The Idols of the Theatre; how is it he brings in so curiously the following : — " And this is so far well, inasmuch as it leaves the honour of the ancients untouched. For they are nowise dis- paraged, the question between them and me being only as to the way." With this compare elsewhere where Bacon declares he is going Usque ad Aras with the ancients, as ''far as with con- science," but also literally '' to the altars themselves ! "
" Surely, the advice of the prophet is the true direction in this matter, ' State super vias antiquas, et videte gucenam sit via recta et bona, et ambulate in ea* Antiquity deserveth that reverence, that men should make a stand thereupon, and discover what is the best way: but when the discovery is well taken, then to make progression. And to speak truly, ' ArUiquitas seeuli javenfus mundiJ These times are the ancient times, when the world is ancient, and not those which we account ancient ordine retrograde, by a computation backward from ourselves."
But nobody knows or can explain what it is that Bacon means
BACON AND ANTIQUITY, 185
when he declares he is going " the same road as the ancients," unless it be the plays and their philosophical systems, which we maintain are copied from the ancients^ as anyone can see in The IFinier's Tale, Dream, and Tempest, But we do not expect to convert a sceptical age. Nevertheless, as the truth must ulti- mately come out, let us here lay just claim to having forestalled it. We therefore present the reader mth the following passage, which in a moment reveals the writer's predilections —
" As to the heathen antiquities of the world, it is in vain to note them for deficient ; deficient they are, no doubt, consisting most of fables and fragments, but the deficience cannot be holpen ; for antiquity is like fame, caput inter nubila condit, her head is muffled from our sight."
Yes, " Antiquity is like fame " — like Bacon's fame, with which it is partly identified, but as yet ** muffled from our sight," hidden in the " region cloud."
" Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day. And make me travel forth without my cloak, To let base clouds overtake me in my way, Hiding thy bravery in their rotten smoke 1 **
— Sonnet xxxiv.
Here is a subtle hint which Bacon gives us —
" To conclude, therefore : as certain critics used to say hyper- bolically : that if all sciences were lost they might be found in Virgil." But where particularly 1 We reply, in the sixth book of the " -^Eneid," tJie science of the Mysteries, which is the key- stone of the chief plays. But now take the following passage, addressed to the entire tribe of Shakespearian Editors, Com- mentators, Emendators, and Correctors, written (as Bacon so openly and unreservedly puts it), to " prevent the inconveniences future," clearly seeing that the great army of Mar-texts would so corrupt, vilify, and destroy the text, by bringing it to a level with their intelligences, as to cause great ''inconveniences fixture."
^ 2 \
1 86 BA CON AND ANTIQ UITY.
" A CONCLUSION IN A DEUBBRATIVB.
" Bo may toe redeem the faults passed, and prevent the inconveniences
future,
- " There remain two appendices touching the tradition of know- ledge, the one critical, the other pedantical ; for all knowledge is either delivered by teachers, or attained by men's proper en- deavours : and therefore, as the principal part of tradition of knowledge concemeth chiefly writing of books, so the relative part thereof concerneth reading of books : whereunto appertain incidentally these considerations. The first is concerning the true correction and edition of authors, wherein nevertheless rash diligence hath done great prejudice. For these critics have often presumed that that which they understand not^ is false set down. As the priest, that where he found it written of St Paul, ' De- missus esi per sportam,' mended his book, and made it ' Demissus est per ^offam,' because sporta was an hard word, and out of his reading : and surely their errors, though they be not so palpable and ridiculous, yet are of the same kind. And, therefore, as it hath been wisely noted, the most corrected copies are commonly the least correct.
*' The second is concerning the exposition and explication of authors, which resteth in annotations and commentaries, wherein it is over usual to blanch the obscure places, and discourse upon the plain."
Do we really think and believe that this was deliberately written with an eye to the future, with its corrections of what has been supposed to be a corrupt text, because " obscure " and brought down by vermiculate intellects to their own plain level 1 We do most unquestionably. Has not Mr Donnelly already proved this 1 Was he not obliged to obtain a photographed copy of the Great Folio Edition of 1623, wherein he at once noticed the irregular paging, bracketing, hyphens, &c., which led to his dis- covery of the cipher 1 Fortunately those Folios exist ; fortunately they cannot be corrected, emendated, and otherwise vilified — or corrupted.