CHAPTER lY.

DIVINATION AND PREDICTION.

Upon Divination or Prediction (Book II. ch. xi. "Advance-
ment of Learning ") — that is, Prophecy, Bacon -s^-rites : " But the
divination which springeth from the internal natui'e of the soul,
is that which we now speak of ; which hath been made to be of
two sorts, primitive and by influxion. Primitive is grounded upon
the supposition, that the mind, when it is withdrawn and collected
into itself, and not diffused into the organs of the body, hath some
extent and latitude of prenotion ; which therefore ajpj^eareth most in
sleep, ill ecstasies, and near death, and more rarely in waking ap-
prehensions ; and is induced and furthered by those abstinences
and observances which make the mind most to consist in itself."

Now I wish to draw attention to the striking parallel, that
throughout what is miscalled Shakespeare's art, we refind this
prenotion of the mind, introduced either in sleep or before
death : —

Methinks I am a prophet new inspired,
And thus expiring do foretell of him.

(" Richard II.," act ii. sc. 1, 31, 32.)

Let the readers recall the vision of Richard the Third just
before his death, or of Brutus before Philippi, in "Julius Csesar,"
or of Juliet's presentiment and Romeo's dream : —

Jul. 0 God, I have an ill-divining soul !
Methinks I see thee, now thou art below,
As one dead in the bottom of a tomb :
Either my eyesight fails, or thon look'st pale.

Mom. If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep
My dreams presage some joyful news at hand :
My bosom's lord sits lightly in his throne ;
And all this day an unaccustom'd spirit

. DIVINATION AND PREDICTION. 71

Lifts me above the ground with clieerful thoughts.
I dreamt my lady came and found me dead.

(Act V. so. 1.)

Of Clarence's dream just before his death : —

Clarence. 0, I have passed a miserable night,
So full of fearful dreams of ugly sights.

Oh then began the Tempest to my soul

Then came wand'ring by
A shadow like an angel, with bright hair,
Dabbl'd in blood, and he shriek'd out aloud,
" Clarence is come, false fleeting, perjur'd Clarence,
That stabb'd me in the field by Tewkesbury :
Seize on him, Furies, take him unto torment."

(" Richard III.," act i. sc. 4.)

Immediately following the relation of this Dream, the two
murderers enter. So that we find Bacon's connection of dreams
of a prophetic character, with nearness of death, to be strictly
carried out in the plays. Hamlet, just before his death, ex-
claims : —

Hamlet. But thou would'st not think how ill all's here about my heart :
but it is no matter.

Horatio. Nay good, my Lord.

Ham. It is but foolery ; but it is such a kind of gain-giving as would perhaps
trouble a woman.

Hot. If your mind dislike anything, obey it. I will forestall their repair
hither, and say you are not fit.

Ham.. Not a whit, we defy Augunj, there's a special Providence in the fall
of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come ; if it be not to come, it will be
now ; if it be not now, yet it will come ; the readiness is all.

(" Hamlet," act v., last scene.)

Upon the same page Bacon discusses Divination he introduces
Augury : " Divination hath been anciently and fitly divided
into two parts, artificial and natural. Artificial is of two sorts,
one argueth from causes, the other from experiments only, by a
blind way of authority ; which latter is for the most part super-
stitious, such was the heathen discipline upon the inspection of the
entrails of beasts, the flight of birds, and the like " (ch. iii. Book IV.
" De Augmentis ").

72 DIVINATION AND PREDICTION.

The reader will see Bacon has Augury associated in his
mind in context with divination, and we refind Hamlet terming
his presentiment Augury also. The dream of Calphurnia, just
prior to Csesar's assassination, is another example in point : —

Cas. Nor heaven nor earth have been at peace to-night :
Thrice hath Calpurnia in her sleep cried out,
"Help, ho ! they murder Cresar ! " Who's within ?

(" Julius Csesar," act ii. sc. 2.)

Here again augury is introduced in context, with prophetic

dreams : —

Cces. Cowards die many times before their deaths :
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear :
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.

Re-enter Servant.

What say the augurers ?

Serv. They would not have you to stir forth to-day.
Plucking the entrails of an offering forth.
They could not find a heart* within the beast.

Cccs, The gods do this in shame of cowardice :
Cresar should be a beast without a heart,
If he should stay at home to-day for fear.
No, Ctesar shall not : danger knows full well
That Cresar is more dangerous than he :
We are two lions litter'd in one day.
And I the elder and more terrible :
And Csesar shall go forth.

(" Julius Cnesar," M).)

In "Titus Andronicus " we find Augury introduced, and a
soothsayer in " Cymbeline." These points reveal profound study
of the classics, and it is most improbable Shakespeare had either
the leisure or learning to acquaint himself with such niceties.
We are now about to point out how well the author Avas

* The absence of the heart was considered a prodigy of extraordinary omen.
It was accounted amongst the Pcstifcra auspicia cum cor in extis aid caput in
jocinore non fuisset ("Paul," s. v. p. 244). Cicero mentions how Cresar was
in this manner forewarned that his purple robe and golden throne would
bring about his death (Cic, " Divin.," ii. 16 ; Plin., Ibid.).

