CHAPTER V.

bacon's " GEORGICS OF THE MIND."

' ' But to sjKcih the truth, the best Doctors of this knowledge arc the Poets, aud
rcr iters of Histories, where we may find painted and dissected to the life, how
affections are to be stirred up and kindled, how still'd aud laid asleep ; how
again contain'd and refrain 'd that they break uot forth into act" (Book VII.,
" De Augmentis ").

" Another parable put He forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven
is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field ; but while men
slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared
the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him,
Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field ? from whence then hath it
tares ? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said
unto him. Wilt thou then that we go aud gather them up ? But he said,
Nay ; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with
them. Let both grow together until the harvest : and in the time of harvest
I will say to the reapers. Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in
bundles to burn them : but gather the wheat into my barn " (Matthew xiii.
24-30).

" And therefore, as Plato said elegantly, That virtue, if she could he seen,
tvould move great love and affection ; so seeing that she cannot be showed to
the sense by corporal shape, the next degree is to show her to the imagination
in lively representation : for to show her to reason only in subtilty of argu-
ment was a thing ever derided in Chrysippus and many of the Stoics, who
thought to thrust virtue upon men by sharp disputations and conclusions,
which have no sympathy with the will of man" ("Advancement of Learn-
ing," ii, 178).

" Nos docet apostolus ad mysterii perfectionem vel sub Agricolse, vel arclii-
teeti typo pertingere." — Robert Fludd.

"A man's nature runs either to herbs or weeds; therefore let
him seasonably water the one, and destroy the other " (" Of
Nature in Men ").

loo BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MINDr

lago. Virtue ! a fig ! 'tis in ourselves tliat we are thus oi' tlius. Our bodies
are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardencjs : so that if we will
plant nettles, or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up thyme, supply it with
one gender of herbs, or distract it with many, either to have it sterile with
idleness, or manured with industry, why, the power and corrigible authority
of this lies in our wills. ("Othello," act i. sc. 3.)

In scene ii. act 5, Othello exclaims to Desdemona: —

Oh thou 2vecd :
"Who art so lovely fair, and smell'st so sweet,
That the sense aches at thee.

Oh fie, fie, 'tis an umvccded garden,
That grows to seed : things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely.

(" Hamlet," act i. sc. 2.)

He's a rank weed, Sir Thomas,
And we must root him out.

(" King Henry VIII.," act v. sc. 1.)

There can be very little doubt Bacon has chosen this simile of
" Weeds " to express Human Nature in a state of backwardness
and vice. In the " De Augmentis " he calls poetry a luxuriant
weed, and in a prayer ("Resuscitatio," p. 17, 1671) writes: — "I
have (though in a despised weed) procured the good of all men."
" As for poesy (whether we speak of fables or metre, it is, as we
have said before, as a Luxuriant Herh t {weed ?) brought forth
without seed, and springs up from the strength and rankness of
the soil " (p. 264, Book VI., " Advancement of Learning "). Note
the coupling of the words " raoiJc weed," " unweeded garden," " things
rank " (in the quotations from the plays), poesy being a plant
coming, as it Avere, from the lust of a rank soil" (p. 109, Book II.,
" Advancement of Learning ").

" All flesh is grass " is' not only metaphorically but literally
true ; for "all those creatures we behold are but the herbs of the
field digested into flesh in them, or more remotely carnified in
ourselves " (" Religio Medici," Browne, 70).

* lago in this passage asserts the complete liberty of the will, and this makes
his villainy so much the more villainous and detestable. Bacon writes : " For
the purity of Illumination and the Liberty of Will began together, fell
together" (Fifth Book, " De Augmentis," chap. i. ).

t " Luxurians hcrba " (" Dc Augmentis," 1623). Herba in Latin means weed
as well as Herb — also 'Hlic blade of any corn" (Ainsworth's Latin Dictionary),

BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE AIIND" loi

The only light wc can throw upon this is the suggestion, Bacon's
purpose was ethical instruction iov \^mie good of all men;" his
theatre has the aim of holding up the vices and passions of men
to scorn, as a warning and as a means of eradicating the tares.
He writes of the passion "Envy":— "The envious man that
soweth tares amongst the wheat by night." And we have presented
to us the jiortrait of Lear : —

Crown'd with rankfumitor, and furrow weeds,
"With biir-docks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo flowers,
Darnel * and all the idle weeds that grow
In our sustaining corn.

(Act iv. sc. 4. )

Why have these especial weeds, found ever in the corn, been
selected ? I hope it will not be deemed impertinence to suggest
what is possibly intended by this awful picture ? Lear's madness
is the result of the wickedness of his daughters. He may have
been generous, credulous, weak, and simple, but, like Othello, he
was " great of heart," and his misery is the result of ingratitude
— the inhumanity of his own flesh and blood. He is crowned
with the tares and with the weeds of degenerate nature, and like
some ruined and abandoned piece of ground, is an emblem of what
neglect by others caA produce. He carries on his shoulders and
on his head the burthen and crown of a ruined nature, neglected,
cast out, and is the most terrible pictiu'e of what inhumanity and
envy can effect in this world or in literature ! Nature alone
sympathises with him — the storm, the lightning, the rage, are

* There can be very little doubt Bacon had in his mind the Parable of the
Tares (Matt. xiii. 24-30) in this portrait of Lear crowned with weeds that
grow in corn. The })lant representative of tares is Darnel. "From the ac-
counts of modern enquirers competent to form an opinion on this point, the
reference is (in the Biblical Parable of the Tares) to a kind of weed or poison-
ous grass called ' darnel ' {Lolium temulcntum), which is in all respects so like
the wheat that before it comes into ear it is hardly possible to observe any
distinction between the two plants" ("Picture Lessons," by Peter Grant,
p. 30).

