13.-PHILOSOPHIA PRIMA.

The laws of Nature, which are also the laws of life and thought, which are exemplified in the Primum Mobile belong properly to Bacon's Philosophia prima, some specimens of which may be now given.

Bacon was greatly interested in the Maxims of Philosophia prima-universal laws, applicable to all forms and spheres of being-true for mathematics, for physics, for ethics, for policy. In this respect Bacon's mind evidently had an element of mysticism in its composition. For he will not allow these "correspondences between the architectures and fabrics of things natural and things civil" to be only similitudes, or fancies, "but plainly the same footsteps of nature treading or printing upon different subjects,' which is a close approximation to Swedenborg's doctrine of correspondences. One of these maxims is, "In nature things move violently to their place, and calmly in their place. So virtue in ambition is violent, in authority, settled and calm." (See Essay of "Great Place." Antitheta on "Office.") This law of the highest Philosophy is certainly referred to in the words,—

All things that are

Are with more spirit chased than enjoyed.

(Mer. Ven. II. vi. 12).

The whole passage is so strikingly in accordance with the spirit and idea of Bacon's Philosophia prima, that it may be added to the specimens which he gives in the "Advancement" and De Aug. III. ii.; Works I. 540, III. 346, IV. 337. It should also be noted that Bacon gives several of these specimens because the scientific discussion of this philosophy is entirely neglected-there is a "mere and deep silence" upon it-it is as a branch of science, non-existant. This gives a deeper significance to the illustrations of the same Philosophy in Shakespeare-specimens evidently given with a perfect consciousness of their philosophical import, being such "profitable observations and

MYSTIC CORRESPONDENCIES.

195

axioms as fall not within the compass of any of the special parts of philosophy or science, but are more common, and of a higher stage." The entire passage is as follows:

Gratiano. It is marvel he outdwells his hour,
For lovers ever run before the clock.

Salarino.-O, ten times faster Venus' pigeons fly

To seal love's bonds, new-made, than they are wont
To keep obliged faith unforfeited!

Gratiano.-That ever holds. Who riseth from a feast
With that keen appetite that he sits down?
Where is the horse that doth untread again
His tedious measures with the unbated fire
That he did pace them first? All things that are
Are with more spirit chased than enjoyed.
How like a younker or a prodigal

The scarfed bark puts from her native bay,
Hugg'd and embraced by the strumpet wind.
How like the prodigal doth she return

With over-weather'd ribbs and ragged sails,

Lean, rent, and beggar'd by the strumpet wind.

If anyone hesitates as to the possibility of admitting such fancies as these into grave philosophical discussion, let him compare them with the dozen illustrations of "Persian Magic" given in De Aug. III. ii. Every one of these illustrations is quite as remote from our conceptions as to the sort of wares a philosopher should deal in as the specimens given by Salarino and Gratiano. I cannot myself doubt that the same intention of discussing grave moral and political questions by the methods of the Philosophia prima is to be recognised in the marvellous discourses of Agamemnon, Nestor and Ulysses in Tro. Cres. I. iii. Various types of "checks and disasters" shew the "correspondences between the architectures and fabrics of things natural and things civil," the reproof of chance which shews the true proof of men is seen in ships and trees and cattle as much as in men,-the universal principle that neglect of "degree, priority, place, insisture, course, proportion, season, form, office and custom, in all

line of order" brings disaster and ruin, is to be seen in planets, storms, seas, rivers, the fixity and calm of Nature, as well as in armies, states, families, factions, schools, brotherhoods, commerce: and all of these are so many pages and sections of the Philosophia prima, so many contributions to the supply of its deficiencies. The majestic speeches in this marvellous play are full of this philosophy.

Sometimes the analogy which is raised to the dignity of Natural law, is not entirely in agreement with facts. A most remarkable illustration is the following:

On the accession of Henry V. to the throne, there is a scene in which the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely are speaking of the "blessed change" from wild prince Hal, to the wise, sagacious, and truly noble monarch. The prince who had been addicted to riotous company is now a pattern to the wisest. How has the change come about? The Bishop replies :

The strawberry grows underneath the nettle,
And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best
Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality.
And so the prince obscured his contemplation
Under the veil of wildness; which no doubt
Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night,
Unseen yet crescive in his faculty.