DIVINATION AND PREDICTION 73

acquainted with Cicero's writings, and with his peculiar scepti-
cism, as to the validity of these following unnatural events,
introduced as foreshadowing Ctesar's death : —

Casta. A common slave — yen know liim well by sight —
Held up his left hand, which did flame and burn
Like twenty torches join'd, and yet his hand,
Not sensible of fire, remain'd unscorch'd.
Besides — I ha' not since put up my sword —
Against the Capitol I met a lion,
AVho glared upon me, and went surly by,
"Without annoying me : and there were drawn
Upon a heap a hundred ghastly women,
Transformed with their fear ; who swore they saw
Men all in fire walk up and down the streets.
And yesterday the bird of night did sit
Even at noon-day upon the market-place,
Hooting and shrieking. When these prodigies
Do so conjointly meet, let not men say
"These are their reasons ; they are natural ; "
For, I believe, they are portentous things
Unto the climate that they point upon.

Gic. Indeed, it is a strange-dispos'd time :
Bid men tiuty construe things, after their fashion.
Clean from the purpose of the things themselves.
Comes Cfesar to the Capitol to-mon-ow ?

Casca. He doth ; for he did bid Antonius
Send word to you he would be there to-morrow.

Cic. Good night, then, Casca ; this disturbed sky
Is not to walk in.

Casca. Farewell, Cicero.

(" Julius Cfesar," act i. so. 3.)

There can be no doubt from the words put in the mouth of
Cicero, the author of the plays was well acquainted with Cicero's
■writings and Cicero's sceptical mind. Cicero belonged to a sect
that professed to hold nothing for certain, as to Divine matters
especially. Saint Augustine is severe upon Cicero for denying
the prescience of Providence, whilst allowing the existence of
Deity. Almost throughout the entire ninth chapter of his " City
of God," he attacks Cicero upon this point. In the person of
Cotta (First Book, " Touching the Natui'e of the Gods "), " I wish I
could but as easily find out what's true, as I can confute that

74 DIVINATION AND PREDICTION.

which is false." It is just in regard to these omens or portents
introduced by Bacon in "Julius Csesar," that Cicero is made to
question their prescience, that is, their connection with a fore-
knowledge of things to come, as tokens of Deity (see Second
Book " Divination "). Bacon's predilection for Cicero throughout
his " Essays " and " Advancement of Learning " is marked,
quoting him almost every dozen pages or oftener. In the "De
Augmentis" Cicero is cited thirty-one times. In a letter
addressed to Andrews, Lord Bishop of Winchester, written after
his disgrace, and prefixed to "An Advertisement touching an
Holy War," Bacon compares his fall to Cicero's and Seneca's.
This is a hint of the greatest possible importance, implying that
Bacon resembled these illustrious men in persecution, as being
the victims of their times and the sacrifices of faction. But what
study and reflection the passage from " Julius Csesar " illustrates !
A trifle like this is akin to a revelation, for the more we discover
the learning of the winter of these plays, the more difficult
becomes the Shakespeare myth to believe.

In concluding his Book upon "Divination," Cicero parallels in
some measure Lucretius: — "Let us end" (he writes) "with this
Divination by Dreams, as with the rest. For, to speak truly,
Superstition spread amongst people, has weighed with its yoke
upon almost all mankind, and taken by storm the imbecility of
humanity. We have already declared so in our books upon the
* Nature of the Gods,' and we there have insisted upon it in the
discussions introduced ; for we believe we are rendering a great
service to ourselves, and to our fellow-citizens, in suppressing it
altogether " (Cicero's " Divination," ii. 72, 2).

Again : — " If some dreams are true and some false, I should
like to learn how we are to distinguish them. If there is no
method, wherefore listen to these interpreters 1 If there is one I
am curious to know Avhat it is ; but they will be embarrassed to
disclose it " (Cicero's " Divination," ii. 62).

The Latin expressions for these sorts of omens were prodigium,
vai'tentum, ostentum, monstrum.

DIVINA TION A ND PREDICTION. 7 5

In "Cymbelino" (last act) we have Jupiter introduced "sitting
upon an eagle," with a soothsayer who divines in quite a classic-
ally inspired sense. The eagle {airoi) Avas the special messenger
of Jupiter, and, according to Homer, was "the most accomplished
of birds " ("Iliad," viii. 247 ; xxiv. 310. Cf. Find., " Isthm.," vi.
(v.) 50 ; Xenoph., " Anab.," vi. 1, 23). Theocritus styles this bird
•par excellence the bird of Divination, a distinction which later on
was disputed by the vulture (Theoc, "Idyll," xxvi. 31; "Etymol.
Magn.," p. 619, 39).

Soothsayer. For the Roman eagle
From South to West on wing soaring aloft
Lessen'd herself, and in the beams of the s;in
So vanish'd ; vi\\\q\\ foreshacloivccl our Princely eagle,
The imperial C?esar should again unite
His favour with the radiant Cymbeline,
Which shines here in the West.

("Cymbeline," act v.)

