2.-THE POET.

He was a poet. Nearly all the critics agree in this, however much they may otherwise differ. The quick perception of analogies, the habit of reading spiritual laws in (and into) historic facts and natural phenomena, the irresistible poetic bias which induced him to enshrine the fanciful conceits of his Philosophia Prima into the very highest place, the very citadel of his Philosophy, all these were supremely characteristic of his mind. He was, like Shakespeare, primarily a philosopher, a moralist, and he uses his powers of invention, his imagination and fancy and eloquence, in order that he may discourse more effectively on matters pertaining to the conduct of life and to knowledge and experience of the world. And whenever he discusses these topics, he is lavish in the use of poetic imagery and vivid imaginative discourse. In his "Advancement of Learning," he is irresistibly tempted to wander over far larger fields than the immediate topic requires, in order to introduce most exquisite discussions of the symbolic meanings which he finds in the fables of ancient mythology. He lingers over all sorts of social and ethical questions,-Nobility, Beauty, Riches, Praise, Fortune and such like. We may well ask why he should decorate his philosophy with plumage of this kind. In truth, the only reason is that the philosopher is really a poet. He must sing, for his native region is Parnassus, and the stores of wisdom and of beauty which he finds in the sacred mount, flow forth spontaneously whenever he speaks. Even in the Novum Organum his scientific expositions sparkle with the jewels of fancy; the nomenclature of his inductive processes is one of the most astonishing exhibitions of witty invention ever produced. The wine of Poetry distilled from his "Vintages" almost intoxicates the senses, and often half spoils his science. Harvey was puzzled, perhaps with some mixture of scorn, at these scientific discourses of the "Chancellor." He

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had not been accustomed to such science-it had never come forth from his shop, none of his masters discoursed thus. The surprising feature of the case is, that notwithstanding the poetry, the science is so good. Such a blending of scientific insight and poetic fancy is without parallel in all literature. Goethe is the nearest approach. Bacon spoke of himself as a "concealed poet," and I have seen no approach to a satisfactory explanation of this most remarkable utterance, except that which connects him with Shakespeare. And all the best critics and biographers of Bacon refer to his poetical attributes. If testimony relating to poetic faculty apart from poetic art is to have any weight, that of Shelley may suffice. More than once he dwells enthusiastically on the poetic character of Bacon's mind. "Like Plato "-Shelley writes in his Symposium,"-"he exhibits the rare union of close and subtle logic with the Pythian enthusiasm of poetry, melted by the splendour and harmony of his periods into one irresistible stream of musical impressions, which hurry the persuasions onward as in a breathless career. His language is that of an immortal spirit rather than a man.' ." These words, though applied primarily to Plato, are expressly handed on to Bacon. And in his "Defence of Poetry," Shelley writes :

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"Lord Bacon was a poet. His language has a sweet and majestic rhythm which satisfies the sense, no less than the almost superhuman wisdom of his philosophy satisfies the intellect. It is a strain which distends, and then bursts the circumference of the reader's mind, and pours itself forth together with it, into the universal element sympathy" (Defence of Poetry ").

3.-BACON'S CONCEALMENTS.

Bacon writes of himself as "a concealed poet." One argument against his supposed Shakespearian authorship is derived from the concealment involved. It is contended that if Bacon had written "Shakespeare" some indications

of this would certainly appear in his correspondence, or in that of his personal friends, some of whom must have shared the secret with him. If Bacon himself wished to conceal this fact he would doubtless do so very effectually, and would pledge his friends (especially Ben Jonson, John Heminge, and Henry Condell), to respect his incognito. The reasons for this secrecy are not difficult to conjecture, and have been so fully discussed by Baconian writers that I need not here dilate upon them. (See Reed's "Bacon v. Shakespeare," p. 124. Donnelly's "Great Crypt.," i. 246.)