Interque nitentia culta
Infelix Lolium et steriles dominantur avente.

(Virgil's ' ' First Georgic. ")

I02 BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MINI)."

reflected in himself and in his heart. AVe are not only gardeners
for ourselves, but alike gardeners to and for others. The Avords
duty, charity, temperance, incidcate this. For we do not
stand alone, and we can hardly move in this life without either
nourishing tares in others, or helping to eradicate them. A man's
life will generally yield on retrospection the dismal record, that
he might have been better — if others had been better.

The inculcation of the necessity for occupation and work to
escape evil is most prominent in the plays : —

We bring forth tveeds,
When our quick minds lie still.

("Anthony and Cleopatra," act i. sc. 2.)

Still better is evil and its poisonous effects painted in these

lines —

Here is your husband ; like a mildeidd ear
Blasting his wholesome brother.

(Act iii. sc. 4.)

In this image we have the corn and the tares again suggested.

Confess yourself to heaven ;
Repent what's past ; avoid what is to come ;
And do not spread the comijost on the v:eeds
To make them ranker.

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

In the folloAving lines Ave have idleness and sloth compared to
a fat weed :—

And duller should'st thou be than the/ai xoeed,
That rots itself in ease on Lethe Wharf,
Would'st thou not stir in this.
, ("Hamlet," act i. sc. 3.)

I.XIX.

Those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view
Want nothing that the thought of hearts can mend ;
All tongues, the voice of souls, give thee that due,
Uttering bare truth, even so as foes commend.
Thy outward thus with outward praise is crown'd ;
But those same tongiies that give thee so thine own
In other accents do this praise confound
By seeing farther than the eye hath shown.

BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MIND." 103

They look into the beauty of thy mind,

And that, in guess, they measure by thy deeds ;

Then, churls, their thoughts, although their eyes were kind,

To thy fair flower add the rank smell of weeds :
But -why thy odour matelieth not thy show,
The solve is this, that thou dost common grow.

It is evident from this Sonnet the author held ''culture of
the mind " not only in high estimation, but the imagery of flowers
for virtues and weeds for vices is prominent from first to last in the
quotations adduced. The world abandoned to evil and wicked-
ness is "((/i unweeded garden, things rank and gross possess it
merely." " Our bodies are our gardens, to the ^vhich our wills are
gardeners." Now it is very striking — perhaps startling for
sceptics of the Baconian theory of the Plays — to find Bacon enti-
tling his Ethics, " Georgics of the Mind," which title he borrows from
Virgil's "Observations upon Husbandry." "We will therefore
divide Moral Philosophy into two main and principal knowledges ;
the one concerning the exemplar or image of Good ; the other
concerning the Regiment and Culture of the Mind, which we are
wont to call the Georgics of the Mind" (p. 335, Book VII.,
"Advancement of Learning," 1640).

In the following passage from the play of " Richard the Third,"
we find the young Duke of York presented, quoting his wicked

uncle : —

I, quoth my uncle Gloucester,
Small herbs have grace, great weeds do grow apace.
And since methinks I would not grow so fast,
Because sweet flowers are slow, and^ weeds make haste.

I could have given my uncle's Grace a flout.
To touch his growth nearer than he toucKt me.

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

Now is the spring, and weeds are shallow rooted,
Suffer them now, and they'll o'ergrow the garden,
And choke the herbs for want of husbandry.

("2 King Henry VI.," act i. sc. 1.)

Compare the above with " A man's nature runs either to herbs
or weeds" and see how the same words are employed in context —

I04 BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MIND."

"herbs" — "iveeds" — in both quotations, one from the phantom
captain Shakespeare, — the other from Bacon.

Two such opposed kings encamp them still,
In 7)ian as well as herbs, grace and rude xvill ;
And where the worser is predominant,
Full soon the canker doth eat ujj that plant.

("Romeo and Juliet," act ii. sc. 3.)

It is remai'kable how fond the author of the plays is of
comparing plants and flowers with human nature, and of cankers
to illustrate vice. It cannot be called a casual metaphor because
so often repeated : —

Pro. Yet -vn'iters say, as in the sweetest bud
The eating canker dwells, so eating love
Inhabits in the finest wits of all.

Val. And -writers say, as the most forward bud
Is eaten by the canker ere it blow,
Even so by love the young and tender wit
Is turn'd to folly, blasting in the bud.
Losing his verdure even in the prime
And all the fair effects of future hopes.

("Two Gentlemen of Verona," act i. sc. 1.)

Virtue itself 'scapes not calumnious strokes :
The canker galls the infants of the spring.
Too oft before their buttons be disclosed,
And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
Contagious blastments are most imminent.

("Hamlet," act i. sc. 3.)

That weeds are applied as a metaphor for vices is certain : —

We have strict statutes and most biting laws,
The needful bits and curbs to headstrong iveeds.

(" Measure for Measure," act i. sc. 2.)

Twice treble shame on Angelo,
To weed my vice and let his grow

("Measure for Measure," act iii. sc. 2.)

lids is the idea of husbandry, or self-culture applied to the garden
of our bodies and minds, as Georgics. Bacon writes, " God
Almighty first planted a garden," and there may be in this remark
some implied thought of Man before the fall, of jjuiity before sin
entered the woiid, and the devil sowed the tares of vice.

BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MIXD." 105

" The primeval curse pronounced upon the earth in consequence
of man's sin, was ' Thorns also and thistles shall it hring forth to
thee ;^ and what the earth then became in a physical sense, that
the soul of man became in a spiritual — a Avilderness of rank and
noxious thorns, and we might add iceeds " {" Picture Lessons,"
by Peter Grant),

" The field on which the good seed is sown by Christ, is the
world. In the parable it is called His field ; and the world is
His, though not hij possession yet hij right. Meanwhile it is usurped
by a rival power — even hy the arch-spirit of evil * — but when Christ
comes to take possession of it. He comes whose right it is to
reign. The tares which were soAvn in this field along with the
wheat, are the children of the wicked one. ' Ye are,' saitli the Lord,
' of your father the devil ; and the lusts of your father ye will do.'
Both in the world and in the Church they are like darnel, unpro-
fitable in themselves, and positively injurious to the good seed by
temptation and by persecution. Even though they may enjoy
the benefit of the same soil, and sunshine, and showers, as the
good plants, they are hut as noxious weeds in the field, whose end
is to be burned" ("Picture Lessons," p. 32, Parable of the
Tares, Peter Grant).

He entered into due consideration how to weed out the partakei's of the
former rebellion. (" History of King Henry VII.")

We find Bacon in his Essays using the same simile to illustrate
the extirpation of \dce by laAV. " Eevenge is a kind of wild
justice, which, the more man's nature runs to, the more ought
law to weed it out" (" Of Eevenge ").

And in the following passage, " Fride " is expressed as

" seeded " with the words " rank," " nursery," used by Bacon to

express Poetry.

The seeded pride
That hath to this maturity blown up
In rank Achilles, must or now be cropt,

* The play of " Hamlet " presents strong parallels to this parable. Prince
Hamlet is the rigldfal heir to a throne usurped by a king who is the incarna-
tion of evil.

io6 BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MINDr

Or shedding breed a nursery of like evil
To over-bulk us all.

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

One of the " Antitheta " in the Sixth Book of the " De
A^^gme]ltis " is entitled " Pride." It is these " Antitheta " Bacon
introduces Avith the preliminary Avords that they are seeds, not
flowers.

" Afflictions only level those mole-hills of pide. Plough the
heart and make it fit for wisdom to soio her seed,- and for grace to
bring forth her increase. Happy is that man, therefore, both in
regard of heavenly and earthly wisdom, that is thus wounded to
be cured; thus broken to be made straight; thus made acquainted
with his own imperfections to be made straight " (" Letter
Ixx. to Lord Chief Justice Coke," 1702).

" Cast their seeds in the minds of others " (" Advancement of
Learning," Book I.).

Why your herb-woman ; she that sets seeds and roots of shame and iniquity.
(" Pericles," act iv. sc. 6.)

" After the knowledge of characters follows the knowledge of
Affections and passions, which are the diseases of the mind, as hath
Ijeen said. For as the ancient Politiques in popular states were
wont to say, That the people were like the sea, and the orators like the
loinds, because as the sea would of itself be calm and quiet, if the
winds did not move and trouble it, so the people of their nature
would be peaceable and tractable if the seditious orators did nob
set them in working and agitation. So it may be truly affirmed,
that mans mind, in the nature thereof, would be temperate and
staid, if the affections as winds did not put it into tumult and perturba-
tion" (Book VIL, " De Augmentis," Trans. 1640, p. 354).

How this is applied in the plays may be seen in a few
{ [notations : —

Oh no, my dream A\-as lengthened after life ;
Oh then began the tcmjiest to viy soul.

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

BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MINDr 107

Tlirow up thine eye ! see, see what showers arise,
Blown with the windy tempest of my heart.

("3 Henry VI.," act ii. sc. 5.)

But tliis effusion of such manly drops,
Tliis shower bloini up by tempicst of the soul,
Startles mine eyes.

(" King John," act v. sc. 2.)

Belike for want of rain which I could well
Beteem them/;wrt the tempest of my eyes.

("Midsummer's Night's Dream," act i. sc. 1.)

The identification of the microcosm of man's soul with the macro-
cosm, of Nature is very apparent throughout this wondrous art,
but particularly in the case of King Lear, Avhere the storm out-
side is the deep bass counterpoint to the tempest in Lear's heart,
forlorn as the desolate heath o'er which the wind blows. Notice
also that the affection of Lear's soul is described as a malady or
disease, which is in keeping with Bacon.

Scene IV, The heath. Before cc hovel.
Enter Lear, Kext, ccnd Fool.

Kent. Here is the place, my lord ; good my lord, enter ;
The tj'ranny of the open night's too rough
For nature to endure. [Storm still.

Lear. Let me alone.

Xe7it. Good my lord, enter here.

Lear. Wilt break my heart ?

Kent. I had rather break mine own. Good my lord, enter.

Lear. Thou think'st 'tis much that this contentious storm
Invades us to the skin : so 'tis to thee ;
But where the greater malady is fix'd.
The lesser is scarce felt. Thou'ldst shun a bear ;
But if thy flight lay toward the raging sea,
Thou'ldst meet the bear i' the mouth. AVhen the mind's free.
The body's delicate : the tempest in my mind
Doth from my senses take all feeling else
Save what beats there.

(" King Lear," act iii. sc. 3.)

I venture to suggest the play of the " Tempest " borrows its
title from the affinity of its subject matter to the creative power
or soul power of the poet author, as breath, life, air, wind
in motion. And the word " Tempest " is allied to the word

io8 BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MIND."