This shows the writer Avas well versed in the art of Divination,
for the Eagle, the Vulture, and the Crow were the three chief
bii'ds of Eoman Vaticination. During sleep, Posthumus Leonatus
has a vision of the descent of Jupiter, and finds himself in pos-
session of a book — "a rare one." Now this shows the extraordi-
nary classical erudition of the author, for there were held to be
messenger dreams sent by Jupiter or Zeus, as we shall show,
amongst the ancients. With Homer dreams are serial shadows
or images (u'duXa), Avhich take the shape of forms. Thus the
one that appeared to Agamemnon took the likeness of Nestor
(" Iliad," ii. 5). Athene appears in a dream to Nausicaa and to
Telemachus, and Patroclus thus demanded Achilles to hasten his
funeral. (Hom., "Odyss.," vi. 13; xv. 10; " Iliad," xxiii. 65).
With Homer dreams are sent by Zeus (" Iliad," i. 63). Zeus alone
2)ossesses the power to summon dreams from afar off. The Pytha-
gorean mysticism considered dreams as the sons of night and the
messengers of the moon, of that moon which crept into the grotto
of Latmos, close to Endymion asleep, or which unsealed the pro-
phetic soul of the Sybil. Bacon slyly hints at this when he

76 DIVINATION AND PREDICTION

writes : — " It is said that Luna was in love Avith the shepherd
Endymion, and in a strange and umvonted manner betrayed her
affection ; for he, lying in a cave framed by nature under the
mountain Latmos, she sometimes descended from her sphere to
enjoy his company as he slept; and after she had kissed him
ascended up again" (Endymion, "Wisdom of the Ancients").

Peace, liow the Moon sleeps with Endymion,
And wonld not be awak'd.

(" Merchant of Venice," act v.)

And mark what Bacon quotes (from Philo Jud.) : — "For
sense, like the Sun, opens and reveals the face of the terrestrial
Globe, hut shuts uj) and conceals the face of the Celestial " (Preface to
the " Instauration "). This is as much as to say it is at night only
Ave discover the depths of the stars, and intellect must shut out
sense, be blind to externals, to perceive by the mind's eye super-
natural truths. The sense's night being the opener of the
mind's truths. There is no doubt Bacon introduces the incident
of Posthumus' dream, with the strange oracle and "rare book,"
in " Cymbeline " as an act symbolic of Divination in the full
classic sense of inspired truth. I cannot allow it is fiction, or
without relationship to some as yet-to-be-discovered reality. The
title Posthumus points to an after birth, and is wholly in keep-
ing with all we have to expect of this art, as full of revelatory
matter. It is strange to find Sir Toby Matthew aflfixing his
seal to a curious document entitled "Posthumus, or the Survivor,"
in 1640, the date of the first edition of the translation of
the "De Augmentis." (See Doctor Neligan's strange manu-
script, published by Mr Smith in the little Avork, Avhich first
seriously started the Baconian theory.) The introduction of
Jupiter can surprise no one Avho remembers hoAv Bacon declares,
he is going with the ancients usque ad aras. " But I going the
same road as the ancients."

Bacon once more shoAVS he possessed the knoAvledge Ave have
refound in the plays, both in "Julius Csesar" and in "Cymbeline,"
upon augury.

DIVINATION AND PREDICTION. 77

Scarus. Swallows have built
In Cleopatra's sails their nests : the augurers
Say they know not, they cannot tell ; look grimly,
And dare not speak their knowledge.

("Antony and Cleopatra," act iv. sc. 12.)

Bacon's Essay upon " Friendship : — " With Julius Ccesar, Decirmis
Brutus had obtained that interest as he set him down in his
testament, for heir in remainder after his nephew. And this was
the man that had power "wdth him, to clraiv him forth to his death.
For when Ccesar would have discharged the Senate, in regard of
some ill presages, and specially a dream of Calphimiia, this man
lifted him gently by the arm out of his chair, telling him he
hoped he would not dismiss the Senate till his wife had dreamt a
better dream."

The whole of this is exactly reproduced in the play of " Julius
Caesar" (act ii.) : —

Deci. Brutus. Cajsar, all hail ; good morrow, worthy Ctesar,
I come to fetch you to the Senate house.

Ccesar. And you are come in very happy time.
To bear my greeting to the Senators,
And tell them that I will not come to-day.

DccL Brutus. Most mighty Ccesar, let me know some cause,
Lest I be laught at when I tell them so.

Cxsar. The cause is in my Will, I will not come.
That is enough to satisfy the Senate,
But for your private satisfaction.
Because I love you, I will let you know.
Calpliurnia here, my wife, stays me at home ;
She clrectmt to-night she saw my statue,
Which like a fountain with an hundred spouts
Did run pure blood ; and many lusty Romans
Came smiling and did bathe their hands in it.

To all this D. Brutus replies : —

When Ccesar s wife shall meet with better dreams,
If Ccesar hide himself, shall they not whisper,
Lo, Ccesar is afraid 1

This is exactly as Bacon writes, and the dream is given in the
play in detail by Calphurnia.

78 PERSPECTIVE, REFLECTION, GLASS-MIRROR.

Perspective, Reflection, Glass-Mirror.

" Praise is the rejledion of lyirtue. But it is glans or body which
(jiveth the reflection " (" Praise ").

Bacon means here (as he points out in " Troihis and Cressida ")

we cannot obtain fame, praise, or glory until it is seen reflected hij

others. This is endlessly repeated in the plays. When Richard

the Second sends for a glass or mirror and beholds himself, he

exclaims : —

O flattering glass,
Like to myfolloicers in prosperity,
Thoii dost beguile me! (Act iv. sc. i.)

He was the mark and glass, copy and book
That fashion'd others.

