Part III. 149.)

70 FRANCIS BACON
Sh*uck to the earth by the discovery of his corruption — Confessing the truth of the charges brought against him — Treated as a degraded man.
" Overwhelmed with shame and remorse." (Macaulay, p. 353 ) Lord Campbell quotes passages from Bacon's letter to the King and Buckingham (where Bacon expresses his resolution to indulge in no excuses if he has " partaken of the abuses of the times ") as a clear negative pregnant, admitting that the bribes had been received. (See Campbell's Bacon, p. 172.)
Overwhelmed with horror and surprise at the charges brought against him — Acknowledges carelessness — Utterly repudiates the charge of bribery — Never shows any remorse for guilt, but even in his " prayer " regrets that he had wasted and misspent his life in trying to follow the profession of the law and the pursuits of a politician, for which by nature he was least fit — Not treated as degraded, but as one who would return to power.
" The law of nature teaches me to speak in my own defence. With respect to this charge of bribery I am as innocent as any born upon St. Innocent's day. I never had bribe or reward in my eye or thought when pronouncing sentence or order." (B. Montagu, Works, V. 549.)
See also his straightforward, modest appeal to the King, repudiating the idea that he had " the troubled fountain of a corrupt heart in a depraved habit of taking rewards to pervert justice, . . . howsoever I be frail and partake of the abuses of the times." Resolving to defend nothing in himself, and praying- God that " no hardness of heart steal upon me under show of more neatness of conscience than is cause." (Montagu, Spedding, and others.)
Montagu, XII. 457—459; XVI., Part II. 426. See also Spedding's Evenings with a Reviewer, Vol. II. Abbott, Francis Bacon, pp. 306, 320. Hepworth Dixon, " Story," pp. 410-411, 412—447, 466, 482 ; and " Personal Life." Council Registers, Dec. 30, 1617; Mar. 17—27, 1618; June 19, 1619; Jan. 20, 1620. Bacon Memoranda, Lambeth MSS., 936, fol. 146.
Without a sense of humour — Never made a pun or a quibble.
" What is said by Dr. Rawley [see below] of Bacon's avoidance of all mere verbal conceits is true, and the fact merits especial
AND HIS SECRET SOCIETY. 71
attention as notably discriminating the wit of Bacon from that of every other English writer eminent for that quality in his age. Probably nothing resembling a pun, or any quibble of that class, is to be found in all that he has written." (Craik, I. 30.)
" The idea of robbing the world of Shakespeare for such a stiff, legal-headed old jack-ass as Bacon, is a modern invention of fools." (Essay on " The Humbug of Bacon," signed B. J. A., in the New York Herald, Oct. 5, 1874.) This extract is given as a good specimen of the kind of knowledge and criticism dis- played by the press articles of this date.
The most prodigious wit that ever lived — Fond of quibbles — Could not pass by a jest.
" His speech, when he could pass by a jest, was nobly cen- sorious." (Ben Jonson, Dominus Vendamius.)
Bacon's paradoxical manner of turning a sentence so as to read two ways has been the frequent subject of comment. A large number of puns and quibbles are to be found even in his graver works, and Ben Jonson's remark shows that, however much he might try to exclude these plays upon words from his writings, the habit of punning was so confirmed in him as to be, in Jonson's opinion, a disfigurement to his oratory.
" The most prodigious wit that ever I knew ... is of your Lordship's name, albeit he is known by another." (Sir Tobie Matthew, letter to Bacon.)
Want of imagination of the higher type.
"Of looks conversing with the skies, of beauty born of mur- muring sound that passes into the face, he takes no account. It is the exclusion of the higher type that leads him to doubt whether beauty is a hindrance or a help in running the race of life." (Storr of Ess. of Beauty.)
" There is hardly a trace in Bacon of that transfusing and transforming imagination which creates a new heaven and a new earth ; which reveals the elemental secrets of things, and thrills us with a shock of surprise and delight as a new revela- tion. . . . There is more of poetry in Browne's Hydriotaphia than of poetry in Bacon's collected works. Yet of poetry, in all but the strictest and highest sense of the word, Bacon is full." (lb., Introduction lxxxiii. See below.)
72 FRANCIS BACON
Imagination of the highest type.
" Bacon, whose vast contemplative ends embraced the image of the universal world." (Storr.)
" His life of mind was never exceeded, perhaps never equalled. The extent of his views was immense. . . . His powers were varied and in great perfection, his senses exquisitely acute. . . . His imagination was most vivid and fruitful," etc., etc. (Basil Montagu, Vol. XVI., 451—463.)
" He was a man of strong, clear, and powerful imaginations. His genius was searching and inimitable, and of this I need give no other proof than his style itself, which, as for the most