Soul. ^D/io's — the soul, is derived by Plato (" Cratyl" 419) from

^■jw, which means to ^' rush on" or "along," as of a mighty

rushing wind, and signifies also to storm, rage, also passion and

affection in its kindred forms. In Latin ajiimns (the soul) is the

seat of anger, Avrath, the feelings. How applicable to one who

has stirred the entire breast of man ! Upon the same page the

piece quoted from Bacon by us already is found ; we come upon

this in context with, it, as a pretty direct hint. " So, likewise,

I find some elegant books of some affedions, as of anger, of

tenderness of countenance, and some few others. But to speak

the truth, the best doctors of this biowledge are the poets and writers

of histories, where we may find painted and dissected to the life how

affections are to he stirred up and kindled, how still'd and laid asleep ;

how again contained and refrained that they break not forth into Act?"

(Book VII., Ethic, "De Augmentis," Trans. 1640, p. 355.)

Why this sentence ends with a note of interrogation we cannot

explain, unless it be to invite us to ask what particular poet is

pointed at !

We find in "Macbeth" the same treatment of sin as a disease,

an infection : —

Canst tliou not minister to a m ind diseased
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow: —
Raze out the written troubles of the brain.

(Act V. so. 3. )

And the Doctor exclaims : —

Infected minds
To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.

("Macbeth," act v. sc. 1.)

This is all in perfect keeping A\dth what Bacon "svTites : —
" Affections and passions which are the diseases of the mind," already
quoted. Again : — " First, therefore, in this as in all things
which are practical, we ought to cast up our account, wJiat is in
our power and what not : for the one may be dealt with by way of
alteration. Now in the culture of the mind of man, and the cure of
the diseases thereof, three things fall into consideration : the
diverse characters of dispositions, the affections, and the remedies"

BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MIND:' 109

{" Georgics of the Mind, or the Culture of Morals," Book VII.,
chap. iii.).

In the pliiys we repeatedly find Love described as an "z«-
fedion : " —

Boyct. If my observation, wliicli very seldom lies,
By the heart's still rhetoric disclosed with eyes,
Deceive me not now Navarre is infected.

Princess. With what ?

Boyet. With that which we lovers entitle affected.

Princess. Your reason ?

Boyet. Why, all his behaviour did make them retire
To th€ court of his eye j)ecping through desire.

("Love's Labour Lost," act ii. sc. 1.)

Now compare this by Bacon : — " There be none of the affec-
tions which have been noted to fascinate or bewitch, hut love and
envy. They both have vehement wishes ; they frame themselves
readily into imaginations and suggestions; and they come easily
into the eye ; especially upon the presence of the objects, which
are the points that conduce to fascination" ("Of Envy"). In
Bacon's " Natural History " he writes : — " Lust causeth a
flagi-ancy in the eyes " (Exp. 722). " The cause of both these
is, for that in lust the sight and the touch are the things
desired, and therefore the Spirits resort to those parts which are most
effected " (Ih.).

for beauty is a witch
Against whose charms faith melteth into blood.
This is an accident of hourly proof.

(" Much Ado about Nothing," act ii. sc. 1.

" The affections (no doubt) do make the Spirits more powerful

and active ; and especially those affections tvhich draw the Spirits

into the eyes: which are two, Love and Envy. And fascinatioji

is ever by the eye " ("Natural History," Ex. 944, Cent. x.).

Methinks I feel this youth's perfections.
With an invisible and subtle stealth,
To creep in at mine eyes.

(" Twelfth Night," act i. sc. 5.)

Bacon terms vices and sins diseases of the mind. In the plays
we find the expression ^^ Infection."

no BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MIND."

Anne. Vouchsafe defined infection of a man,
For these known evils but to give me leave,
By circumstance to curse, thy cursed self.

(" King Richard III.," act i. sc. 2.)

Anne. Out of my sight ! thou dost infect my eyes.
Glou. Thine eyes, sweet Lady, have infected mine.

{lb.)

The use of the expressions " purge," " purging," " piugation,"
are very frequent in the plays, and betray familiarity with
medicine. We refind Bacon frequently using these words in the
same sense, viz., as a cathartic.

" Yet in our judgment it (Astrology) should rather be purged
than clean cast away" ("Advancement of Learning," p. 147).

Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
Are burnt and purged axvay.

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

To take him in the purging of his soul.

(" Hamlet," act iii. sc. 3.)

" The next, that after this example, it is like that judges will
fly from anything in the likeness of corruption (though it were at
a great distance) as from a serpent, which tendeth to the purging
of the Courts of Justice " (" Lord Chancellor Bacon to the Lords,"
Cabala, p. 5, 1654).

Eos. You must be 2)urgcd too, your sins are rack'd,
You are attaint with faults and jierjury.

("Love's Labour Lost," act i. sc. 2.)

" I would only ask why the Civil State should be 2^urged and
restored by good and wholesome laws" ("Life," vol. iii. p. 105).

" Therefore care would be had that (as it fareth in ill purgings)
the good be not taken away with the bad, which commonly is
done when the people is the reformer " (" Superstition ").

" And here I will make a request, that for the latter (or at
least for a part thereof) I may revive and reintegrate the mis-
applied and abused name of natural magic; which in the true
sense is but natui^al Avisdom, or natural prudence, taken accord-

BACOJSrS " GEORGICS OF THE MIND." in

ing to the ancient acception 'purged from vanity and superstition"
("Advancement of Learning," Book II. p. 111).