(" 2 Henry VI.," act ii. sc. 3.)

This is a very profound simile. Because we can never see our-
selves at all hi life, as others see us, and a glass is not the same thing
us sight.

Tell me, good Bnitus, can you see your face ?

Bru. No, Cassius ; for the eye sees not itself,
But by reflection, by some other things.

Cas. 'Tis just ;
And it is very much lamented, Brutus,
And you have no such mirrors as will tuna
Your hidden worthiness into your eye
That you might see your shadow.
Therefore, good Brutus, be prepared to hear :
And since you know you cannot see yourself
So well as by reflection, I, your glass,
Will modestly discover to yourself
That of yourself which you yet know not of.

("Julius Cffisar," act i. sc. 1.)

" That window which Momus once requited. He when he saw
in the frame of man's heart so many angles and recesses, found
fault there ivas not a window, through which a man might look into
those obscure and crooJced windings" (Lib. VIII. , p. 401, "Advance-
ment of Learning," 1640).

PERSPECTIVE, REFLECTION, GLASS-MIRROR. 79

Now see wliat good turns eyes for eyes have done :
Mine eyes have drawn my sliajie, and thine for mc
Arc windous to my breast, where through the sun
Delights to peeji, to gaze tlierein on thee.

(Sonnet xxiv.)

" Like a true friend to show you your true shape in a glass, and
that not in a false one to flatter you, nor yet in one that should
make you seem worse than you are, and so offend you ; but in
one made by the reflection of your oioii words and actions" ("Letter
Ixx. to Lord Chief Justice Coke," 1702.)

" And the more aptly is the mind of a wise man compar'd to a
glass or mirror, because in a glass his own image may be seen together
with the images of others, which the eyes cannot do of themselves without
a glass" (Parable xxxiv.. Lib. VIIL, " Advancement of Learning,"
p. 397).

It may do good, pride hath no other glass
To show itself but pride.

("Troilus and Cressida," act iii. sc. 3.)

Methinks you are my glass, and not my brother ;
I see by you I am a sweet-faced youth.

(" Comedy of Errors," act v. sc. 1.)

Come, come, and sit you down ; you shall not budge ;
You go not till I set you iij) a glass,
TFhcre you may see the inmost part of you.

(" Hamlet," act iii. sc. 4.)

Your mind is the clearer, Ajax, and your virtues the fairer ; he that is
proud eats up himself. Pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his own
chronicle, and whatever praises itself but in the deed, devours the deed in the
praise. ( " Troilus and Cressida. ")

" Grounded upon the conceit, that the mind as a mirror or glass,
should take illumination from the foreknowledge of God and
spirits" (Book 11., "Advancement of Learning," p. 46, 1605).

" God hath framed the mind of man as a mirror or glass capable
of the image of the universal world" (Book I. p. 6, "Advance-
ment of Learning," 1640).

" The more shame for learned men, if they be for knowledge
like icinged angels ; for base desires they be like serpents which

8o PERSPECTIVE, REFLECTION, GLASS-MIRROR.

crawl in the dust, carrying indeed about them Minds like a mirror
or glass, but menstruous and distain'd " (Book V., p. 217, "Ad-
vancement of Learning," 1640).

"Praises are the reflexed beams of virtue" (" Antitheta," p.
304).

Yea from the (jlass-faced flatterer
To Apemantu.s.

(" Timon of Athens," act i. sc. 1.)

Here again is the perfect and original philosophy of Bacon's,
that we see ourselves in other's faces, and it is a far profounder
simile than at first sight strikes us. For do we not see hy others
whether it goes ill or well with us 1 And as oiu* own image in a
mirror pleases us or no, so does the reflection react upon our self-
consciousness.

'Tis not her glass but you that flatters her,
And out of you she sees herself more proper
Than any of her lineatnents can show her.

("As you Like it," act iii. sc. 5.)

Essay on " Friendship : — " For as S. James saith, they are as
men, that look sometimes into a glass, and presently forget their own
shape and favour." *

Compare " Richard the Second " (act iv. sc. 3) : —

Richard. Give me that glass, and therein will I read,

"Was this the face, the face
That every day, under his household roof,
Did keep ten thousand men ? Was this the face,
That like the sun, did make beholders wink ?
Is this the face, which fac'd so many follies.
That was at last out-fac'd by Bolingbroke ?

Hoiu soon my sorrow hath dcstroi/d my face?

* ' ' The second precept concerning this knowledge is, for men to take good
information touching their own person, and well to understand themselves :
knowing that, as S. James saitli, though men look oft in a glass, yet they do
suddenly forget themselves ; wherein as the divine glass is the word of God,
so the politic glass is the state of the world, or times wherein we live, in the
which we are to behold ourselves " (Two Books of "Advancement of Learn-
ing," p. 23-1).

PERSPECTIVE, REFLECTION, GLASS-MIRROR. 8i

Bolmghrokc. The shadow of your sorrow hath dcstroy'd
The shadow of your face.

Itkhard. Say that again.

The shadow of my sorrow ; ha, let's see,
'Tis very true, my grief lies all within,
And these external manner of laments
Are merely shadows to the unseen gi'ief,
That swells with silenee in the tortur'd soul.

(Act iv. sc. 1.)