Suffice it to say that for reasons of his own, doubtless good and sufficient, he elected to be known by his contemporaries and by immediate posterity as a philosopher and reformer of science, rather than as a poet, especially a dramatic poet. But there is another side to this concealment which is less noticed. Bacon's private life has never been written, and the materials for writing it do not exist, or certainly have not been found. His public life, as a statesman and lawyer is very fully known, but we never catch a glimpse of him in his parlour, or study, or bedroom. His private letters have nearly all disappeared, and such personal recollections as his contemporaries penned do not supply any important particulars of home life and its domestic details. Spedding publishes a letter written to his niece referring to her approaching marriage, and prefixes the following remarks:

"The letter which follows is again a solitary specimen.. A letter of advice from Bacon to his niece upon an offer of marriage to which she was not inclinable, is a task which, exhibiting him in a new relation, throws some new light upon his character,-a light which is more valuable because, while he has left the records of the business of his life for our inspection in such abundance and with so little reserve,-while he makes us welcome to attend him to the Court, the palace, the Parliament, and the council-board, to his gardens, his chambers, and his study, he seldom or never admits us to his fireside. We

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have a few letters of affection to kinsmen or familiar friends, which are amongst the most agreeable of his writings; but if it had not been for the miscellaneous bundles of papers of all sorts left by his brother Anthony, and probably never examined, we should have known nothing at all of his more intimate domestic relations. Here we get a glimpse of him as an uncle only; but in the absence of all records of that most intimate relation of all, an account of which seems to have been expected of me, but must still be expected in vain, it is something to know how he acquitted himself in a correspondence with the daughter of his half-brother " (“Life,” vi. 173).

Here is one specimen of the way in which Bacon "sequestered himself from popularity," and locked the door whenever he entered into his closet. And in other respects we can plainly see Bacon's fondness for selfconcealment. There are several letters, published in Spedding's "Life," which, though written by Bacon, were appropriated, with his concurrence, by others. In Vol. I., page 97, is a long and important letter signed by Sir Francis Walsingham, which is undoubtedly Bacon's. The very characteristic letters to the Earl of Rutland on his travels, were sent to the Earl by Lord Essex as his own compositions, and are included in Devereux's Memoirs of the Earl of Essex. The editor was hardly prepared to find such compositions among the Essex MSS., and finds in them proofs of a greater literary gift than he supposed Essex to possess. No one familiar with Bacon's writings can have the least hesitation in assenting to Mr. Spedding's conclusion that they are his. There are also letters written for the Earl to Anthony Bacon, and another for Anthony's reply, intended to be used in order to restore Essex to the favour of the Queen. Of these letters Dr. 、 Abbott says:-"The wonderful exactness with which he has caught the somewhat quaint, humorous, cumbersome style of Anthony, and the abrupt, incisive antithetical and passionately rhetorical style of Essex, makes the perusal

of these letters a literary treat, independent of their other merits." Here also we find the dramatic faculty revealing itself. This hide-and-seek propensity is not without significance when the question of Bacon's relation to Shakespeare is under consideration.

4.-BACON'S LITERARY OUtput.

Among the many shallow objections brought against the Baconian theory, one is founded on the assumption that Bacon was a voluminous writer, and that if we add to his avowed literary productions the Shakespearean Drama, he is loaded with such a stupendous literary progeny as no author could possibly generate. Moreover, he was so busy in state business as a lawyer, judge, counsellor, member of Parliament, confidential adviser to the King and the responsible rulers in State and Church, that he had very little spare time for authorship.

As to Bacon's occupations in law and politics, they were very scanty up to the year 1607, when he was 46 years of age and was made Solicitor-General. His complaint was that he lacked employment. When he was 35 years old, he writes to his uncle, Lord Burghley, "My life hath been so private as I have had no means to do your Lordship's service." And as to his employment by the Queen he says, "Her service was a kind of freehold." And he expressly said that his own private studies occupied him more than his public engagements. That these solitary pursuits were very absorbing we know from many indications of the seclusion which he practised, which distressed his mother, and sometimes vexed those who sought access to him. Now it was during this time,-up to his 45th year, when he had scarcely any public work and was ⚫ labouring unremittingly in his study, that nearly all the Shakespeare plays appeared, His most important philosophical works began to appear in 1605, when the Advancement" was published. The Novum Organon was not published till 1620. There were various small

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