In continuation of the passage cited from Bacon's "Ethics,"
touching his assertion that " the best Doctors of this hwvdedge are
the poeh, Avhere we may find painted and dissected to the life,
how affections are to be stirred up and kindled; how still'd
and laid asleep ; how again contain'd and refrain'd, that they
break not forth into act 1 LikcAvise how they disclose them-
selves, though repressed and secreted? What operations they
produce ? What turns they take ? How they are enwrapt
one within another ? How they fight and encounter one with
another ? And other the like particularities. Amongst the which,
this last is of special use in Moral and Civil matters. How I say
to set Affection against Affection, and by the help of one to master
and reclaim another ? After the rminner of Hunters and Fowlers,
who hunt beast ^dfh least,* and fly bird icith bird" (Book VII.,
p. 355, "De Augmentis," Trans. 1640).

The setting of affection against affection in this manner is
abundantly portrayed in the plays. In the play of " Troilus
and Cressida," the pride of Ajax is set against the pride of
Achilles in exactly the Avay inculcated by Bacon — that is, as
preying upon each other : —

How one man eats into another's pride, f
While pride is fasting in his wantonness.

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

Two cnrs shall tame each other : pride alone
Must tarre the mastiffs on, as 'twere their bone.

{lb., act i. sc. 3.)

Space forbids us to illustrate what is really one of the leading
motives of this play, viz., the contrast afforded by Ajax and

* Give him allowance as the worthier man,
For that wiW 2Jliy sic the great Myrmidon.

("Troilus and Cressida.")
t Humanity must perforce prey on itself,
Like monsters of the deep.

(" King Lear," act iv. sc. 2.)

112 BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MINDT

Achilles, the former egged on by the plot of Ulysses and Nestor
to humble the pride of the latter, and put him into motion.

Or take the " Taming of the Shrew," where one had temper is
(in Bacon's words) master' d and reclaim' d hy another had teviper —
a she-devil by a he-devil.

Grcmio. A bridegi'Oom say you ? 'Tis a groom indeed,
A grumbling groom, and that the giii shall find.
Tranio. Curster than she ? Why 'tis imjiossihle.
Grcmio. "Why he's a devil, a devil, a very iiend.
Tranio, "Why, she's a devil, a devil, the devil's dam.
Grcmio. Tut, she's a lamb, a dove, a fool to him.

(" Taming of the Shrew," act iii. sc. 2).

Pet. Thus have I politicly begun my reign,
And 'tis my hope to end successfully.
My falcon now is sharp, and passing empty ;
And till she stoop she must not be full gorged,
For then she never looks upon her lure.
Another way I have to man my haggard,
To make her come and know her keeper's call.
That is, to watch her, as we M'atch these kites
That bate and beat and will not be obedient.

("Taming of the Shrew," act iv. sc. 1.)

This is exactly an example of what Bacon writes in his book
of Ethics in the "De Augmentis." "But to speak truth, the
best Doctors of tJiis knowledge are the Poets. . . . How I say
to set affection against affection, and hy the help of one to master
and reclaim another.^ After the manner of Hunters and Fowlers,
who hunt beast Avith beast, and/y hird with bird" ("Advancement
of Learning," 1640, p. 355).

" In Much Ado About Nothing," we find Benedict and
Beatrice brought into a mountain of affection for each other
by a trick which might be called a " foAvler's," viz. — imitation.
Each overhears that the one is madly in love with the other,
and just as wild birds are caught b)' a call bird, find themselves
limed in reality in the end. It is characteristic of this entire
art that character is set against character, as shadow or contrast,
and that Ethic is predominant from first to last in the treatment.

In the " Tavo Books of the Advancement," 1605, we read:

BACON'S '' GEORGICS OF THE MIND." 113

— "It were too long to go over the particular remedies Avhich
learning doth niiiiider to, all the diseases of the mind ; sometimes
purging the ill humours, sometimes opening the obstructions,
sometimes helping digestion, sometimes increasing appetite,
sometimes healing the Avounds and exulcerations thereof, and
the like ; and therefore I will conclude with that which hath
rationem corrupt the state thereof. For the mind of man is far
from the nature of a clear and equal glass, wherein the beams
of things should reflect according to their true incidence ; nay,
it is rather like an enchanted glass, full of superstition and
imposture, if it be not delivered and reduced."

Note the words Ave place in italics, where we refind the three
chief words of the line already quoted from " Macbeth " : —

Canst tliou not minister to a mind diseased?

Bacon no doubt borrowed this image from Cicero : " But if
the joy of living is interrupted by the afflicting maladies of the
body, how much greater must its interruption be from the
Diseases of the Mind ? Noav the Diseases of the Mind consist in
insatiable and superfluous appetites after Eiches, Glory, Power,
and even sensual pleasures ; add to these disquiet, uneasiness,
and melancholy ; all of Avhich prey upon and consume with
anxiety the spirits of those who are ignorant that the mind ought
to have no sensation of pain, for anything that is distinct from
the pain of the body, either present or to come. And now I
must observe, that there is not a fool in the world who is not
sick of some one or other of these diseases ; and therefore there is
not a fool who is not unhappy " {" De Finibus "). Cicero's in-
fluence upon Bacon in the matter of morals divides honours Avith
Seneca. Both inculcated doctrines of the noblest morality or un-
selfishness, and Ave may guess that the Avriter who penned the
folloAving Avords, would hold a high place vdth. the author of such
plays as " Measure for Measure" and the " Merchant of Venice."
" Let me ask you Avhether you think I Avon't say an Homer, an
Archilochus, a Pindar, even a Phidias, a Polycletus, a Zeuxis,

H

114 BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MIND^

directed their arts to the purposes of sensual pleasures % " (" De
Finibus," ii. x.).

" For to this end shall truth be delivered as naked as if your-
self were to be anatomized" ("Letter to Chief-Justice Coke,"

Ixx. 1702).

The wise man's folly is anatomized.

("As you Like It," act. ii. sc. 7.)

Let them anatomize Regan.