" For the mind of man is far from the nature of a clear and
equal glass, wherein the heams of things should reflect according to
their true incidence" ("Advancement of Learning," Bk. 11. p. 55).

May never glorious sun reflex his beams.

("1 King Henry VI.," act v. sc. 4.)

" I believe well that this your Lordship's absence will rather
he a glass unto you, to show you many things, whereof you may
make use hereafter " (" Letter to the Marquis of Buckingham,"
March 10, 1622).

" Organa sensuum cum wganis reflectionum conveniunt. This hath
place in Perspective Art ; for the eye is like to a glass, or to waters "
(Lib. III., p. 135, " De Augmentis," 1640). From the note in the
margin. Bacon has taken this from the Arabian writer Alhazen *
(" Optics," Vitello).

Alhazen was a Spanish Moor who discovered atmospheric

* It is very striking to find Bacon had been studying the works of this
extraordinary man, particularly as he makes no further mention of him else-
where. It shows Bacon's knowledge of the most advanced discoveries and
thought, was far deeper than we have any idea of. Draper maintains our
debt to the Arabians and Sjianish Moors in scientific discoveries to have
been enormous and as yet half recognised. In Bacon's "Holy War" there
is a curious and suspicious reference to these Moors : —

Pollio. " What say you to the Extirpation of the Moors of Valentia ? " At
which sudden question Martins was a little at a stop, and Gamaliel prevented
him and said, "I think Martins did well in omitting that action, fori, for
my part, never approved of it ; and it seems God ivas not well pleased with that
deed."

It is to the Arabians Alchemy owes its origin, particularly to Geber. Friar
Bacon was another writer upon this subject, and we may observe in him the
use of induction and observation of facts in nature quite after the Baconian
method.

F

82 PERSPECTIVE, REFLECTION, GLASS-MIRROR.

refraction. His date was about a.d. 1100. "He was the first
to correct the Greek misconception as to the nature of vision,
shoAving that the rays of light come from external objects to the
eye, and do not issue forth from the eye and impinge on
external things, as up to his time had been supposed. He
determined that the retina is the seat of vision, and that impres-
sions made by light upon it are conveyed along the optic nerve
to the brain. With extraordinary acuteness, he applies the
principles with which he is dealing to the determination of the
height of the atmosphere, deciding its limit as nearly 58|^ miles.
One of his works is entitled, 'The Book of the Balance of
Wisdom.' In this book the weight of the atmosphere is set
forth, and he further explains the theory of the balance and steel-
yards, showing the relations between the centre of gravity and
the centre of suspension — when those instruments "wall set and
when they will vibrate. He recognises gravity as a force ;
asserts that it diminishes Avith the distance. He knows the
relation between the velocities, spaces and times of falling bodies,
and has very distinct ideas of capillary attraction. He improves
the construction of that old Alexandrian invention the Hydro-
metus. The determination of the densities of bodies, as given by
Alhazen, approach very closely to our own ; in the case of
mercury they are even more exact than some of those of the last
century. I join, as, doubtless, all natural philosophers will do, in
the pious pra3''er of Alhazen, that in the day of judgment, the
All-Merciful will take pity on the soul of Abur-Eachan, because
he Avas the first of the race of men to construct a table of specific
gravities ; and I will ask the same for Alhazen himself, since he
was the first to trace the curvilinear path of a ray of light
through the air. Though more than seven centuries part him
from our times, the physiologists of this age may accept him as
their compeer, since he received and defended the doctrine now
forcing its way of the progressive development of animal forms "
(Draper's "Intellectual Development of Europe," vol. ii. pages
45, 46, 47, 48).

PERSPECTIVE, REFLECTION, GLASS-MIRROR. 83

The Fable of Narcissus or Self-Love in " The Wisdom of the
Ancients " should be read in connection with this subject. Bacon
Avi^ites that Narcissus, " having espied the shadow of his own face
in the w^ater, was so besotted and ravished with the contempla-
tion and admiration thereof, that he by no means possible could
be drawn from beholding his image in this (jla$s ; insomuch, that
by continual gazing thereupon, he pined away to nothing, and
was at last tui'ned into a flower of his own name, which appears
in the beginning of the spring, and is sacred to the infernal
powers Vluto, Proserpine, and the Furies." In the following
Sonnet may be found " Perspective " introduced as illusion : —

Mine eye hath play'd the painter and hath stell'd

Thy beauty's form in table of my heart ;

My body is the frame wherein 'tis held,

And perspective it is best painter's art.

For through the painter must you see his skill,

To find where your true image pictured lies ;

Which in my bosom's shop is hanging still,

That hath his windows glazed witli thine eyes.

Now see what good turns eyes for eyes have done :

Mine eyes have drawn thy shape, and thine for me

Are windows to my breast, where-through the sun

Delights to peep, to gaze therein on thee ;

Yet eyes this cunning want to grace their art :
They draw but what they see, know not the lieart.

Like perspectives, which rightly gazed upon
Show nothing but confusion — ey'd a\vry,
Distinguish form.

(" Richard II.," act ii. sc. 2.)

A natural perspective that is and is not.

("Twelfth Night.")

^^ Like perspectives which show things inwards when they are hut
paintings " (Bacon, " Natural History," Cent. i. 98).