(Hen. V. I. i. 60).

The horticulture of this passage is very doubtful; yet it is exactly expounded in the Sylva Sylvarum, where we find a chapter on experiments in "Consort" touching the sympathy and antipathy of things, and this is one of the illustrations. "Wheresoever one plant draweth such a particular juice out of the earth as it qualifieth the earth, so as that juice which remaineth is fit for the other plant, there the neighbourhood [mark the word] doeth good, because the nourishments are contrary or several but where two plants draw much the same juice then the neighbourhood hurteth." The idea is that the sweet fruit.

FANTASTIC HORTICULTURE.

197

monopolizes the sweet producing qualities of the soil, and flourishes better if the nearest plants do not produce sweetness, but something else,—the contrasted quality of the plants is advantageous to each. See Syl. Syl. 480—491. The same idea is thus expressed in the Novum Organon: "If it be said that there is consent [consensus] and friendship between corn and the corn-cockle or wild poppy, because these herbs hardly come up except in ploughed fields, it should rather be said that there is enmity between them, because the poppy and corn-cockle are emitted and generated from a juice of the earth which the corn has left and rejected, so that sowing the ground with corn prepares it for their growth." (Nov. Org. II. 50).

Another physiological doctrine was that life may be prolonged by medicine: some drugs being capable of warding off dissolution, even though they do not cure disease, or give any other benefit. "The third part of

medicine which I have set down is that which relates to the Prolongation of life, which is new and deficient, and the most noble of all," and he proceeds to supply "admonitions, directions and precepts." (De Aug. IV. ii). This gives a much needed key to the extent of meaning in the following lines,—

By medicine life may be prolong'd, yet Death
Will seize the doctor too.

(Cymb. V. v. 29).

The significance of this is all the greater, when we observe that Bacon refers to this department of medical art as one that is neglected, deficient, and almost forgotten.

CONCLUSION.-PHILOSOPHICAL MAXIMS.

The correspondences both in thought and expression given in this chapter are of a very significant character. They are not mere chance repetitions of current ideas, the common property of all literary persons, winged creatures flying in the air for any one to catch and cage. It is easy to

toss them aside with these explanations; but those who use them are bound to enter into detail and point out some at least of the common sources whence they are derived. It is not for us to prove the negative contention that they were not current commonplaces at the time they were produced. If they were it cannot be difficult for those who take the affirmative position to prove that. It should, however, be noticed that even if some casual approximation to the same ideas and expressions may be found in other writers, yet in their Shakespearean setting they are so characteristically Baconian that no well-informed person hesitates to attribute them to him, as specially characteristic of his mind and thought. We may claim for Bacon certain patent rights in his mines and forges,—in the sunshine which visits the vilest places,-in his special mode of affirming the fertilizing uses of money,-in his use of possunt quia posse videntur,-in the nourishment which he finds in his afternoon sleep,-in his resolute identification of Art and Nature,and in the strange poetic fancies of his Philosophia Prima : and so on through a countless number of such instances as are supplied by the Promus, and in the echoes and correspondencies which are pointed out in the next two chapters. Some of these characteristically Baconian utterances have become current since his day. No one now refers the title of Charles Dickens' "Household Words" to Shakespeare. When we use Shakespeare's immortal words about bringing taper-light to garnish sunlight, we do not trace it to Bacon's memorandum To help the Sun with lanterns. We are the careless inheritors of a great literary estate, and we forget our illustrious ancestor who won it for us: the trees he planted seem to our unreflective eyes to be self-sown. As soon as all the items of this vast literary property are labelled with the names of their original inventors the names of Bacon and Shakespeare are so intrinsically and organically united that it is impossible to separate them, and the identity of the two is almost demonstrated.