(" Lear," act iii. sc. 6.)

There are eleven entries of the words "anatomy" "anatomized"
in the plays (see Cowden Clarke's "Concordance"). And it is
used in the sense of discovering disease of the soul, and also in the
sense of a skeleton : —

A mere anatomy, a mountebank.

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

Directly we open the Seventh Book of Bacon's " De Aug-
mentis," we find ourselves in contact Avith the subject of " Morals,"
or " Ethic," which rightly employed is really the basis of Drama
and all Stage Plays. In the Second Book of the " Advancement "
(1605), Bacon writes: "And therefore, as Plato said elegantly,
That virtue, if she could he seen, would move great affection and love :
so seeing that she cannot be shewed to the Sense, hy corporal
shape the next degree is to show her to the Imagination in lively repre-
sentation : for to show her to Reason, only in subtilty of argument,
was a thing ever derided in Chrysippus and many of the Stoics,
who thought to thrust virtue upon men by sharp disputations
and conclusions, which have no sympathy Avith the will of Man "
("Advancement of Learning," Book IL, p. 67, 1605).

This is such an unmistakable allusion or hint for the use of
Eepresentative Poetry (the Drama) as means of ethical instruction,
that it hardly needs our apology. Bacon is plainly referring to
" Virtue " seen or represented upon the Stage in Stage Plays,
and we have only to think of Isabella in " Measure for
Measure," or of Desdemona, to realise all Bacon Avrites. We
see Bacon is not alluding to Virtue in daily life, for he declares.

BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MINDr 115

" she cannot be shewed to the sense, by corporal shape." And
he condemns argument and persuasions by means of Reason, as
of no use and eflfect. Inuujination is the faculty of the mind,
producing and answering with Bacon to Poetry. " The parts of
humane learning have reference to the three parts of Man's un-
derstanding, Avhich is the seat of learning : History to his
Memory, Poesie to his Imagination, Philosophy to his Reason " (p.
7, Book II., "Advancement of Learning," 1605). ^^Representa-
tive {Poesy) is as a visible history, and is an image of actions as if they
were present" (p. 18, "Advancement of Learning," Bk. II., 1605).
" Dramatical or Representative (Poetry) is as it were visible his-
tory" ("Advancement of Learning," p. 106, 1640). And that
Bacon in the passage quoted (about the representation of iirtue to
the Imagination) is alluding to the value of a right use of the
Drama, for purposes of ethical teaching, may be seen in his use of
the words " lively representation " and " Imagination." In Book II.
of the " De Augmentis " (the only page upon which he directly
discusses, or alludes to the use and abuse of the Drama) :
" Dramatical or Representative Poesy, which brings the World
upon the Stages, is of excellent use if it were not abused. For the
instructions and corruptions of the Stage may be great, but the
corruptions in this kind abound, the discipline is altogether
neglected in om: times. For although in modern Common-wealths,
Stage Plays be but esteemed a sport or pastime unless it draw
from the satyr, and be mordant, yet the care of the Ancients was
that it should instruct the minds of men unto virtue" (p. 107, "Ad-
vancement of Learning," 1640).

If we now return to Bacon's " Ethics " (Seventh Book) in his
" De Augmentis" (1623, 1640), we find him again hiviing at the
value of Piepresentation of Character, and ^^the uselessness of j^re-
cepts, arguments, and dry lessons, as instruments of instruction
and example in morality. "It is not the disputing that moral
virtues are in the mind of man by habit, and not by nature ; or
formally distinguishing between generous spirits and the obscure
vulgar ; that those are won by the weight of Reasons ; these by

ii6 BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MIND."

reAvard and punishment ; or the "\\itty precept, that to rectify the
mind of man, it must like a staff be boAved the contrary Avay to
its inclination, and the like glances scattered here and there.
These and the like are far short of being a just excuse of t]\e
Deficience of that thinrj which now we seek" (Book VII., p. 334).

For a moment we halt in the quotation of the passage to call
attention to the fact, that Bacon is propounding a Deficience, and
seeking something which is to take the place, and better dry rules and
arguments, for the instruction of virtue and morality. What can
this be 1 He then continues : " For Avritings should be such as
should MAKE MEN IN LOVE WITH THE Lessons, and not ynth. the
teachers." How thoroughly this agrees vdlh. the lessons of the
Theatre, known as SJiakes2)eare's plays ! And is it not in these
plays that we can exclaim. Virtue is seen and does move great
affection and love? But it is evident to a close student of
Bacon's obscure and private language (the Seventh Book, "De Aug-
mentis "), he is really driving at portrayal or poiiraits of character
and characters I " In handling of this Science, those which have
■\\Titten thereof, seem to me to have done, as if a man that 2yrofessed
the art of writing should only exhibit fair copies of Alphabets and
letters joined, without giving any p7'ecepts fm- the carriage of the hand
and framing of the cJiaracters " (Book VII., " Advancement of Learn-
ing," p. 333, 1640).