"Poesy, in the sense in which I have defined the word, is also
concerned with individwds ; that is, with individuals invented in
imitation of those which are the subject of true history • yet with

84 PERSPECTIVE, REFLECTION, GLASS-MIRROR.

this difference, that it commonly exceeds the measure of nature,

joining at pleasure things "vvhich in nature Avould never have

come together, and introducing things "which in nature would

never have come to pass; just as 'Painting likeAvise does. This is

the work of Imagination."

It is most important to observe that Bacon compares Toe^y to

Painting, not only in this passage, but abiindantly elsewhere, in

exactly the same way Ave find in the Sonnets attributed to

Shakespeare.

" Poesy composeth and introduceth at pleasure, even as Painting

doth ; Avhich indeed is the work of imagination " (Lib. II. chap.

lxx\ai. "Advancement of Learning").

"As faces shine in waters, so men's hearts are manifest to the

wise " (" Advancement of Learning," Parable xxxiv. j Proverbs

xxvii. 19).

" This parable distinguishes between the hearts of wise men

and of other men, comparing those to waters or mirrors which
reflect the forms and images of things, those to earth or rude
stone which reflect nothing. The mind of a wise man is aptly
compared to a mirror, because in it he sees his own image along
A^dth those of others, and he endeavours to be no less varied in
application than in observation " (Book VIII. " De Augmentis ").
It may be remarked here that the mind, like the surface of a
lake, or of Avater, must he calm and tranquil to reflect truly. Directly
we are influenced by passions or affections, not only does the
mind refuse to reflect clearly, but it refracts, that is, disproi3or-
tions and is prejudiced, even as objects are refracted by AA^ater.
In the folloAving citations from the Sonnets may be found both
" Glass " and " Perspective " introduced again. It is my belief
these are not casual or surface similes, but are very profoundly
connected with some very important natural laAvs ai^plied to art
and lying closely at the root of the 1623 Theatre.

"Thus have we now dwelt with two of the three beams of
mfin's knoAvledge, that is, radius directus, Avhich is referred to
nature, radius refractus, which is referred to God, and cannot report

PERSPECTIVE, REFLECTION, GLASS-MIRROR. 85

truly, because of the inequality of the medium" ("Two Books
of the Advancement," p. 129).

My glass sliall not persuade me I am old,
So long as youth and thou are of one date ;
But when in thee time's furrows I behold,
Then look I death my days should expiate.

The MTinkles which thy glass will truly show,
Of mouthed gi-aves wUl give thee memory.

(Sonnet Ixxvii.)

I do not think an hour-glass of Time is here implied, because
" wrinkles " are to he shown or reflected, and it seems to us by " thy
glass," is meant the generations of men (in the sense that the
plays are reflected by others), who pass away praising these
works, man being here collectively personified as growing old and
wrinkled, for this is one of Bacon's especial ideas, that the past is
the youth of the world and the present its old age. " As for
antiquity, the opinion touching it which men entertain is quite
a negligent one, and scarcely consonant with the world itself.
For the old age of the world is to he accounted the true antiquity ; and
this is the trihute of our own times, not of that earlier age of the world
in which the ancients lived ; and which though in respect of us it was
the elder, yet in respect of the world it was the younger" (Book I.,
" Advancement of Learning ")

If that the World and Love were young,
And truth in every Shepheard's tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move,
To live with thee and be thy Love.

(" Passionate Pilgi'im.")

" That man is, as it were, the common measure and mirror or glass
of nature" (Paracelsus, Fludd, j^assim / p. 250, "Advancement of
Learning," 1640.)

" It seemeth both in ear and eye, the instrument of sense hath
a sympathy or similitude Avith that which giveth the reflection "
(" Natural History," Exp. 282).

86 PERSPECTIVE, REFLECTION, GLASS-MIRROR.

In the Fourth Book of the " De Augmentis," Bacon writes in
the following reserved and suspicious manner concerning Perspec-
tive, curiously connecting it with Sense and ScnsihiliUj. This
is be found under the 28th Deficient or Stai-, entitled " DeNixlbus
Spiritus in motu voluntario," Avhich is rendered " Of the Difference
between Perception and Sense" (" Catalogue Deficients "). The
subject belongs to the third section of the third chapter. " The
Distribution of the faculties of the sensible Soul. § Into motion. § Into
Sense." We read, " But of Sense and Sensibility there hath been
made a far more plentiful and diligent enquiry, both in general
treatises about them, and in particular sciences ; as in Perspective
and Music ; how trulij is not to our purpose to deliver. "Wherefore
we cannot set them down as deficients. Notwithstanding there
are two noble and remarkable parts, which in this hnoidedge we
assign to be Deficient ; the one concerning the difference of perception
cmd sense ; the other concerning the form of Light " (p. 212, " Advance-
ment of Learning," 1640).

It may be seen Bacon reserves "Perspective," and "Music," as
" not to ourpmpose to deliver," showing by the language he uses that
he held some special knowledge upon the subjects, which he mys-
teriously -withholds. It is my opinion, founded upon some very
profound reflections in connection with the " Natural Histor}^,"
(where we refind Music treated at great length) that like the
" History of the Winds," these subjects belong to the machinery
of the foui^th part of the " Instauration," — the plays.

