speare. But amidst all this kaleidescopic changes the individuality of the patient thinker, and that of the tuneful singer and inspired seer remains the same. In the prose the speaker keeps on the solid ground of science and philosophy, his wings are folded, and his harp is silent; but in the poetry he carries the same thoughts into higher regions-he ascends the Empyrean, and the higher he ascends the more rapturous and musical is his strain, although he has brought his theme from the lower levels of philosophy. As the lark, so also is he, Type of the wise who soar, but never roam, True to the kindred points of heaven and home. CHAPTER VII. BACON'S PHILOSOPHY OF HOPE. I Do not think that this chapter will be less valuable or less acceptable, because it will contain very little of my own. My object will be obtained if by the grouping and comparison of various passages from Bacon and Shakespeare I can show in another striking instance how remarkably their ideas correspond. If I can do this both the prose and the poetry will be illustrated. The philosophy becomes more poetical and the poetry more philosophical, as the two are brought together. Those who have raised the objection against the Baconian theory, that the Author of the Essay of "Love" could not have written, or even understood, the love scenes of Shakespeare, might with even greater plausibility have urged that the genial dramatic poet, who saw the world of men and nature always arrayed in the rich colouring and the radiant glow of poetry and imagination, cannot be the hard-headed, matter-of-fact, somewhat cynical statesman and philosopher, who dilated with such pitiless logic on the uselessness of Hope, and even contended that it is for men both delusive, mischievous, and injurious. In truth, Bacon's language about Hope is one of the most curious features of his philosophy, and startles even such a devoted admirer and sympathetic commentator as Mr. Spedding. In the preface to the Meditationes Sacræ Mr. Spedding refers especially to the meditation. De Spe Terrestri, as a singular and characteristic sample of Bacon's outlook on life at the age of 37, and thus comments upon it : : "The aphorism attributed to Heraclitus that Dry light is the best soul* was indeed at all times a favourite with him.” The use of the word watery may account for and explain its use in Shakespeare: The imaginary relish is so sweet That it enchants my sense: what will it be When that the watery palate tastes indeed (Tro. Cr. III. ii. 20). Bacon being accustomed to associate purity and dryness, thinks of that type of taste which is not accustomed to pure nectar as soft and watery. Spedding continues: "But I do not think he has anywhere else made so resolute an attempt to translate it into a practical precept for the regulation of the mind, and fairly to follow to its legitimate consequences the doctrine that absolute veracity and freedom from all delusion is the only sound condition of the soul. Upon this principle a reasonable expectation of good to come founded upon a just estimate of probabilities, is the only kind of hope which in the things of this life a man is permitted to indulge; all hope that goes beyond this being reserved for the life to come. The spirit of hope must have been strong in Bacon himself, if at the age of 37 he could still believe it possible for man to walk by the light of reason alone. I suppose it did not hold out much longer. His own experience must have taught him, that had he never hoped to do more than he succeeded in doing, he would never have had the spirit to proceed; and that to reduce hope within the limits of reasonable expectation would be to abjure the possunt quia posse videntur, and to clip the wings of enterprise; and he learned before he died to recommend the 'Entertaining of * Bacon often refers to dry light: i.e., knowledge which is a pure and accurate reflection of fact, not "infused or drenched " by the personal qualities of the mind that receives it. "This same lumen sicum," he says, "doth parch and offend most men's watery and soft natures." ("Advancement" II., xii. 2.) HOPE VERSUS VERACITY. 97 hopes,' as one of the best medicines for the preservation of health." Mr. Spedding refers to the Essay of "The Regimen of Health," originally published in 1597 (the same time as the Meditationes Sacra); and again in 1612. But not till 1625 was the precept "Entertain hopes" included among those for the regulation of health. The whole subject is most interesting, and the Meditation, in which it is most amply expounded is worth reproducing, especially as we shall find that Bacon's very characteristic idea, in its scope and also in its limitations, is best represented by combining the didactic expositions of the Philosophy of Hope in the prose with Shakespeare's dramatic presentation of the same subject. Moreover, this special feature of Bacon's philosophy is very little known, and its remarkable coincidence with Shakespearean thought has not, so far as I know, been noticed. The text for Bacon's Meditation, De Spe Terrestri is, Melior est oculorum visio quam animi progressio: "Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire.” And the sermon which follows begins as follows: "The sense, which takes everything simply as it is, makes a better mental condition and estate than those imaginations and wanderings of the mind. For it is the nature of the human mind, even in the gravest wits, the moment it receives an impression of anything, to sally forth and spring forward, and expect to find everything else in harmony with it; if it be an impression of good, then it is prone to indefinite hope; if of evil, to fear; whence it is said, By her own tales is Hope full oft deceived. "And, on the other hand, "In doubtful times Fear still forbodes the worst. "In fear however there is some advantage: it prepares endurance, and sharpens industry. H "The task can show no face that's strange to me: Each chance I have pondered, and in thought rehearsed." So far there is nothing very startling, and it is not surprising that we are on ground common also to ShakeThe resemblance is very exact. For Bacon's discourse at this point might be embellished with part of the dialogue between Troilus and Cressida (III. ii. 74). speare. Tro.-Fear makes devils of cherubims, they never see truly. [and yet] Cres.-Blind fear, that seeing reason leads, finds safer footing than blind reason, stumbling without fear. To fear the worst oft cures the worse. And, in the lowest levels of misfortune the victim may say : Yet better thus, and known to be contemn'd, Than still contemn'd and flatter'd. To be worst, The lamentable change is from the best : (Lear IV. i. 1). Bacon continues his sermon; and now he surprises us:"But in hope there seems to be no use. For what avails that anticipation of good? If the good turns out less than you hoped for, good though it be, yet because it is not so good, it seems to you more like a loss than a gain, by reason of the over-hope. If neither more or less but so,' -[an expression, it may be parenthetically noticed, which has a singular resemblance to Kent's language addressed to Cordelia (Lear IV. vii. 5): All my reports go with the modest truth: Nor more, nor clipp'd, but so. -"the event being equal and answerable to the hope, yet the flower of it having been by that hope already gathered, you find it a stale thing and almost distasteful. If the |