The prominency of the ethical in the construction of the plays
is a point which always gathers strength with deeper study. I
am myself convinced, although I cannot pretend to furnish evi-
dence of my belief, that the Ethical in these Avorks amounts to
philosophical piinciple, which will some day be revealed by Bacon
himself, and astonish us by its laying bare the mechanism of
morality, as a result of law. No anticipation or bare study of
the text Avill ever bring us to the solution of this problem, ex-
cept through the application of the " De Augmentis," as a great
key book to unriddle this problem, with the assistance of Bacon
himself. This work is initiatory and magistral. It is the i^rose
text, \\v\ttQn in private and obscure language, of the plays, which

BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MIND:' 117

grew up side l>y side with it, as Avorks and keys, or what he
terms " Interpi-etatiun of Nature:' And Ave can see this in the fact,
that as Bacon continued to write j^lays after 1605, he found it
necessary to rewrite and enlarge the " Two Books of the Advance-
ment of Learning " into the stately " De Augmentis," Avhich
appears side hy side with the first collected edition of the plays the
same year, 1623. Everything in the "De Augmentis" of 1623, may
be refound in germ in the 1605 "Two Books of the Advancement
of Learning.' The fact Bacon repeats the same subjects (only
developed and enlarged) in the " De Augmentis " as are to be
found in the " Two Books of the Advancement " is proof he was
Avriting with a distinct object in view, and not for the sake of
variety or present fame. But the slightest study of the two
Avorks reveals their characters at a glance. Setting the ciphers
and great book of " Deliver// of Secret Knowledge " aside, Avith
its methods and distinct affiliation Avith the Essays (through
the " Colours of Good and Evil," " Antitheta," and " Minor For-
mulae"), the chapters and sections upon ''Places of suggestion" or
" Topic" " Literate Experience" " Promptuary Place of Prepara-
tion" cannot be explained upon any theory at all except as finger-
posts of direction, for something literanj in some hook and not
in nature. I knoAV hoAv this statement Avill arouse scepticism and
incredulity, but let those Avho so feel, first rub their eyes a little,
and read the third chapter of the Fifth Book of the " De Aug-
mentis " in Latin, or in the English translation by AVats of
1640. Let them suppose themselves to have the question put
them, to what does (dl this apply, or, indeed, what does it mean?
I venture to think their replies Avould be ciu-ious, and their
A\Titten statements interesting. I entirely put aside for the
moment the leading or basic part History and Poetry play in
this Avork, disguised under the terms " Feign'd History,"
"Imagination," and "Elocution." I Avant to knoAv Avhy Khetoric
is part of the " Wisdom of Private Speech " and of " Promptuary,"
or Suggestive ? And Avhy the examples of this Rhetoric are the
kernels, or pros and cons, of the Essays 1 Fiu'ther, Avhy all this

ii8 BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MIND."

belongs to the art Traditive, or " Delivery of the things Invented " .?
All this we assert deals vnth Art. For Bacon distinctly writes :
— " Invention (Discovery) is of two kinds, much differing, the
one of Art^ and Sciences, the other of arguments and speeches.
The fminer of these (Arts) I report to be wholly Deficient, which
seems to me such a deficience, as if in the making of an inventory
tondiing the estate of a Defund, it shoidd he set down, of ready money
nothing ; for as money will fetch all other commodities ; so all
other arts are purchased by this art." This is a pretty clear
hint for the plays. And in the " Two Books of the Advance-
ment " of 1605, the same subject is varied thus : —

" To procure this ready use of knowledge there are two
courses, preparation and suggestion. The former of these
seemeth scarcely a jiart of knowledge, consisting rather of dili-
gence than of any artificial erudition. And herein Aristotle
■\nttily, but hurtfully, doth deride the Sophists near his time,
saying, They did as if one that jiTofessed the art of shoe-making should
not teach hoto to make up a shoe, hut only exhibit in a readiness a
number of shoes of all fashions and sizes. But yet a man might
reply, that if a shoemaker should have no shoes in his shop,
but only Avork as he is bespoken, he should be Aveakly customed.
But our Saviour, speaking of divine knowledge, saith. That
the kingdom of heaven is like a good householder, that bringeth forth
both new and old store: and Ave see the ancient writers of rhetoric
do give it precept, that pleaders should have the places, Avhereof
they have most continual use, ready handled in all the variety
that may be ; as that, to speak for the literal interpretation of
the law against equity, and contrary ; and to speak for presump-
tions and inferences against testimony, and contrary. And
Cicero himself, being broken unto it by great exiierience, de-
livereth it plainly, that Avhatsoever a man shall have occasion
to speak of (if he will take the pains), he may have it in effect
premeditate and handled in thesi."

It seems to us Bacon is pretty clearly alluding to the jrros
and cons, or places of " persuasion and dissuasion," of the Essays,

BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MINDr 119

as implied in the " Colours of Good and Evil." And we are not
at all sure by the word " sliue^" he is not playing upon the word
" shows" or plays. In the " De Augmentis " this same passage
is varied thus : — " To procure this ready Provision for discourse
there are two ways ; either that it may be designed or pointed
out, as it were, hy an index, under wliat heads the matter is to be
sought; and this is what we call topic; 0?' else that arguments
may he beforehand framed and stored up about such thing as are
frequently incident and come into discepfation, and this we will mil
jjroniptaary art or of prepiaration." The passage continues from
this moment just as the passage quoted from the " Two Books
of the Advancement." Bacon is evidently hinting that examples
are necessary before arguments, and that Shoes are part of the
estate of a shoemaker, and more to the point as the things themselves
than mere arguments. All this points, we think, to the Anti-
theta as promptuary to the plays. Bacon calls this part "PromptUr
ary Preparation," belonging to '^Inventive Arts" as ^^ Places of
Suggestion," being a branch of Logic, of which this Book V.
treats. In the " Platform of the Design," we find this Art of
Discovery (Invention) divided into Arts and Arguments.

[ Arts into

Inquisition or J
Invention

Arguments
into

Literate
Experience.

Interpretation of Nature.