" Are not the organs of the senses of one kind Anth the organs
of reflection, the eye uifh a glass, the ear -with a cave or sti-ait,
determined and bounded 1 Neither are these only similitiules,
as men of narrow observation may conceive them to be, but the
same footsteps of nature, treading or printing upon several sub-
jects or matters. ("Two Books of the Advancement," ii. 108.)
In the " Novum Organum," ii. 27, the same illustrations are given
of what Bacon calls " conformable instances " or " physical simili-
tudes." From these he deduces the principle " organa sensuum
et corpora, cpice piariunt rejiexiones ad sensus esse similis naturcn."

PERSPECTIVE, REFLECTION, GLASS-MIRROR. 87

Bacon, when compainng the eye with a glass, means a looldng-
(jlass. This is a highly important point to note. Because if
the Latin passage did not run " oculiis enim similis, sjjeado,"
it might be open to doubt whether he did not mean transparent
or common glass, which is a very different simile altogether. We
see at once that the entire force of Bacon's simile, and the
similes extracted from the plays, revolve upon refiedion. Bacon
evidently was in possession of some important and extraordinary
law with regard to the senses and reflecting bodies, which he
intentionally ^\athholds. He calls this consent or respondency
in the Architectures and fabrics of things Natural and things civil
— Persian Magic * (" De Augmentis," III. i.). In the " Two
Books of the Advancement " he calls this particular branch
of knowledge ^' Philosophia 2^^"^''^^'', sive de fontihus scientiarum,"
and Avrites against this head : — " This science, therefore (as I
understand it), I may justly report as deficient : for I see some-
times the profounder sort of ■vvits in handling some particular
argument will now and then draw a bucket of water out of this
well for their present use : but the spring-head thereof seemeth
to me not to have been visited ; being of so excellent use, loth for
the disclosing of nature, and the abridgement of art" (Book II. p.
108). He calls this science "a common iKirent." "This science
being therefore first placed as a common parent like unto Bere-
cynthia which had so much heavenly issue, omnes ccdlcolas omnes
supera cdta tenentes" {Ih.). In the "Novum Organum " he
exemplifies as conformable instances : — " Speculum et oculus ;
et similiter fabrica aiuns, et loca reddentia echo " (Book ii. 27).
There can be no doubt the theory of reflection, or of beams
of reflection, hold a most important position in the Baconian
primary Philosophy, for in context with all this quoted, and
as it were at the opening of the subject of the partition of philo-

* By the " Persian Maxjic" Bacon probably alludes to the Magian system
wliicli was the source of the philosophy of the Ionian Heraclitus, whose in-
fluence upon Plato is so conspicuous. The " Thtetetus " is entirely devoted
to the development of the doctrines of Heraclitus, and its consequences, so
well summed up by Plato, "Nothing is, but all becomes."

88 PERSPECTIVE, REFLECTION, GLASS-MIRROR.

sophy (Book III. " De Augmentis "), Bacon Amtes : — " The object
of Philosophy is of three sorts — God, Nature, Man ; so likeAvise
there is a triple Beam of Things ; for Nature darts upon the
understanding with a direct beam ; God because of the inequality
of the medium, which is the Creature, Avith a refract beam ; and
man represented and exhibited to himself \a\h. a beam reflex "
(Book III. ch. i. § " De Augmentis "). There is some special
philosophy in all this, inasmuch as we have found in the plays
the last or third of these partitions, viz., the reflex' d beam repre-
sented as man seen by others. The profound thinker must
perceive, that the theory of the eye as a looking-glass, — that is
as a reflecting and refracting medium,^may be involved in this
question. In the Second Book of " The Advancement of Learn
ing" this quotation from the "De Aug-mentis" is omitted,
but finds its parallel, or echo, in these words : — " Thus have
we now dealt with tAVO of the three beams of man's knoAvledge ;
that is, radius directus, Avhich is referred to Nature, radius refractiis,
which is referred to God, and cannot report truly because of
the inequality of the medium. There resteth radius reflexus
whereby man beholdeth and contemfplateth himself" (Book II. p.
129). HoAv fond Bacon is of this simile of the Loohing-Glass /
He writes that man may not inquire the nature of God. But
of Angels and Spirits he may. " But the sober inquiry touching
them, Avhich by the gradation of things corporal may ascend
to the nature of them, or Avhich may be seen in the soul of
man, as in a looking-glass, is in no icise restrainkl" (" De Augmentis,"
Lib. III. ii.). And this at once agrees with Bacon's theory of
Divination by Influxion: — "That the mind as a mirror
or glass should take a secondary kind of illumination from the
foreknowledge of Gods and Spirits, unto Avhich the same state
and i-egiment of the body which Avas to the first doth likeAvise
conduce " (Lib. IV. ch. iii. " De Augmentis "). This and the
next paragraph particularly upon " Fascination " are undoubtedly
Rosicrucian doctrin es.

Bacon quotes Paracelsus and Crollius, l)oth Rosicrucians, in

PERSPECTIVE, REFLECTION, GLASS-MIRROR. 89

context Avith the last subject. The great English Rosicrucian,
Thomas Vaughan, AVTites : —

" God in love ■wdth his own beauty frames a glass to view it
by reflection "(" The Author to the Reader," " Anthroposophia
Theomagica," Thomas Vaughan, Waites' edition).