In the "Two Books of the Advancement," 1605, " De Cultura
anirni" is the germ of the "Georgics of the Mind" in the 1623
"De Augmentis." And we find this " husbandry of character"
(upon page 202, sec. xxii.. Book II. "Wright), discussing " men's
natures" or characters, page 206, with hints for the Essays,
inasmuch as the subjects we place in italics are the titles of some
of Bacon's Essays : — ■

" A man shall find in the traditions of astrology some pretty
and apt divisions of men's natures, according to the predominances

I20 BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MIND:'

of the planets ; lovers of quiet, lovers of action, lovers of victory,
lovers of honour, lovers of pleasure, lovers of arts, lovers of
change, and so forth. A man shall find in the basest sort of
these relations which the Italians make touching conclaves, the
natures of the several cardinals handsomely and lively painted
forth. A man shall meet with in every day's conference the
denominations of sensitive, dry, formal, real, humorous, cei'tain,
Imomo di piima impresdone, huomo di ultima impressione, and the
like : and yet nevertheless this kind of observations wandereth
in Avords, but is not fixed in inquiry. For the distinctions are
found (many of them), but we conclude no precepts upon them :
wherein our fault is the greater ; because both history, poesy, and
daily experience are as goodly fields where these observations grow ;
Avhereof we make a few posies to hold in our hands, but no man
bringeth them to the confectionery, that receipts might be made
of them for use of life.

" Of much like kind are those impressions of nature, Avhich are
imposed upon the mind by the sex, by the age, by the region,
by health and sickness, by beauty and deformity,'*' and the like,
Avhich are inherent and not extern ; and again, those which
are caused by extern fortune ; as sovereignty, nobility, obscure
birth, riches, want, magistracy, privateness, prosperity, adversity,
constant fortune, variable fortune, rising pier salturn, j^er gradus,
and the like."

Mark the hint Bacon gives us as to "history" and ''poesy"
for the fields where these observations grow. Amongst Bacon's
"Essays" and " Antitheta," we find the subjects "Nobility,"
" Riches," " Adversity," and " Fortune," and it seems to us
Bacon gives us these same titles as hints, fearing to say more
in context with poetry. " Sovereignty " is much the same as
" Empire," which is one of the essays. It is the context of
all this that gives force to our evidence. For Bacon introduces
the affections as part of Ethics, and Ijlames Aristotle for his
omission to do the same : —

" Another article of this knowledge is the inquiry touching

* There are two Essays by Bacon, entitled " Beauty," and " Deformity."

BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MINDr 121

the nffections ; for us in mediciuing of the l)ody, it is in onler
first to know the divers complexions and constitutions ; secondly,
the diseases ; and lastly, the cures : so in medicining of the
mind, after knowledge of the divers characters of men's natures,
it followeth in order to know the diseases and infirmities of
the mind, which are no other than the perturbations and dis-
tempers of the affections. For as the ancient politiques in
popular estates were wont to compare the people to the sea,
and the orators to the winds ; because as the sea would of itself
be calm and quiet, if the winds did not move and trouble it ; so
the people would be peaceable and tractable, if the seditious
orators did not set them in working and agitation : so it may
be fitly said, that the mind in the nature thereof would be
temperate and stayed, if the affections, as Avinds, did not put
it into tumult and perturbation. And here again I find strange,
as before, that Aristotle should have written divers volumes of
Ethics, mid never handled the affections^ which is the princijjal
subject thereof; and yet in his Rhetorics, where they are con-
sidered but collaterally and in a second degree (as they may
be moved by speech), he findeth place for them, and handleth
them well for the quantity ; but where their true place is, he
pretermitteth them. For it is not his disputations about pleasure
and pain than can satisfy this inquiry, no more than he that
should generally handle the nature of light can be said to handle
the nature of colours ; for pleasure and pain are to the particular
affections, as light is to particidar colours" (Book II. "Advancement
of Learning," 1605).

Have Ave not here a hint for the title and subject emitter, " The
Colours of Good and Evil," Avhich are attached to the Essays, and
Avere published 1597 Avith them ? —

" ISTothing more variable than faces and countenances : yet
men can bear in memory the infinite distinctions of them ; nay,
a painter Avith a few shells of colours, and the benefit of his eye,
and habit of his inuigi nation, can imitate them all that ever have
been, are, or may be, if they Avere brought before him" ("Ad-
vancement of Learning," 1605, Book II., p. 136).

122 BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MIND."

Ill this same work Bacon tells us Poesij is referred to imagina-
tion ; —

" The jmrts of human learning have reference to the three
l)arts of man's understanding, which is the seat of learning :
history to his memory, poesy to his imagination, and philosophy
to his I'eason " (p. 85).

And here let us remark, the " Antitheta," given in the Sixth
Book " De Avigmentis," are affiliated to the " Colours of Good
and Evil," and there is a gradus of descent evidently, from the
" Essays " to the " Colours," " Antitheta," and " Minor Eormulse."
What we are suggesting is that the colours (in the painter's sense)
of the characters of the 1623 theatre, are the "Antitheta" viz.: —
the affections, passions, whose titles are Pride, Ingratitude, Envy,
Vainglory, Constancy, Fortitude, Temperance, Dissimulation,
Boldness, Flattery, Love, Friendship, with their conditions,
Nobility, Beauty, Youth, Health, Riches, Honours, Praise, &c.

These, we say, are the Colours of the Theatre, and the particular
treatise " On the Colours of Good and Evil " merely instructions
for our unravelling of these colours in the plays, the -pros and cons
to instruct us to guard against sophisms, and to show how the
same thing may be obscured in the Essays. The strong points
are that we find the " Essays " connected with the " Antitheta,"
or really identified with them as fruit and seed. And these
"Antitheta " are given as promptuary, text, or cues, and part of the
" Wisdom of Private Speech," embraced under the title of Book