"Truly Nature is much of this strain, for she hath infinite
beauteous patterns in herself, and all these she would gladly see
beyond herself, which she cannot do withoid the matter, for that is her
glass " (" Coelum Terrae ; or the Magician's Heavenly Chaos and
First Matter of all Things," Thomas Vaughan, p. 131, Waite).

We find Robert Fludd writing in his " Mosaicall Philosophy "
(Book II., p. 172, 1659):— "St Dionysius saith 'That an angel
is the image of God, and the shining forth of his hidden light, a
mirror pure and most bright, Avithout spot, without wemm, and
without defiling. And for this cause he calleth the angels, Alga-
riuitha, that is most clean mirrors, receiving the light of God ; argue-
ing truely that they are the images of the Catholic emanation,
from whence they spring. For scriptures say, that the spirit of
wisdom is the brightness of the eternal light, a glass or mirror
of the majesty of God, ^Aathout spot, and the image of his
goodness.' "

" The quavering upon a stop in music, gives the same delight to
the ear that the playing of light upon the water, or the sparkling
of a diamond gives to the eye —

Splendet tremulo sub lumine pontus."

("Advancement of Learning," Book III., 135.)

This splendid comparison of one sense with another (Jiearing
with sight) is as striking as it is poetical and beautiful.

The quotation from Virgil and its application to Avaves of
sound reveals the philosopher-poet finding analogies and parallels
the most apparently remote, and illustrating them by a line from
another poet in a moment. Compare —

That strain again, it had a dying fall ;

0, it came o'er my ear, like the sweet sound

90 PERSPECTIVE, REFLECTION, GLASS-MIRROR.

That l)veathes upon a bank of violets ;
Stealing and giving odour.

("Twelftli Night," act i. so. 1.)

Mark how w\md and mxcll are brou2;ht in to illusti'ate each
other, the effort of the poet being to pile up delight by iden-
tifying or multiplying one pleasurable sense with another. But
nevertheless it is a comparison, and the same philosophic spirit is
apparent as in Bacon. In the " Natural History " we find Bacon
studying profoundly the Consent of Visibles and. Audibles, that is
seeking a scientific basis in experience, for the relationship of one
sense to another — sight to hearing. Of odours he \\Tites : — " That,
which above all others, yields the sweetest smell in the air is the
violet " (Essay on " Gardens "). In the passage quoted from
" Twelfth Night," we find the simile of flowers giving forth
odours compared to breath —

That breathes upon a bank of violets.

Compare, "And because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in
the air (where it comes and goes like the warhling of music) " (Essay
on " Gardens "). Here we have the parallel complete of scent and
sound brought together as in the play. In the " Sylva Syl varum "
(Century ii. 113) — "There be in music certain figures or tropes;
almost agreeing with the figures of rhetoric, and Avith the affec-
tions of tJie mind and other senses. First, the division and quaver-
ing which please so much in music, have an agreement with the
glittering of light; as the moon-beams playing upon a Avave.
Again, t\iQ falling from, a discord to a concord, Avhich maketh great
sweetness in music, hath an agreement with the affections, which are
reintegrated to the better after some dislikes ; it agreeth also with
the taste ivhich is soon glutted with that which is sAveet alone. The
sliding from the close or cadence, hath an agreement with the
figure in rhetoric, which they call prceter expectatum. ; for there is a
pleasiti'e even in being deceived."

Love is an affection of the mind, and Ave may see hoAv completely
this passage applies to the passage already (|uoted from "TAvelfth

THE WORLD AS THEATRE. 91

Night," even to the ''dy'mg fall" and to the word ''glutted" (which
finds its fellow in " surfeiting ") : —

If music be the food of Love, play on
Give me excess of it : that surfeiting,
The ajJpetite inay sicken, and so die.

0, learn to read what silent love hath writ :
To hear with eyes belongs to love's fine wit.

(Sonnet xxiii.)

" To hear with eyes " — this is a strange simile. Yet directly we
turn to Bacon's " Natural History " we find him very seriously
and at great length studying the "Consent" and ''Dissent" of
" Visibles and Audibles." So much attention does he give to this
subject, we believe it touches far more deeply the interpretation
of his art than Ave can as yet even faintly conjecture — " It seem-
eth both in ear and eye, the instrument of sense, hath a sympathy
or similitude with that which giveth the reflection ; as hath been
touched before. For as the sight of the eye is like a Christal, or
glass, or water ; so is the ear a sinuous cane with a hard bone to
stop and reverberate the sound " (Exp. 282). Again, " As Visibles
work upon a looking-glass, which is like the pupil of the eye ;
and Audibles upon the plane of echo, which resemble in some
sort, the cavern and structure of the ear " (Exp. 263).

The World as Theatre — The Theatre as Nature.

The extreme fondness Bacon has for contemplating the world
and Nature in the sj)irit of the lines, "All the world's a stage,
and all the men and women merely players" ("As you like it"), is
striking.

" That it is one of the aptest particulars that hath come or can
come upon the Stage for your Lordship to purchase honoiu'
upon " (" Letter of Advice to Essex ").

0 Lord thon art our home to whom we fly,
And so hast always been from age to age.

92 THE WORLD AS THEATRE.

Before tlie hills did intercept the eye,

Or that the frame was up of Earthly Stage.

(Translation, 90th Psalm.)

" But men must know that in this Theatre of man's life, it is
reserved only for God and Angels to be lookers on" (p. 339,